“What does one have to do to get in your blog?” John asks as we rope up below the Red Rock classic, Black Magic. I…
Tag: NOLS
“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…
We walked through the narrow portal in the cinderblock wall. A tall, wrought Iron gate clanked loudly as it closed behind us, keeping the honest…
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…
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…
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,…
Editors Note: This is a blog post I wrote back in the Autumn of 2012 during my first sojourn south to New Zealand. Though slightly…
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…
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…
(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…
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…
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…
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…
“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.…