(photo credit: Ed Ellinger)

Today I heard of the passing of a friend of mine, Anthony Sloan. Anthony’s passing during his sleep was a shock because he was young and healthy and it came without warning.

Anthony was an avid and accomplished mountain biker. He was an equally avid photographer; although quite modest about his talent, his skill behind the lens was truly – I am not exaggerating – unequalled. These two passions, combined with his life-long love of the outdoors – in particular the American Southwest – leave a huge and unparalleled legacy of images of stunning beauty of some of the most remarkable vistas in America. If you happen to share any of these same passions that energized Anthony, do yourself a favor and spend some time perusing his work.

• Anthony’s Website
• A list of Anthony’s postings
  
• One of my favorite sequences

As much as I’m impressed by Anthony’s photography, I was more inspired by his personality. Anthony was one of the kindest souls I have ever met. I count myself fortunate for the times I got to ride with him, and I’m saddened that there won’t be many more.

Basically people volunteer (ahead of time) to present on a topic of their choosing. The only rules seem to be that you get 5 minutes, and that your slide will change every 15 seconds.

What results is a) a collection of presenters that are compelled to talk about some passion they have…and b) presentations that are succinct, short, and a bit ad-hoc. I found the evening to be fun and lighthearted, as there were lots of people laughing at themselves and life, and yet educational and stimulating, too, as there were lots of smart and inspirational people talking about their passions.

Andrew, thanks for pulling this together. I’ll be at the next one – when is it?

PS – Who knew CSS could be so cool?

BTW, I also do believe that Arrington is accurate when he says that living in Boulder may simply be a tradeoff between quality of life and professional opportunity. However, Arrington fails to mention many other important components of this tradeoff.

For me, the Boulder quality of life is at least partially enabled by the lack of congestion. This means that I can spend just as much time at work as somebody in silicon valley and still have family time and get in the occasional hike or bike ride, which makes me healthier and happier and, consequently more productive. And I’m not looking at an 18-month time horizon for productivity, but a 20-year horizon. I recognize that this may not be true for everybody, but for me, I’m pretty sure that Boulder offers greater long-term professional opportunity than silicon valley…

We had just finished our first pitch, and were swapping gear, when the calls of climbers all around suddenly became feverish. Sharon and I looked around, and across the canyon on The Bastille, at about the same altitude, and not more than 50 yards away, a climber was hanging upside-down, motionless, 10 feet below the top of the second pitch of The Bastille Crack.

We watched in disbelief. Several minutes passed and there was no movement from the climber or his belayer.

The situation was visible to climbers all around Eldo, and there was a great deal of shouting. The fallen climber and his belayer remained motionless. We were too far to render any assistance, and there were better climbers closer anyway. Nobody was sure what had transpired, or how dire the situation was. Was the climber unconscious, paralyzed by fear, badly injured, or some combination?

Suddenly the fallen climber’s arm twitched. He was conscious! As he started to slowly right himself, “rock!” echoed off the walls, and the injured climber’s rack plummeted down. This was looking bad, and getting worse.

Slowly, the injured climber righted himself, and then – very slowly – made his way up to his belayer.

Around the same time, a climber started up the route from the bottom. Belayed from below, the climber ascended extraordinarily quickly; it was clear that this was a very experienced climber. He reached the ledge just after the injured climber, probably no more than 15 minutes after the fall.

We could see the rescuer build his own anchor, tie in, and then check the tie-in of the belayer and injured climber.

Some minutes elapsed. The rescuer set up a rappel for the injured climber, and, very slowly and with difficulty for the injured climber, lowered him to the ground. By this time Rocky Mountain Rescue and several emergency vehicles were on the scene, and the climber was loaded into an ambulance and rushed away. This was within probably 30 minutes of the fall.

The rescuer subsequently set-up a rappel for the belayer, and lowered him to the ground as well.

After witnessing all of this, Sharon and I were rattled, and decided to not continue our climb. We downclimbed an easy escape, and on our return to the car, spoke with the rescuer. What we learned was that the injured climber had been leading the Bastille Crack, had fallen, and had pulled a piece of protection, but had two more that stuck. However, with the length of his fall, he hit the belay ledge, which knocked him unconscious, as well as injured both his shoulder and hip. The climber had been hanging unconscious upside-down for several minutes!

It turns out that the belayer was his 16-year old son.

If your leader fell, and was hanging unconscious 15 feet below you 150 feet off the ground, would you know what do to? What if you were 16, and the leader was your father?

A nurse on the scene told us that both father and son were clearly in shock when they reached the ground.

I think it fortunate that such an experienced climber was nearby, or things could have been much worse.

I went outside to shoo them away. One of them tried to run, but couldn’t really; it had a broken hind leg.

He can stay.

Oh wait, now’s he’s eating my shrubberies. He’s got to go.

Photos will be forthcoming, but know that the weekend involved rocks, wheels, snow, sun, food, and…drumroll please…beer!

Here are some writeups about our day
Jesper
Jen

I am one tired puppy today (and I am absolutely stoked that I have a desk job.)

And here’s yet another reason why you married men should never sleep on the couch.

Spring, it’s not just for dreamers any more. It’s *this* close!