“I’m thirty-years-old, and a complete and utter failure,” writes Chris Kalman. “My mom is a PhD astrophysicist, my dad, a PhD mathematician, and my sister has a Master’s in epidemiology. They all have jobs, children, houses. I, on the other hand, am a dirtbag.”

Earlier this fall, Chris moved away from favorite climbing haunts towards something bigger and more intimidating than giant rock walls. As he helped care for an extended family member thousands of miles from the place he had called home, he had to figure out how to take a journey very different than an annual pilgrimage to climb in Patagonia: a journey within.

You can find more of Chris Kalman’s writing on his blog, Fringe’s Folly, “for the purists, dirtbags and salty oldtimers who live climbing.”

This episode reposted by permission from our friends at The Dirtbag Diaries. For more great episodes, visit them at dirtbagdiaries.com.