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 […]
Featured photo: Escalante wilderness at sunset. 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. One of the most remote wilderness areas in the country, […]
Photo: Lake Independence, Minnesota, March 2022 The pedals rotate unevenly— my left foot loses contact with the pedal for a brief arc over the course of a full revolution. My triceps ache. My lower back hurts. For the last fifty years this is the right of spring: back on the bike after the northern winter […]
Featured Photo: Skate skis on perfect corduroy, Baker Park, Minnesota, February 2022 Olga Kotelko (1919-2014) was a Canadian track and field athlete. In his marvelous, well-written book What Makes Olga Run? Author Bruce Grierson documents her life and extraordinary achievements. Olga took up track at age 77… for fun. By her early 90s, she held […]
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 […]
Photo: The ultimate fat burn—nine days, eighty miles off-trail alpine hiking. Bonneville Pass with Pronghorn Peak, Wind River Range, Wyoming 2017. Slipping off my pack, I slumped to the alpine tundra back resting against a granite boulder… exhausted. It was late afternoon, the sun tracking low in the sky above the mountain ridge to the […]
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. […]
Photo: Climbing with flow on the Rigid Designator, Vail, Colorado It sucks getting old. I hear that phrase all the time. Does it really suck? The alternative to aging is— death. We choose to live or die. If you are going to live, then make it count. Create a work of art with your life […]
Photo: On the podium with a silver medal in the distance time trial, 2021 Minnesota Senior games I feel the adrenalin surging as the timing judge counts down the seconds: three, two, and one. The starter judge drops her hand. I stand on one pedal, push off, clip in the other foot. Gaining speed, I […]
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. […]