That’s amazing. I was very comfortable on long boards, in really steep stuff,,,,,,, not even close to that gent. Thank you. Lost my left hip in 2010, the only sport the Drs told me to not do, was down hill, ever again. Broke my heart.
My wife and kids still ski, my grand boys are going to be learning when we get some d3cent snow. Sadly I think my right hips giving out, mimicking the exact symptoms my left hip did. I’m in Reno Thur Fri for a right hip replacement consult.
Already have 1 hip replaced, a knee, spine fusions, fake discs, and three titanium plates bolted to my spine. Hell it ain’t nothing!
ghostsniperNovember 8, 2021, 1:35 PM
I don’t envy you one bit.
Back in the 90’s there used to be a fascinating show (I thought so) on PBS called “The Operation” that had heavy-duty surgical procedures on it. The most memorable one to me was where they replaced a dood’s entire left hip assembly. They actually cut the top end off his femur, and 1/3 of his pelvis away and replaced it with a rig from a cadaver, but with a new mechanical hip joint. Bone cancer had eaten away much of his existing stuff.
I was affixed on that episode and would like to see it again. Much of what the doctors did in that procedure was very much like carpentry repair work on an old building. I kid you not. The precise cutting of the bones, carefully detailing the ends for the eventual join up, and the securing of all the various pieces back together. They even ground up bone into dust and combined with something to make a putty for filling in the gaps. The whole thing was amazing, and to me, horrifying.
Since 20 APR 1975 I have lived the notion in the back of my mind that someday I would have to go through the dual hip replacement procedure because of a parachute accident I was in that caused 7 pelvis fractures (1 through the left acetabulum) and a broken femur. So far everything still functions for the most part as it should but I ain’t no spring chicken and the older you get the more stuff goes wrong. Anyway, good luck with that when it happens Dirk. You seem to have a good attitude about it and that’s the most important part.
I’ve often thought that part of the popularity of extreme sports these days is due to the fact that some injuries that would have been either completely crippling or a death sentence at any other time in human history are survivable with seemingly-few aftereffects now, especially if you are young and healthy.
That said, when I was a kid I compressed three vertebrae in a sledding accident. Miraculously not paralyzed, but there are some spinal scars. Think I’ll pass on the extreme skiing, thankyouverymuch.
Mike SeyleNovember 8, 2021, 2:34 PM
I didn’t do shit. Went fishing. Shot an elk (not while fishing). Threatened to jump off a roof into a hot tub once while in some long training assignment away from home, where we were all drunk or stoned, all the time, but a guy held up three fingers and asked me how many he was holding. I said “three.” He said that since I’m not so fucked up that I can understand that, that if I jump, he’ll get me fired. I climbed back off the roof. I still think I could have hit the tub. A lot of times, life is just about taking the plunge.
Such impressive physicality is on par with those teen girl gymnasts, competitive mountain bikers, professional surfers, and such. Impossible to imagine—until you see it. But—and there is always a ‘but’:
The demands of reaching such heights succumbs—as does everything—to what economists call ‘opportunity costs’. No one can escape such a dreadful arithmetic. Simply put: whatever time and resources that skier put in to doing what he did is time he could not have put into some other endeavor, like contemplation, Philosophy, mastering Italian cooking, seducing women—whatever. Such men are astoundingly interesting and entertaining when discussing their craft, and remarkably boring when discussing any other thing. Think of LeBron James: a genius at detailing the art of running back and forth on a wooden rectangle while bouncing a rubber ball, and frighteningly ignorant about anything else. Listening to Mr. James speak, one gets the impression that he would find it challenging—and beyond his capacity—to speak or write one coherent paragraph on any subject whatsoever.
I have no idea about that skier, of what he yearns for outside of skiing. Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. But whatever that is, he won’t achieve it until he puts down the skis. Unless he does, he will be nothing but a highly accomplished adrenaline and speed junky.
Since Red Bull paid that skier, here is something quite similar that they pay for. Who is the audience? I promise you it is not mature men.
Interesting, I didn’t view Agressive downhill skiing, as dangerous. I think I view it as a form of art, as a man, or woman on a mountain, working it. The young gent in the vids, an amazing skier,hell he’s a hell of an athlete.
To this day, watching a down hill skier with classic ankle touching form, nknees working in perfect harmony is stunning to watch.
We all do it different, honestly believe has everything to do with where we were raised. Regarding what our hobbies became. You live in the mountains you do mountain related hobbies, coast ya do coastal stuff.
As we get older, more moble, our hobbies tend to expand, with what we could afford.
