The Joy Trip Project

An interview with climber and writer Majka Burhardt

Many Americans -maybe even most of us- begin our mornings with a steaming cup of coffee. That wonderfully dark warm beverage helps to kick start your day and put a little bounce in your step. But if you’re like me, you probably haven’t put a whole lot of thought into where it comes from or how it’s grown. That’s why writer and climber Majka Burhardt traveled more than 8,000 miles to discover the story.

“I went to Ethiopia originally as a journalist to try to find a rare coffee,” she said. “That coffee receives about $150 a pound on the U.S. market and we tried to find the genetic roots of it in Ethiopia. We didn’t find the coffee. But I wound up staying there and climbing and writing a book called Vertical Ethiopia about doing first ascents — and really, a book about how to use rock climbing to tell a different story about Ethiopia that was not only about drought, poverty, and famine.”

Majka and I first met as we discussed her early journeys through eastern Africa. Her book Vertical Ethiopia details her adventures while climbing some of the very first routes on the cliffs of Gheralta in a region called Tigray. And during her travels while climbing she discovered that in addition to its rich and complex flavors, coffee also offers a deep look to the history of Ethiopia and its people. "Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. It's the home of 10,000 varietals of coffee,” Majka said. “So for me to come back and tell the stories behind coffee, that was just the ultimate expression of what is Ethiopia. In some ways you can tell the story of Ethiopia through coffee.”

I had the pleasure of traveling through Africa with Majka as she was finishing up the last few chapters of her latest book. And as we reconnected during the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City Utah we had a chance to talk about what she learned and to share her new book Coffee Story Ethiopia.

Music this week by Cheryl B. Englehardt

The Joy Trip Project is made possible with the support of our sponsor Patagonia

Check out their latest new media and conservation initiatives at their blog thecleanestline.com

An interview with climber, writer and public speaker Jim Davidson

As an adventure journalist I have the opportunity to meet some amazing people. And it was through the magic of social media that I became friends with climber, writer and public speaker Jim Davidson. We first got acquainted on Facebook. But last year we met in person at a café in the Canadian Rockies, a town called Banff. There he told his incredible story of friendship, adventure and survival that’s the subject of his new book, “The Ledge”. On a routine decent of Mt. Rainier Jim and his climbing partner Mike Price suddenly fell and were trapped in a deep crevasse.

"After a few more distant impacts, there is silence and darkness beneath this cocoon of snow," Jim writes in his book. "I wonder whether it's quiet now because the snow has ceased falling or because I am buried so deep that I can no longer hear what's happening on top of the thick snowpack. The silence terrifies me.

I open my eyes -at least I  think I do- but blackness envelops me. To make sure they're actually open, I blink a few times and feel sharp snow grains scratch my eyelids. I see nothing.

I'm buried alive."

Jim’s partner Mike died in the fall. And it was only after several hours of painstaking effort that Jim was able, all alone, to climb his way to safety. Despite the tragic circumstances of his story as detailed in his book  Jim finds great comfort in the lessons he’s learned through the power of persistence, determination and the bonds of friendship. Ironically these are life-long skills that Jim picked up as a young a man not as a climber, but doing dangerous work with his father as a high altitude painter of tall buildings towers and bridges.

The Ledge: an adventure story of friendship and survival on Mount

Rainier by Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaughan is available in hardcover and published by Ballantine Books. You can learn more online at Jim’s web site Speaking of Adventure.

Music by Jake Shimabukuro

The Joy Trip Project is made possible with the support of sponsor Patagonia

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Ron Kauk is one of the best known climbers in Yosemite Valley. He was among that early generation of big wall pioneers that set the standards and established the major routes that are still popular today. Since 1974 he’s been a regular in the Yosemite climbing community. Having made the first free ascent of Washington Column in 1975 with John Long and John Bachar Kauk renamed the route Astroman and it became the most challenging climb in the Valley for more than 10 years.

On a joy trip out to the west coast this summer I had the chance to meet Kauk and talk to him about his younger days in Yosemite.

