“If you just stop for a second, I can show you there’s no road out there!” Ben said. “I know there’s a road there; we drove it a couple years ago!” I fired back. We hadn’t even started an ordeal that would surely drive us to our wits’ ends, and we were already lost and…
There’s a land at the end of the world that sleeps and wakes in its own time. It lies alone in the vastness of the ocean, the only land piercing otherwise unbroken sea. The wind whirls around the Antarctic vortex with the force of a spinning planet and slams into this land with cold indifference,…
Shara Zaia reads her essay published in Volume 24 of The Climbing Zine. Plus a bonus tune from James Parr, inspired by Greg Petliski’s essay, Scotch on The Rocks, also published in Volume 24. Zine links: Support our podcast on Patreon KEEP THE ZINE ALIVE + Subscribe Our sponsors for Season 5: Kilter: http://settercloset.com (email holds@kiltergrips.com…
The reflection targets my disfigurement. If only the borders of this mirror could protect the rest of the world from my hideousness. My life’s insignificance rampages through my thoughts like an atrociously loud party that never ends. Nothing I do is good enough. I want to expunge my existence on a daily basis. Not even…
At some point in my early to midtwenties, I came to the conclusion that life is not about rock climbing. There’s just too much other crazy shit happening every day on this beautiful clump of space dust. The older I get, however, the more I realize that climbing is most certainly about life. At the…
Since November, I’ve been in Modesto, California, with my family and, while here, digitally archiving the multitude of slides, negatives, writings, etc., that occupy nearly every corner of our home. Luke and I had discussed doing this photo essay months ago, and it’s been a bizarre endeavor, writing about something as personal and precious as…
The Korean folklore goes: the Creator called upon all domes and boulders of Korea to gather up north, where they would join to form the two thousand peaks of the Geumgansan mountain range (금강산). Ulsanbawi (울산바위) headed north as well, but moved very slowly as it was one of the largest domes in the country.…
The night was cold, and where the moon and stars shone around patches of clouds, they were incredibly bright. There was no ambient light out here. I was standing on a half-finished patio attached to a half-finished house in an otherwise empty summer-herding village. It was early March, months before the village would be occupied.…