From Ron Kauk, Executive Director: I took this picture a few weeks ago from one of my favorite climbing areas in Yosemite, an area known as “the Cookie.” I had just finished a nice climb, feeling relaxed and at peace with the world. I could see the cliff on the other side of the valley, where I also climbed in the past on these amazing granite sculptures created by nature. They are intense climbs, and great teachers. They are also beautiful works of art. But as I sit and contemplate the granite, I also notice the scent of the bay leaves, I feel the wind, and I hear the river. What are they saying to me? The river is pretty quiet at this time of the year, but definitely a presence. The water helped create this beautiful environment. The water also flows down the valley, and later into reservoirs and eventually becomes the source of life further downstream. What an amazingly beautiful place this is. We launched Sacred Rok to share these appreciations, and created this website to help us accomplish our mission. Please help us by sharing our message with your like-minded friends. Each month, we will send you a special picture and some insights.
From Nancy Goodban, Board Chair: Welcome to our first Sacred Rok newsletter! We are a small new nonprofit whose mission is to support youth in nature, helping youth to learn to respect nature and through that, to respect themselves. We believe in education nature’s way – learning to sit under a tree, or to sit on a rock by the river. Please explore our website and let us know what you think.
Our big news — we are excited that we received our nonprofit status in October 2009! You can make a tax deductible donation through PayPal on the “Get Involved” page of our website. And we are doubly excited that we now have a website, with much thanks to Katie Lambert for getting us started and to David Ricardo for the layout and design.
One of our key activities is to take teenagers on day trips or camping trips to Yosemite National Park and to help them to discover nature. We have trips planned in the spring and summer both with Merced County foster youth, and also with youth from the Merced County Probation Department. We will be camping in Yosemite Valley during May and June, and in Tuolumne Meadows in July and August.
From Kenji Hakuta on his climbing project with Ron Kauk: Today, I’m working on a climbing project with Ron Kauk. That sounds like a ridiculous idea for someone like me, a Stanford professor who came to climbing late in life and can barely make it up a rock of moderate difficulty. Ron is known as a rock climber for whom it is a way of life. Working on a climbing project with Ron Kauk? That may sound so strange. But we are pushing the edge of our collaboration on our climbing project.
We are at the “Ranger Rock” area in Yosemite Valley, an area that is usually very busy with beginner climbers, but right now, we are the only ones there. There is a bit of a chill, it being towards the end of a winter day. It is so quiet, an occasional bird. This is the area where some of the first classic climbs in Yosemite were made using just natural protection placed in the cracks on the rock, no scars made by pitons and hammer. These climbs are easy by modern standards, even by my humble climbing skills, but this is where Ron and I have chosen to extend our project.
“I’m going to think about my breathing,” he declares as he puts his hand to the rock as though to connect with its energy. This evokes the memory of something that Ron said to me a few years ago when I ran into him in the parking lot of the Tioga Pass Resort. I asked him what sorts of projects he was working on. “I’m working on my breathing” he replied, which took me by a bit of surprise because I was expecting him to tell me about some radically difficult climbing project. He gave me a copy of his newly released DVD, “Return to Balance” which explained so much about what he is about as a climber, and why I thought that we could collaborate on a climbing project of another kind.
Our project is not about climbing difficulty, it is about simplicity and the appreciation of the activity. Which is why we are on beginner’s rock, simple as can be. Ron has been up it hundreds of times during his time as a climbing guide and knows just about every inch of its surface. I have been up it three times during the learning phases of my climbing. But from our perspectives, we see the same value of the climb. It is not about the difficulty, but about opening up ourselves to the most fundamental aspects of our own being.
Focus on breathing gets us connected to the other basic things that we do as humans. We see, we hear, we sense, we move. As Ron starts the climb, smoothly working his feet and hands along a pair of beautiful cracks in the granite, he is doing all of these things, and reflecting on the beauty of simplicity. We are all beginners in the art of reflection, and have to learn to respect and relate to what our actions are telling us. When we take a photo, we are learning to see. When we climb a rock, we are learning to breathe and to walk.
When Ron gets to the top of the first pitch, I put on my shoes and get myself ready to follow, safely tied into the rope. I feel perfectly calm, and follow my instructions to focus on my breathing. The breathing guides my search for the right sequence of hand and foot placements, nothing feels forced, I hardly sense that I am moving upwards. The peaceful space thus created enables me to appreciate the geological circumstances of my climb. What a beautiful rock we are on, whose beginnings were created by forces deep down in earth that pushed the rocks to the surface, and then whose cracks, bumps, and patterns were further shaped and polished by glaciers, water, and the sun over hundreds of millions of years. As temporary visitors to this rock which transcends human existence, I say my thanks, and keep breathing.
When I get to the belay, Ron is smiling, and asks how my breathing went. I am relaxed. We look to the east of the valley where we can see North Dome and Washington’s Column to the left, and Cloud’s Rest in the high Sierras in the distance. It is an astonishing view when you think about it, and even Ron who has been up at this belay spot hundreds of times is appreciative, and takes some pictures. He has sat here numerous times in his role as a mountain guide, taking many people up what was probably their first-time climbing experience. A scrawny, spindly manzanita bush catches our attention, and we talk about its existence. It is a “clock of nature”, he says.
Here are some of Ron’s thoughts from Ranger Rock.
We go up three more pitches of climbing led by our breathing, surrounded by beauty. The sun is getting low and casts a scattered cool glow through the hazy clouds, creating a silhouette of Cathedral Rock.
“The rock is a mirror of ourselves,” Ron says. When we climb it, we see ourselves, which is why we need to pay attention to how we breathe. If we feel balanced, we climb unforced, rhythmically, with balance. If we climb respectfully to the rock, it helps us be respectful to ourselves and others. The rock has so much to tell us about who we are.
