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Outside
the Box Chris
Davenport
From the Alps to the Andes, the Himalaya to the
Chugach, when I am in the mountains the world releases
me and I clearly see opportunities that would have
been indistinct in society.
Perched
on the summit of Mount Eolus, a 14,000-foot peak
in Southern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains,
my mouth hung open and I tried to calculate seemingly
endless couloirs, steep faces and rocky arêtes
spanning the horizon. Within minutes I’d mentally
planned a dozen new objectives and adventures, some
on snow, some on rock. That moment sparked the motivation
for my current ski project—climbing and skiing
all of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks—fourteeners—in
one year. Working on this project is continuously
refreshing. Each descent sparks excitement for another.
Mountains
are not confining; they broaden perspectives and
offer vision. In society, we conform to rules,
limits, behavioral norms and guidelines. In the
mountains we are free to climb, ski, sleep, wander,
think and grow. Time in the mountains not only
opens my mind to new ideas, it shows me the pathways
to implement them.
In
a hundred lifetimes, I’ll
never be able to chase down all the dreams the
mountains give me, but as long as I keep living
outside the box, I’ll
keep trying.
Chris
Davenport
Two-time
World Freeskiing Champion Chris Davenport, of Aspen,
Colorado, spent this past season attempting to climb
and ski all of Colorado’s 54 fourteeners. He
skied 45 of them from the summit before Mother Nature
turned up the thermostat and the snow melted. He
will try and finish them off this fall and winter,
meeting his goal of skiing them all in one year.
When not skiing big mountains around the world, Chris
skis, climbs and bikes at home with his two boys,
Stian and Topher, and his wife Jesse. Follow Chris’s
progress at: www.skithe14ers.com.
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Press
Play Lindsay
Yaw
4:51
a.m.–Electronic: I’m alone in
the Andes. The faint blue light of my headlamp bobs
like a strobe across the crests of sun cups. I skin
to the consistent beat of Thievery Corporation on
my iPod. Yesterday, a critical fuel bottle slipped
into a crevasse, so I’m racing to base camp
to replace it before climbing to Camp 2 later today.
I’m overdressed and sweating like mad, but
I’m not screaming foul obscenities yet because
I know my team’s objective of skiing Juncal,
a 20,000-foot peak in central Chile, won’t
happen without my doing this. I push on, grateful
for the back beat.
9:12
am–Pop: With the help of Madonna
and U2 — “Jump” and “One
Step Closer” — I’m finally back
at Camp 1, inhaling a bowl of oatmeal and raisins.
I have 4,000 feet to climb yet today, so I rest
and watch Lisa and Rodrigo shove their tele toes
into their skis and skin into the white abyss 13,000
feet above. I turn back to the Material Girl to
help me skin hard and catch up. There’s only
so much you can learn in one place, the more I
wait, the more time I waste…
2:21
pm–80s: Four days later,
I’m
cold and lying stiff on a knife-edge ridgeline at
our 17,000-foot Camp 3. In the interest of saving
weight, I left my iPod at Camp 1 and can’t
kick the Flashdance theme song. That and my raucous
heart are keeping me awake as ferocious winds shed
the tent’s thin skin of frost onto my face. “What
a feeling…” We’re buried in snow,
running out of food and fuel and we’ve decided
to retreat. I can’t have it all, now I’m
dancin’ for my life… I secretly like
it like this; when it gets really dire. With luxuries
stripped, when food, shelter and survival reign supreme,
what’s important becomes decidedly clear for
me. I see the vital elements of life as if under
a microscope and I come to believe, truly, that what
we have is all we’ll ever need and nothing
more exists. Take your passion, and make it happen…
7:17
am–Pop: I’m drinking a beer
in Portillo following a harrowing 10,000-foot descent.
I’m wondering where to go next as a Chilean
pop star croons, “A Dios le Pido” through
the bar’s old speakers.
Lindsay
Yaw
Linsday
Yaw is a freelance writer living and skiing in her
hometown mountains of Aspen, Colorado as well as
an expedition skier for Mountain Hardwear... and
she can’t get enough of Madonna.
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