"For me it was like entering this incredible world of granite and rivers and trees and this interesting like-minded group of people in this place we’re sitting in which is camp four," Kauk said. "It was colorful and energized with this enthusiasm to climb but also live simply. To think that you could walk in and feel so comfortable and belong to this group and inspire each other just out here on these boulders ... or out there on those big walls once you learned the fundamentals."

It’s been more than 30 years and Kauk is still climbing in Yosemite. With a life philosophy that includes a deep and abiding appreciation for nature he continues to inspire young people through a non-profit called Sacred Rok. Making the connection between spirituality and the preservation of wild places he’s taking the sport of rock climbing to a whole new level.

 

Music this week by Eric Garcia & Jake Shimabukuro

An interview with the inspirational ultra-marathon runner of the Endurance 50

Back in 2006 ultra distance runner Dean Karnazes performed an amazing stunt. Over the course of 50 days he ran 50 marathons in each of the 50 United States. An inspiring feat to be sure, running 26.2 mile every day and then traveling quickly by car to the next state and do it again.  But what was especially interesting to Dean and me too with I spoke to him were the stories of the many people he met along away.

 

Dean Karnazes is touring the country as part of The North Face Speakers Series. And in anticipation of an upcoming visit here to Madison, WI I’m treating you this week to a Joy Trip flashback from an interview I recorded with Dean in 2007. You’ll be surprised how some who inspires so many can be inspired by others.

 

You can learn about Dean Karnazes and his career in running online just visit the athletes page at the North Face.com

Music by the band Hot Buttered Rum

An interview with writer and explorer Jon Turk

Many of us put a lot on the line for the sake of adventure. And for writer and scientist Jon Turk the decision to paddle a kayak across the Pacific Ocean from Asia to North American was in keeping with a tradition of discovery as old as humanity itself.

“You look for an audacious and bold plan that’s still feasible,” Turk said. “You look to be vulnerable and at the same time secure. And at that time, which was about 10 years ago now nobody had successfully crossed the Pacific Ocean in a standard production off the shelf-kayak.”

 

Turk had a dream to paddle more than 3,000 miles across a vast ocean. But he would later realize that he was actually tracing a migratory route he believes was followed by ancient humans thousands of years ago. And it kind of makes you wonder why anyone today or way back when would ever to do such a thing.

 

“We all agree that migration is difficult,” Turk said. “It’s difficult to get into a canoe, to leave your homeland with deer in the forest, seals in the bay, with salmon in the streams and paddle three thousand miles across the arctic in the middle of the ice ages.”

If it’s so difficult again the question then as it is today is why? The anthropologist will tell you that because we are a pragmatic people the only reason why we would do something that difficult, paddle 3,000 miles across the ocean, is if we are force out of our homeland by warfare or starvation or lured into more productive hunting grounds by a more productive place. In other words it was beaten up, famished people who had just lost a war escaping for their lives. But Jon Turk doesn’t believe that.

“I don’t believe that on two grounds,” he said. “First of all it’s such a hard trip that if you started out beaten up weakened, famished loosing most of your warriors in a battle you’re going to die. Second of all I think the hardest and most audacious journeys are following dreams, not pragmatic reasons. Pragmatism will get you so far. But the dream will get you farther.”

 

So following his dream Jon Turk ventured out across the ocean and along the way he discovered a few interesting ideas about the very nature of adventure. And his book, The Raven’s Gift he explores the power of risk and vulnerability as a way for travelers to experience magic.

The Raven's Gift is published by St. Martins Press

 

 

Music this week by Chad Farran

The Joy Trip Project is made possible with the support of our sponsor Patagonia

For those of us who spend a great deal of time outdoors it’s hard to believe that there are many of those who don’t. Especially when it comes to our national parks there is an entire segment of the United States population, natural born citizens who seldom if ever visit. This is particularly true among people of color. African-Americans, Hispanics and other ethnic minorities spend far less time in nature than their white counterparts. And in a shifting demographic where minorities will soon become the majority there’s rising concern throughout the conservation movement that one day in the not so distant future most U.S. citizens will have no personal relationship with or affinity for the natural world.

