Damn, I can get lazy. I got back from three weeks in Europe recently – Italy, Slovenia, Austria (and driving in Germany) – talking and climbing with some of Cerro Torre’s greatest climbers, and making a bunch of new friends. Great hospitality, and fascinating conversations. Got to climb with my old friend Rolando Garibotti, as well as Ermanno Salvaterra, Silvo Karo, David Lama, and Doerte Pietron. Heard thoughts and stories from the 1974 first ascent of Cerro Torre from Mario Conti (the only remaining living member from the climb; he and Casimiro Ferrari led the entire route). Also spent great time with Italian climbing historian and author-editor extraordinaire Mirella Tenderini, as well as Ragni di Lecco hardman and great guy Fabio Palma, mind-bending translator Luca Calvi (holy shit, fluent in 22 languages!), Elio Orlandi, Alessandro Beltrami and his family, and the legendary Heinz Mariacher. Had the pleasure of a day with Marko Prezelj and his family, during which Urban Novak joined us for some tasty talking (more on that to come). Even met and talked with Reinhold Messner himself (spoken like Bill Murray in Caddyshack, of course).
Whew, helluva trip. I took a shitton of notes. Have plans to write some posts about some of it. Have other posts in the works, too. If I can get my slack ass to finish ‘em.
Problem is, this combo of actually going climbing (though I’m far better at just talking about climbing), combined with my afore-mentioned laziness, infused with some writer’s block, and a touch more laziness, has conspired against me. I need some motivation.
We know what I think about motivational propaganda – here’s my take on New Years’ Resolutions, for example, and here’s an old rant about those stupid motivational posters.
But time changes. People change. I find myself making an about-face on teamwork-style posters, anyway. They’re kind of like motivational posters, because good communication can inspire and, shit, who knows, even motivate? I saw this poster in a building a couple of weeks ago. It said, “Winning Phrases.” In the spirit of teamwork, I made some minor tweaks — just turning them into real-world versions of regular workplace communication, really. Does this make me a champion?
Nothing like a little procrastination to help drum-up motivation. Maybe those posts I’m working on will magically finish themselves.
Click to enlarge.
Kelly Cordes 
Mirella Tenderini book on Gary Hemming is what one the best in
a big field of great books about big characters.
so I have to ask, Was she smoken?
two ‘motivational phrases’ that may be worth their weight in ink:
-(regarding the issue of getting started on things you don’t want to do, from some out-of-print “samurai life lessons” book, the title of which I can no longer find, and the exact quote I can’t find either…): when faced with some difficult or unpleasant task, like crossing a long and densely vegetated marshland (or writing some blog posts), just start the thing. the starting is the important part. “charge off vigorously into the marsh”. ok not really a good quote but i like the imagery.
-(this one’s more about working out/training – we’ll see if it passes your BS test…) from Steve Prefontaine: “The best race pace is a suicide pace and today is a good day to die.” a little nihilistic but it gets me ready to hurt sometimes…!