VI
The one style of skiing I never accomplished was cross country down hill, in CC skis. Yes the skis for many years, the CC or mountaineering skis do have a rear lock down, and a much better set of boots are worn,.
Watching an accomplished Cross country skier free style down a steep hill, I just never got it,,,,,,,,I’d wade myself up, cutting and moving my skis in a very unique style. I can’t think of the style, theirs a name for it.
Anybody tracking Canada’s govt is disarming the citizens. Anything semi auto. Not clear on single shot or pump guns.
This is serious stuff!
Dirk
Casey KlahnNovember 8, 2021, 11:36 PM
I’ve skied Mt Rainer, Mt Adams, Mt McKinley…but what this guy does in this vid is way, way higher and harder. It must’ve been very well planned out as far as the filming because finding those conditions at every altitude and aspect is harder than hell, much less skiing it.
My hat’s off to him, but I find it all to be training for what’s to come soon. I’m trying to re-outfit my fat ass for serious times, and I am shopping for new togs,. Some asshole shrank all of my really good climbing clothes, you see. Poly cotton, poly cotton, cotton…bullshit!! Get very serious, my friends. I never put together a bug out bag because I already inhabit the all-time best bug in location ever. However, now I see myself on checkpoint duty or organizing said duty. I’m researching bug out bags and it is more horseshit than you can imagine.
Light. Technical. Usable.
Be one with the task.
I just found out about a legendary man from my home area: John Tornow. That mutha was five hundred percent man when times were raw, and he survived off the land that time forgot: the Olympic Rain Forests. This was 1880-1913. 99.99999% of men today would die just thinking of his lifestyle.
What would John Tornow do for a bug out bag? WWJTD?
Learn it. Live it. Love it.
Right now, the right is looking at a 17-18 year old man as our standard: Kyle Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse, by an act of God, will walk. When he does, he’ll have a large target painted on his back, and the devil monkey bats of hell will be after his ass for recompense.
OK. Enough fun for tonight. Out here.
Casey, you’re definitely in – or at least, close to – the ultimate bug-out place. When I was a kid, we spent a week or so in Okanagan. Pretty sure that and places like it the final refuge in the continental US. No services, everybody communicated by CB radios, and as much privacy as you can handle.
Casey KlahnNovember 10, 2021, 4:19 AM
You know it. No stop lights in my county.
I see this place as the hole in the wall gang’s place. It has no strategic value, except that the Left’s strategic goal is to eliminate actual Americans, and in that case the mindscape is the battlefield.
Anyway, it’s pretty here, too.
There are a number of really inaccessible places in Washington. The high Olympics is one, and there is no service there.
Casey, preparing for the coming happenings,,,,,,is a personal adventure. We all do it differently. You know your skills set, you know what your limits are, you know, what needs to be “ pre positioned”. And you also understand, if you can’t protect it, it ain’t yours.
Good luck, an adventure we’ve been on for thirty years or so. I would say this, I have canned regular food that’s 15/18 years old. I prepared a can of chili “ chili boat” for lunch yesterday from that stock,,,,,No worries, sharp cheddar and Fritos, and life’s good.
No after effects.
VI
ghostsniperNovember 9, 2021, 9:05 AM
I wonder if you could handle a cupla my notorious “Chili Grenades”.
Your anus will whimper….
VanderleunNovember 9, 2021, 11:20 AM
“…anus will whimper”? “Whimper!?”
I shall be sending you a bill for the YEARS OF THERAPY it will take to remove that image from my brain. Payment in full upon receipt. Thanking you in advance.
ghostsniperNovember 9, 2021, 1:43 PM
Another custom creation by ghostsniper design services international, where we shape reality into your lifestyle.
The thing that makes the chili grenades so downright delectable is the unique combination blend of minced ghost peppers, scotch bonnet peppers, and trinidad scorpion peppers, that will take your tastebuds on an adventure they never imagined, and your sphincter permanently inflicted with burn scar tissue.
Hah. Wimp. You should try my Kung Pao with extra Mongolian hot sauce. You rectum will not just whimper, it will cry out to God for succor.
VanderleunNovember 9, 2021, 7:09 PM
Stop it with the straight lines already. I’m trying to plead my way into Heaven not grease the rails into Hell by riffing some cheap one-liners I should have avoided.
ghostsniperNovember 10, 2021, 4:37 AM
He said succor. HA HA HA HAAAAA
Casey KlahnNovember 10, 2021, 4:20 AM
Oshit
FlannelputzNovember 9, 2021, 6:27 PM
The commentary here has turned decidedly rectal in nature, and it’s kinda freaking me out.
