American Climber - Kickstarter Launched

After a decade of writing, and re-writing, my memoir, American Climber is finally complete. It is a 75,000 word tale about my life experiences with climbing—a sport that saved my life—coupled with reflections on the dirtbag climbing lifestyle.

The hard part—the writing—is done, and now the challenge is very simple: get the word out about my book. The best way any reader can help with that is by supporting the Kickstarter campaign. Rewards are affordable, starting at $10. An advance copy of the book is $25.

Thanks in advance for your support, and I hope you're living the dream.

Watch the video on Kickstarter. 

peace,
Luke

If These Walls Could Talk (a poem)

(note: this piece is part of a poetry collection in the works. it's been a while since I've written much poetry, but recently after meeting another climbing-poet I've been inspired.)

You could say the Joshua Trees

Planted all the seeds for the dreams

Unwilling to be the same

Unwilling to play the game

And isn’t that the way community should be?

Isn’t this the place they call the land of the free?

Just fucking close your eyes

And watch the sunrise

Just forget that this

World is full of shit

If these domes could speak

We would get a sneak peak

Of what it would have been like

To solo the walls with such balls

That a rope could be —

A forget me knot

And not just high balls

Climbing it all —

Like Michael Reardon

A light shining as bright

As his hair —

Blond and right on

Like a comet shooting through space

If these boulders could whisper

What would they deliver?

A four page letter about the better

Things in life: shared food, drink, and laughter

After all what the fuck else do you need?

Fucking?

Oh yeah, that too

But if these walls could talk

They’d prefer making love

Because there’s enough fucking fucking

Going on in this goddamn world

Yeah the love that has been made

That’s the shit

That’s the IT

That what make the J Trees

Get their swerve on

Leaning towards the infinite

If the Cyclops could talk

It might reminisce over you

And the thousands of others

That looked through its eye

And saw the light, the hope

If Course and Buggy could speak

It would teach

The way Peter Croft

Practiced his craft

And found the oneness

The Buddha would have been proud of

If these boulders could whisper

They would surely deliver

Stories of lovers like puzzles

Two pieces locked together

And rocked the boat

All night long

And then looked to the stars

For dessert

If Hidden Valley could rally

Back twenty years ago

To a young Dean Potter

And meet the necessity of his invention

Of his perplexing desire to fly

But of course the first man to fly, had to die

But that can’t stop the tears from my eye

Just like the first people to climb

On ropes made of twine and hemp

Ate up so much danger they either became

Full of fear or fearless

But less is more and its more likely

Their consciousness carried a touch of grey

So let’s take it there

While urban contemporaries

Write that the dirtbag is dead

On their apple computers

Made of precious metals

Here in J Tree there are ten and twenty

Women and men

Living out of bags

In the dirt

It’s that simple

The dirtbag is alive

If these walls could talk

They would tell us

No one ever complained

Back in the day

No one ever had the luxury

To hate the un-forgiveness

Of slabby granite mixed with sweat

After all it was all that existed

Before climbing went sport

Before climbing went plastic

J Tree just brings the truth to life

And some people don’t like

What they see when they look into

The reflection of direction

That a Joshua Tree points to

Some people don’t like it

That a Joshua Tree lives longer

Than they will

So that’s why we kill

But if we accept what the trees speak

We can write poetry til infinity

So who are we?

Are we hippie?

Are we hobo?

Beatnik or dirtbag?

We are in Cali

So we can be

All these

We can be

Whatever

We want to be

If this is the land of the free

If these domes

Let their minds roam

They would tell us to come home

Come home

Come back to that place

In your heart that is

The hardest to get to

Sometimes

Come back to the desert

Come back to the skeleton

Get away from four walls

And listen to the walls 

If you'd like to support Mehall's writing you can make a contribution here. 

My books, The Great American Dirtbags and Climbing Out of Bed are both available online, at the Zine site, and on Amazon. 

My third book, a memoir, American Climber will be published on April 11th.  

Two Front Teeth

who loves Colorado? This guy.

All Lucas wanted for Christmas was his two front teeth. At least that’s how the story goes. On Halloween, he was dressed up like a Storm Trooper from Star Wars, having a banner night at a local bar, and proudly showing off his costume that took months to make. Then, something happened, the kind of thing you never want to happen on your favorite night of the year: he got sucker punched right the middle of the face. The drunken attacker ran off, and before anyone had a chance to catch him, he disappeared into the night.

photo stolen from Lucas's Facebook page

            I found this information out a couple days after Halloween. The last couple years I’ve snuck away to the desert, I love Halloween and costumes and all the fun that comes along with it, but the bar scene isn’t really my thing anymore, so instead I prefer to party down under the light of the moon.

