D on’t fe nc e me i n
“Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast... A part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotised by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards.”
Edward Abbey
You have been given a tongue-tip taster... Project O is a multi-platform, multi-channel ’zine that joins the dots of outdoor culture from mountain to ocean via the city streets. www.project-o.co.uk Published by The Church of London - www.thechurchoflondon.com Editorial Enquiries mike@thechurchoflondon.com Commercial Enquiries steph@thechurchoflondon.com © Michael Fordham, Luke Friend & Mike Ellott 2010 Cover illustration: Desolation Peak Lookout by Millie Marotta www.milliemarotta.co.uk 03
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Acid Ramblin’
Acid Ramblin’ Acid Ramblin’ Acid Ramblin’ Acid Ramblin’ We fetishise the spin of the earth. We are aware of the planet’s finite resources. We see it ebbing away. We want to be there. We’ve paddled out. We’ve learned to surf. We’ve climbed rock. We’ve scrambled ridges. We’ve ridden rivers. We’ve fished with flies. We’ve bought the T-Shirt. We’ve bought the boots. We’ve bought the wetsuit. We’ve fired up the stove and stuffed the pack full and ridden miles through city streets. Beneath the pavement, we’ve heard, lies the beach. We care about the heritage of the kit we buy and the clothes we wear. We choose to define coolness for ourselves. We don’t believe the hype. We trust our own R&D. We want bespoke equipment – if that is out of reach we’ll buy the best kit possible. We understand that style is everything – but so is substance. We won’t be fenced in. Not by an office space. Not by aesthetic boundaries dreamt up by people
who have told us that climbers don’t surf or surfers don’t climb. We love the mountains and the rivers and the ocean, but we love the city too. We are there most of the time, after all. And if we can’t escape, it doesn’t mean our active lives are over. There is a genealogy to our dreams. We acknowledge that when we climb a hill or paddle out into the surf or we ride a river or a mountain, that we stand on the shoulders of giants who never had it as good as us. We’ve built this layered aesthetic into our vision of the world, and choose to steer our future informed by cognisance of our past. We know that some of the unwitting revolutionaries were simply sportsmen – young men and women exploring the boundaries of their freedom, dancing with the elements and taking the human race further. But we know also that engagement with the mountains, the ocean and the earth gave birth to a counterculture. We have lived the dream with open eyes as far as we could. We love to read stories of the heroes who saw a vision from the top of the mountain, or have challenged the planet’s wrath and the frailty of their own humanity. We have challenged ourselves every now and then, too, holding these tales close to help us through the storm. We’re acid ramblers forever.
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High alt. artist The documenting of adventures has always been an essential part of the process. Logbooks, sketchpads, diaries and now photographs and films are the treasures that return with the travellers. They inform and inspire and make us want to seek out our own adventures too. Jimmy Chin’s been serving up inspiration in the form of photographic stills and skills for more than a decade now, from the high peaks of the Himalayas to the big walls of Yosemite. And his images are about as good as it gets; expedition photography that beautifully captures the spirit and the passion that are the lifeblood of every trip, hike, climb and ascent. www.jimmychin.com 06
Photography: Jimmy Chin
Renan Oztruk contemplates the day’s objectives in the Garwhal Himalaya
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Yvon
Blacksmith, traveller, climber, surfer, fly fisherman, zen prankster – Yvon is also arguably the most successful businessman in the history of the outdoor industry. In Patagonia he has created a company that remains on the cutting edge – not only of technology and design, but in the ethical values it practices and preaches. Q
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Chouinard was always a pioneer. Born in 1938 in Maine, he moved to Southern California with his French Canadian family as an eight year old and became a surfer in the earliest days of that coastal subcult. In his teenage years he developed an interest in falconry, and while investigating the craggy eyries occupied by birds of prey in the rock faces of the Sierras, he discovered the vertically oriented delights of climbing. He would go on to play a vital role in the evolution of North American alpinism – taking part in early ascents of the major routes on El Capitan in the most minimalist style and with his partners inspiring a move away from the high-impact use of hand forged iron pitons toward lightweight, removable protection. Along the way he picked up influence from Eastern philosophy – and made a killing by manufacturing products that enabled him and his contemporaries to explore the mountains in a less harmful manner. Now, still fresh from a lunchtime yoga class, we share a wholesome lunch in the Patagonia café. He listens carefully to my questions and answers them with a relaxed but passionate delivery. One thing that sticks out about the man’s personality is this: he is unafraid of sustained, fathomless silence. How has the downturn