A friend just brought a steaming thermos of salt and butter tea into the office, and the greasy brew warms me a bit as it goes down. But the tea is quickly cold in the frigid office. It’s noon and I haven’t removed my down jacket today, and nor do I expect to.

It’s not that Kathmandu is all that cold, it’s a balmy 43 degrees outside right now and this is about as cold as it ever gets here. But, the complete lack of indoor heat seems to drop the temperature another ten degrees at least.

Happy New Year! It has been a very happy new year in Chamonix, France. We have skied blower powder for the past week! All of the ski areas are open, and we are even able to ski from the top of the Aiguille du Midi right now. It looks like it will be a great year. Check out our recent videos at http://www.steepskiingcamps.com/SSCW/Video.html

It’s the holiday season and I find myself, yet again, vowing to be a more regular contributor to my blog in the coming year. It’s not that the outcry from my seven readers has been terribly deafening, but rather that sitting down to write is a very cathartic and healthy thing for me.

There is a strange sense of order in the domestic terminal of the Kathmandu airport -- some common logic among the whirlpool of people and goods that constantly shuffle across the open and dirty warehouse. There are untold numbers of young Nepalis in western dress, raisin-faced old women laden with gold earrings and elaborate saris, and always a few of foreigners usually looking a bit bewildered. The airport possesses a kind of beauty that somehow, indescribably, makes sense. But this is lost to the untrained Western eye.

Rocklands, South Africa
Summer 2009
Kevin Jorgeson

Once again, the snow has started to fly here in Crested Butte and I am anxiously awaiting ski season. Fall is spent gearing up or winter in my world. This consists of organizing my Ultimate Groove events all over the world. Stay tuned to www.ultimategrooves.com for a full schedule of events. In 2010 we will be hosting events at Crystal Mountain, WA and HooDoo, Oregon, (outside Bend), as well as Sugar Bowl in Tahoe, CA and back east at Sunapee, NH and Jay Peak , VT.

The lantern going on is harsh for our 3:00 a.m. wake up call at 11,600 feet on the Lower Saddle of the Grand Teton. Bodies bumble about the Exum hut trying to choke down some food, get harnesses on and out the door by 4:00. We’ll scramble for an hour and a half on 3rd and 4th class terrain before the sun hits the Middle Teton and the rest of the world begins to wake up in the valley below.

I still don’t understand the appendix, even though I’ve had the privilege of looking at mine – all pink and red and limp in a glass vial - while recovering from the surgery in a Kathmandu hospital. It seems to me to be like a roulette wheel, or some organ of chance whose function is simply to cause some of us sudden and intense pain in the lower right-hand quadrant of the abdomen, followed closely by a trip to the hospital and hopefully, speedy removal.

It’s been a while and a pile of frequent flyer miles since typhoid. I’m back Stateside for the summer and, finally, feel strong again. It’s been good to be here, to feel the grass beneath my toes, to take a few moments and try to put all of the contradictions aside and focus upon the sun sliding down behind the maple trees.

All of the immediate goodness of America, infinite like yellow lines on the interstate. I’m always amazed at how our culture can encompass so many things that are simultaneously so arbitrary, yet so essential.

THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2009

Kumite

Kumite is, from what I understand, sparring ones adversary. A great name for a great problem. Check out the video here: Kumite - http://www.kevinjorgeson.com/Japan/Kumite  

Enjoy!
 
KJ