…as addictive as something illegal that’s very addictive. Believe you me.

I first ran into this new flavor at the LOHAS conference, where we were giving out ecoposh ecoschwag ecobags full of ecogoodies to the ecowho’s ecowho  Read the rest

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Here’s the article. He doesn’t bike commute (also via canoe, even skateboard) because it’s healthy, Read the rest

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Within the first three hours of my first trip to Los Angeles, three stereotypes were confirmed: LA is huge (I drove for hours and hours with no end to the strip malls and freeways in sight). Everyone drives. And there’s a ton of pollution (it was tough to see mountains merely a mile away through the thick haze). 

But in no other city could I have found the breezy Getty Museum, free to the public, complete with a cactus garden perched on a cliff overlooking the valley. Or a band of frenzied Hare Krishnas spinning down the Venice Beach boardwalk. And more than once I turned a corner to find a mural plastered against the side of a strip mall. And yes, the sunsets were brilliant. 

Since I didn’t spend enough time in one neighborhood to really know anything about Los Angeles (I’ll leave that to a local), here’s the skinny on one specific place where I took a deep breath and ate a good meal. Real Food Daily, in Santa Monica. Read the rest

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Will the coming generation turn our toxic lawns & brown skies back to the way She intended ‘em to be? I sure hope so—we (that is, our planet and everyone on it) could sure use a shot in the arm. This Sunday’s New York Times put The Big Green Bus on the cover of their annual Education section—and did not one not two but three articles on the coming greeneration. 

  The Big Green Bus

“CO2 CONSCIOUS Six green buildings, including the sun-filled Goizueta Business School, helped make Emory one of the Princeton Review’s greenest campuses.” Photo: Tami Chappell for The New York Times.

EXCERPT: “‘Green is good for the planet, but also for a college’s public image. In a Princeton Review survey this year of 10,300 college applicants, 63 percent said that a college’s commitment to the environment could affect their decision to go there. Read the rest

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Many dedicated organizations build schools and provide medical care to people in rural parts of the world. But I have faith in the Tibetan Village Project more than any other, mostly because its founder—Tamdin Wangdu—grew up in a rural Tibetan village himself. The organization funds projects throughout the region, and runs “volun-tourism” trips to Tibet that benefit both travelers and local Tibetans.

Watch this video for more on their current projects.

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As my mom and I drove east out of Boulder on Highway 36, my view of the Flatirons faded, and I began to look forward to a windy stretch of I-40 east, between Knoxville and Asheville, that snakes through the blue, Great Smokey Mountains. After driving through Kansas (though I tried to remind myself of Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic) and lunch options of McDonalds versus Dairy Queen in rural Kentucky, to call pulling into downtown Asheville after some 1,500 miles a welcome relief, would be an understatement. I could have spent all day in this artists’ hub, but as the final destination (for now) was Charleston, SC, my mom and I only spent a couple of hours taking in the town.

First, we walked up Haywood St. to Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe, an independent gem where I picked up Annie Dillard’s new novel The Maytrees. Dillard has a restricted, yet descriptive mastery of the human language, and in particular, a virtuoso knack for detailing nature. We then had lunch at The Early Girl Eatery on Wall St. A mindful foodie haven of southern cooking, one could not go wrong ordering anything off the menu, with vegan, vegetarian, and local, farm raised meat options to choose from. We had the BLT with Fried Green Tomatoes, the vegan Carrot Ginger Soup of the Day, and the best homemade applesauce I have ever had. This was easily the highlight of the trip (though I wish that were saying more). Walking back to the car, we stopped by a street vendor, Products Unlimited, whose proprietor looked more like a college professor…or maybe my college professors looked more like street vendors? Situated on the corner of Wall St. and Battery Park, the small cart offered bright, colorful children’s clothes and Tagua miniatures, a cruelty-free plant alternative to Ivory, from Ecuador and Peru. All fair-trade, of course. I picked up the cutest little red, flower-embroidered dress for my adorable 8-month-old niece, Cecilia (that’s right, it’s Aunt Rachel).

Whether you have a day, a couple of days (hiking opportunities abound), or a couple of hours amidst a cross country, post-college road trip home, Asheville is a mindful place to spend some time.

