Taking the day off to climb some red rock and soak up some Colorado sunshine at 5Point Film Festival.

I’m thankful everyday for the wonderful group of people I get to work with. It seems that even on the busiest day, someone will pop out of nowhere with a quick email, message or phone call that reminds me to stop, breathe and be incredibly grateful for the work that I’m doing. Over the last month, I’ve teamed up with a few more friends and I’m excited about what we’ve tackled so far and what is yet to come. So big thanks to…

5Point Film Festival. I’d never been to 5Point Film Festival before last year. The road to and from the festival was paved with craziness, but while we were in Carbondale, I remember feeling a sense of community that I’d never felt at a festival before. We weren’t running around, having rushed conversations and trying to eek our way into the films we wanted to see. We had the days off to hang out with good folks, climb up some red rock and soak up some sweet Colorado sun, and then we all gathered into the same room and watched the same films, together. Afterward, we all shared cold brews and talked about what we had seen and experienced. It was awesome. And I was hooked.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all kumbaya and holding hands. There was plenty of debauchery, hot tubs and fireworks to balance it all out. As I’m working with the 5Point team to get ready for this year’s festival, I’m already excited for what’s in store. Justin Clifton, you’re going to kill it. Jake Marty, you better show me those dance moves. Jenny Nichols and Andy Maser, you’re going to Wild Love all over that place. Sarah Kuck, you’re never going to know what hit you.

The White Salmon River erupting through Condit Dam, free for the first time in a century. Photo © Andy Maser

American Rivers. Have I told you how much I love free-flowing rivers? How about explosive dam removal? Oh, and what about bulldozers knocking chunks of concrete out of the river’s way? I started my career with a river nonprofit up in Bellingham, Washington and have spent most of the last decade advocating for free-flowing rivers and wild salmon in one way or another. But I’m not going to lie, I burned out. I burned out big time. I was exhausted from working on a tough campaign and feeling like I was constantly banging my head against the damn concrete dams we were trying to remove on the lower Snake River.

But then something happened. I was in a room with a bunch of rad folks at the Patagonia Tools Conference with a friend from American Whitewater on the weekend that crews cut the first notches into Elwha and Glines Canyon dams on the Elwha River. I felt something. I felt like I was going to scream and shout and start crying. And then a month later while I was packed under a tent with hundreds of people and watched crews blast a hole in the base of Condit Dam. As soon as the White Salmon River erupted through that dam, I lost it. I screamed, I shouted and cried. I hugged everyone in sight. I was no longer burned out. I was fired up. 

Thanks American Rivers. I’m excited to be a part of this incredible fight. Want to fight? Do it here.

Jake Norton, renowned climber, guide and founder of Challenge21: Water For People, One Peak at a Time

Challenge21. I first met Jake Norton and Wende Valentine at Mountainfilm last year. But I first got to know them last August when they opened their home to Andy Maser, Jenny Nichols and me for our very first Wild Love interview. I was amazed by their generosity, their mindfulness and I was completely in awe at their ability to juggle two more than full-time careers, two adorable and very energetic children and still be completely in love with each other.

What’s even more amazing? They had recently kicked off a campaign called Challenge21. Jake, a renowned climber and guide, is aiming to be the first climber to complete the Triple Seven Summits – the three highest peaks on each continent – to help combat the world’s most pressing development needs: water and sanitation. His goal is to raise $2.1 million for the Denver-based non-profit Water For People and engage and impassion 2.1 million people in the global water and sanitation crisis. Wende works with Water For People and she and Jake dreamed this campaign up together. Climbing the Triple Seven Summits sounds impossible and kind of crazy, but the really crazy part is this statistic: unsafe water and sheer lack of sanitation in the developing world kills one child under the age of five every 30 seconds. A fact that drives Jake and Wende to tackle this problem each and every day.

Do your part to help here.

Thank you, and happy Friday!

“Replace fear of the unknown with curiosity.”

If you’ve clicked around online, you’ve surely stumbled across this image or others like it with the simple, profound phrase: replace fear of the unknown with curiosity. When I first saw it, I printed it out and it’s tacked onto the board above my desk. So is this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt:

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” 

I have these notes and countless others like them surrounding my work space and scribbled into the pages of my journals and notebooks. I’ve been thinking a lot about fear over the last few weeks. Solitude on a sailboat in the Sea of Cortez definitely frees the brain to tackle obstacles that have been buried for months.

