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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Everest, Hunku Khola, Muddhi-Kongme Dingma Trail
Read MoreI guess part of me has always been an explorer. No, not that kind of capital "E" Explorer - I haven’t discovered new lands, walked off the map, completed bold first ascents or any of that headline-grabbing stuff. But, I’ve been fortunate enough in my travels and adventures to wander off the beaten path somewhat, […]
Muddhi-Kongme Dingma Trail, Nepal
Read MoreI’m not sure what time it is, or really where I am. Somewhere near the coast of Brazil, I know that; sometime during my birthday - I know that, too. I've flown past the Hindu Kush Himalaya, Pamirs, Caucasus, and Atlas Mountains, and will soon cross the Andes. I'm headed to Chile to meet my […]
The pink hues of twilight glaze the cloud tops from my vantage point about 39,000 feet above rural Poland. It’s a sublime view, but a bit melancholy, as my sunset is my wife’s 18,264th sunrise as she sits half a world away. Yesterday, on the beach in Santa Barbara, California, we four (Wende, Lila, Ryrie, […]
dZi Foundation, GivingTuesday, Nepal
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