Jubilant Song
There are moments in climbing that come to fully embody and realize all of the work that led to that instant. These are the times outside of our thinking monkey minds, when the realm of what is possible is investigated…
Category Adventures, Travel, & Writing
North of the Border
I’m standing in the Northernmost stand of Joshua trees, or so the plaque says. This plaque I discovered while wandering up a deserted wash, just north of some numbered state route just north of the Arizona border. Arizona’s so close…
Wind River Fall
A summer has passed through the Wind River mountains once more, and the wind’s gone cold. Out of the field again, I’ve gained nothing more material than a good solid stink, but this trip in particular got the wheels turning…
The Challenge
(This post has been relocated to another date, though it was really published in December of 2011. There are good reasons for this that will not be explained.) Other people always tell me that they envy my lifestyle. At least,…
Where Have All The Warriors Gone?
The consequences are part of the appeal, and character comes of consequence. There’s a line in Fight Club that says, “We are a generation of men raised by women.” That’s not quite the problem. One of the big perks of…
10,000 Hours to Mastery
I’ve heard it said from many sources, all stemming from one study (which I can’t quite track down), that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a subject, skill, or discipline. True. And false. These days, if you want…
Baptizing the New Year
At the beginning of last year I wrote about the Year of Resurrection. 2010 was an incredible year– as the economy began to recover, along with the generals sense of world possibility, great things again became possible. In my little…
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…
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…