I was on the boat with kick-ass filmmaker Andy Maser, a man who is incredibly talented at replacing any fear he may have with curiosity. It’s always fun to watch the wheels turning in another person’s brain… One day we woke up to a large pod of dolphins in a feeding frenzy a few hundred yards from where we were anchored. They were leaping into the air, diving and rounding up what I can only assume was a gigantic school of delicious fish. The dolphins were psyched and so were the dozens of pelicans, seagulls and Friggit birds that were swooping in for a taste of the feast. Andy had barely rubbed the sleep from his eyes when he started pulling on his wetsuit and busting out his camera gear. Before I knew it, he and our good friend Hayden had leapt into the dingy and were racing for the dolphins. Now, I consider myself an adventurous person, but I wasn’t too keen on leaping from my sleeping bag into the open ocean with a pod of very hungry dolphins, especially when I hadn’t even had a first cup of coffee. But I admired the overpowering curiosity that drove those two into the sea of swarming dolphins.

Since I’ve returned to Portland I’ve learned that a couple of my friends rung in the new year on a flying trapeze… what is it like to fly through the air with the greatest of ease? And my friend Ethan Smith (a fabulous designer, mind you) posted this wonderful little video from Skillshare…

The Future Belongs to the Curious from Skillshare on Vimeo.

via Skillshare:

Curiosity.

We’re all born with it. Albert Einstein dubbed it “holy,” Alistair Cooke called it “free-wheeling intelligence.” It’s that piquing force that nudges us to try it again, explore it some more, poke at it, question it and turn it inside out. From the moment we open our eyes, it fuels our existence. With each new answer we find, our world expands and our passions grow.

And lastly, my dog Woody made me think more about curiosity on our walk today. He is one of the most curious creatures I’ve ever known and perhaps one of the most fearless. I spent our jaunt quietly watching him sniff trees and stop to stare intensely at a squirrel swinging from a branch… what if I was that curious? That intensely aware of my surroundings? I swear he teaches me so much about being a better, more patient, more adventurous and curious human every day.

As I get ready to shut down my computer this Friday, I’m thinking about fear and curiosity. Running my own business has been an adventure, it’s been incredibly rewarding and incredibly scary, but today as I think about the year ahead, I’m replacing any fear I have of the unknown path ahead with curiosity. Cheers to the every day adventures.

Happy Friday!

Whether you’re on the hunt for solace and some face time with nature or planning a dinner with friends, cheers to finding just what you need this weekend.

Happy Friday!

]]> http://undersolenmedia.com/blog/friday-faves/friday-faves-finding-just-what-you-need/feed/ 0 http://undersolenmedia.com/blog/friday-faves/friday-faves-mashups-free-flowing-rivers-dancing-wild-places-really-good-friends/ http://undersolenmedia.com/blog/friday-faves/friday-faves-mashups-free-flowing-rivers-dancing-wild-places-really-good-friends/#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2011 22:28:14 +0000 Emily http://undersolenmedia.com/?p=2930 We’ve been shooting out and catching a lot of love this week, so we’re going to go ahead and shout it out loud…

• Anna Brones. You get big high fives for quite a few reasons this week, but especially for becoming my go-to music maven, especially for mashups like this, and this… and this.
• Jenny Nichols. Umm… Wild Love is hitting full steam because of you, hot stuff. So excited to be working with this incredible + creative lady.
• American Rivers. I talk about free-flowing rivers a lot. That’s because I love them, and I get to work with inspiring world changers like the folks at AR.
• Save Our Wild Salmon. Keep on fighting.
• Andy Maser. Thank you.
• ‎”How much of your own heart would you protect?” — Dr. Sylvia Earle when talking about the ocean. Keep up the fabulous work, iLCP.
• Rachel Meyer, Amber Valenti, Molly Downey + Meagan Nuchols. There are no words. You rock.
• Big ups to Gareth, Sam, Courtney, Jeff and the entire Osprey Packs family.
• Justin Clifton. 5Point is going to be amazing. And thank you for posting this video today… gives us all something to aspire to.

Happy Friday!

“If I can only scrape a living, at least it will be a living worth scraping.”

I was fortunate to meet Mickey Smith this spring when he traveled to 5Point Film Festival with his beautiful film Darkside of the Lens. He’s charming, humble, creative and passionate. And amazingly forgiving.

