September 12, 2013, on the banks of the Bhagirathi, Gangotri, Uttarakhand, India "The river is insane," Wende texted via satellite. I was confused: She couldn't know that, at that moment, I was sitting on the bank of a raging Bhagirathi River in the hamlet of Gangotri. Sure, she of course knew I was in India, […]

September 10, 2006, Diraphuk Gompa on the Kailash Kora, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Gentle murmurings, soft, subtle, almost lost, camouflaged by a Himalayan breeze and squawks from goraks (Tibetan ravens). I sat and watched, quietly, trying not to disturb, not to invade their sacred space. The mother and daughter prostrated repeatedly - standing, then kneeling, then […]

Well, it wasn’t A-23, but it was the remnants of another massive iceberg, A-38B. It was October 2004, and Dave Hahn, Dierdre Galbraith, and I had just finished leading our nine clients on a Shackleton crossing of South Georgia. We were back on the ship, guide hats replaced by tourist coats, guests of Lindblad Expeditions […]

There’s a character to the alpine world that is perhaps indescribable, a tenor to the air and sky and wind and light that permeates everything in such a way that it defies words, defies any attempt at pinning it down in mere words. It is a feeling, an immutable presence enveloping everyone and everything, pressing […]