Category: NOLS

August 22, 2019 / / Horses

At least the horses were easy to catch, even Doug. “Huh, our list of horses here says Cooper” I say running my eyes over the packing list for the re-ration.…

June 30, 2019 / / Alpine Notes

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. …

May 23, 2019 / / NOLS
November 29, 2018 / / Alpine Notes

[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…

July 31, 2018 / / Horses

September 2015–It is a classic September morning in the Wind River Range. Orange, yellow, and reds splash across the frost covered meadows framing the meandering, slow moving Fall Creek. Upstream,…

June 23, 2018 / / Alpine Notes

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,…

November 19, 2017 / / East Africa

“That’s not rain, it is Chuck Norris pee!” KG yells across the maelstrom to the neighboring tent.  There is no pitter patter of rain, just a constant white noise, rhythmically…

October 25, 2017 / / East Africa
October 23, 2017 / / East Africa

I sit there, entitled to my crammed seat, or one would suspect, given my non-deference to the elderly, the mothers, the workers.  It doesn’t feel good, it doesn’t feel right. …

December 11, 2016 / / Horses

Zero five-hundred comes early. Burgers, beers, friends, and whiskey quickly turn twenty-three hundred into zero two-hundred pretty quickly as well. I guess that is why I drank coffee. Or maybe…

August 24, 2016 / / Horses
August 5, 2016 / / Alpine Notes

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…

October 30, 2015 / / New Zealand
September 28, 2015 / / Alpine Notes

They are the best of times, they are the worst of times, they are places of wisdom, they are places of foolishness, they are places of belief, they are places…

September 11, 2015 / / NOLS

The following is an essay that I wrote shortly after returning from my first NOLS course as an instructor.  I am posting it here, today in remembrance of the events…