Great days in the mountains don't always mean a summit. Sometimes - perhaps more often than not - they're comprised of exploration, solitude, adventure. Remembering a couple such days on Mount Everest.

Everyone told me it was a fool’s errand. “There’s no ice in Evergreen,” they’d say with certainty. “Nothing. Nada. I’ve looked, and it isn’t here.” For a while, I simply took their word for it, acquiescing to the apparent reality that I’d have to drive to Silverplume or down into Clear Creek Canyon to climb […]

Mountains matter. They matter to me, they should matter to you, they matter to us all, and not just on one day, but every single day.

A few weeks back, I gazed across a great gorge, that of the mighty, raging Hunku Khola. Rushing waters coursing from the glaciers of Chamlang, Baruntse, Mera, and innumerable other high peaks carved the valley below me over eons. A spectacular feat of geology and hydrology, and an intimidating one for a trekker. As I […]