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Hello From the Netherlands

• July 2007
• Uncategorized

Hi Steph,
Why on earth write an email to a woman I’ve never met? Ha. Sometimes there’s just nothing else to do.

A dear friend brought your book back home (the Netherlands…) from Yosemite. A must read he told me, so what else could I do.. I read it and found it fascinated every page. I barely get the chance to climb outside, only indoor plastic. I visit Fontainebleau a couple of times a year, but that’s about it. I’m still trying to finish university, and have a five-year-old pretty girl. Though she is with her father half the time, it’s still difficult to make long trips, especially now she’s in school. But after reading your book all I can think about it looking for nice walls and hard climbs! So coming holidays a friend and I will go hitching to France or Spain to find some lovely rocks…

I love how you write on just going for it. Just follow your heart and drive and go. I don’t know where precisely it happened, but through reading your book, I got a different mindset (is that how you call it? forgive my English..). My climbing got calmer, more focused. Just place your foot and make the move, breathe, place your feet and make another one. My state of mind, and the things I can do with it, thrills me, how funny is that… 

I really like reading your book because, although you write nice, it’s a pure story. I can almost feel what things must have been like. You don’t use the fancy words making it a literary artwork, but you keep the reader close. That’s wonderful!

But what I loved most in your story, my heart made a little jump, you’re vegan! How amazing is that… I became a vegan eleven years ago. I was disgusted by the idea that we ‘grow’ and kill animals industrially just because we like eating meat or cheese. With all the pollution, sour rain and unfair treating of peoples (how we take grains from starving countries to feed our cattle) that comes with it. I’m not as strict anymore, but I can relate to what you write on how you doubted whether you got enough proteins. My friends who climb all eat meat and fish, they swear that tuna is good for your tendons, and how milk is good for… and on and on. Reading your story strengthens me! Sure, tuna may me good for your tendons, but the same is possible with a vegan diet. Look at Steph Davis… Gathering all kinds of tasty vegan stuff before entering the big walls.

Well, thank you for your book.
Keep on reading, writing, climbing and enjoying life!
Haha, and, if you ever visit Europe, make sure to write! I will make you some nice vegan meal.

Kind regards,
Aukje

Please, if not already, try reading Rainer Maria Rilke’s ‘Letters to a young poet’. You might like it!

 Dear Aukje,

Thanks for writing, and maybe we will meet someday!  In fact, I am in Germany right now, so I will let you know if I can make it to the Netherlands 🙂

I´m glad to hear your thoughts about being vegan.  I was totally surprised that eliminating animal products from my diet actually made me climb better.  I always believed the myth about needing animal protein to be strong.  About five years ago, I turned vegan.  Since that time, I have become stronger and climb better–even in the mountains in endurance situations.  There is a well known ultra-runner, named Scott Jurek, who is also vegan.  It’s amazing how beneficial the vegan diet is, for sports performance.  And then there are a lot of other benefits as well, as you say, such as not supporting factory farming, which is cruel and inhumane…..

Best of all, I think I have a better relationship with my dog, because she knows I would never eat her 🙂

Take care! xx Steph