Hiking & Climbing
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Walking Meditation: Hiking the North Shore Highlands
Photo: Superior Hiking Trail, Minnesota October 2025 The trail underfoot is carpeted with fallen leaves: amber, gold, copper and cinnamon. I stroll between stands of red pine, jack pine, balsam fir, white spruce, aspen, maple, oak and the occasional magnificent white pine. Above me, branches arch like the ceiling of a cathedral illustrated with gold…
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Into the Badlands: An Uncomfortable Adventure
Featured Photo: Bonneville Lake with Bonneville Peak in the background. Wind River Range, Wyoming 2025 Colorful rock outcrops surrounding my truck radiate with the light of the setting sun. This is Badlands National Park in South Dakota. It is August 2025 and I am on my way from Minnesota to the Wind River Range of…
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Valhalla: Hall of Heroes
I walk the dirt road leading to the Diamond Acre ranch which sits in a verdant meadow in Grand Teton National Park with the Grand Teton towering 7000 vertical feet above. The Sunday afternoon air is warm and scented with late spring flowers. Light shoots forth from the snowfields high on the Grand Teton and…
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Finding Joy in Suffering
Featured Image: the author on the ledge above the Kor Roof, South Face of Washington Column, Yosemite, CA 2001. Credit Paul Gardner. he ledge was two feet wide and sloping; not the most comfortable belay stance. One thousand feet below, the Merced River winds its way through the floor of Yosemite National Park. Across the…
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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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The Longest Day
His Father Died At His Feet. 50 Years Later The Accident Still Haunts Him. The author lost his father in an accident at the crag nearly 50 years ago. He’s taken that long to be able to write about it. Featured photo: David Markusen (left) and Steve Markusen on the summit of the Grand Teton…
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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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Mindful Movement: Moving in the Present
Photo: Mindful movement in a high risk environment South Buttress Right, Mt. Moran, WY, 1995. Credit: Paul Gardner The sun-washed granite rock is warm to the touch; the alpine air cool and fresh. My rock shoes are smeared onto tiny depressions 2000 vertical feet above the floor of Leigh Canyon. The climbing rope in front…