Several of us — you know who you are — decided to get rowdy until 5 a.m. Mickey, jet-lagged and exhausted made his escape, but couldn’t sleep because we were making such a ruckus. So he dragged his blanket into the bathroom and slept in the bathtub. In the morning, instead of being angry, he laughed out loud and called us “legends”. That still might be one of the best compliments I’ve ever received.

“Something I learned from a young age is to arm myself with a grin… letting laughter all at once be my disarmer and my deflector shield for the shit that gets thrown your way.” Apparently, grins and laughter are good to get you through sleepless nights with hooligans as well.

Mickey, we’re quite sure you’re a legend as well. Do yourself a favor: take 20 minutes this morning to watch this film and steep yourself in some of the wisdom that Mickey has to offer.

• Do arm yourself with a grin.
• Do embrace being out of control.
• Do let your weirdness flow free. Go mad and be yourself.
• Do trust in the things you love.
• Do get primal with nature.
• Trust your instincts and run with them always.
• Do use your fears and failures as fuel.
• Do what you love for a living. But be wise with it.

National Geographic has announced it’s annual Adventurers of the Year and we’re psyched to see some familiar faces in the mix. 

For seven years, National Geographic has combed the globe to find Adventurers of the Year, each selected for his or her extraordinary achievement in exploration, conservation, and adventure sports. This year, in partnership with Glenfiddich, we selected men and women who are pioneering innovation in the world of adventure-by reinventing distance hiking on the Appalachian Trail, launching a backyard microadventure movement, skiing the Andes under human power, and much more. 

Here we present our 2012 Adventurers of the Year. Check them out, then vote every day for your favorite in the People’s Choice Award.

Congratulations! And kudos to Fitz Cahall for pulling together the stories so beautifully.

Here’s to all of your explorers out there. Whether you find adventure in your own backyard, or in the far-reaches of the globe, we’re grateful to have people like you continually stoking our collective fire and pushing the limit to bring incredible stories home. We’ll leave you with this wonderful and well-known quote from Steve Jobs…

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status-quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Happy Friday!

Image via. And thanks to Jen Woodward who passed it along to us.

Nothing quite like a shot of Scandinavia to get the wanderlust pumping… it just took one look at the Adventure Journal’s Weekend Cabin post this week to have me dreaming of wool sweaters, a raging fire and hot Glögg nestled in my palms. Luckily, this cold, crisp Portland weather is the perfect setting to allow me to stoke my daydream along with the fire. That is until I can make a trip to the north.

And if you want to continue your daydream, just take a few moments to watch this… perfect, chance encounter with a wonder of nature.

Happy Friday!

PHOTO via Adventure Journal, Photographer: Pasi Aalto

Just moments after the blast, and after I tackled American Rivers' Amy Souers Kober in excitement. Courtesy Klean Kanteen

There are no words to describe how freaking awesome it was to witness the White Salmon River erupt through Condit Dam on Wednesday, so just watch the video here via Andy Maser and National Geographic and CELEBRATE! Powerful, powerful stuff.

PHOTO via Klean Kanteen’s FB page. Thanks for your support!

Running this hills of Orange County this morning, I found myself thinking about Under Solen’s concepts and visions around social media and marketing.  The more I thought about how we work with our clients and with ourselves, the more the idea of diversity kept hitting me in the  head, much like the heavy drops of water that fell from this morning’s fog.

Our concept of social media and marketing is rich in that it’s different for each client that we work with. In order for us rock out a promotion, campaign or to help build brand awareness for the people that we work with, we have to be open to their needs, we have to lend a listening ear to their visions and we have to come into each relationship without judgment.  From this pure space, we are able to create a road map that lends guidance to each client that is utterly unique to their needs, thus celebrating their diverse offering to the world.

We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams. — Jimmy Carter

I love this quote by Carter because it encapsulates why Emily and I love being a part of Under Solen… because it allows us to walk many different paths with the brands and nonprofits that we get to work with. Our role teaches us to communicate with the engineers at Innate Gear or the fish lovers at Save Our Wild Salmon, to trade bike stories with Jeff Fox at Osprey Packs and to celebrate tearing down dams with movers and shakers like Andy Maser, even if these languages may not be our first.

I have no idea where or how Under Solen may expand over the next few years, but what I do know is that if we didn’t or don’t celebrate diversity in our roles, our brand would be nothing. This diversity pushes us to think outside of the box, thus keeping us ahead of the game.

So thanks for reading my running thoughts this morning and a happy weekend to you all!

IMAGE via