I'm somewhere over Minnesota, cruising at 33,000 feet, making my way (the long way perhaps with stops in Frankfurt and Addis Ababa) to Tanzania. This will be my 12th (I think, maybe 13th) climb of Kilimanjaro, and I couldn't be more excited. Sure, I always love my times on Kili: there's stunning scenery, fun terrain, […]

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.