Style and ethics
from "Climbing Ice" by Yvon Chouinard
Sierra Club Books, 1978
We are Homo sapiens, the tool users. We earn the name by
developing tools to increase our leverage on the world around us, and
with this increased technological leverage comes a growing sense of
power. This position of advantage which protects us from wild nature
we call civilization. Our security increases as we apply more
leverage, but along with it we notice a growing isolation from the
earth. We crowd into cities which shut out the rhythms of the
planet--daybreak, high tide, wispy cirrus high overhead yelling storm
tomorrow, moonrise, Orion going south for the winter. Perceptions
dull and we come to accept a blunting of feeling in the shadow of
security. Drunk with power, I find that I am out of my senses. I,
tool man, long for the immediacy of contact to brighten my senses
again, to bring me nearer the world once more; in security I have
forgotten how to dance.
wrs@paschen.Stanford.EDU
created 6 Mar 1995
E.G.Sauer, Ophir, CO, 1/18/1996,
9000ft, -9 degrees, 80ft icefall in the valley of the Ophir Wall,
Guide: Antione Savelli, Syndicat Des Guides de Chamonix.
In Ouray, a world-famous festival draws thousands to climb chandeliers of ice, Jan 26, 2022,