Walking into the Rain
There’s a warm rain coming down on Portland, and unseasonably warm at that. It feels like the first onset of what ought to be a warm and wet winter. I can only hope that it lives up to expectations. Tomorrow…
Patrick Fink
Born in Chicago, Transplanted to the West, Trained in the Mountains. Author of MountainLessons.com
Trailing Roots
Always lifting, turning, remembering, landing, forgetting, lifting again, and moving on. I’ve written before about transitions, and about the anxiety that can precede them. But now the wind is lifting me up again and I feel that feeling in the…
Cascade Rime
Rime Towers, originally uploaded by raventrickster. This evening, snow has begun to fall on the Cascades. The first storm of the year will bring with it a few feet of concrete on which to begin the season, but also attending…
The Shoulder Season
Training is a funny thing– when the desire to undertake it actually rises inside of us seems to have little relation to when it is most needed. The desire to train comes, for me, most strongly at the beginning and…
Notes from the Field #1
Northern Talkeetna Mountains, July 23, 2010. Copied by hand into my notebook from course documents. “I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees: all the times I have enjoyed Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those…
Moon Above the Ice Field
Moon Above the Ice Field, originally uploaded by raventrickster. “It’s hard to describe to somebody why you do it, but the important thing, and the lesson almost is THAT you do it. Simply that you do IT. SOMETHING. You try…
The Only Muscle Worth Training
From House of Frieh: “A very wise man told me recently this: “Others discuss and even argue about which training method is the ‘best.’ I’ve participated in that conversation. I won’t now though because – the way most people do…
The Year of Resurrection
I made a list last night of everyone that I admired who passed away this year. It was mostly climbers, from Johnny Copp and Guy Lacelle to Shane McConkey, but there were some others on the list. I had planned…
Unique Little Snowflake
You have been told from childhood, “You are a unique snowflake”. Well you’re not and I’m not. If you weren’t given the gift you can’t get the gift so the best you can do – if your goal is important…
Plains Running
From an airplane on my way to Utah, as written on the inside-back cover of The Myth of American Exceptionalism: The pilot, swinging a more southerly route than usual, brought to my right-side window the length of the Cascades, stretching…