Jul 27 2012
© 1994 1994, May 17, Day V on the Wall One more perfect day followed before a cloud bank appeared and we narrowly escaped a whiteout on the descent from 14,500′ to the serac camp at 11,000′. Skins worked well on the ascent to 12,800′, where the Canadian Route becomes a knife–edge ridge dropping away …
Jul 20 2012
© 1994 1994: May 11, Day VII of the approach In clear weather we skinned across the Peters Glacier, trying to focus on the views rather than contemplate its hidden dangers. With only two of us on this checkerboard of crevasses we were nervous, the saga of Jim Wickwire and Chris Kerebrock always at …
Jul 13 2012
1994: May 4-5, The adventure begins… A storm kept our photographer Bill Stevenson, John, and I from departing on May fourth, but we hit a good send-off party with halibut, moose, and beer instead. We finalized gear the next morning, and taxied across the runway in John’s sleek white ’76 Caddy. Motivation was high. …
Jul 06 2012
A slide now, while skiing in the center of the upper face, would carry me over 10,000-feet over cliffs and icefalls to a frozen, broken death. But we were confident in the results of our snow stability tests and I was having the run of my life, the culmination of every moment I’ve ever spent in the mountains. The higher power, grinning from ear-to-ear, had given us the nod. We got away with it!
Jun 29 2012
Edward Abbey referred to the urban scene as “syphilization.” We read between the lines and suspect a cure for the most subtle of modern maladies, the condition caused by the strained nervous sense of urgency that seems to define life in the city.
Jun 07 2012
© 2002 “Bet the person who skied that face soiled his shorts.” Nils Larsen, telemark videographer, telemark instructor, telemark equipment consultant, and all around zealot of this subspecies of skiing, is standing beside me studying the face of Excelsior Mountain, a 12,446 foot peak near the northeastern border of Yosemite National Park and the tracks …
Apr 07 2012
Now when you consider that the main reason people don’t ski more is because they don’t have partners you have to wonder what is up with the hard core earn your turns types, like you and me. Does that mean we’re the friendliest skiers out there and we log that many days ‘cuz we exude a je ne sais quoi magnetism that attracts others to us all the time?
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