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Among Mallorca’s fragrant almond groves, famed nightclubs and speedo-sporting Eurotourists, limestone cliffs rise from the sea like sentinels, their steep pockets beckoning to climbers the world over. Whether you know it as psicobloc, bouldering or deep water soloing, you’ve no doubt seen footage of ropeless climbers throwing for tufas twenty meters above the ocean. A fall means splashing into 80° water, drying off and trying again—from the bottom. Some call it traditional climbing in its purest form. Others call it a hell of a way to spend a few weeks.

Last season, a small group of climbers traveled to those sea cliffs to learn the intricacies of deep water soloing and to try, unrehearsed, some of the hardest—and most aesthetic—routes in the world. Now they’re bringing Perfecto, a Mike Call film starring Katie Brown, Ethan Pringle, Chuck Fryberger, Boone Speed and others, to a theater near you. Don’t miss it. Find a screening near you. 

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Watch it, buddy.

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A few months back, our hometown boys-made-good did a piece on Dean Potter, who we recently had the honor to interview on elevision. Here’s today’s link to their latest story for The New York Times.

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Nick Rosen’s a longtime pal who we’d be honored to count among our best elepalz–only he’s always jetsetting around the world working on climbing films, so we only ever very rarely see his scruffy wiseguy self.

A new movie–in which he’s the star–is all about yoga in today’s world, and the effect it can have even on a smokin’ drinkin’ cussin’ cy-nick. You’ll find us in line, buying our organic tamari popcorn and Sunshine Wheat with lemon at a elephantheater near you.

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Timothy Egan reminds us in a thoughtful and moving opinion piece in the New York Times. His article is a series of musings about climbing and mountaineering risks in the wake of two recent deaths on Denali, one on July 4th and another the following Monday.

My father spent summers in his 20s climbing and mountaineering in around Boulder. He and his father, my grandfather, were skilled mountaineers before Gore-tex was invented (They also used to ski in jeans. Some Texans still do, I might add). The summer I was 18, I lived in rural Thailand and taught English, but that was also the same summer my brother graduated from Dartmouth, so as a celebratory trip, he and my father backpacked in Wyoming and summited the Grand Teton. When someone asked my mom what she was doing while I was in South Asia and my father and my brother were roaming around Grand Teton National Park, she jokingly answered “sitting at home and taking Valium.” But in the that joke, there is an underscore of truth about risk and risk taking, even when there is risk assessment, not to mention skilled climbers and guides.

Perhaps I found Egan’s piece particularly moving because in 6 weeks I will be backpacking and mountaineering in the Himalayas with NOLS India. I am excited, but also a little nervous. I feel I follow in the footsteps of my father and his father; not literally, my father still hikes primarily in the Rockies, but in spirit. The same spirit that takes every climber first to the base of the peak and then, hopefully, the summit. And so while articles of climbing fatalities always send a cascading ripple of sadness and reflection through not only the climbing, but the non-climbing community, it also speaks to the inherent spirit in the sport that already recognizes our own mortality, and in acceptance of that, has chosen to live fully and in the moment.

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The most grounded guy on earth. Founder of Patagonia. Climber, surfer, fisherman…etc…a Gary Snyder-esque environmentalist, and a independent, successful businessman par excellence.

When I was a kid it was Magic Johnson, David Winfield, and George Washington (strangely) on posters on my wall. Okay, and the occasional Sports Illustrated ocean-eyed beauty. Now, it’s Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Robert Redford, Michael Pollan, Alice Waters, Malcolm Gladwell, Graham Hill and Yvon. Why? Like Paul Newman, with Newman’s Own, he took all the accumulated business wisdom and did things his way—the right way, the hard way. He measured twice and cut once. He pioneered organic cotton, pop bottles used for fleece, helped to found 1% for the Planet (hundreds of companies giving voluntary ‘earth tax’ to local eco non-profits).

And he did it all because that’s who he is—out of a visceral sort of inspiration, not the blinding, airy ideology that so many of us environmentalists/idealists fall into. Blah bla blah. Watch the video, see for yourself. 

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Here’s an excerpt from yesterday’s article in the Times that mentions ele:idol Shiva Rea re: Kripalu, the “largest retreat center in America.”

“To figure out who, or what, the next big thing will be, Kripalu programmers go on scouting trips, to professional conferences, to other retreat centers. They keep an ear out for cross-promotional opportunities.

“Shiva Rea” — a marquee yoga teacher — “will say, ‘That Simon Park, he’s really up and coming,’ and sure enough he is,” Ms. Barack said. “We want to catch them on the edge. By the time they hit our catalog, he’s going to be on the cover of Yoga Journal.”

Here’s the article.

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