We Love you Micah

Micah and Jonny in "The Sharp End".. associate produced by Wade

Mountain Athlete

Jonny and I leave for Asia in just ten days and our spring training is in full effect. Since breaking my heel last summer, and spending three months on crutches followed by another three monthswalking at an ants pace, I wasn’t sure how to get back into shape. Keeping up with Jonny in the mountains is no easy feat. He is a cardio machine and since our objective in Asia will be more of a mixed alpine route than a big wall rock climb I decided I needed to train a bit differently .
Thanks to Connie Sciolino and the Mountain Athlete program www.mtnathlete.com from Jackson Hole, but now also in Boulder, I found just what I was looking for. Mountain Athlete, similar to Cross Fit, is a hardcore ass kicking one hour workout out session. It’s leg crushing ,heart pumping, back burning, barf on the floor marathon.
No, this kind of training won’t necessarily make you a better climber, you need to climb to do that, but what it will do is make you hard to kill in the alpine. Mountain Machines like Bean Bowers, Stephen Koch, Ben Gilmore, and Kevin Mahoney having been using it as a training method for some time. In combination with climbing fulltime I think it will be a huge asset to climbing in the Himalaya this spring. If nothing else, I feel like it is bringing me closer to where I was prior to getting injured.
If you in boulder and cranking on the rocks doesn’t seem to be doing the trick stop in and check it out. You can contact Connie at sciolino@q.com.

Always,
Micah

Paradox on ice.

When the R.P.G. rocket impacted Captain D.J. Skelton while on combat operations in Fallujah the farthest thing from his mind was climbing. But for D.J., and many of us, climbing is in our blood. With his glass eye, titanium arm, and numerous scars across his body he modifies equipment and techniques to climb both ice and rock. Since our first meeting in the Red River Gorge of Kentucky nearly two years ago D.J. has become a regular climbing partner of mine. He along with Timmy O Neil created Paradox sports.

“Paradox Sports was created with a common desire to integrate the physically disabled into the outdoor community by providing inspiration, opportunities, and the adaptive equipment needed to participate in human-powered outdoor sports.”The common bond of loving the outdoors and wanting to share it with others, regardless of physical limitations, is what brought them together.” Says executive director Malcom Daily. “

Over the weekend of March 6th Paradox Sports gathered in Ouray Colorado to scrape up what ice remained. The morning started off with a quick discussing on to get Vijay, a 23 year old paraplegic from Breckenridge CO, to the crag. Vijay didn’t really care how it happened so long as it did. A few hours later he was being lowered directing into the Uncompahgre Gorge rigged and ready for his turn at the ice. “Life is also about adaptability," said O'Neil as we lowered him off of the icy cliff. I concurred.

D.J. has taught me many things. One of them being that although some injuries or congenital abnormalities ( or whatever PC term you want to use) may appear worse than others it’s all relative to the individual. Chad Jukes loss of his leg from an IED in Iraq is no less significant than Vijay’s paralysis from a rappelling accident. They all require a special energy to overcome. Paradox is an amazing community of people and I look forward to working with them again.

Micah Dash

Well, I can say that I have done a really piss poor job of keeping up with my blog. No excuse except that my Camera broke and I don't have any cool pictures to show you. Nellie and I are in Canmore ice climbing with the Canadian monkeys. They sure do love the cold.

Anyhooo, we are hoping that it's a bit warmer tomorrow and that I will be over this cold that I caught so that we can get back at it. Hoping to make it up a few more multi pitch ice climbs before we head back south.

For me, ice climbing is a means to an end and in it of itself I don't really like it. It feels much more like hammering than climbing. But, each year the lines i choose to climb in the mountains seem to have more and more ice on them. So, here I am preparing for what may lie ahead in Tibet and Pakistan this year.

Always
Micah