jer collins

Some people were just meant to do certain things.

Michael Phelps was meant to be a swimmer.

Mother Teresa was certainly meant to be a humanitarian.

My friend Craig Luebben was meant to be a climber.

After an immensely successful three decades worth of adventure all over the world, he died last week from a random ice slide on Mt. Torment in the Northern Cascades in Washington state.

The randomness of the event is painful; Craig was training to get his AMGA license for alpine guiding.

He could potentially be called the most knowledgeable person in the topic of climber safety.

As a contributing editor at Climbing magazine, he wrote articles about safety, adventure, as well as put his own neck on the line testing ice, snow, and rock gear to help all of us climbers know and understand how better to protect ourselves in wild places.

Beyond writing, he was an internationally known guide, photographer, off-width(wide crack) specialist, and inventor.  With a degree in engineering behind him, he invented the “big bro”(left) device for protecting the wide cracks he so loved to climb.

I had the absolute pleasure to co-author an instructional book with Craig, as well as illustrate four other books he penned, all based on his expertise of climbing how-to and safety.  We had plans for more in the near future.

Click the titles below to learn more and purchase.  Craig was always adamant that his royalties go to his family should he pass on.

Of course, throughout all of this work, Craig and I became friends, enjoyed climbing adventures together, talking about raising children, and dreaming of the next big adventure.

I talked to Craig two weeks ago, and he was looking so forward to his daughter Giulia(6) growing up and sharing the ski slopes, and mountains with her more and more.

Rest in Peace, Craig.  Thanks for all the encouragment, empowerment, and inspiration

You once saw a picture of me climbing an off-width with only one cam above me.  You ran downstairs and brought back up a “big-bro” to give me.  I never forgot that, and always considered you a big-bro as well.

On a random side note…

I had recently finished the map below of Mt Torment & Forbidden

I had planned to climb the exact same route

Craig was on two weeks from now.

It has certainly left a sour taste in my mouth.

The Northwest has recently seen temps in the triple digits for multiple days, certainly influencing the instability in the high peaks, that most likely led to Craigs demise.

I celebrated 8 years of marriage last week with my beautiful wife. We decided to go bouldering(climbing small rocks) in paradise- the island of Virgin Gorda in the british virgin isles.

We also took a short boat ride to the neighboring uninhabited island, Fallen Jerusalem.
Hope you enjoy a look into our journey to paradise. For you non-climbers, the pads we carry on our backs are to lay on the ground and protect our falls.

Virgin Gorda + Fallen Jerusalem Island from Jeremy Collins on Vimeo.

Music by Matisyahu

So, I entered a Threadless submission.

Threadless is an online t-shirt design on-going competition.

It is a genius business plan, and there is some inspired work there. Anyways, the prize for this recent competition is a VW “pre-loved” car!   So what the hey!?  I’ll give it a shot.

Feel free to score me a “5″ and leave a comment! 

Also, here’s a press release for some shirt designs I did for Outdoor Research, and below, a detail section of the map I designed for them. The peaks are Torment & Forbidden in the North Cascades of Washington. My hope is to go climb them sometime late summer.

If you are at Outdoor Retailer Trade Show, please stop by and say hi.

A Kingdom Divided: The biblical story of Kind David, King Solomon, and their heirs reign over the Kingdom of Israel.

This piece aired last week at the youth specialties conference in LA, and later this summer in DC.
It’s over five minutes long and requires some reading, so don’t say you weren’t warned, those with short attention spans.

All imagery was hand drawn, then many versions were crafted via photocopies, collage, and with different mediums. The shooting was all done over three 14 hour days, with over 4000 images brought into the computer for post production.

The Kingdom Divided from Stewart H Redwine on Vimeo.

Producer, Writer- Stewart Redwine, Heart Initiative
All Drawn Imagery- Jeremy Collins
Support/Transitional Imagery- Rebekah Nastav, Kristen Howdeshell, Kevin Howdeshell
Music Score- Jason Livesay, Livesay Music
Animation- ThreeHouse (Jeremy, Kristen, & Kevin)
Thanks to: Andy Michael, and Isaiah Powers for technical assistance, Greg Kolsto for Koffee.

Spent the last two weeks hiding in a hole (yes literally) doing a Stop motion project in which I had an above head mounted camera (G10 run by Dragon) as I ripped, painted, and explored through roughly 4000 sheets of random and not so random paper to tell an animated story.  Soon I’ll have the video up online, but thought some might enjoy seeing the process. And now… hello weekend!

Thank you so much for all the emails and calls, those who knew of my friend Jonny who died in an avalanche last week in China.

His partner whom I knew primarily via spirited phone calls and emails, Micah Dash, and the upcoming filmmaker Wade Johnson were also lost. Please join me in supporting the recovery and return of these fallen athletes and friends.

Jonny was an american, a professional alpine climber, a writer, filmmaker, son, proud brother and the instigator of the ever evolving and growing Adventure Film Festival, having it’s roots in Boulder, Colorado, but much like Jonny, traveling worldwide.  I wrote him a letter this weekend, which may give a view into the character of this talented and motivated spirit.

His vision and eye for new routes in the big mountains were much like an artists, and he had no shortage of masterpieces in the last 20 years.

He inspired many with his films, outrageous laughter, smile, and aggressive pursuit of the mountains.  The big walls of the world seemed to open their doors freely to him- everywhere on this globe he went he found his way.

I was lucky to be on the Jonny train for a few fantastic adventures.  We collaborated on a First Ascent in the black Canyon, a few routes in RMNP,  a few mixed art pieces, including a live painting performance, and an animated short film based on a character his Mother came up with.  We had a long list of ideas for projects on the rock and off, including putting up a route together using our “JC” names. His clever 911 inspired idea was “I’m Collins the Copps!”

Jonny also wrote an essay that appeared in my book INTUIT10N which I have pasted here for your enjoyment. Thanks for the ride, Jonny.

Float takes the idea of “marching to the beat of your own drum” to a new level. The somber colors act as a thin veil to a piece of art that bursts with light, enthusiasm and purpose. Most of Jeremy’s art is like this, like an egg that you have to crack to get to the sustenance. And beyond their delivery, the pieces speak to me like an old buddy would while around a campfire, stoking the flames and staring up at giant shadows bouncing off of nearby cliffs.

Jonny Copp

Got an email today that my book INTUIT10N was on Amazon. If you have a copy, please consider posting a review(only if it’s positive, of course-ha!)

Below: “Reclined”