Thursday, January 07, 2010

Talk about Namibia
Climber Majka Burhardt will bring perspective of Africa to Dolores

Hope Nealson
Journal Staff Writer

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Photo Courtesy of Gabe Rogel Majka Burhardt has been rock climbing and traveling to African countries like Ethiopia and Namibia, sharing her experiences through books, film and speaking tours. Burhardt’s next stop will be in Dolores on Tuesday, Jan. 12.

Burhardt

It was the perfect size for a coffin. That is what popped into rock climber Majka Burhardt's mind when she saw the image of a smoothly rounded water hole flash on an overhead screen during the first of 25 lectures she is giving around the country. Dolores is her next stop.

"I had unfortunately had a string of losses in my life of good friends (six climbers in six months), so when I saw the photo of my boyfriend excavating a water hole, I thought it was the perfect-size coffin for a raccoon."

Burhardt didn't want to share her morbid thought to the crowd, so she said that besides providing a crucial depository for water needed to survive the climb, it was a great place for two raccoons to sit and snuggle.

"There was no permanent source of water there," she said. "It was a drip coming down a granite slab, pooling in one area 6 inches by 15 inches, so by clearing out (the hole), there was enough of a trickle to provide us with 12 to 18 liters of water a day."

The reliance and interaction of climber, landscape and culture is one aspect Burhardt will touch on from her unique perspective as a climbing guide of 12 years, as a writer - and her latest - as a film producer.

"Film interested me as a different mechanism for telling a story," said the trained anthropologist who has a master's degree in creative writing. "I wanted to express it in a medium, not that you flip through in a book, but more engaging, almost like a challenge."

Besides internationally, the Minnesota-native has guided in Colorado, Nevada, California and New Hampshire. Burhardt said the month-long film looks at the connection between culture and climbing.

"My main question before I went on the expedition was, if you go on a climbing trip, can you use climbing as a means to get closer to culture or is it a pompous presumption as a Westerner?"

Burhardt said climbers have a natural affinity with locals who live and work in the landscape.

"The first time we got out of the car, they treated us just like any other tourist," she said of the locals.

Burhardt said once they spent a few days "getting muddy," living in the vicinity and climbing, the locals' attitudes changed.

"Climbers commit to landscape in a similar way that people who live in that landscape connect with," she said.

Beginning a dialogue about conservation and raising awareness about Africa in general has opened a whole new world of choices Burhardt explores through books and her film, "Way Point Namibia."

Burhardt will sell the film she produced and released this week at www.waypointnamibia.com and in Dolores as part of her Speaking Namibia tour.

"(The lecture) gives people another understanding of Southern Africa and what conservation looks like as it plays out in another country - and how it impacts us," she said.

Burhardt said other countries like Thailand, Mongolia and Taiwan are following Namibia's lead in rural conservation.

"I have a chance to go to Africa and be the person I am - an anthropologist, a writer, a climber - whether it's a film or writing a book about appreciating Ethiopia's coffee and helping the sixth poorest country in the world gain recognition for the second most traded commodity," she said.

The book, due out this year, will be called "Coffee: Authentic Ethiopia" and discusses issues surrounding the 10,000 varieties of coffee beans produced in the country. Coffee, second only to oil in world exports, provides 40 to 50 percent of Ethiopia's export earnings.

Burhardt plans to go back to Africa in several months.

"The more time I've spent in Africa, the more inspiration I've had for ways to return to America and become more engaged in the ways I want to live my life," she said.

Even recent climbing accidents and deaths of close friends haven't swayed Burhardt's love of climbing, although they have made her more careful about her choices in life.

"Transitions were not something to use as a crutch, but something to master," she said in her blog, which can be found on her Web site, www.majkaburhardt.com.

"... Maybe I've learned that the real unspoken challenge is the transition from the transition. It's the let down after the conquering of logistics. It's the moment when you're back in your tent with no other task to manage than the questions in your own head about the choices you are making each time you step outside.

"It's the morning you wake up and realize that the only place you have to go that day is toward a more complete understanding of why you are where you are."

The Dolores Community Center event, hosted by Osprey Packs, will feature a reception and book signing of the Osprey-sponsored athlete's book, published in 2008, "Vertical Ethiopia: Climbing Toward Possibility in the Horn of Africa."

Beer, beverages and appetizers will be provided at the fundraiser for the Colorado Environmental Coalition. A suggested donation of $10 can be paid at the door.

Five percent of the $14.99 DVD/film proceeds sold at the event will go to the Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation, an organization that works to improves the lives of rural people by diversifying the socio-economy in Namibia's communal areas to include wildlife and other natural resources.

For more information, call Osprey at 564-5900.

Reach Hope Nealson at hopen@cortezjournal.com.