I have no tattoos. That story is one of lazy summer days, friendship, and happenstance. But it is not for here. Here is where I tell you what tattoos the…
Category: Alpine Notes
Musings of an alpine nature…
Editor’s Note: The author lives and writes from the current and ancestral lands of the Eastern Shoshone, Northern Arapaho, Apsaalooké, and Cheyenne. His direct ancestors landed at Plymouth Rock in…
As per usual, nothing quite went as expected. From the start we opted for the “easier” option of not schlepping sleeping bags or cook stuff up to the cirque. The…
June 1997 — We spent the overcast and wet day practicing skills. Placing snow protection, clipping through fixed pro, traveling on a rope team, ice axe use and self arresting. …
(Author’s note: here is a piece I wrote about six years ago. I may have published this before, but… whatevs. My mind always wanders to this place, particularly this…
[Editors Note: I was recently “on deck” for NOLS to go to New Zealand to fill an emergency staffing position and this piece is one of the many things that…
“Lets run the Petzoldt”, I joke as we regroup from our last down. Anna is the quarterback and in this pick-up game of football, that makes the rest of wide…
Is it possible to de-assess myself? Stress is weighing on me, heavier than the sixty pounds of gear and food I am shouldering up this long, steep gully. Kick, kick,…
Editor’s Note: I am missing this so much right now. I have made eight trips to Patagonia over the past decade, and have been there for the past six Januarys. There…
“That is not my wish for you my brother” Rueben says in the pale glow of my headlamp. “No worries sir. I will see you in a couple of hours”…
Eventually, in the parking lot, gear and people sprawled everywhere, Jim came clean. “Jared, I need to tell you something.” The wry, maybe it was sheepish, smile on his face…
Jackson Hole Mountain Guides’ office is in a strip mall at the south end of town. The facade and interior are not classically strip mall-esque, except of course for Jackson.…
24 July 2017–The waning gibbous moon provides ample early morning light as our crampons crunch on less than hard snow. Despite the ample ambient lighting, all around me headlamps bob…
It started the same way and ended the same way. Driving in, the road was still rough. Walking out the beers were still in the river. The day was still…