LATENT YASILA: The Gypsies

2011 is freshly over, so in the spirit of Scott Strazzante, i have decided to throw together a few blog posts in which i review 2011 and the photography that it held.

In this edition, i have chosen to arbitrarily lump a few pictures together in which people are doing things, more or less.

i'm going to have another round of pictures (or several) in which people are doing things. i have managed to convince myself that those pictures are more about either the people or the landscape, whereas these pictures are more about the action (or perhaps the event--while i'm making ad hoc categories, i might as well go all out...)

It was a good year, i suppose. i watched thousands of people smoke pot (and i watched thousands of people watch thousands of people smoke pot) at 4:20 on April 20. i slacklined with Colin Stringer. i played bocce with Colin Stringer. i slacklined with John Stewart. i rode horses with my seesturr. i saw my car patiently waiting for me whenever i got back from a hike, eager to take me home to shower (even when a tree limb 8-10 inches in diameter plummeted from the sky, landing within a foot of my car--not on the depicted day). i climbed Kelso Ridge on Torreys Peak with Kris Doubleday (and Casey High, who isn't in this set). i watched No Limits and The Gypsies tensely watch the season finale of Expedition Impossible (tense even though they were themselves the contestants, and new who won). i watched both teams celebrate wildly when The Gypsies won and No Limits took second (or, if they were Taylor Filasky, i watched them smile jubilantly amid the raucous celebration). i made hot chocolate on a cold and windy night with Nick Williams and Alec Buchner. And i cut up trees with the other beer men.

i have a blog, but sometimes i forget. That’s why i’m posting this two and a half months after it happened.

i followed a television show closely this summer. It was called Expedition Impossible, and my friend Jeff was one of the contestants, as a member of No Limits.

Every Thursday, a fairly large group of people joined Jeff at the Lazy Dog in downtown Boulder to watch each episode as it aired. The season was filled with various twists and turns, but one team—the Gypsies—seemed to be prohibitive favorites. No Limits, my friend’s team, proved to be something of a fan favorite, although a severe ankle injury suffered by a team member had seemed to make them unlikely contenders.

About halfway through the series, it became clear that the Gypsies and No Limits shared a deep mutual respect. They were certainly bound by the occasional act of support during the course of competition—the Gypsies were awarded a phone call home after finishing a leg of the race in first place, but gave it to No Limits, for instance—but they were more fundamentally bound by a shared desire that their participation in the show would have broader effects than personal glory.

The Gypsies champion the notion of the compassionate adventurer. Their website declares ‘We are more than just wanderers, we are inspiring individuals to explore themselves and the world around them while making a difference.’ The Gypsies seek to inspire their followers not only to seek to do adventurous things, but to be mindful of those that they come in contact while they do so. The Gypsies’ next adventure will be to Ecuador, where they will summit Cotopaxi while collaborating with Free the Children to complete a water well in nearby Chimborazo province.

Whereas the Gypsies address the question of how adventurers should go about their adventuring, No Limits addresses the question of who may be an adventurer. Their answer is—resoundingly—not only that anyone may be an adventurer, but that everyone should be an adventurer. In addition to Jeff, their team was composed of Ike, a veteran who suffered injuries in combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and Erik, who has been totally blind since the age 13. No Limits and the non-profit that they represent, No Barriers, seek to inspire their followers to be adventurers, regardless of what hindrances they may feel held back by. No Limits members have summitted 20,000 foot mountains in Nepal with veterans who sustained injuries in combat, trekked the Himalayas and the Andes with fellow blind adventurers, and been a constant voice that whoever you are and whatever your situation, you can do awesome things. No Limits’ next adventure will be to Tanzania, where a team including veterans and civilians, many with disabilities (including a quadruple amputee), will attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest summit in Africa.

The show drew toward its close. No Limits and the Gypsies were two of the four teams competing in the finale. The Gypsies traveled to Boulder, where they joined the weekly Lazy Dog gathering. Tickets for the event numbering to the Lazy Dog’s fire code capacity were sold days in advance of the show, with all proceeds benefiting charities represented by each team—No Barriers for No Limits, and Free the Children for the Gypsies. The following set was taken during the course of the watch party.

Before the show started, members of each team shared a few thoughts with the packed crowd about the experience.

As the show continued on, tension mounted. One of the four teams was eliminated, but both the Gypsies and No Limits remained.

The third team became lost in the Moroccan streets. In a photo-finish, the Gypsies climbed over the final wall to victory as No Limits, beaten to victory by mere seconds, cheered below. The crowd, which generally favored No Limits, as they were the Boulder locals, erupted with excitement for both the victory of the Gypsies and the strong finish by No Limits.