si dawson

Seri­ously, is there any­thing more beau­ti­ful than this?

Pic © Dean Fidelman

I've always loved boul­der­ing for its sim­plic­ity. No ropes, no har­nesses, no gear. Just you, your shoes, maybe a chalk bag.. and the rock. Never going high enough that a fall is likely to kill, but still adren­a­line & lac­tic acid pump­ing hard enough that you can burn your­self out com­pletely in half an hour (I know, I've done it on sev­eral occa­sions when there was only enough light for half an hour's climb­ing *grin*).

Turns out there's a new craze, even purer, sim­pler, closer to nature. Climb­ing com­pletely nude. Cal­i­for­nia based climber & pho­tog­ra­pher Dean Fidel­man (who took the photo above) has even released cal­en­dars of the climb­ing in action, called "Stone Nudes."

Climb­ing by itself is such an incred­i­bly beau­ti­ful sport. Fluid, grace­ful motion, intense amounts of power, stun­ningly intri­cate tech­ni­cal­i­ties & the pure har­mo­nious blend of mind, body & spirit. To do it com­pletely naked sim­ply cap­tures that beauty perfectly.