Monday, March 30, 2009

Video #18 "Island-Liners"



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Tickets are Made for Changing!



To give you an idea of the last ten days, just imagine a bunch of over caffeinated under slept, over stimulated monkeys in a whirlwind of slacklines, traffic, rock climbs and night life…now add a few video cameras, still cameras, and some crazy Brazilian characters to the mix and you are starting to get the picture!
Just getting still photographs can be a bit of an undertaking, but it’s nothing compared to Video which takes an incredible amount of coordination, collaboration, and sometimes coercion…not to mention a little good old fashioned luck and timing to pull off successfully. Major Props to Nic Rosen for simul-tasking the roles of director, producer, and videographer! He only pulled a few small tufts of hair out of his head in the process! Now that Renan and I are the last men standing, it’s time to let the dizzying head-spin come slowly to a stop.


A huge shout out to the Bintang crew, especially Hugo, Diogo, and Lucas aka “Jah” who have stepped up my definition of the word hospitality! These guys have opened up there homes, driven us all over the city, and generally been indispensable, and inspiring. So a huge Obrigado to the Brazilian Monkey Crew at Bintang who have made a potentially harrowing adventure in Rio, smooth and seamless.

So according to the original itinerary, Vertical Carnival would be over now and the post your are reading would be a whimsical goodbye, a philosophical and nostalgic look back on the good times, the bad times, and all our adventures, but Brazil is just too darn much fun for that…so Renan and I have extended our tickets! We just don’t want the good times to end, and in our ten days here in Brazil we have barely scratched the surface of Rio, let alone this massive country. So…Renan is staying for another week, and I am staying for nearly another month! I’ve always been of the philosophy that life is short and your trips should be long…so there you have it!

To everyone who has been following the blog, we hope you are enjoying our “labor of love,” and thanks for taking the time to surf our blog a bit. Renan and I have both spent some late nights obsessing, micro-editing and generally burning the candle at both ends to bring you these dispatches. It got to the point where most of our inside jokes involved “Final Cut” terminology! So, while it may seem like a quaint little hobby, each two-minute or less clip represents countless hours of work; from shooting, to editing to upload, and then repeat!! It’s bigwall and beach time!! I get to chill, and bring you a couple more dispatches at a slower pace…before I head home! Stay Tuned!

Lots of LOVE to everyone out there!!! Cedar Wright.


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Thursday, March 26, 2009

Video #17 "Urban Art Forms"

I have always loved Graffiti that goes beyond the visual pollution of mindless tags and enters the realm of Urban Art. One of the things that I have come to love about Rio is the endless supply of eye candy in the form of gorgeous installations of high quality street art.

After years of fighting against the growing prevalence of graffiti in Rio, the city designated certain areas “legal” for emerging graffiti artists to explore their craft.
A few days ago, we took a tour of some of the incredibly long murals that stretch along the walls of the Batofogo District. Entire blocks of this part of the city are covered in colorfully surreal art.. Everywhere you go around Rio, you will find all varieties of creative, vibrant, masterful art. From street posts, to circuit breakers boxes, to walls, to fire hydrant; in the world of graffiti the possibilities for a canvas are limited only by the imagination of the artist.
Driving, exploring the urban art scene, climbing, surfing, and even the nightlife is an adventure here in Rio! So…stay tuned for more dispatches as we explore the amazing climbing and highlining potential that abounds in this unique and diverse city.

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Brazil Black and Whites

Out of the cold of Patagonia and into the heat and humidity of Rio de Janeiro Brazil! Thankfully we have the knowledge of the Bintang crew to guide us as we learn to navigate the labyrinth of roads, trails, and beaches. This trully is one of the most dynamic urban environments I have seen. tk

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Saturday, March 21, 2009

Video #16 "Rio Craggin"

The whirlwind of Vertical Carnival continues to spin. The pace of the trip might best be characterized by the traffic that endlessly cycles through Rio, chaotic, fast paced, and seemingly never ending.


This is one of the most unusual settings I have ever climbed in; picture world class granite sprouting up in huge plugs throughout the city, with chunks of crazy jungle, and cactus sprouting out of the cliff. The climbing style is amazingly varied, from wild trad, to burly steep sport. Some of the most beautiful faces are littered with crystal intrusions and red and black streaks.

The people at the Bintang house especially Diogo, Hugo, and Lucas aka "Jah" have rolled out the red carpet for us, giving us a place to stay and driving us to the crags through the mind boggling maze that is the streets of Rio.

This dispatch gives you an idea of the wild climbing around the city, and features Lucas or "Jah" as he is better known. Jah is one of the coolest most psyched climbers I have ever met, and embodies the passion that we should all strive for in our lives. Hope you enjoy the dispatches...stay tuned for the Urban Art dispatch which will take you on a tour of the world class graffiti that is strewn across the city! Cheers and lots of love...Cedar Wright.

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Friday, March 20, 2009

Montanhistas californianos gravam no Brasil.





