Around the campfire, a quirky and somewhat obscene musical experiment quickly develops since its inception earlier in the afternoon on the third pitch.

The dwindling fire dances in the satin sheen of the lone classical guitar. In the shadows of the last log burning, voices sing, sometimes mumbling; the music was on belay.

There’s not a lot of firewood in Joshua Tree. Besides the dry brush picking at your shins, the Yucca brevifolias standing far and wide are the only thing relatively close to firewood, but Joshua’s slow growth makes it sacrilegious to even consider the alien trees as firewood.

What the southern California high desert lacks in trees, however, it makes up for with stone. Across the extraterrestrial landscape shaped by climatic extremes lies massive basalt blocks of varying sizes. The rock here looks not as if glaciers and rivers have carved out the steeps the way most classic rock climbing destinations were formed. Instead it looks like giant stones crashed into the Earth from the cosmos; splitting on impact and revealing cracks that make climbers froth at the mouth. The coarse texture of the rock indicates the rocks didn’t fall with too much velocity though, and shredded hands are the ending to a good day of climbing.

At camp, bleeding paws are just one of many similarities climbers from all walks of life share around the fire. Trad climbers recount detailed descriptions of sketchy gear placements on off-width cracks. Boulderers mimic intimidating top-outs on tall problems. One girl shamelessly passes around a video of her friend ricocheting down a slot canyon after knocking back one too many beers. But as one log can only burn for so long, so too does the climbing jargon. Guided by the influence of alcohol and incandescence, conversation travels in and out of music, travel, politics, and the utterly random; everyone trying to learn more about the people they’ve been trusting their lives to while climbing.

Eventually, when the equilibrium between intoxication and sobriety has been breached, all bets are off. Add the hackneyed guitar to the mix and then a fire becomes a campfire. With a framework of basic chords, it’s amazing what kind of sexual innuendos a group of rock monkeys can fabricate using climbing lingo.

Baby I’ll be your crashpad
Cause you’re fine and you climb V9
So fold me up, strap me on and I’ll spot you all night long.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Surfing, sailing and environmentalism; Captain Liz Clark’s lifestyle is envied by many. In 2006  Clark set out on her 40-foot sailboat, Swell, on an adventure to circumnavigate the globe. She documents her travels on her iWend Ambassador blog, describing all the details of her adventure from crazy surf moments to the more tedious hours spent fixing her boat.

In this podcast, Clark reads her story “Voyage of Swell, Part 1″ first published in Volume 2 Issue 2 of Wend. Thanks to Keen for sponsoring this podcast where Liz relates the trials and tribulations of her first 2,000 miles at sea.

Listen here on the page or download and slap it on your iPod.

Happy listening!

Santa Barbara based lifestyle and activewear company Horny Toad has been practicing a policy of “Do The Right Thing” since the brand was launched in 1995. That’s a policy that has translated into both the brand’s business and design philosophies.

Today the team at Horny Toad is leading the way with progressive fabrics and policies, committed to doing their part for the environment and giving back to the community. We met up with the Toad’s very own Kate Larramendy to learn a bit more about the brand and talk about the current state of responsible design, particularly in regards to the environment and our economy.

Here at Wend, we hope that as the economy moves forward, more companies like Horny Toad will lead the way, because as Larramendy quotes the famous environmentalist David Brower, “there’s no business to be had on a dead planet.” We hope you enjoy listening!

In conjunction with our two alternative transportation themed contests this month (there’s a writing one and a photo one), we’re happy to bring you the podcast version of The Commute is the Thing. Originally published in Volume 3 Issue 2, with his article, author Sloan Schang brings us a taste of transport in Southeast Asia.

Enjoy!

We met up with Ian Yolles, Head of Marketing at Nau, to talk a little bit about that philosophy and some of core values that Nau has kept as it transitioned from version 1.0 to 2.0. We hope you enjoy listening!

We’re stoked to bring the podcast version of “Decent Into Madness,” authored by Kyle Dickman and which first appeared in Volume 3, issue 2 of Wend.  Thanks to NRS for sponsoring this podcast of Kyle’s harrowing adventure in Papua New Guinea, where he and team did the first descent of the East Pandi River.

Listen here on the page or download it and slap it on your iPod.

Happy listening!

Pledging that the only way he could return to the UK on foot, in 1998 Karl Bushby set off on the Goliath Expedition to walk around the world. In the current issue of Wend, Karl writes a compelling piece on his crossing of the Bering Strait. I was lucky enough to meet Karl when he was in Portland on a speaking tour. In this podcast he reads from three sections of his story and we talk about the logistics of travel in such an environment, the physical difficulties and what the future of the Goliath Expedition looks like.

Happy listening!

I had the pleasure of meeting Alexandre and doing an interview with him to learn more about the journey and what inspires him to travel. You can listen to the interview here by clicking one of the links at the bottom of this post.

You can also check out the review of Africa Trek over on Seen, Read & Heard.