About me

me



Claire MacLeodThanks for coming to have a look at my site. I’m Dave, I’m a climber from Scotland and I live in Letterfinlay in the Scottish highlands with my wife Claire and my cat Puss Puss. This is my blog about my climbing, my life and my work. My work these days is climbing, writing, coaching, lecturing and making films.I started climbing when I was 15 and climbed most of the hard rock and winter climbs in Scotland. For the last decade I’ve been making first ascents of as hard routes as possible in most climbing disciplines but especially trad, bouldering, sport climbing and winter climbing. My route Rhapsody was the first E11 graded climb in the world. My hardest climbs, Echo Wall (E11) and Anubis (XII) could be among the hardest summer and winter trad climbs in the world. I’ve also climbed 9a in sport climbing, V13/14 in bouldering and onsighted E7.People in the wider world of climbing tend to hear about my climbing through the well known films E11 or Echo Wall or my book 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes.

The Last Messy Place

Well, I've done it. I've gotten rid of ALL superfluous papers in the house. All that's left to organize is my writing desk. And that'll be fun.
I feel like such a weight has been lifted off me. I hate paper clutter with a vengeance. We get so much junk mail. It seems that I'm on everybody's mailing list for catalogs and religious fundraising. I'm thinking about not opening the letters and marking RETURN TO SENDER on the outside of the envelopes. Would that take care of the problem, do you think?
Now I can start on some of my big projects, but first I had to get through the slog of paper. I've spent the last two weeks making schedules and planning Darcie's schoolwork. I'm almost finished with that, and then I can begin painting the kitchen.
Every ten years I repaint the kitchen. When we built the house the kitchen walls were white with green trim. After ten years, I painted the trim blue. Another ten years have gone by, and I've decided to paint the walls yellow and the trim white. I painted one wall and have been living with it for about two months. I don't like it. I don't know what I'm going to do now. I'm thinking about going back to white walls and paint the trim white, too; or maybe light blue.
My kitchen is a combination 1920's-1940's kitchen. I think I need to go to the library and look at books with vintage kitchens. I need inspiration. When I see it, I'll know it.

Creativity

Me attempting to watercolor at the John C. Campbell Folk School, and the week long results of the class. Mine are at the lower right hand corner.

To be artistically creative and to enter into the creativity of others is to exercise the image of God in one's self.

Aurora Avenue

Last night before going to bed, I looked at the spaceweather.com website just in case there were any reports of aurora activity. As luck would have it, an interplanetary shockwave had just arrived and was sparking aurora activity. The source of the shockwave was unknown, but researchers say it could have originated in a transition zone between high and low speed solar wind streams. The shockwave ended up generating nearly 15 hours of geomagnetic storming. I took this photo directly in front of our house at 11:30 PM. Just minutes after making this photo the clouds moved in and almost completely obscured the view of the lights. I spent the next 4 hours searching for openings in the clouds and ended up finding a few here and there.

Playing Catch-Up

It was a wet, drizzly and muddy day today - what better way to celebrate the muck than to invite a new pal into the arena: 7 month old MacKenzie, a red/yellow lab who Avalon adored!
And here's a movie
of my sis and I playin' with the new girl-pal!
Next up... I actually got to visit my totally pawesome brother, Jamie a couple of weeks ago. I absolutely adored playing with him and will always look up to him... well - he's waaaaaay bigger than moi!
And a week before that, you would not have believe how cold it got. Well... unless Momma took a pitchur of the hail that came down among all the pretty cherry tree blossoms!
And this might help explain why we've been so MIA. Avalon and me has been working ever so hard on our obedience routines, practicing three times a week and visiting our teach, Barbara and oh... gots a headache thinking about it all!!! But about a month ago, I did manage to earn my second leg of Open A (whoopee!). Next week, I'll be trying for my final leg - imagine... a CDX! Woo hoo... let's hope I can remember all the things I supposed to be doing! Will keep in touch!