I think about the fact that so many people from so many places have been here. Yosemite attracts people from all over the world, and climbers new and old have been at this spot. What has gone through their minds as they climbed? What brought them here, and what have they learned? How can the experiences of appreciating the simplicity of nature, and the simplicity of our existence within it, lead to a better education? Especially important to consider is how these insights can help youth who are most likely to end up in trouble within our formal society.
These are the kinds of questions that define our climbing project. Ron and I took radically different paths to a point of accomplishment in our respective careers – his was rock climbing, mine was formal education. The afternoon on Ranger Rock is part of our on-going experiment to see how we can combine our experiences, skills and credentials to bring balance to the possibilities of education nature’s way.
Also see Ron’s audio dispatch on Patagonia’s blog “The Cleanest Line”
Newsletter 1 January 20th 2010
January 2010 -
From Nancy Goodban, Board Chair: Welcome to our first Sacred Rok newsletter! We are a small new nonprofit whose mission is to support youth in nature, helping youth to learn to respect nature and through that, to respect themselves. We believe in education nature’s way – learning to sit under a tree, or to sit on a rock by the river. Please explore our website and let us know what you think.
Our big news — we are excited that we received our nonprofit status in October 2009! You can make a tax deductible donation through PayPal on the “Get Involved” page of our website. And we are doubly excited that we now have a website, with much thanks to Katie Lambert for getting us started and to David Ricardo for the layout and design.
One of our key activities is to take teenagers on day trips or camping trips to Yosemite National Park and to help them to discover nature. We have trips planned in the spring and summer both with Merced County foster youth, and also with youth from the Merced County Probation Department. We will be camping in Yosemite Valley during May and June, and in Tuolumne Meadows in July and August.
From Kenji Hakuta on his climbing project with Ron Kauk: Today, I’m working on a climbing project with Ron Kauk. That sounds like a ridiculous idea for someone like me, a Stanford professor who came to climbing late in life and can barely make it up a rock of moderate difficulty. Ron is known as a rock climber for whom it is a way of life. Working on a climbing project with Ron Kauk? That may sound so strange. But we are pushing the edge of our collaboration on our climbing project.
“I’m going to think about my breathing,” he declares as he puts his hand to the rock as though to connect with its energy. This evokes the memory of something that Ron said to me a few years ago when I ran into him in the parking lot of the Tioga Pass Resort. I asked him what sorts of projects he was working on. “I’m working on my breathing” he replied, which took me by a bit of surprise because I was expecting him to tell me about some radically difficult climbing project. He gave me a copy of his newly released DVD, “Return to Balance” which explained so much about what he is about as a climber, and why I thought that we could collaborate on a climbing project of another kind.
Focus on breathing gets us connected to the other basic things that we do as humans. We see, we hear, we sense, we move. As Ron starts the climb, smoothly working his feet and hands along a pair of beautiful cracks in the granite, he is doing all of these things, and reflecting on the beauty of simplicity. We are all beginners in the art of reflection, and have to learn to respect and relate to what our actions are telling us. When we take a photo, we are learning to see. When we climb a rock, we are learning to breathe and to walk.
When Ron gets to the top of the first pitch, I put on my shoes and get myself ready to follow, safely tied into the rope. I feel perfectly calm, and follow my instructions to focus on my breathing. The breathing guides my search for the right sequence of hand and foot placements, nothing feels forced, I hardly sense that I am moving upwards. The peaceful space thus created enables me to appreciate the geological circumstances of my climb. What a beautiful rock we are on, whose beginnings were created by forces deep down in earth that pushed the rocks to the surface, and then whose cracks, bumps, and patterns were further shaped and polished by glaciers, water, and the sun over hundreds of millions of years. As temporary visitors to this rock which transcends human existence, I say my thanks, and keep breathing.
When I get to the belay, Ron is smiling, and asks how my breathing went. I am relaxed. We look to the east of the valley where we can see North Dome and Washington’s Column to the left, and Cloud’s Rest in the high Sierras in the distance. It is an astonishing view when you think about it, and even Ron who has been up at this belay spot hundreds of times is appreciative, and takes some pictures. He has sat here numerous times in his role as a mountain guide, taking many people up what was probably their first-time climbing experience. A scrawny, spindly manzanita bush catches our attention, and we talk about its existence. It is a “clock of nature”, he says.
Here are some of Ron’s thoughts from Ranger Rock.
We go up three more pitches of climbing led by our breathing, surrounded by beauty. The sun is getting low and casts a scattered cool glow through the hazy clouds, creating a silhouette of Cathedral Rock.
“The rock is a mirror of ourselves,” Ron says. When we climb it, we see ourselves, which is why we need to pay attention to how we breathe. If we feel balanced, we climb unforced, rhythmically, with balance. If we climb respectfully to the rock, it helps us be respectful to ourselves and others. The rock has so much to tell us about who we are.
I think about the fact that so many people from so many places have been here. Yosemite attracts people from all over the world, and climbers new and old have been at this spot. What has gone through their minds as they climbed? What brought them here, and what have they learned? How can the experiences of appreciating the simplicity of nature, and the simplicity of our existence within it, lead to a better education? Especially important to consider is how these insights can help youth who are most likely to end up in trouble within our formal society.
These are the kinds of questions that define our climbing project. Ron and I took radically different paths to a point of accomplishment in our respective careers – his was rock climbing, mine was formal education. The afternoon on Ranger Rock is part of our on-going experiment to see how we can combine our experiences, skills and credentials to bring balance to the possibilities of education nature’s way.
Also see Ron’s audio dispatch on Patagonia’s blog “The Cleanest Line”