[Music]
nice and awkward
this is this is the point of the
interview where we talked about the
meaning of life
it was the glory days i was a
prototypical
college student when health food stores
didn't lock their dumpsters and
living the endless summer just the most
wild and
and free time of life i've ever
experienced
as i was getting more and more into
climbing i realized
it wasn't just about climbing a hard
number grade
and it was more about going to these
far-off places
and to get there you had to interact
culturally
[Music]
i came across this study abroad program
in nepal
they put you in with families that
didn't speak english
my family lived about a 45-minute walk
outside
of where we were having our schooling
take place
and for a kid who is just getting into
rock climbing all you want to do is
climb and
to walk through a polluted city to get
to a language learning class where
you're sitting for five hours
for eight months it wasn't exactly
something that
fed my soul it was such a cultural shift
for me
but i had this feeling that it was an
investment in something that would
change the way that i
looked at climbing art and storytelling
[Music]
in really unexpected ways it's changed
everything that i've done since then
from storytelling
to the way that i climb and interact
[Applause]
eventually i met conrad anchor when
conrad found out that i spoke to paulie
and had that connection he invited me
to volunteer at the kumbu climbing
school
that same connection happened again and
again
like when dave and i went for the into
the mine film
we thought we were gonna go deep into
the mountains where instead
we ended up sitting in this dark sherpas
home karma searing an old friend had met
at the kumbu climbing school
and he took us in as we explored
creativity with our cameras
that became all these metaphorical
moments of
into the mind
[Music]
another one of the biggest examples for
me is this last honey hunter project
one of my friends on that study abroad
program is
the one who brought us that story in the
first place
[Music]
even my involvement with the north face
came from that
being able to go on some bigger
adventures with guys like conrad himself
now it's pretty much overtaken the
fabric of my life
[Music]
it's only now almost 20 years later that
i can
see how that shifted my perspective in
such a big way
snowstorm above 8 000 meters realizing
that
the more time you spend in these deep
pockets of humanity
rather than just charging forth into the
mountains like we're used to
the more it gives back to you and the
more that you can help share
these perspectives that a lot of people
don't get to see
even though we live in a society where
everything
seems to be an instant pleasure maybe do
something that's a little more
difficult right off the bat that sets
you up for
just a life exploring the topic in a way
that you normally
wouldn't have had the chance to do