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Where are you? (in the book you are reading) - please read 1st post

cool....

I'm standing on an island in Venice looking at the smoking ruins of glass foundry that just exploded and burned to the ground because a dead woman was stuffed in the furnace.
 
In the Couturier Couloir with Patrick Vallençant . I’m ready to start the pedal-hop turn with my Omeglass Dynastar + look Nevada N17 . Before descending, I repeat - in my head - his advice : My downhill ski pole ahead of my downhill boot, all my weight on my downhill ski and I lift my uphill ski .... Then, I must extend my uphill leg and now only I have to make a diverging movement with my unweighted downhill ski .... Ok, on y va !!
 
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I'm climbing blindly in Grosse Sandspitze - the Lienz Dolomites - with Andy Holzer , Hans Bruckner and the tenacious mother of Andy . Today my hands learn to read vertical routes and for the first time, I'm being concious how my sense of balance and my center of gravity help me to anticipate the direction of force when i make a climbing move .
 
In the K2 Base Camp ( at 5100 meter ) with Jean-Christophe Lafaille and Hans Kammerlander . We're acclimating us to altitude while we redesign an attempt to the Basque Route ( the controversial Cesen) in alpine-style and maybe, a ski descent on the K-2 summit . The original plan was to climb a new route in solo, but the uncertainty of the weather and << old mixed feelings >> has given rise to this unexpected roped team .
 
Opposite the Arête de la Dentelle -foresummit of Jannu- at around 6700 meters with Xabier Garaioa, Patxi Senosiain and Mari Abrego . We are climbing a narrow and steep couloir ( it is 70º) of ice, rock, and mixed terrain using the fixed rope installed by Josema, Iñaki, Muru for securing this part of climb and from here reach the snow-covered ridge which will lead us to Camp V at 6900 meters . (( On April 23/24, 1981))
 
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I'm in a hospital room recovering from a simple operation. Mother comes to visit from out-of-state, and I long for her to open up to me emotionally, but our conversations are rather awkward.
 
In the Pamir Mountains with Simone Moro, Mario Curnis ( 73 years old), Denis Urubko and Andrey Molotov we are making the program Snow Leopard ( climb five 7000 peaks on the former USSR territory) in a single season, that is, in the summer of 1999 . This << alpine marathon >> was a pending project of Anatolij Boukreev and Simone wanted to keep a promise . Today we are starting to climb the Kommunism Peak ( 7495 m).... It's unusual the great complicity between Mario and Andrey because neither of them talk the same language and without words both can read their thoughts . It seems familiar to me.....
 
I'm applying chalk to my hands before climbing some boulders at Devil's Lake state park in Baraboo, Wisconsin ( mid-1950s) . I'm not alone, John Gill is there too . We are talking about training routines just for boulderers, bouldering problems/routes like 5.9+/5.10/5.12, his last conversation with Yvon Chouinard & Royal Robbins and also about his next adventure in Red Cross Rock......He murmured something of a dynamic move with which we could learn to fly !!
 
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I'm travelling around Slovenia with Ed Douglas our purpose is knowing in depth the personality and Spirituality of the alpinist Tomaz Humar, he was part showman and part mystic . Yesterday we had a meeting in Kamnik with some menbers of roped team (( before being soloist )) and friends such as Tone Skarja, Bojan Pollak, Marko Prezelj, the brothers Karnicar, among others .....
 
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I'm gazing at the Icefall called Symphonie d'Automne in the Besson lake's cliffs (( Alpe d'Huez )) while François Damilano is solo climbling, on February 1981 . En route to cliffs François told me that he has etched in his memory 3 images and he is convinced that these will mark his destiny . He was talking about : Mike Weiss & Jeff Lowe in Bridalveil Fall, 1974 / Dale Bart & Rob Taylor free climbing in Seracs, Mount Fay/ Gian-Carlo Grassi & Gianni Comino in l'Hypercouloir ( goulotte), 1978 .
 
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I am skiing ( or rather combining tail jump turns and hop turns) at the Canale Holzer - a narrow and long couloir with a slope between 45º and 50º - in the north face of Sass Pordoi (( Dolomites )) with the father of the steep skiing, Heini Holzer .
 
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In the summit of the Everest with Kit Deslauriers, Rob and Jimmy Chin we are about to make the ski descent towards the Southeast Ridge - a short descend but with an off-cramber fall line - and from there skiing towards the next section the Hillary step, the belay line . Kit told me that a safe ski belay is almost an oxymoron . My ski partners begin to descent...I already got my skis on I slide slowly, my legs and muscles twitch, beneath my skis a very wind-rippled snow, each turn with an intense grasp, eager to trip anyone...
I have to tailor my ski technique to match the mountain .
 
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I am taking part in 3 Basque expeditions with distincts goals and in different years . In the first, I'm with the Navarrese expedition ( and 4 catalans ) led by Gregorio Ariz , the aim of this team is climb the Northeast Ridge of Dhaulagiri on may 1979 . After ten-day working among the Camp 4 and 5, Xabier Garaioa, Iñaki Aldaya, Gerardo Plaza, Carles Pons & Ang Rita try to reach the top, towards the rocky promontory . A big storm begins with winds more than 100 km/hour and temperature of -38º , the whole teammates of the Camp 4 were forced to give up further climbing towards the summit . The second aim in 1988, I am climbing a variation of the Kangchenjunga's North face in alpine-style with Carlos Buhler, Peter Habeler and Martin Zabaleta -who was the first basque to reach the Everest summit in 1980 (( Egin dugu !! )) - . A blinding blizzard dwindle the visibility in the whole descent, doubt and uncertainty dogged every step . Fortunately, close to the Base Camp Felipe Uriarte guides our steps with their Irrintzis . Finally in 1992, I am with Pili Ganuza and Amaia Aranzabal climbing the West face of Cho Oyu .
 
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