Learning to fly by Steph Davies
Steph Davies has long been one of my heros/sheras. She is one of the absolute best rock climbers in the world. And not by winning contrived competitions but by always choosing the path of independence and freedom.
She grew up as a classical pianist and has a masters degree in literature/creative writing. But from the point when she started climbing she gave up living a "normal" life for the road and the rocks, living out of her vehicle and earning just enough to keep climbing.
She is one of very few female climbers who consistently free solo (climbing without ropes) big walls, and seems to have a very pragmatic and intelligent approach to risk taking.
This is her autobiography of one marriage ending, her way into the world of parachuting, wingsuit flying and base jumping, and through these endeavours finding the love of her life. It is also a human/canine love story where we get to know how deeply she connects and devote herself to the little rez dog Fletcher.
Her life is full of risks that most people do not take. But we all die in the end. Both her current and former husbands have since this book was published (2013) died basejumping.
Many people outside the world of so called extreme sports think it's all about adrenaline and people who hold a death wish.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Steph Davies is deeply in love with life, but above all living free, and is to me an inspiring intellectual who calculates risk and outcome to live life at her fullest. Not giving in to fear.
Many people fear and avoid thinking about death all our lives. Steph Davies gets to know it from every angle. In her words;
" Now death struck me as something inevitable, the guaranteed result of living itself, not something that could be dodged or skipped. Just another thing that simply is. Like gravity. "
This is natures way.
I loved this book.
