photo of Bantu and his son Rowan training on the Sacred Peak by www.JamesQMartin.com
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Most Treasured Sangha,
Some of you have wondered about Bantu and his ascent up Denali. Last Saturday, Ananda and i met Bantu with our children, Dewa (ours), Rowan (his). We placed our children into our bicycle trailers and wheeled through a magnificent early June afternoon toward one Flag's many fine city parks along one of Flags many fine sections of bicycle paths.
We swung our children. We frolicked with them in the green grasses. We clambered around on the playground sets, creating more difficult climbing moves for ourselves as we chased our children.
We did not speak of Denali. Nor the cold bite of arctic wind. Not one word was spoken about tangled, frozen ropes at 3:30 am after cramming freezing feet into diamond hard mountaineering boots while the constant howl of wind ripped at tent fabric.
Instead, we spoke about how "well trained" we both were - still - after HP PROP WORKOUT two days prior. We spoke of upcoming bike rides with our families and warm evenings to spend camping, bouldering, splashing in southwestern creeks.
ilg TAF's hard-core mountaineers do that. For, once having known the white windy summits of Turtle Island and elsewhere, we tend to sequester those high-intensity m(om)ents. Stuffing them gently yet firmly into our most sacred of places inside.
Here then, is Noble and World Class Mountaineer's Andrew "Bantu" Frost's final Denali Update. He sent it in a while ago...and it came attached with this personal note;
"Honored Teacher.
I am in Oregon. Rebuilding something essential in me. Just friends and flowers and long runs among the ancient trees, the cresting waves of fern and blackberry, the susurrus of salal against my ankles.
Today, we will stand Rowan before the Pacific's edge. And he will be a poem, I am certain.
Forgive my recent silence and absence. I have been practicing everywhere.
- Bantu"
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WHATEVER YOU DO;
DO NOT MISS THIS BEAUTIFUL, POWERFUL ESSAY FROM THE HEART OF WORLD-CLASS MOUNTAINEER AND WF STUDENT BANTU...
one proofreader commented; "This is light-years more powerful than the stuff you read in the outdoor and climbing magazines!"
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