Living Passionately
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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,…
-
Don’t Let The Old Man In: Seven Strategies For Adding life To Your Years
Photo: Steve and Charlie Markusen on the summit of the Grand Teton, Wyoming. From August 2019, fifty years after Steve first climbed the Grand with his dad Dave Markusen in 1969. “I just get up every day and don’t let the old man in.” Clint Eastwood Aging is like rust—it never sleeps. As we…
-
THE WARRIOR
ADELAIDE LITERARY AWARD ANTHOLOGY 2020 Steven Markusen The Warrior “This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the…
-
Gaining Fitness, Losing Weight and Slowing Aging with Interval Training
Photo: Doing what I love to do at age 65. Deep in the Escalante Grand Staircase wilderness, Utah; on a eight day, eighty mile off-trail through hike. May 2019. Photo Credit Paul Gardner In my previous What I Learned newsletter, https://crooked-thumb.com/2021/04/07/interval-training-live-longer-live-healthier/ I defined interval training, how it works and the benefits of incorporating interval training…
-
Interval Training: Live Longer, Live Healthier
Photo: Steve taking the inside line to a third place podium finish at the 2008 Hopkins Raspberry Criterium. Like the namesake chariot races from Roman times, riding the fine line between control and mayhem. Interval training is not just for competitive athletes. A number of years ago I took on a client in his early…
-
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…
-
Creatures of Habit: Small Changes—Big Results
Photo: 2017 Minnesota Senior Games gold medals. Another bike race, another hill… and once again I was dropped from the lead riders. For years I struggled to lose weight failing time after time. Bad habits in control, I ate and drank too much; and over trained. When I hit 60 years old, my weight was…
-
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…