Living Passionately
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The Weak Link: Variability in Aging
Photo: The author at age fifty after climbing the Colorado Route on King Fisher Tower, Fisher Towers, Utah 2004. Credit Paul Gardner The woman I am talking to has asked me the same question five times in the last twenty minutes. I expect this. It’s been going on for the last five years. She is…
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My Aching Back: Managing Lower Back Pain
Featured Photo: The origin of my lower back pain: backcountry telemark skiing. Berthoud Pass, CO 1979. Credit Dale Anderson It’s 5:30 AM. Turning off the shower, I grab the squeegee to clean the glass door. Lifting it over my head, I feel a twinge in my lower back— red light. My lower back muscles spasm.…
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Show Up and Pay Attention
Photo: Smiling because I’m done training for 2024 and I qualified for the 2025 National Senior Games Straddling my bike, I wait my turn to start the 5K time trail. The race referee sends off a rider every 30 seconds starting with the 50 year olds working up to my 70 to 74 age group.…
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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…