This concern is expressed most eloquently by National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson. The only permanent African-American ranger at Yosemite National Park his mission is to share with audiences, black and white, lessons of stewardship that illustrate the bond with nature that is every U.S. citizen’s birth rite. An interpretive ranger that tells the story of the Buffalo Soldiers, African-American cavalrymen who projected Yosemite at the turn of last century, Johnson puts into context the importance of wilderness not merely as a point of national pride but an intrinsic value of what it mean to be human.

At the biannual meeting of the Conservation Alliance at the 2011 Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City Utah, Shelton Johnson was the keynote speaker. Best known for his prominent role in the Ken Burns documentary "The National Parks, America's Best Idea," he was also instrumental in bringing Yosemite Valley to the attention of leading black talk show host Oprah Winfrey. In a nationally televised visit to the park in 2010 Winfrey used her media clout to invite millions of minorities across the country to explore the great outdoors.

In this unabridged audio recording Johnson is welcomed to the podium by Conservation Alliance executive director John Sterling. For 40 minutes Ranger Johnson inspired a rapt crowd with a message to encourage all people, regardless of race, to embrace the wonders of nature and to claim their inheritance of our national treasures

 Music this week by the band Hot Buttered Rum

The Joy Trip Project is brought with the support of our sponsor Patagonia.

 

Coverage of the 2011 Outdoor Retailer Summer Market was supported by Knupp, Watson & Wallman

Many of us have a deep fascination with rock climbers. Big wall climbers in particular captivate our wonder and attention as we marvel that their daring feats of courage. And in the movie Alone on the Wall from Sender Films fans are introduced to a new breed of climber and the most breathtaking alpine style of all.

Alex Honnold is one of those guys who has distinguished himself as a climber doing amazing things. Climbing the Yosemite big wall of Half Dome without a rope is what he’s best known for but he says there’s more to him than that.

“I hate to be defined as a free soloist,” he said. “I spend like 99 percent of my time climbing with a rope, climbing with climbing with my friends. So it’s kind of annoying to be pegged as THE free-soloist, because that’s just a small part of what I do.”

At the 2010 Banff Mountain Film Festival I had the chance to talk to Alex about his life in climbing and what makes this reluctant free-soloist tick.

You check out Alex Honnold and his life in climbing the movie Alone on The Wall part of the First Ascent  series now DVD at Sender Films.com.

Music this week by Chad Farran

The Joy Trip Project is made possible with the support of sponsor Patagonia

If you haven’t figured it out yet, a big part of this program is trying to figure out what makes people happy. Personally I believe happiness isn’t just something that happens. I think we all try to create things in our lives that bring us joy. But as Benjamin Frankly once said The Constitution guarantees all Americans the right to pursue happiness but it’s up to each of us catch it. I learned that quote from my friend Los Angeles filmmaker Roko Belic. At the 2011 Mountain Film Festival in Telluride Colorado he shared with me his latest project a movie he calls Happy.

 

“The way that I got into making Happy is very simple,” Belic said. “A friend of mine named Tom Shadyack called me and said that he had read an article in the New York Times that compares countries in terms of happiness. And this article said that although America is one of the richest countries it’s nowhere near the happiest. And Tom said ‘you know this is something I’ve been thinking about because I live in Hollywood and I’m surrounded by very successful wealthy, talented people who’ve essentially achieved an exaggerated version of the American dream and yet many of them are not happy. So we should get to the bottom of this and explore happiness in a documentary film.’

And I said Absolutely. Sounds amazing!”

So Belic spent more than four years traveling the world to explore many different cultures and communities. Along the way asked several leading experts in the science of human behavior exactly what it means to happy. And through the making of this film he discovered for himself and those of us in the audience a few simple answers to one of life’s most complicated questions.

The film Happy by Roko Belic isnow  in festival and special screening distribution. For more information visit www.thehappymovie.com.

Music this week by Jake Shimabukur

The Joy Trip Project is made possible with the support of sponsor Patagonia

The transformational power of bicycles is the subject of a new film by brothers Jacob & Isaac Seigel-Boettner. “With My Own Two Wheels” takes us on a ride through the developing world to see how these simple mechanical devices are changing peoples’ lives. Though here in the U.S. we take for granted the ease of going from place to place by car, the filmmakers demonstrate that bicycles offer for many living in poverty a way out.

