25 Jun Finding Solitude in the Desert
Sometimes it’s not about the destinations we visit so much as the in-between places along the way—even when those places are in the middle of nowhere....
26 Mar Comps, Chaos and Covid-19
Concrete chalk. That was the texture of the snow on Taos’ West Basin, a steep and slippery swath of terrain at New Mexico’s biggest ski area. It was also the venue of the next day’s big-mountain competition, which I was in. Hard as heck, but...
27 Nov Magical Days at the Muir Hut
Sitting on our gigantic backpacks, our shoulders feel like Celtic knots, painfully twisted. Ten hours of ski touring carrying 50 pounds of winter camping gear has turned my wife Allison and my once-supple torsos into tough, overcooked meat. Daylight is fading fast, but we have...
27 Nov The Wild and Wonderful World of Whistler Blackcomb
Canada’s Whistler Blackcomb is epic. Just two hours’ drive north of Vancouver airport along the scenic Sea-to-Sky Highway, the British Columbian ski resort is impressive by any measure....
27 Sep Riding Rainier’s Rivers of Ice
Mount Rainier rises like a wayward iceberg from the green sea of moss, fir and ferns that drape both sides of the White River. Towering 10,000 vertical feet above us, it is a disorienting and intimidating glacial behemoth creased and crinkled by yawning crevasses and...
02 Dec Traversing the Toiyabes on a Faint Footpath
I sometimes envision the highways and off-beaten paths that crisscross Nevada’s vast landscape as contrails intersecting in the sky. They are expansive, multi-dimensional, and lead to endless and sometimes unchartered corners of a map. Many of these roads were built with dreams of finding silver or...
02 Dec Subterranean Secrets
Caves harbor secrets so intriguing that spelunkers will go to extreme lengths to uncover them. They will search for days to find a hidden opening or dive into unforgiving darkness. They will squirm through tight tunnels and narrow crevices based on nothing more than a...
03 Oct Go Big in Banff
O Canada! Your natural charms are many, but perhaps none so staggeringly stunning as the steep, snow-covered summits belonging to Banff National Park. Established in 1885, not long after three Canadian Pacific Railway workers stumbled upon a series of natural hot springs, the 2,564-square-mile swath...
01 Oct Crossing Paths with History
A backcountry snowboarding adventure into the Great Western Divide Mileage smileage. This is one of those High Sierra adventures where it’s better not to know exactly how far we’re trying to go. Distances and elevations spinning in our heads might only distract from our confidence. The...
25 Jun High Sierra Skywalking
Bucket-list adventure achieved: Climbing five fourteeners in a day Perched on a narrow ledge, I lean out from the rocky mountain face to scan the terrain above me. I can see a scrappy corner that’s climbable, but the rock looks sketchy, too loose to risk messing...