Big Adventures With Best Friends!!! By Cedar Wright

What a gifted life I lead. In just a few days I'll be heading down to South America on a North Face sponsored expedition with two of my best friends and climbing partners Sean "Stanley" Leary, and Renan Ozturk, to establish first ascents in Argentina and Brazil!!!

So on the front end...a little backstory...I first met Stanley at Humboldt State University where we were both going to school. He was an experienced, Yosemite-seasoned hardman, and I was an over eager, under informed gumby/knucklehead with more enthusiasm than knowhow! Stanley took me under his wing and filled my head with tales of "dirtbag" climbers who lived in the dirt in Yosemite and Joshua Tree and climbed year round. With Stanley's inspiration, soon after geting my BA, I moved into my truck, and while surviving on a few dollars a day, I pursued my climbing dreams full time. During this barebones climbing monk era of my life, I met Renan (also groveling in the dirt) in a campsite in Joshua Tree. We would go on to have first ascent and Alpine First Ascent Adventures in Canada, Alaska, and Pakistan together.

On board to capture the Journey on film are our good friends Peter Mortimer, and Nick Rosen from Sender Films, and legendary hustler and still photographer Tim "Kempy" Kemple, who in 2007 had the "pleasure" of joining Renan and I in Pakistan to photograph our misadventures. So...no angle will be left uncovered.

Perhaps the most important mission of our trip, beyond the hedonistic pursuit of first ascents, is to bring memory and honor to our good Brazilian Friend Roberta Nunez who passed away in a tragic automobile accident in 2006. She was a fixture and a force on the Patagonian climbing scene and at one time voiced her desire to Stanley to have her ashes spread in this alpine wonderland that she loved so much.

Life is a wonderful and mysterious gift, that we should all live as fully and richly as possible. That's what Vertical Carnival is about, celebrating life, climbing, and adventure to it's fullest while we are still here. If losing a vibrant soul like Roberta not to mention several other close friends (Jose, Erica) has taught me one thing, it's to be grateful for this beautiful world and get after it while I you still can...so that's what we are going to do. Stay tuned for more video and text blogs from the field when we touch town in Argentina.

Cheers, and lots of Love. Cedar Wright.