Photo of the Day

Sends, a bit of a struggling, so much fighting and determination … all that happening in one day and everyone was having a great time on top of that. Ben Markham in the determination mode on Tuckered Out at Diamond Falls in Blue Mountains.

Photo of the Day

When I was a little kid I imagined the milky way as bottles of milk floating around held together by a giant net. Some of them were as large as elephants and some of them even larger … otherwise we would not be able to see them of course. Now when I am older and wiser I know that the bottles must be much much larger and the net way stronger than I thought When I was a little kid I imagined the milky way as bottles of milk floating around held together by a giant net. Some of them were as large as elephants and some of them even larger … otherwise we would not be able to see them of course. Now when I am older and wiser I know that the bottles must be much much larger and the net way stronger than I thought.

Photo of the Day

This picture is a couple of years old when road tripping in US. As I was traveling alone I met a lot of awesome people. Some of them I never got a chance to meet again some of them have become my close friends. I learnt a lot during this trip. I now know how to talk to rangers to not get fined … how to set up a campfire the Swiss way … what it feels like to throw a rock of a size of a fridge on your best mate … but the most important thing I realized while talking to people is … that it does not matter what your goal is and how far you THINK you are from achieving it is as long as you enjoy the process.

Photo of the Day

Joshua Tree National Park

Photo of the Day

After six months of waiting for the stars to align and temperatures to rise the idea has finally turn into reality. Thanks Chris & Chris for making this shot possible and a memorable and fun night out.

Photo of the Day

That moment of letting go … I always get quite nervous when shooting BASE. It is exciting to be part of it but hard for me to watch at the same time. Cannot stop thinking about something going wrong. The danger is obvious to me … It however reminds me of conversations with my mum as she feels the same when I mention climbing … The unknown is just terrifying for her Which makes me think of other things I’m scared of. Are they really that terrifying or is it just the UNKNOWN?

Are we really all selfish?

Given what happened this week at Hanging Rock I thought I would not post this photo for a while. But somewhere deep inside me I feel like it needs to go out. What happened on Tuesday is tragic, one young and beautiful soul full of life is not here anymore. It sucks, it hurts, it is not easy ... My condolences go to the family and all of us who feel miserable right now.

What concerns me though is the flood of responses and comments I hear all around me. Dangerous activities should be banned, people are risking their lives, lets fence these places out and fine those people. I am not surprised to hear those judging comments as most of them are based on the unfortunate media coverage which seems to follow every tragic event with a shock factor greater than ever increasing X. It takes much more effort to write a catchy story about a normal day of an adventure junkie. Yes, what we do is "obviously" more dangerous. However when I look around me on a typical day I see tens and sometimes hundreds of people having fun being cautious about their safety ... double checking and looking after each other. There is this unique sense of camaraderie and belonging to a group of people who really care and are willing to make sacrifices for others. There are people doing what they love, calculating the risks and quite often bailing on their dreamed and ambitious climbs, jumps, big waves due to not feeling ready, quite right or not up to the game yet.

The other day sitting in a "safe" coffee shop I talked about climbing to a friend of mine. He said what we do is dangerous and he would not be able to risk his life like that. Then when leaving the coffee shop he briefly looked right, then left and jay walked the busy Sydney morning traffic. I am not going to hypothesize what is more dangerous. It is always a fine line between safety and danger and accidents happen. My point is that danger is subjective and cannot be easily generalized, banned, fined. My friend calculated the risk and crossed the street. He was familiar enough with this situation to be comfortable to "risk his life". I can see some parallels here however with much less potential for exciting and blood-thirsty news should something go wrong.

Perhaps I am missing something, perhaps we really are all selfish, I really do not know... if you know, please let me know ...

On the picture here is Stepan at Hanging Rock last Saturday having a great time, doing what he loves ... in the safest way possible.

Stay safe guys! Peace!