VanderleunNovember 9, 2021, 7:17 PM
Oh no…..
And for special entertainment…
Ten
Get on board it’s time to go
Nine
Life’s too short to spend it alone
Eight
It’s there
Seven
I swear
Six five four three two one
I’m on a rocket to Uranus
And the rocket’s gonna take us
To the planet that will save us
Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa
Fly on a mission to a higher love
The invitation you’ve been dreaming of
Let’s have a party on Uranus!
Be happy then you are not half Mexican. In Spanish the word “recto” is an adjective meaning “correct, honorable, straight”. The word “probo” means “honest” and does not refer to proctology.
azlibertarianNovember 10, 2021, 5:10 AM
Great skiing, obviously, but what impressed me too was the great video production. I dunno nuttin’ about producing a quality video, but I have to imagine that there were at least a half-dozen cameras and/or drones, with multiple angles covering multiple takes. And behind that were many hours of map study to find the area that had the features that would allow something like this to be produced.
But, I look at these things with an old man’s caution. I have a friend/acquaintance who lived near me and, like me, was an airline pilot at my employer. There is a very long story behind this, but to shorten it up, one day Don rolled a car and in an instant became a quadraplegic. I visited Don a couple of times while he was in the hospital learning how to live in a wheelchair. And by that, I mean everything from getting his body out of bed by himself to wiping his own ass. The amount of work it took to do the simplest thing was an incredible, and Don once said that he knew that it took a lot to become an airline pilot and that he was going to put that kind of work to becoming the best quadraplegic in the world. I’ll tell you this much about Don: He fucking jams a pen into his fist left balled up by his injuries and fucking hand writes his Christmas cards! Nobody does that. As you can probably tell, Don has become an inspiration to me. [At last report, Don was in Thailand. Chasing a woman. Amazing.]
Anyway, while I was visiting Don in his convalescent hospital, I also met a couple of guys who were learning how to live with their injuries. One of them was a young stud in his 20’s who had gone over his handlebars on a mountain bike and was left a paraplegic. The thing about these injuries is that not only do you have to deal with life in a chair, you also have to deal with life. It is as much a physical recovery as it is an emotional recovery. That kid had recently come to understand that he had had the last erection he was ever going to have. Put yourself back into your 20’s and try to let that one sink in.
So when I look at these videos, whether they’re professionally produced by Red Bull, or by some knucklehead with a GoPro and a YouTube account, I sometimes wonder how many injuries are left behind.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
That’s amazing. I was very comfortable on long boards, in really steep stuff,,,,,,, not even close to that gent. Thank you. Lost my left hip in 2010, the only sport the Drs told me to not do, was down hill, ever again. Broke my heart.
My wife and kids still ski, my grand boys are going to be learning when we get some d3cent snow. Sadly I think my right hips giving out, mimicking the exact symptoms my left hip did. I’m in Reno Thur Fri for a right hip replacement consult.
Already have 1 hip replaced, a knee, spine fusions, fake discs, and three titanium plates bolted to my spine. Hell it ain’t nothing!
I don’t envy you one bit.
Back in the 90’s there used to be a fascinating show (I thought so) on PBS called “The Operation” that had heavy-duty surgical procedures on it. The most memorable one to me was where they replaced a dood’s entire left hip assembly. They actually cut the top end off his femur, and 1/3 of his pelvis away and replaced it with a rig from a cadaver, but with a new mechanical hip joint. Bone cancer had eaten away much of his existing stuff.
I was affixed on that episode and would like to see it again. Much of what the doctors did in that procedure was very much like carpentry repair work on an old building. I kid you not. The precise cutting of the bones, carefully detailing the ends for the eventual join up, and the securing of all the various pieces back together. They even ground up bone into dust and combined with something to make a putty for filling in the gaps. The whole thing was amazing, and to me, horrifying.
Since 20 APR 1975 I have lived the notion in the back of my mind that someday I would have to go through the dual hip replacement procedure because of a parachute accident I was in that caused 7 pelvis fractures (1 through the left acetabulum) and a broken femur. So far everything still functions for the most part as it should but I ain’t no spring chicken and the older you get the more stuff goes wrong. Anyway, good luck with that when it happens Dirk. You seem to have a good attitude about it and that’s the most important part.
Should we call you “Frankendirk”?
It must be complicated to go through airport security.
That was well put together. Minus some of the background noise.
