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…
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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…
Doubt, fear’s twin brother, confidently raised it’s beastly head today. It came as I stared upward at the imposing chimneys. It was there again as I followed my partner’s lead…
Photo: My dad (L) and his twin brother on the tailgate of the ’53 Chevy wagon. Editors Note: I wrote this essay in September of 1998 for an assignment during…
(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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The steep, hot, unshaded hillside was untrailed, but at least it was covered in pimpenellas, a dry seed with burr like tendencies that got all over clothing, skin and hair.…
“So, you want to rope up?” I ask Anna. “I’ve been on a glacier once, that was in the Winds” she replies. “So it is your call.” I hesitate and…