Category: NOLS

June 5, 2015 / / Gear

(Editors Note:  In the summer of 2013, I worked a course with Adam Swisher and Peter Nichols.  For some reason we became infatuated with our trash bags, its uses and…

May 17, 2015 / / India

The plane touched down sometime around ten pm.  Next to me, Brenna leaned forward and peered out the small window at the light subdued darkness.  We had spent the last…

May 17, 2015 / / India

The day started much like the previous ones in India, with us cooking on a porch and rain falling from the sky.  This morning we were in Khati, a small…

May 17, 2015 / / Alpine Notes

Cassiopeia and Ursa Major make their slow, daily rotation around the hulking 6,611 meter shoulder of the Nanda Devi satellite peak, Nanda Khat (the bed of Nanda Devi).  The squeak…

May 17, 2015 / / Alpine Notes

All I want to do is lie back down, curl up and rest.  Sleep won’t come, but the lethargy is winning its battle. “I accidentally put your drom in upside…

May 17, 2015 / / Alpine Notes

Above me white puffs of cloud swirl in and out of blue skies.  They coalesce out of nothingness, dance and paint the blue sky canvas with strokes that I want…

May 17, 2015 / / Alpine Notes

Isn’t actually a road at all, at least in the direction from which we are approaching.  Initially it is a wide expanse of white snow, a veritable palette of potential…

July 22, 2014 / / Alpine Notes

As usual, I wished for rain.  It is always easier on the ego than feigning a case of the Sphinx Sphincter or Gannett Gut, things that are failings of the…

March 31, 2014 / / Livin the dream

27 November 2013–Ambivalence mattered today. Jim and I have passed the planning torch over to the students. They are working in groups of two to plan the days. I have…

December 13, 2013 / / Alpine Notes

How can something so beautiful be so, so… unforgiving, or maybe unwelcoming? The mountains of New Zealand are cruel mistresses. They tempt me with their beauty, accessibility and challenge. I…

December 7, 2013 / / Alpine Notes

“Why do we have to go so early? Will it be a long day?” Hannah asks. “That is a good question” I think to myself. “Well there are a couple…

December 2, 2013 / / Alpine Notes
November 6, 2013 / / New Zealand
November 2, 2013 / / Alpine Notes

Twenty-four hours ago we waded, almost thoughtlessly, across the calf deep McCoy Stream, climbed the stony embankment and walked to the small hut on the north side of the creek.…

October 8, 2013 / / Alpine Notes

October 1st 2013 1100 — “Man, sometimes the group decision making process drives me insane”  Sean utters as he crawls into the vestibule.  One hand holds the tent door fabric…