Taxi outing

In June each year the Edinburgh taxi trade runs an outing from the city for what are termed 'vulnerable' or 'disadvantaged' children, including disabled children. This year the outing included visiting children from Chernobyl. A huge fleet of decorated black cabs travels in convoy from the city to the beach at Dirleton, on the East Lothian coast. The taxi in the shot above is rather low key, but it was out and about very early. I hoped to see more extravagant decorations on the remainder of my 40 minute walk to work, but I must have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Part of me wonders about the whole singling out of children as 'disadvantaged' in this way, but there's no doubt that the event is still going strong after 63 years. It reminds me of the annual outing that my father enjoyed at primary school in a tiny village on Speyside in the 1930s and still talks about today. The entire 2 room school was taken by steam train from Craigellachie (yes, the original of the Canadian Pacific Railway version) to Lossiemouth on the Moray Firth Coast, a journey of 17 miles. On arrival they were treated to lemonade and buns. They then walked to the wide, sandy beach backed by dunes, and played until lunchtime. I don't imagine any of the children owned a swimming costume - it would have been frocks tucked into knickers for the girls, and school shorts for the boys. The school then walked back into town, where they had lunch that still makes my father misty-eyed: soup, mince and tatties and ice cream. Then back to the beach for games of cricket and races, before taking the train back up into the hills. All this was organised and paid for by a wealthy lady landowner, and for most of the children it was the only time in the year they went beyond a 2 or 3 mile radius of the village.

How to become a better paddler

No matter what your passion, there's a point at which you're likely to plateau. That may be OK; perhaps you've become proficient enough to accomplish everything you desire. But for those who are dedicated to continued improvement and have ambitions as coaches, expeditioners or higher-level paddlers, plateaus aren't acceptable. We aren't content to see our skills and knowledge top out. We want to become better paddlers.

Leon practicing rescue maneuvers.

While we were on Orcas Island with Shawna Franklin and Leon Somme, we talked aboutthe path to becoming an expert. It is, to paraphrase them, a function of hard work, deliberate practice, and guidance from a coach who offers constructive, honest feedback.

They shared with us an 2007 article from the Harvard Business Review, "The Making of an Expert" by K. Anders Ericsson, Michael J. Prietula and Edward T. Cokely, which summarizes research supporting the idea that outstanding performance is not so much a function of innate talent as it is a product of methodical, challenging practice and thoughtful, critical coaching.

Shawna challenges herself by surfing a wave while sitting on her deck.

For higher-level coaches like Shawna and Leon, this means finding hard things to work on and seeking out mentors who point out their weaknesses, even when that type of feedback is uncomfortable. The same is true for all of us, no matter what our level. We'd often prefer to keep working on the skills we already have and hear others affirm our accomplishments. But that's not the path to improvement.

While we were at Deception Pass, we saw this approach in action. After allowing us to warm on an eddy line, they suggested we try increasingly challenging moves as we crossed over into the current: edging without bracing, exiting with a cross-deck rudder, returning to the eddy as quickly as possible, rolling and static bracing on the eddy line, and self and assisted rescues in the current and whirlpools. They gave different challenges to each of us, ratcheting up the difficulty as we demonstrated we were ready for more.

Seth exits an eddy with a cross-deck rudder.

According to Ericcson, Prietula and Cokely:

• "Deliberate practice involves two kinds of learning: improving the skills you already have an improving the reach and range of your skills."


• "Genuine experts not only practice deliberately, but they also think deliberately...they continuously work to eliminate their weaknesses."


• "The development of expertise requires coaches who are capable of giving constructive, even painful feedback.Real experts are extremely motivated students who seek out such feedback."

This is true for becoming a more skillful and knowledgeable paddler as well as becoming a better coach or guide. Improvement is less a matter of innate ability than it is about willingness to work hard, seek challenges, and accept and act on knowledgeable critiques.

Alec and Sharon practicing deliberately.

"Before practice, opportunity, and luck can combine to create expertise, the would-be expert needs to demythologize the achievement of top-level performance because the notion that genius is born, not made, is deeply ingrained." --Ericcson, Prietula and Cokely