TUSKER’S BADASS OF THE MONTH: BOB CRISP
Tusker’s Badass of the Month is a new series debuting this issue. It chronicles some of the baddest, toughest, smartest men/women who fought good fights, made lots of enemies and were controversial, never conventional.
MY LAST GREAT MOUNTAIN
Okay, it’s not a Himalayan giant. In fact, it barely qualifies as a scramble. But when you are 72, your knees are shot, and your VO₂max is edging toward zilch, Mount Kilimanjaro (19,340-ft/5,895-m) can be a personal Everest.
BENIN JAIL
Anyone who says that youth is wasted on the young must have missed that page in the manual describing how to go out and grab life by the boleros when the call to adventure comes.
INCREDIBLE SEA GYPSIES
The Moken people have no written language, running water, or electricity. These masters of the ocean have managed to eschew modern civilization, making them among the least touched people in the world.
JAH MON!
For three hours we were transported to Jamaica and Ethiopia on Bob Marley’s reggae riffs, exhorted by guys in dreadlocks to “stand up for your rights”. From what geyser did this cry for freedom spring?
COTTON KILLS
Back in the late 70s, long before Eddie Frank would become a world-renowned expert in high altitude climbing, he made his first attempted climb of Kilimanjaro and almost never made it off the mountain alive.
TINKU: IN PRAISE OF PACHAMAMA
In Tinku, there are no belts to be earned and you can’t buy a ticket to a fight. This form of ritual conflict has remained the same for centuries and may be the last uncommercialized martial art.
THE REASON WE MADE IT
Frances gives a shout out to the 23 member Tusker Team for helping her family to top.