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Monday, March 16, 2009

Video #15 "High-Liners"


After a month of cold, snow, rain, and sitting and waiting for a weather window that embodied our time in Patagonia, the heat, humidity and non-stop action that has entailed our time in Rio since we touched down has certainly been a welcome juxtaposition. Fresh off the plane from Buenos Aires, we marched two hours with heavy loads straight uphill through the jungle to an amazing perch at the summit of the Gavea Stone, (translates as The Crows Nest) which offers 360 views of the city.

Our good friend Hugo had set up a mind numbingly exposed highline, and we were psyched and scared to give it a whirl. One similarity between the summit of the Gavea stone and Patagonia was the wind. That first day on the line was a total head-trip with high winds propelling clouds up from the city and then straight into the summit of the Gavea Stone. We were literally walking in the clouds, which made crossing the line next to impossible.
Renan and I got beat up big time, and hiking up for another round on day two, we both had strong doubts as to whether we were going to pull off successful crossings. The line had only seen one ascent by Hugo and repelled all other suitors so we were definitely psyched to break through and walk the line. But not before some more spine rattling, soul wrenching falls.
I walked in the traditional forward on the line style, but Renan side-stepped the entire line facing out towards the city. Renan has always been a side stepper, which is how he feels comfortable walking, but to watch him walk a line this way is horrifying. Each time he would have a bobble and nearly fall it looked as if he was going to do a back flip or front flip off the line!! Crazy!!
So since the line we’ve had some other wild climbing adventures here and gotten more footage for Sender Films, so stay tuned for more videos and writing. A final note about our short videos which we have been working very hard on is that a lot of the unusual “light tricks” you are seeing are not video filters, they are us playing around with mixing shots of car lights or streetlights reflected in the rain with action footage. We are also doing some fun stuff where we animate Kempy’s photos to give it a wild moving effect. Our aim is to create something truly unique, from my original music which scores most of the pieces including this one, to Renan’s artistic eye for editing we are combining our skills into something we hope you find fresh and exciting. Cheers from the field. Lots of Love. Cedar Wright.


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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

video #14 "Enter Rio"



WoooHoo! We’ve made it to Rio and couldn’t be more psyched. A little sun and beach time does wonders for the Soul and we are soaking up the Brazilian “tranquil” culture as much as we can, drinking Acai, stumbling through Portuguese and getting to know the amazing climbing community down here with some of the coolest characters you will ever meet. People like Hugo who spent the last six months living in Yosemite learning, California-bulgarian-climber English from Ivo Ninov! Hugo has been a star, showing us around, and setting up one of the coolest Highlines EVER. Stay tuned for the totally unreal Highline footage that we’ve captured! Lots of Love…Cedar Wright
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Video #13 "GoodBye Patagonia"



After a month in Patagonia it is time to say goodbye to the edge of the earth and head deeper into South America to Brazil. While we didn’t experience much clear weather we made the best out of the moments we had and climbed what we could when we could how we could. Our first ascent on Mochito was Burly, Steep and Classic, and definitely the hardest line on the cliff even if it was a bit of a consolation prize. Stanely’s wingsuit basejump of El Mocho was harrowing for us and cathartic for him. And finally Kempy and I harnessed the last of the good weather and waning group psyche to tag one final Summy; Raphael.
This dispatch brings us out of Patagonia and and back into the travel blur. Stay tuned for impressions of Rio…climbing and highlining. Cheers…Lots of Love…Cedar.

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Monday, March 9, 2009

Video #12 "The Final Summy"



The time has come to say farewell to Patagonia. Kempy and I did an epic push from the base of Raphael all the way back to town and braved darkness and knock you to the ground wind gusts to make it off the glacier. We knew we had a short twelve-hour window of good weather and so we climbed as fast as possible stressing the fact that moving slow meant getting hammered up high. Even though it is one of the smaller summits it was an amazing experience to stand on a spikey summit before we headed to Rio for warmer pastures. Lots of Love…Cedar Wright.
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Friday, March 6, 2009

Video #11 "Ghetto Birds"



Welcome to Dispatch 11 Ghetto Birds. After our burl-gnar first ascent on Mochito which entailed nearly every size of crack known to man in it's 900 feet of suffer ascending, Renan, and I were worked. Stanley had sat the adventure out, and packed up his base rig for his dream mission the next day...the first ever wingsuit of El Mocho for the third ever basejump in Patagonia that we know of. On a wing and a prayer, Stanley jumped off of El Mocho. He took off like a rocket and literally flew over us as we jammed with the Glacier Allstars on the glacier below. When his parachute opened he was whisked higher than his exit point by unwieldy Patagonian wind turbulence and for over ten minutes was cast adrift above the glacier...leaving us all rather gripped that he may never come down. When Stanley touched down safe and sound we were all very very relieved. What a bad ass stunt!!

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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Video #10 "A New Line"



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Sunday, March 1, 2009

Patagonia Black and Whites

We've learned to accept the idea that there is no bad weather... only weather, the idea of good or bad is purely a matter of personal perspective. The umbrella salesman for example would consider the rainiest days to be the best  --tk--

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