The unDefined Blog

Inspiration and stories from the mountains, cultures, peoples, and perspectives of our world.

Morromico Bay, Chocó, Colombia | July, 2018

Featured Posts & Collections

Tracee Metcalfe: No Creation Myth Needed

I remember when I first heard the term. Charley Mace and I were a couple pitches up a mellow, fun route in Clear Creek Canyon, trying unsuccessfully to outclimb thunderstorms, and talking about climbing, ego, and the like. One mutual climbing acquaintance kept coming up, one whose ego had come to define his persona, his […]

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Juneteenth Greatness

My paternal great-great grandfather, James T. Norton (1844-1883), was a man of few words. Or, at least that’s what his journal from 1865 indicates. It’s been sitting near my desk for years. I’ve scanned the pages, faded scribbles in pencil recording minute datapoints about each day with little fanfare: weather, movement, rations, commands, engagements. Even […]

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Xenon and Zen

Mesmerized. There’s no other way to put it. The scene unfolding before me was captivating, subtle hues of warming a jagged Himalayan sea, blues morphing, glimmers of amber and crimson flashing on distant ridges, shadows etching an impossible landscape. It was still frigid here, sunlight not yet penetrating the frigid shadows of the West Ridge […]

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More articles and essays…

In Memoriam: Helen Ann Rhea, 1922-2014

On May 14, 2014, my godmother, Helen Ann Rhea, passed out of this world, ending a protracted, 7-year battle with the aftermath of a massive stroke. For 72 years, Helen was a rock in our family, always there with a smile, a hug, and endless love, tending to the needs of everyone – often at […]

ESSAYS & INSPIRATION

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Thursday Thought: Robert Michael Pyle, Nature Bats Last, and the Optimism of Pessimism

The image [of a coyote lifting a leg] should be struck on a new coin, with Charles Darwin on the other side, not negotiable, but a good-luck coin to remind us of change and evolution, and of creatures that will be happy to adapt if we ourselves cannot…The land has been hurt. Misuse is not to be excused, and its ill effects will long be felt. But nature will not be eliminated…Rain, moss, and time apply their healing bandage, and the injured land at last recovers. Nature is evergreen, after all.

ESSAYS & INSPIRATION

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Thursday Thought: Ganges, Revered and Reviled

The Gaanges River in India is both revered and reviled: it's worshipped as an incarnation of the divine by nearly a billion Hindus, and is also one of the most polluted rivers in the world.

ESSAYS & INSPIRATION PHOTOGRAPHY

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George Mallory and the Second Step: A Red Herring?

I’ve been slowly having my archive of slides – some 15,000 from past shoots and expeditions – scanned by ScanCafe. The last shipment just came in recently, and included my images from the first Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition in 1999. Wow…Lots of images, taken on my first trip to Everest, and many I had […]

MOUNTAINS & ADVENTURE

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