affected Patagonia? I love recessions because it kills the competition and it drives people to buy things that last a long time. They stop being silly in their fashion choices. They start buying practical things, and that’s where we are. It was a good time to get into surf, too for the same reasons. That’s why I encouraged my son to build his surfboard business [Fletcher Chouinard Designs], because the only things you really need for surfing are a wetsuit and a surfboard. He’s making surfboards that are as good, if not better than anybody in the world right now – performance wise. And as far as durability and strength goes, they are 100% stronger than polyester urethane boards. They are non-toxic too. But your core market is still the outdoors. Do you think the two, surfing and ‘outdoors’ are becoming the same thing? Well, it’s interesting. We took a trip to Chile a few years ago, with (surf legend) Gerry Lopez and the Malloys and Jack Johnson. Out of this trip came an article for Surfer Magazine. In the article there was this photo of Gerry with one of our silver coloured down jackets on. Suddenly that became a surf item, and 08
every surfer wanted to buy a Patagonia down jacket in silver. I realised at that point that a down jacket is actually a surf product as much as anything else, especially in November in Scotland or something, when you get out of the water and there’s three inches of snow on the ground, and your hands are so cold you can’t even put your key in your lock and you want to wear something warm. And so I realised I didn’t have to do the same thing as making t-shirts and sweatshirts and caps, I realised I could get into the surf industry by selling multifunctional clothing. I’m not interested in the 14-year-old girl or the 17-year-old boy. They’re not my consumers. I’m more interested in the one percent-ers, who are serious climbers and serious surfers and who don’t follow fashion. They don’t want to buy something that they only wear 1% of the time. They want to buy something that they can wear all the time. How do you stay motivated to do business, when you could easily just take off forever and climb and surf and fish? Well, I enjoy it. You can’t travel all the time. You’d burn out, plus you’ll end up in karmic hell. I’m a real pessimist about the future of the planet. But, I feel a responsibility to do what I can about it, and doing what I can means using this business as a resource with which to influence other companies. That’s why I stay in business. I don’t need any more money, I mean Christ, if you look at my car, the way I live my life, you’ll know the way we live is very simple. Money is not a motivator at all. In fact I give most of my money away. What motivates me is pessimism about the world. I love the natural world, and I want to protect it.
Photography: Patagonia
Chouinard and the dirtbag aristocracy
So now we’ve exploited the planet, we’ve got to stop traveling the world and enjoying the environment? You know what? There’s no known technology that will keep planes up there without petroleum. They’re not going to be running on hydrogen I can tell you that. They won’t be running on electrical power. America has put all it’s subsidies into airplanes and automobiles and roads. We should have a highspeed train from San Diego to Vancouver, Canada, it’s a straight shot. Our passenger trains are going slower than they did in the 18th century! But we’re not going to get in an airplane and go to the South Pacific to surf or to the Andes to climb in the future, we’re going to have to live with the spots that are close by, which means we’re going to have to protect them. If somebody goes to destroy that mountain region or that surf break, there are going to be a lot of people that go crazy. People are not going to allow that, because that is what we have, because we can’t fly anywhere else any more. It’s the same thing with a little local stream that’s polluted, you know it’s shit. If I want to fish, I’m going to have to clean this stream up. I mean, people talk about eating locally as being vital, but it’s not just eating locally that’s important. We’re going to have to do our sports locally, we really are. Everybody thinks there’s going to be some technology that’s going to transport us all over the world with no carbon emissions. That’s not going to happen. And you know what? You’ll get used to it. I think I need somebody to tell me to stop travelling. If someone was to tell me, ‘no you can’t do that because there isn’t any oil left and you’re destroying the environment,’ I’ll say okay. www.thecleanestline.com
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Infoporn 01
Telemark Skiing
1 Bindings
Freeing the heel and scraping the back knee gets you closer to the flowing lines of the mountain – and closer therefore, to the essence of things. Originally conceived in the Telemark region of Norway, the drop-knee, free-heeled ski turn was almost consigned to memory during the alpine boom. It was revived by a bunch of seventies ski bums in the High Sierras and the European Alps in an aesthetic reaction to the mass-market, resort-centred madness that by then had begun to take over the mountains. With free-heeled bindings and the addition of skins, you could free yourself from the strictures of gondolas and drag lifts and go explore. The back-to-basics, roots-and-culture aesthetic chimed with the times. Now, competitive as well as freeride Telemark skiing is back on the agenda.