I’ve often thought that part of the popularity of extreme sports these days is due to the fact that some injuries that would have been either completely crippling or a death sentence at any other time in human history are survivable with seemingly-few aftereffects now, especially if you are young and healthy.
That said, when I was a kid I compressed three vertebrae in a sledding accident. Miraculously not paralyzed, but there are some spinal scars. Think I’ll pass on the extreme skiing, thankyouverymuch.
I didn’t do shit. Went fishing. Shot an elk (not while fishing). Threatened to jump off a roof into a hot tub once while in some long training assignment away from home, where we were all drunk or stoned, all the time, but a guy held up three fingers and asked me how many he was holding. I said “three.” He said that since I’m not so fucked up that I can understand that, that if I jump, he’ll get me fired. I climbed back off the roof. I still think I could have hit the tub. A lot of times, life is just about taking the plunge.
Such impressive physicality is on par with those teen girl gymnasts, competitive mountain bikers, professional surfers, and such. Impossible to imagine—until you see it. But—and there is always a ‘but’:
The demands of reaching such heights succumbs—as does everything—to what economists call ‘opportunity costs’. No one can escape such a dreadful arithmetic. Simply put: whatever time and resources that skier put in to doing what he did is time he could not have put into some other endeavor, like contemplation, Philosophy, mastering Italian cooking, seducing women—whatever. Such men are astoundingly interesting and entertaining when discussing their craft, and remarkably boring when discussing any other thing. Think of LeBron James: a genius at detailing the art of running back and forth on a wooden rectangle while bouncing a rubber ball, and frighteningly ignorant about anything else. Listening to Mr. James speak, one gets the impression that he would find it challenging—and beyond his capacity—to speak or write one coherent paragraph on any subject whatsoever.
I have no idea about that skier, of what he yearns for outside of skiing. Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. But whatever that is, he won’t achieve it until he puts down the skis. Unless he does, he will be nothing but a highly accomplished adrenaline and speed junky.
Since Red Bull paid that skier, here is something quite similar that they pay for. Who is the audience? I promise you it is not mature men.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7PlRrwxuDg
Interesting, I didn’t view Agressive downhill skiing, as dangerous. I think I view it as a form of art, as a man, or woman on a mountain, working it. The young gent in the vids, an amazing skier,hell he’s a hell of an athlete.
To this day, watching a down hill skier with classic ankle touching form, nknees working in perfect harmony is stunning to watch.
We all do it different, honestly believe has everything to do with where we were raised. Regarding what our hobbies became. You live in the mountains you do mountain related hobbies, coast ya do coastal stuff.
As we get older, more moble, our hobbies tend to expand, with what we could afford.
VI
The one style of skiing I never accomplished was cross country down hill, in CC skis. Yes the skis for many years, the CC or mountaineering skis do have a rear lock down, and a much better set of boots are worn,.
Watching an accomplished Cross country skier free style down a steep hill, I just never got it,,,,,,,,I’d wade myself up, cutting and moving my skis in a very unique style. I can’t think of the style, theirs a name for it.
Graceful, poetic, bitchen. And I can’t do it.
I am only barely capable of admiring such talent in others. That is sufficient for me.
Anybody tracking Canada’s govt is disarming the citizens. Anything semi auto. Not clear on single shot or pump guns.
This is serious stuff!
Dirk
I’ve skied Mt Rainer, Mt Adams, Mt McKinley…but what this guy does in this vid is way, way higher and harder. It must’ve been very well planned out as far as the filming because finding those conditions at every altitude and aspect is harder than hell, much less skiing it.
My hat’s off to him, but I find it all to be training for what’s to come soon. I’m trying to re-outfit my fat ass for serious times, and I am shopping for new togs,. Some asshole shrank all of my really good climbing clothes, you see. Poly cotton, poly cotton, cotton…bullshit!! Get very serious, my friends. I never put together a bug out bag because I already inhabit the all-time best bug in location ever. However, now I see myself on checkpoint duty or organizing said duty. I’m researching bug out bags and it is more horseshit than you can imagine.
Light. Technical. Usable.
Be one with the task.
I just found out about a legendary man from my home area: John Tornow. That mutha was five hundred percent man when times were raw, and he survived off the land that time forgot: the Olympic Rain Forests. This was 1880-1913. 99.99999% of men today would die just thinking of his lifestyle.
What would John Tornow do for a bug out bag? WWJTD?
Learn it. Live it. Love it.
Right now, the right is looking at a 17-18 year old man as our standard: Kyle Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse, by an act of God, will walk. When he does, he’ll have a large target painted on his back, and the devil monkey bats of hell will be after his ass for recompense.
