And another viewpoint

Dougald is a friend of mine who also knew Craig. Nice piece of writing on a subject very much on the mind of myself and some friends.

Congrats to Greg T.

Women use a lot of nice words to describe my friend Greg's physique. Check out the picture I stole from his blog--he's built. I suspect he could never touch a weight and still run larger biceps than most of us. He's just not built like your average or even heavier than average greyhound sport climber, but he's into sport climbing. Or said he was... The rest of the story is here.

Congrats on finally climbing 5.13 Greg!

And nice write-up on what it took to climb 5.12. There's some real insight there, and I look forward to the write-up on 5.13.

Craig Luebben

I can't remember when I first met Craig. Maybe while working at Rock & Ice back in the day, maybe in Eldo Canyon, maybe in Canada. But I got to know him through working on some stories with him, sharing information about ice climbing (he was keenly interested in many of the same topics as me and did a lot of original research that effected anyone who climbs ice), running into him at various crags around North America, etc. etc. He's one of those guys who is just always around somewhere, part of the fabric of climbing. But now he's not-- he died while training for a guide's exam. His partner was exceedingly solid and by all reports the route was well within their limits, Craig just got hit by a chunk of falling something. Done, and a family shattered.

No one can make life risk-free, nor would a risk-free life be worth living. But risky activities are just that. This one is going to keep me up at night. Sometimes I yearn for a simplistic belief in an ordered cosmos, but accidents like this rip that idea right out by the roots. I think it's best to realize we are insignificant in the cosmic scope of things and play the game with that knowledge, it might prevent a few delusions about our own importance or sanctity. We are also as significant as any other mass of anything out there...

I know that, for as long as I live, I will listen to Craig's death both for the echoes of the life he lived and the knowledge he added to all of ours. Listen up.