Living Passionately
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Resilience: Learned from Adversity
Photo: Tripp and Steve Markusen on the summit of the Grand Teton, Wyoming, August 8, 2024 As we reached the Upper Saddle at an elevation of 13,200 feet, I turned to my youngest son Tripp (age 24) and said, “Don’t worry about leading, I got this.” It is Thursday August 8, 2024, 9 am. We…
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There and Back Again: Gannett Peak, WY Fifty Year Anniversary Climb
Featured Photo: Paul gardner and me on the summit of Gannett Peak, highest point in Wyoming 50 years after my first ascent. To our left, is a sheer rock drop-off 1000 vertical feet to the Minor Glacier. To the right, a steep snowfield ends in a cliff falling 500 feet to the Gooseneck glacier. We…
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Live Better Longer: Learn Something New
Featured Photo: Looking out over the Virgin River from the last rappel at the mouth of Behuenin Canyon, Zion National Park, Utah. Credit Max Markusen We walk on flat white sand, red rock walls to the left and right rise a thousand feet framing an impossibly blue sky with puffy white clouds. The air carries…
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Training with a Plan, Part II: Light the Fire
Photo: Carrie Markusen in a cloud on the summit of Hailey Pass, Wind River Mountains, Wyoming 2023. Emerging from the forest, we follow a faint path winding through wet alpine tundra dotted with drooping Blue bells. Dark clouds scud across the sky pregnant with rain. A flash of lighting brightens the sky. I count, “One,…
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Total Eclipse of the Sun: A Wilderness Adventure
Photo: Waiting for the 2017 Total Eclipse of the sun with high tech glasses. The sun is obscured by thick clouds; the air heavy with the smell of wet rock and tundra. Winding through shards of granite and alpine wildflowers, the trail snakes upward toward the 11,000 foot pass. Approaching the pass the clouds thin,…
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Turning 70: Reflections on the Blue Zones
Photo: Looking forward. Roaring Fork Pass, Wind River Range, WY Skiing the last 100 yards to the parking lot I was feeling my age. My son Charlie and his friend Aiden were waiting at the car; just as they waited for me earlier at the top of Mavericks, a 5 mile, 3000 foot vertical backcountry…
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Fasting: Critical for Weight Loss
Photo: Pronghorn Peak from Bonneville Pass 5 days into an 8 day through hike in the Wind River Range, WY. At age 65 made possible by strength training, interval training and intermittent fasting. Mark was frustrated. He was out of shape, thirty pounds overweight and pre-diabetic. He came to me for strength training and help…
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Pain: The Body’s Call to Action
Photo: Credit Paul Gardner 2009. The view from Jackass Pass looking back at our rock climbing route which ascends directly up the classic 1200 foot Northeast Face of Pingora in the Wind River wilderness, Wyoming. Note my knee brace. Six weeks after our trip I had a total knee replacement. It was a memorable, but…
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What I learned this Week: Memory: How It works, Why it Changes with Age, and How to Manage that Change
Photo Charlie Markusen on a memorable pitch: The Window, Direct Petzold Ridge, Grand Teton, August 2018 Do you forget where you put your car keys? Mixed up the names of your kids? Last summer backpacking with my daughter in the Jim Bridger Wilderness I stopped to check my GPS. I resumed hiking, but left my…
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A Purposeful Life: Training for Sport, Adventure and Life
Photo: A purposeful life backpacking in the Escalante Wilderness. Credit: Paul Gardner, 2019. The names on the map tell stories: Scorpion Gulch, Deadman Ridge, Carcass Canyon, Fifty Mile Cliffs, Rattlesnake Bench and Little Death Hollow. This is the Escalante, three million acres of National Monument and National Recreation Area in Southern Utah; among the most…