Ciaos from Italy
Ciao Steph,
I’m valentina and I met you in milan last year in nov ’08 when you presented your book, you really impressed me and I keep thinking of how you enjoy what you do.
Yesterday a friend of mine ask me comments about this video:
because he has been ask to do the same with eventually some variations…..
when I saw the video you immediately came to my mind …J
Have you ever thought about how would it be to slow down time during the jump from the top and the possibility to climb up a cliff like you were on the moon…..
Ciao
And have always fun!
Vale
Ps
Any suggestions for my friend…?
Ciao Vale,
Well, when you are falling through the air, time does change. It is totally different each time. Sometimes when I fall for 2 seconds, in Moab, it seems like a really long time. Sometimes it goes so fast, I don’t really remember what my eyes saw, and later I get flashes of memory, like a dream. It is really interesting. Although unfortunately, I have never had the feeling of no gravity, and climbing up a rock like I weighed 2 pounds 🙂 That would be nice…. !
xxSteph
Hi, i’m Michele Ciani ( Micheal) i’m italian and i live in a city near the Alps… ehm.. how and why u do that?! because it’s ur job? or because it’s ur love and ur life?! i mean u do that because one more time did that u feel free?!… sorry it’s a bit hard to explain to u what i want to say, but i like to do mountain and free climbing…but i don’t understand why i like, if is only a hobby or to search a life stimulate?!
i hope to see ur answer 🙂
nice to meet u
Michele Ciani
Ciao Michele,
Thanks for writing to me 🙂 I’ve been climbing for 20 years. The main reason, always, has been because I love the feeling of climbing, and also because I feel that climbing drives me to learn. So in those years, neither of those things has changed. I still love to climb, and I still find it is a teacher for me. For me, it’s not so much the famous “climbing because it’s there” reason 🙂
All the best to you!
xxSteph
I climb because it is a puzzle I enjoy solving, using my mind and body. It keeps me amazingly fit without even having to think about “working out”. It gives me a reason to be outdoors all day long, engaged in a personal sport but also involving treasured partners. There is that of the element of trust in our sport: holding the life of my partner in my own hands and allowing her to do the same for me seems to build friendships unlike any others. Finally, I learn things from climbing that inform my life. For example I’ve noticed that my strengths and weaknesses in the face of the risks and challenges while climbing are remarkably similar to how I handle challenge and uncertainty in life. I learn stuff from this sport that I can apply in my life. I’ve been climbing for fourteen years and I can’t imagine my life without climbing even though I didn’t start until I was 42 years old.
I climb for relatively short time (few years, not even close to you or other folks here). For me climbing has several layers:
Ultimate real word time-out. When I climb I don’t have time or mental capacity to deal with both holding myself on the wall and thinking about some troubles/tasks from the real life. Fear of falling nicely gets one of those two things out of my mind.
Second layer is that climbing is best measuring tool for finding out how strong my determination to climb-better -> workout-harder – get-things-done. This layer overlaps with personal and professional life. One of my favorite quotes is, that for climbing you need to have 3 D’s – Determination, Dedication, Desire. (Okay maybe there were more D’s but since I don’t know who’s author I’ll stick with three). The point is, that climbing teaches you to improve those three D’s, which affects not only climbing but also your real life.
Next there is social part, and as Anne already mentioned faith in person on the other end of rope is very important aspect of climbing. Learning to put your life into other persons hands and taking responsibility for that other person is definitely something that makes climbing different.
Then there is fun part. Dirtbag diaries podcast has nice episode called Fun divided by Three and as far as I can tell, climbing is definitely Type 3 fun.
Take care,
A.
Dear All,
Nice points, I realy enjoyed them.
Best Regards
Awesome video! Base jumping off the continental shelf.