Through sheer luck I had a window seat on the left side of the plane and it was a clear enough day to see much of the terrain between Santiago and Punta Arenas. You fly over the Andes and a region known as the Southern Patagonian Ice Field. I had forgotten my good camera in North Carolina, but bless the engineers that work for Apple that my phone is capable of capturing images I will be forever grateful for.
I took a plane from Las Vegas to my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. Was there for a few days then drove with my parents up to New Jersey to visit family. Stayed there for a bit longer than expected, but was nice to visit with extended family that I don’t see often. Then it was a Bolt Bus to Manhattan, NYC. (Thanks for the ride Uncle George!). After a lovely, but too brief visit with my sister, I took a train out to Jamaica, NY. Then another short train to the airport. Then it was time to get on a plane to Santiago, Chile.
I was visiting Montana and my friend Conor and I made a somewhat last-minute trip up to the town of Squamish for 4 days in June of this year. Such a beautiful place with some marvelous granite. Can’t wait to get back there.
Managed to get 8 days or so on the rock at Indian Creek over 2 long weekends and the week off for Thanksgiving. There were some cold nights but the days were marvelous.
Featuring a rescue of someone who fell a long ways and could have easily died along with me doing a first ascent and installing my first anchor ever. Richard got the first free ascent of the route (named ‘Pizza Party’) and said the anchor looked `perfect’. I was pleased.
Thanks to Richard, and Anna for the lovely company and all the climbing inspiration. They know how to get after it.
This was in late September. The Maroon Bells are Maroon Peak and North Maroon peak. They are two of the 58 mountains in Colorado that are above 14 thousand feet tall. Thanks to Juddson for the plan.
Although we didn’t have ropes, I would call this a climb as there were quite a few places where you were on very steep terrain doing 4th and 5th class moves.
Mom and I drove up from NJ to Maine to visit John Bisignano, a long-time friend of our family. John lives on the coast of Maine in Owl’s Head, a small town just south of Rockland. We spent a few days up there enjoying the slow pace of rural life. Thanks to John for being such a fantastic host!
After about 10 years of relative consistence, I have fallen out from making new posts. This is the first update covering any event from the last 2 years of my life. Since that time I’ve been living and teaching in Denver, CO.
The last several weeks I have taken two separate trips to the City of Rocks National Reserve, in southern Idaho. I had heard good things but never been. It is a sea of endless granite spires in the middle of nowhere. I thought it was awesome. These pictures are all from the first visit.
This took place last May. The original plan was to do the Muir Wall. We ended up spending 4 days climbing the lower part of the Muir Wall and then swung over to the Nose under the Great Roof. “The Triple Indirect”. We had some excellent weather and didn’t have to deal with any other climbers basically the whole time. A grand occasion.
A casual 4-pitch romp via Otto’s Route in Colorado National Monument. First climbed by John Otto, a quintessential outdoorsman whose one (and only?) marriage lasted a few weeks. His wife is quoted as saying “I tried hard to live his way, but I could not do it, I could not live with a man to whom even a cabin was an encumbrance.”
The first few days of what was to be a short stint trying out canyoneering life. Mid-March, 2016.
Winter rambling. I landed a job in Moab that I needed to get to by March 15th. I didn’t have a lot of confidence in the job, but at least it was a plan.
I felt like getting back to NC and having a roof over my head would make everything coherent. Didn’t quite work out completely as I planned. But what does, right? It was nice to see my family and be around the softness of the Appalachian Mountains.
“The point here is that I think this is one part of what teaching me how to think is really supposed to mean. To be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because, as it turns out, a huge percentage of what I am automatically sure of tends to be totally wrong and deluded”.
“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”
Transcript here
The next few weeks consisted of looking for places to go to be warm. At one point we were at the Grand Canyon on an extremely cold and windy day. Lots of time was spent in the visitor center trying to be warm.
Eventually we drove down to southern Arizona, going as far south as Organ Pipe National Monument, on the border of Mexico. It was blissfully warm but not much going on down there. Tuscon, AZ involved visiting Saguaro National Park and some rock climbing at Mt. Lemmon.
We were invited to Thanksgiving at our friend Michelle’s parents house in Sedona, Arizona. That was a lovely stay. No longer cold, being treated like family. We spent several days there, exploring the area with Michelle and her awesome parents. My first time in Sedona. It is a gorgeous area filled with new-agey people and red cliffs.
A few days in Sedona and Maggie and I drove back to Moab. We spent one last evening up at Dead Horse Point State Park. She had plans to check out the Sierra Nevadas and my plan was to drive back to Asheville, NC.
