Cortina Our younger selves would cringe if they could see how we have grown to embrace the more refined aspects of mountain culture as we have aged (certainly not matured!). We have always had a thing for...
Worshiping From Afar At some level don't we all want to be worshiped, adored even? One may be loathe to admit it but all of us, even those with the least amount of narcissistic tendencies have a trace amount of the...
Why? Force 7 Winds On An Atlantic Crossing If you would know the age of the earth, look upon the sea in a storm. The grayness of the whole immense surface, the wind furrows upon the faces of the waves,...
At What Price Pride The question is often asked "who we are?" or "what do we do?". Quite a bit of confusion abounds over how to get hold of one of our shirts, coats, or other splendid things we find along the...
The island of French magicians and a question of returning to the past. The roar of the plane is still with us, the buffeting of wind and air as we leave the sky behind, the tear drops of island chains in the blueness,the massive shining depths beyond the reef,the bumpiness of the...
Greeneland As the moon lay heavy on the thick, lapping banks of the Ben Hai, I walked slowly yet purposefully. The day had brought great promise for the journey that lay ahead, but I thought it prudent to cross...
The long goodbye The wooden ferry lurches forward and a plume of smoke settles over lower town dock. As we pull away we are waving at my mother. The children with their new splashes of freckles and sand flecked hair wave...
Imperial Black, Lieutenant Twiss & a Darjeeling Hill Station Shimla Matheran Darjeeling smoke and dawn in the foothills of the Himalaya Darjeeling & Kanchenjunga a temple of monkeys A British past Hill stations and the lives...
Continental Drift The pilot seems a good sort. Every now and then I am awakened from my West bound slumber as the intercom sings nasally and he points out various geographic features sliding by below the wing. We are taking...
Out of sorts on the Ides of March March has us jangled and out of sorts. One could easily write off the whole month as nothing seemed to go as planned but our predicament certainly wasn't for lack of trying. The path leads through...
Dr No & Round Hill An early swim out to the small, horse shoe reef has been the only thing pressing each day.. I swim out, feeling the water move from chill to warm then chill again as I approach the drop off. Two...
Armchair Mountaineers- Planning to Plan inspiration in oxidation. One of E.H's Plans begin to unfold something north that involves...
A North Woods Sky We are sitting next to the large purple buddleia. It's dusky smell making itself known when allowed by the stiffening breeze coming off Sturgeon Bay. Behind us I hear the drunken drone of bumble bees as they...
Angling South Usually June and July see us overseas with a lazy, late afternoon realization that it is the fourth. Shrug, nod in the general direction of where you think the United States are and then it's back to a cold...
Wishing every month of the year could be June The ferry leaves the dock with a slow, groaning inertia. Engines idle hungrily under the diesel thump as air conditioners and fans are pushed to high. Cars packed like those in a cannery settle in for...
