If reincarnation is a real thing, then in my next life I want to be some sort of raptor. Maybe an eagle, a falcon, a hawk, it really doesn't matter too much to me as long as I can soar, swoop, dive, glide, and ride those endless thermals from one mountain ridge to the next. Those who know me well, know that I spend a lot of time in the mountains, usually in areas where there are cliffs. And in those areas I get to see the antics of these mountain aviators at work. I can't begin to tell you how many times in many different places I've been fascinated by what I've seen. There was the one time when I was in Linville Gorge above the Portabella Cave watching Peregrine Falcons dog fight in the sky right in front of me. There playfull game of aerial wrestling was one in which they would go from flying horizontally to dive bombing nearly a hundred feet in mere seconds. And boy did it make a noise. You could hear the birds' wings cutting through air from clear across the canyon. Then there was the time when I was hiking from Tenaya Lake in Tuolomne Meadows to Half Dome and saw right in front of my eyes some sort of raptor swoop in and in mid air grab another smaller baby bird and take it for dinner. It was amazing to say the least. Although I'm a believer that the human species is by far the most advanced species on the planet, I do recognize that we have serious limitations when compared with other species. The ability to fly being the one that I most envy. Just think about it; living in the mountains, flying from one craggy perch to the next, playing by running thermals through the air. Scoping things from above at all times must give one quite a unique perspective on things. That is one thing that I've always loved about climbing. The ability to get into places in which I have a unique view that I would never else be able to attain is one of the raddest things about climbing. Raptors always have that position. Humans have tried to replicate flight in many ways. Skydiving, Paragliding, Hangliding, basejumping, birdmaning, even slacklining are all attempts to tap into the sensation of being a bird. But having skydived and slacklined I can say that at least these two fail miserably. So if God's a granter of wishes and a man of logic he will reincarnate me in raptor form placing me somewhere in a mountain range with abundant rock and rock climbers in which I can "perform" my art and show the future generations of climbers what they are trying to replicate in their sport. Here's a great video of Europeans "birdmaning" (the closest thing to being a raptor for humans). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttz5oPpF1Js