Co-director Jacob Seigel-Boettner said his project was an opportunity to connect with real people around the world with real stories about their bikes.

“We were incredibly lucky to find all of these not only great characters,” he said “but people who were willing to let us follow them around with a camera wherever and however long we wanted to.”

With a recent showing at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride and now in private screening distribution, the 44-minute film depicts the stories of five individuals, each with a different spin on how bikes empower them.

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“We started with World Bicycle Relief,” said Jacob Seigel-Boettner . “With work I had done in the bike industry, I knew they were not only the largest but the most sustainable bike development organization in terms of distributing bikes, and training mechanics and making sure that it was done right.”

So the directors built a story around five people for whom bicycles made a big difference. Fred is a caregiver from Zambia who rides from village to village visiting aids patients. Carlos is the inventor of pedal-powered device called the bicimaniquina that offers a small-scale industrial alternative to diesel-fueled machines. Sharkey in Santa Barbara California avoids life in gangs working in a neighborhood bike shop called Bici Centro. In India a young girl named Bharati gets an education thanks to a local program called Ashta No Kai that provides bicycles for her and her friends to ride to school. And Mirriam is a polio-stricken bike mechanic in Ghana.

“I know that her life is changed by it. I know that she now sees herself in the world as an influential person,” said David Branigan of Bikes Not Bombs. “She sees herself as having skills that other people don’t have that are a value to her community and even to the world.”

After a run on the festival circuit the filmmakers plan to provide young people with teaching materials to learn how bicycles can benefit society.

“We believe the bicycle is something that kids cannot only learn from but they all get at that age,” said Seigel-Boettner . “And it’s not a really complicated development intervention that takes a lot of explaining. It’s something that’s very tangible and the film makes sense to them. So we feel through the film we really want kids when they’re getting car keys to really think about the bike in a different way and realize how it can impact their lives and impact their peers around the world.”

For more information visit www.withmyowntwowheels.org.

The Joy Trip Project is made possible with the support of sponsor Patagonia

01 Lee Stetson 1

Yosemite Valley California, president day: I’m walking with my recorder along a wooded path with a long bearded man wearing period clothing circa 1890, a tweed coat, a wool vest with a red pocket square and wide brimmed hat. Ahead of us is Yosemite Falls, a massive flowage of water running white and fast, churning with melted snow from the high country upstream. The man describes a fanciful vision of what we see.

"Can you imagine? Can you imagine if in the midst of its headlong descent with all this whirling fairy springtime spray and those rushing comet tails that the fall was suddenly frozen solid and then carried bodily out into the middle of the valley that we might go around it and see it from all sides in the sunshine,” he says. “Oh was a show it would make. This colossal white pillar half a mile tall adorned with airy flowing drapery as if chiseled out of white marble.”

Who better with whom to tour one of America’s greatest National Parks than the man himself John Muir. As if transported back in time I had the rare opportunity to get his impressions on Yosemite today.

“Look at these high granite walls lying about 5,000 feet above sea level. With all the plant people and fellow mortals this good planet provides in this particular place makes it a very sacred place indeed,” he says. “It’s a true temple, a temple I think people would need to thrive in. And those who visit it now-a-days will have an opportunity to because it’s been persevered for so long and so carefully by so many. It is a great pleasure indeed to have it remain for all of us for our own health and vigor.”

Our National Parks began as idea. They are monuments to the notion that all people no matter their degree of wealth, social status, race or ethnicity have a fundamental right to commune with natural world and receive the life affirming benefits of wild and scenic places. Today we visit Yosemite and talk to historian and actor Lee Stetson who in voice of John Muir explains why our National Parks are indeed America’s best idea.

Stetson appears as the voice and image of John Muir the PBS television documentary film series “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” by Ken Burns. To find out when the series will air in your community visit PBS.org/kenburns.

Music this week by the Conductive Alliance

The Joy Trip Project is made possible thanks to support of our sponsor Patagonia.