LIKE THE SONG IT SATIRIZES, THIS IS ABOUT AVOIDING MEDIOCRITY AND STAGNATION IN THE FACE OF EMERGING NEW IDEAS. THIS HAS TO BE WORKED AT. THIS IS ABOUT STRINGING TOGETHER ALL THE INNOVATIONS AND RADICALISMS OF BEFORE AND LOOKING AT THEM IN FRESH WAYS AND REAPRAISING THE BLINDSPOTS, ACCEPTED IGNORANCES, CLICHES AND STEREOTYPES, AND AS…

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 ... THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN DISTILLING FOR A LONG TIME, BREWED UP FROM LONG CONVERSATIONS ON LONG APPROACHES, HUNDREDS OF EMAILS AND ZOOM CALLS, AND IN RESTAURANTS ALL ACROSS XINJIANG AND TIBET. A RECENT COMMENT ON EQUIPE SOLITAIRE MADE IT TIME TO ACTUALLY GET IT OUT THERE, TWEAKED A BIT FOR CURRENT CONVERSATIONS AS ONE…

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… NEARLY TWENTY YEARS AGO A CHANCE ENCOUNTER WITH GUY LACELLE IN THE SHUANGQIAO VALLEY OF TIBETAN SICHUAN LED TO A SERIES OF INCIDENTS WHERE WE GOT TO KNOW WILL GADD IN JAPAN. IT WAS A HEADY, SAD AND BIZARRE RIDE ACROSS ACCIDENTS, TSUNAMIS, DEATHS. BIRTHS AND REBIRTHS, THAT RESULTED IN WILL PUTTING UP THE…

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FOR THE ALPINIST THIS IS THAT RUN OUT LEAD AT -25C ON NEW TERRAIN AS NIGHT COMES, WHERE THE HOLES IN ANY RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR BODY ARE GOING TO COME OUT. THE EXPEDITION PROCESS AT IT'S MACRO LEVEL SETS THESE MOMENTS UP OVER THE COURSE OF EVENTS AS YOU LEAVE BEHIND ALL THE FAMILIARITIES OF…

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THESE ASCENTS ARE MUCH MORE RELATED TO HIMALAYAN CLIMBING THAN MANY THINK, USING THE SAME EQUIPMENT IN CONDITIONS THE SAME IN EVERY WAY EXCEPT ALTITUDE. WINDS, COLD, EXPOSURE AND TECHNICALITY ARE ALL WHAT SEE ON EVERY TRIP TO TIBET OR XINJIANG, AND FUJI'S UNIQUE PROFILE LETS US GET IN ENORMOUS VERTICAL GAIN UNDER REAL CONDITIONS…

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IT'S EASY TO BE BEDAZZLED BY ALL THE DYNEEMA USED IN SAMAYA TENTS, ESPECIALLY IN THE ULTRA RANGE, BUT THERE'S A LOT MORE GOING ON THAN THAT. THE ORDER OF MAGNITUDE THAT SAMAYA TENTS ARE LIGHTER THAN ANYTHING COMPARABLE ISN'T JUST A PRODUCT OF THE WALLS AND FLOOR MATERIALS AND SOPHISTICATED DESIGN, BUT EVERY ELEMENT…

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… འདི་ནོར་འཁྲུལ་མ་རེད། འདི་ཚོད་ལྟ་ཞིག་རེད། གལ་ཏེ་ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་འདི་རང་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་སྐད་སྒྱུར་བྱེད་མི་ཐུབ་ན། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་བསམ་བློ་གཏོང་དགོས། … 世界は言語でできており、私たちの探検ほどそれが顕著に表れる場所はありません。私たちは通常の旅で、約12の言語を話す人々の中で暮らし、旅をし、常に交流しています。乗組員全員が複数の言語を使いこなすのは当たり前のことですが、私たちは共に暮らす人々の言語を理解することが私たちの責任だと考えています。 ང་ཚོའི་སྐད་ཡིག་ཚང་མ་བཤད་དགོས་པ་དེ་མིན་པར། ཁྱེད་རང་གི་ནང་ནས་སྐད་ཡིག་དེ་ཨེ་ཤེ་ཡ་དབུས་མའི་སྐད་ཡིག་མིན་པར་ཁས་ལེན་བྱེད་དགོས་པ་དང་། དེ་དང་མཉམ་དུ་དངོས་ཡོད་ཀྱི་འགྱུར་བ་འབྱུང་གི་ཡོད། གལ་ཏེ་སྐད་ཡིག་དེ་ཚོ་གནས་ཚུལ་གྱི་བརྒྱུད་ལམ་ལྟར་བསམ་གྱི་ཡོད་ན། སྐད་ཡིག་མི་འདྲ་བ་དེས་ཉམས་མྱོང་ལ་འགྱུར་བ་གཏོང་གི་ཡོད། تاغقا يامىشىشنىڭ ئۆزى بۇنىڭ ئەڭ ياخشى مىسالى ، چۈنكى ئىنگلىز تىلى شىمالىي ياۋروپانىڭ تۈز دېڭىز قىرغىقىدىن كېلىدىغان تاغلارنىڭ سۆزلۈك ئامبىرىدا كەمبەغەل تىل بولغاچقا ، ئۇ فىرانسۇزچە ، ئىتالىيەچە ۋە گېرمانچە سۆزلەرنى ئىشلىتىپ ، تاغنىڭ ئالاھىدىلىكىنى بايان قىلىدۇ ، كۆپىنچە سۆزلىگۈچى ھەتتا ئىككى قېتىم…

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… A YEAR AGO, IN THE LEAD UP TO RESTARTING OUR EXPEDITIONS TO K2, THE GASHERBRUMS AND KARAKORAM IN XINJIANG, WE STARTED MENTIONING CHHOGORI DESIGNS, AND EVER SINCE THE CURIOSITY HAS BEEN INTENSE. DOZENS OF CLIMBERS HAVE ASKED ABOUT THE UNUSUAL, PSYCHEDELIC COLOURED GEAR IN PHOTOS AND WANTED TO KNOW HOW WE DO CERTAIN THINGS,…

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EXPEDITIONS ARE MENTAL. WE ALL KNOW IT IS THE MIND THAT TURNS BACK BEFORE THE BODY. LIKE THE BODY, THE EXERCISED MIND SEEKS TO EXERCISE ITSELF, AND THINKING ABOUT THINKING IS A SIGN OF SHARPENING AND GOING BEYOND THE LIMITS OF EDUCATION AND POPULAR CULTURE. THIS IS A GOOD THING, IT IS WHAT YOUR BRAIN…

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WE ARE NOT HERE TO DISCUSS SERIOUS SUBSTANCES, NOR TO JUDGE FOR THAT MATTER WHAT ANYONE PUTS BY CHOICE INTO THEIR BODY. INSTEAD WE ARE HERE TO HAVE A RANT ABOUT THE CONTEMPORARY CORNUCOPIA OF THINGS THAT INVADE CLIMBERS PSYCHES AND ACTIONS, THAT RISE UNPREDICTABLY TO THE SURFACE A WEEK INTO THE WILDERNESS AND CAN…

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