            I ran into Lucas at the grocery store shortly after finding out. I felt bad for him and I felt that awkward kind of guilt when bad things happen to good people. He didn’t have any replacement teeth yet so he spoke with a lisp. One of the first things he said after finding out I already knew what happened was, “I probably had a huge smile on my face when it happened.”

            That’s the kind of guy Lucas is. He finds the positive when the worst happens, always looking for the silver lining, even amidst a touch of grey. I’ve gotten to know Lucas well because he’s my co-worker. We work in a busy restaurant together. I’ve worked in the food industry now for twenty-one years, off-and-on, but mostly on. Something I’ve noticed is that you see someone’s true character when they are under stress. And, with Lucas he never fails to suck it up and get the job done, even when he’s running around like a chicken with his head cut off, like we often are at work. I’m always happy when we work the same days, because I know he always steps up to the plate and gives his best.

            Lucas and I also have the same name. Sometimes he goes by Lucas, and sometimes Luke, but he seems to prefer Luke. He told me when he started there he really wanted to go by Luke. But, I was already there, and my Mom named me Luke because she didn’t want me to go by and abbreviated name. So graciously he conceded and let me be the Luke. That’s the type of guy he is. Always thinking of others first.

            It didn’t take long for me to understand why Lucas was in Durango. He’d just graduated from CU in Boulder, and wanted to do the thing that many of us do in Durango — get a job in the service industry, buy some time to decide what’s next, and most importantly have time to get outside and recreate in this beautiful place. For him it’s skiing, fishing, and hunting. I don’t really do any of these activities, but I respect his passion, and I think all outdoor people can relate to each other. When he comes back from an adventure, telling me that he woke up at like three in the morning to hunt ducks, or fish, I’m always impressed by his dedication to his passion. Without passionate people, life isn’t worth living.

            In the meantime I’ve watched him become fully engaged in the culture of Durango. He loves each and every holiday that involves costumes, and spends countless hours constructing his own outfits, like the Storm Trooper one he sported for Halloween last year. But after getting his teeth knocked out Lucas started to lose faith in the community of Durango.

            My fellow co-workers all were concerned about his situation, especially after we learned that his expenses were totaling up to be thousands and thousands of dollars. I thought it would be cool to have a little poker night fundraiser. Lucas and I always talk about poker but we both rarely ever have the same night off, so we never get to play together. I told my boss, Cody, about this and he suggested we start a Go Fund Me campaign. I’d never started one, but the very next day after our conversation, Cody started the page, and tagged me in a post on Facebook. I shared it, and so did several other friends and co-workers. In the blink of an eye a thousand dollars had been raised. Then another. In a week it was already almost five thousand dollars!

            Then came the poker night. It was inspiring how many people wanted to help out. My friend and poker mentor Travis, who had never met Lucas, offered to help organize the event. We decided to make the night a surprise, and my bosses arranged for both of us to have the night off — a rarity considering we are both night managers. My other boss Mike, ended up working that night, and arranged for a pony keg and free food. His girlfriend told him they would be having a date night, and somehow, he never found out that we’d been secretly planning the evening.

            Everyone came over an hour before he was supposed to arrive. It was a cool and quirky mix of Durango folk: his friends and family (two of his cousins live here), our co-workers, my poker friends, and my climber friends. There were many people there that didn’t even know Lucas, but when they found out what happened quickly decided to come over and support the cause.

            His girlfriend Liz decided to blindfold him, and he watched as he hilariously walked across my icy driveway, and then up my stairs. When Liz took the blindfold off of him he was stunned. The first thing he said in a very endearing voice was, “You guys are ridiculous”, which was quickly followed by, “Wait, who is at work right now?”

            The poker game was epic, 15 some people playing into the wee hours of the night. During the break in the middle, Lucas told me about how he was losing faith in the community of Durango during this whole thing, but then all of that went away once the fundraiser started and people rallied to support him. Later he would tell me what a cool assortment of people showed up. I thought about that for a minute. I thought maybe it was his group of people, or maybe it was mine. But, then I realized that it was bigger than that — it is the community of Durango that is so awesome and supportive.

            Not to dismiss the problems we have — there’s more than one evil person running around committing acts of violence — and it’s not just violence, its drugs and homelessness and 99 other problems that ail of community and our larger society as a whole. But, if we are strong enough to support people when something bad happens, even people we don’t know, then that’s a start, and that’s the essence of community, a common unity.

If you'd like to support Mehall's writing you can make a contribution here. 

This piece is published in today's Durango Telegraph. 

My books, The Great American Dirtbags and Climbing Out of Bed are both available online, at the Zine site, and on Amazon. 

My third book, a memoir, American Climber will be published on April 11th.