Telemark bindings hold the boot to the ski by the toe only – though the Holy Grail of Telemark equipment design is a binding that can offer the ability to perform Telemark turns combined with ‘touringmode’, step-in entry and a safety-release system. In 2007 Norwegian company Rottefella introduced the New Telemark Norm (NTN) binding, which was the first commercial with these multiple features. NTN systems are primarily aimed at maximizing downhill control and are therefore relatively heavy.
2 Skis
3 Boots
4 Apparel
Many manufacturers still have lines of Telemark-specific skis which are, in general, lighter and softer than comparable alpine skis. Advances in boot and binding technology have meant that all types of ski can be used to perform Telemark turns – though traditionalists require wooden or wood-effect styled kit. The choice is yours.
Traditionally made of leather, all Telemark boots have a ‘duckbill’ on the toe, which links boots with the binding. While most Telemark skiers use cables to attach boots to bindings, the duckbill has three reinforced holes in the bottom to attach three-pin bindings. NTN-specific boots attach to the binding by a hook in the front and back of the boot.
Modern materials may be more practical than traditional leather, wools and cottons – but raffish capes, crisp lederhosen and natty trilbys (feathers and beard optional) are the way to go for the purist. World Cup Telemarkers have been eschewing natural fibres and tradition in favour of man-made practicality. We do not concur. Style, after all, is everything. The beautiful resort of La Plagne is due to host the Finale of the 2010 Telemark World Cup. www.laplagnet.com
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www.infomen.org
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James Selman of Beloved taking care of quality control
Tailor it to the needs of the individual. We were less fixated with wanting it now and far more concerned with needing it to last. Quality, functionality and style weren’t marketing buzzwords attached to products only to justify a price tag we could never hope to afford but rather real promises from the people who cared about the objects they made, however utilitarian the objects were. And then mass consumption and mass production took over. Handcrafted became increasingly hard to find. A renaissance of sorts is taking place, however, in an industry that while thriving on technological advancements has always been a romantic at heart. Companies that make steel bicycles by hand have always been the roots of cycling – from those original Tour de France steeds to the everyday transportation of the proletariat. Beloved Bicycles is one such company. Working out of Portland, Oregon, (a hotbed for bike builders) they make beautifully constructed steel bikes designed for everyday riding and to reconnect people with the joy of cycling. “French Constructeur inspired simplicity at its very best” is how James Selman and Matt Stein describe their machines. And it is an apt description. www.belovedcycles.com
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Somewhere climbing and surďŹ ng intersect. The place where it happens is not obvious
_but it exists. 14
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Every surfer has experienced it. After every decent session you’re left with frozen moments that are locked into your consciousness – instantaneous images that crystallise in your mind with a vague yet powerful tangibility. These moments evoke the immediate nostalgia of Polaroid prints. You lean into your bottom turn and see the wall of the wave reeling up ahead of you. Click. You hold a stylish body position while attempting to cut back to the power source from the wave’s slackening shoulder. Click. The sensorial cacophony that accompanies the union of man, ocean and earth is particularly evocative of these moments and results easily in the mystic leap between brain chemistry and muscle memory. Up there on the crag, a hundred miles from the coast, climbers experience these moments too. There is an ache and a fear and a pounding of your heart and an increased intensity of perception. When your body and your mind are stretched to extremes hard-won physical knowledge takes over. The climber’s world is distilled to the square centimetres that surround that finger hold. The universe becomes the angle and camber and extension of that crux move. A wave is deeply ephemeral. It never truly exists in space and time, but is simply a manifestation of accumulated energy given form in liquid by the interaction of the sea floor and the energy itself. A rock face is an accumulation of energy too, but a formation of energy over geological time, warped and cracked and affected by environmental conditions that stretch over aeons rather than the moments that form a ridden wave. Is it too great a leap of the imagination to acknowledge that they are both outriders of the human race’s deep instinct to dance with the elements, to revel in the beauty and menace of the planet?
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