OK. Enough fun for tonight. Out here.
Casey, you’re definitely in – or at least, close to – the ultimate bug-out place. When I was a kid, we spent a week or so in Okanagan. Pretty sure that and places like it the final refuge in the continental US. No services, everybody communicated by CB radios, and as much privacy as you can handle.
You know it. No stop lights in my county.
I see this place as the hole in the wall gang’s place. It has no strategic value, except that the Left’s strategic goal is to eliminate actual Americans, and in that case the mindscape is the battlefield.
Anyway, it’s pretty here, too.
There are a number of really inaccessible places in Washington. The high Olympics is one, and there is no service there.
Casey, preparing for the coming happenings,,,,,,is a personal adventure. We all do it differently. You know your skills set, you know what your limits are, you know, what needs to be “ pre positioned”. And you also understand, if you can’t protect it, it ain’t yours.
Good luck, an adventure we’ve been on for thirty years or so. I would say this, I have canned regular food that’s 15/18 years old. I prepared a can of chili “ chili boat” for lunch yesterday from that stock,,,,,No worries, sharp cheddar and Fritos, and life’s good.
No after effects.
VI
I wonder if you could handle a cupla my notorious “Chili Grenades”.
Your anus will whimper….
“…anus will whimper”? “Whimper!?”
I shall be sending you a bill for the YEARS OF THERAPY it will take to remove that image from my brain. Payment in full upon receipt. Thanking you in advance.
Another custom creation by ghostsniper design services international, where we shape reality into your lifestyle.
The thing that makes the chili grenades so downright delectable is the unique combination blend of minced ghost peppers, scotch bonnet peppers, and trinidad scorpion peppers, that will take your tastebuds on an adventure they never imagined, and your sphincter permanently inflicted with burn scar tissue.
Hah. Wimp. You should try my Kung Pao with extra Mongolian hot sauce. You rectum will not just whimper, it will cry out to God for succor.
Stop it with the straight lines already. I’m trying to plead my way into Heaven not grease the rails into Hell by riffing some cheap one-liners I should have avoided.
He said succor. HA HA HA HAAAAA
Oshit
The commentary here has turned decidedly rectal in nature, and it’s kinda freaking me out.
Oh no…..
And for special entertainment…
Ten
Get on board it’s time to go
Nine
Life’s too short to spend it alone
Eight
It’s there
Seven
I swear
Six five four three two one
I’m on a rocket to Uranus
And the rocket’s gonna take us
To the planet that will save us
Whoa Whoa Whoa Whoa
Fly on a mission to a higher love
The invitation you’ve been dreaming of
Let’s have a party on Uranus!
Be happy then you are not half Mexican. In Spanish the word “recto” is an adjective meaning “correct, honorable, straight”. The word “probo” means “honest” and does not refer to proctology.
Great skiing, obviously, but what impressed me too was the great video production. I dunno nuttin’ about producing a quality video, but I have to imagine that there were at least a half-dozen cameras and/or drones, with multiple angles covering multiple takes. And behind that were many hours of map study to find the area that had the features that would allow something like this to be produced.
But, I look at these things with an old man’s caution. I have a friend/acquaintance who lived near me and, like me, was an airline pilot at my employer. There is a very long story behind this, but to shorten it up, one day Don rolled a car and in an instant became a quadraplegic. I visited Don a couple of times while he was in the hospital learning how to live in a wheelchair. And by that, I mean everything from getting his body out of bed by himself to wiping his own ass. The amount of work it took to do the simplest thing was an incredible, and Don once said that he knew that it took a lot to become an airline pilot and that he was going to put that kind of work to becoming the best quadraplegic in the world. I’ll tell you this much about Don: He fucking jams a pen into his fist left balled up by his injuries and fucking hand writes his Christmas cards! Nobody does that. As you can probably tell, Don has become an inspiration to me. [At last report, Don was in Thailand. Chasing a woman. Amazing.]
Anyway, while I was visiting Don in his convalescent hospital, I also met a couple of guys who were learning how to live with their injuries. One of them was a young stud in his 20’s who had gone over his handlebars on a mountain bike and was left a paraplegic. The thing about these injuries is that not only do you have to deal with life in a chair, you also have to deal with life. It is as much a physical recovery as it is an emotional recovery. That kid had recently come to understand that he had had the last erection he was ever going to have. Put yourself back into your 20’s and try to let that one sink in.
So when I look at these videos, whether they’re professionally produced by Red Bull, or by some knucklehead with a GoPro and a YouTube account, I sometimes wonder how many injuries are left behind.