Adventure
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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…
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The Art of Letting Go: Living in the Moment
Photo: Looking up at Wimpys, my exit tracks on the left, Grand Teton National Park, January 2022 “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery none but ourselves can free our minds” Bob Marley: Redemption Song My skis slip… again. I say to myself, “Why can’t you do this? Are you too old? Too weak” I am struggling…
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The Winds of Change: Fifty Years Hiking and Climbing in the Wind River Range of Wyoming
Featured Photo: Middle Fork Lake with Pronghorn Peak and Mt Bonneville in the far background, Wind River Range, Wyoming “The Earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the Earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth.…
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On Being Flexible: Buck Mountain Solo
Featured photo: Buck Mountain in winter. Credit Jinrui Qu I step out of the pine forest into the meadow, touched by the first light of a new day. After three days of heavy rain, the air smells cool and clean. On a ridge marking the far side of the meadow, the silhouette of two elk.…
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Gary’s Big Day: Training for Adventure
Photo: Gary on the summit of the Grand Teton 13,775 feet, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. Photo credit: Gary Christensen collection. Sweat rolls down our foreheads and into our eyes. The steep, rocky trail offers no relief from the mid-day sun; not a breath of wind, 92 degrees and humid. Reaching the top of the…
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A Body at Rest: The Science behind a Good Night’s Sleep
Photo: Pingora, Wind River Range, Wyoming. The 1200 foot Northeast Face route, one of the Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, ascends the middle of the face. Awaking from a fitful sleep, I check the time, 1:30 am. Wake up alarm coming in 90 minutes. It is mid-August 2009 in the Cirque of the Towers,…
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Listening to Your Inner Voice: A Backcountry Solo
The ski track ended at tree line, the top of a three thousand vertical foot backcountry ski run called Mavericks at ten thousand feet elevation on the east flank of Buck Mountain, in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. I started breaking my own trail, but quickly gave up. Strong winds were transporting thirty inches of…
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Best Friends
January 1978, Bob McCord was breaking trail and I reluctantly followed. We aimed for a low angle ramp between steeper slopes topped with five foot cornices: wind-blown snow at the tops of ridges curled like Dairy Queen Cones. The slope steepened. We made a switchback turn. Behind me, I heard a soft crack and a…
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Gone With The Winds
Featured Photo: The Fortress from Alpine Lakes, Wind River Range, Wyoming Photo: War Bonnet and Warrior, Cirque of the Towers. Driving south from Green River Lakes, our exit trailhead, to Sweetwater Gap trailhead at the southern end on the range, you crest a hill just outside Pinedale, Wyoming. From the top of the hill, stretches…
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Grand Anniversary: One Mountain, Two Climbers, Three Generations
Photo: Grand Teton summit, Charlie and Steve Markusen, July 2019 Forty feet below the summit of the Grand Teton we paused as a gaggle of Exum guides and clients passed by us on their descent. It was 9:30 in the morning on July 27, 2019. My son Charlie and I had left Petzoldt’s Caves…