Crooked Thumb is the spectacular skyline pinnacle of Teewinot Mountain in the Teton Range, Wyoming. This quirky summit is seldom climbed.
Welcome to Crooked Thumb! Created by Steve Markusen, Crooked-Thumb is designed to inspire and inform. Dedicated to health, fitness and adventure, our site connects you with articles and resources to enlighten your mind, body and soul. We offer personal training and nutrition plans for recreational and competitive athletes; adventure sport athletes and travelers; and for those with interested in improving their health, fitness, body weight and composition.
For over 50 years, Steve has been pursuing high risk adventures. He is a competitive cyclist, expert rock & ice climber, ski mountaineer, and paraglider pilot. In addition to being a published writer, Steve is a personal trainer, nutrition coach, and cycling coach.
DISCOVER PUBLICATIONS
The Longest Day
The dog days of August 1974 had found us at our local crag. Perched on the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin, Taylors Falls is a narrow gorge of billion-year-old basalt, 40-foot cliffs carved 10,000 years ago by the meltwaters of retreating glaciers. The gorge hosts over a hundred trad- and sport-climbing routes. Relatively flat ground above…
JULIAN
ADELAIDE LITERARY AWARD ANTHOLOGY 2020 Steven Markusen Julian “Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us. They go together.” —Pema Chodron, The Pocket Pema Chodron Julian sits across from me in a Spartan classroom in the education department of the Duluth Federal Prison Camp. A bundle of barely restrained kinetic…
DISCOVER HEALTH & FITNESS
Getting Back to Strength Training — or Making What You’re Doing Actually Work
STRENGTH TRAINING — AGES 40 TO 80 What the research supports, what changes after 40, and how to build a program that fits where you are right now. Steven Markusen CPT Featured Photo: Buck Mountain and Avalanche Canyon from the Ullr Ridge, GTNP, February 2026 FOREWORD The sun makes a fleeting appearance between waves of…
Burning Fat for Fuel
Photo: The early bird gets the worm: first tracks on the XX Face of Mt. XXXX, Teton Pass, WY 2025 The buried ski track winds through Lodgepole pine and Douglas fir, branches laden with snow. It is 7:30 am, January, 2025. The sun peaks over the Gros Ventre Mountains bathing Teton Pass Ridge in dawn…
DISCOVER ADVENTURE
Into the Badlands: An Uncomfortable Adventure
Featured Photo: Bonneville Lake with Bonneville Peak in the background. Wind River Range, Wyoming 2025 Colorful rock outcrops surrounding my truck radiate with the light of the setting sun. This is Badlands National Park in South Dakota. It is August 2025 and I am on my way from Minnesota to the Wind River Range of…
Valhalla: Hall of Heroes
I walk the dirt road leading to the Diamond Acre ranch which sits in a verdant meadow in Grand Teton National Park with the Grand Teton towering 7000 vertical feet above. The Sunday afternoon air is warm and scented with late spring flowers. Light shoots forth from the snowfields high on the Grand Teton and…
