www.arareko.net

I’ll certainly miss him a lot, but I’m happy to see him so enthusiastic about his new project. I’m wishing him the best of lucks, he deserves it

Friday, October 9:

• Conference: Carlos Carsolio: Without a doubt, Carlos has been one of the greatest alpinists of all times. Now into the world of paragliding, in this conference he shared details and memoirs from his latest paragliding expedition across Mexico. Absolutely amazing!
• Psyque: Patagonian Winter: Andy Kirkpatrick is a pioneer of winter climbing in Patagonia, with many hair-raising ascents to his name. This hilarious film documents his latest Patagonian horror show: an attempt at the first winter ascent of Torre Egger with alpinist Ian Parnell.

Saturday, October 10:

• The Sharp End: Base Solo: 3 amazing athletes with 3 different stories. Chris McNamara tells us about his thoughts on his BASE jump, Steph Davis free-solo climbs The Diamond in Colorado, and Dean Potter touches the limit by free-soloing the Eiger with a parachute as his only safety device.
• The Red Helmet: Overcome with fear, a young boy runs into the forest. He finds a magic red helmet and goes on the adventure of a lifetime. Slowly building his courage, he is transformed and returns to confront his boyhood fears.
• The Last Frontier: Papua New Guinea: The Epicocity crew travelled to Papua New Guinea to document the island of New Britain’s pristine water, habitat, and intact indigenous culture through an exploratory caving and kayaking expedition. The expedition was the first of its kind in New Britain and likely the last before logging and agricultural production change the island forever.
• Papiroflexia: An origami tale of a skillful paper folder who could shape the world with his hands.
• 99 Days on ice: Crossing the Arctic, leaving one side of the ocean and founding the other 100 days after, 2000 Km of distance… The longest, coldest and most difficult polar expedition, it’s the dream of a couple who met in the North Pole.

Sunday, October 11:

• The Sharp End: Eastern Europe: A group of gifted climbers, explores the unique history, culture and dangers of one of the most remarkable climbing destinations in the world.
• The Cable Car: While travelling by cable car to a place somewhere in the mountains, an old man treats himself to some snuff. Et voilà! With every sneeze, the cable car cabin falls apart more and more. The man, however, is far from accepting his fate just like that.
• Crux: “Crux” defined: a particular point of difficulty. This singular word precisely describes the riding formula of the film. Each and every line ridden by the featured athletes — Ryan Leech, Dylan Korba, and Thomas Ohler — has a crux. These three riders, aggressively pursuing Leech’s Manifesto style, execute mind-bending feats of bike mastery. Combining sheer difficulty with an elegant and creative style, this film redefines technical riding standards.
• Journey to the Center: Journey with three world-renowned BASE jumpers as they travel 10,000 miles by airplane, river boat, and 4×4 truck to confront the mist and mystery of an old cave, an ancient culture, and their own demons at the center of their dangerous mission: Tian Keng, the Heavenly Pit. Millions of years old, half-mile deep, Tian Keng has waited for eons to test the endurance, skill, and courage of the men who dare to parachute into her heart.

So this is what the festival was all about, see you all at next year’s edition!

Sergio ran an amazing race, finishing in 9th place overall in the 22 km group. I managed to shave 8 minutes and 25 seconds from my last year’s time, finishing the 34 km in 4:41:41 and 1.14 km ahead from the virtual partner in my GPS watch. I felt well for most of the course, despite the constant urge to be ahead of the virtual partner. Seems like bonking at the Mexico City marathon 2 weeks ago wasn’t bad after all…

After the race we had a big and well-deserved brunch with Odi & Karen who were waiting for us at the finish line

The race pictures can be seen here.

the beatles – the long and winding road

the long and winding road
that leads to your door
will never disappear
i’ve seen that road before
it always leads me her
lead me to you door

the wild and windy night
that the rain washed away
has left a pool of tears
crying for the day
why leave me standing here
let me know the way

many times i’ve been alone
and many times i’ve cried
any way you’ll never know
the many ways i’ve tried

but still they lead me back
to the long winding road
you left me standing here
a long long time ago
don’t leave me waiting here
lead me to your door

but still they lead me back
to the long winding road
you left me standing here
a long long time ago
don’t leave me waiting here
lead me to your door
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…

I had a last lunch with some of my friends and also received a beautiful farewell applause from most of them when I left the office. I almost broke into tears, it was extremely emotive.

Yahoo! has been a lot like a family, with the good and the bad things altogether. It was great to be a part of it for a 2nd time. I’ll certainly miss it, again…