Turns out I was to stay on the second floor of the shack, which turned into a night from hell. Russians and Kazakhs have a firm belief that heaters need to be on full blast at all times, and windows should never be opened for any reasons (this is also causing some sweaty problems at my apartment in Almaty). It was a long night between trying to sleep in a sauna and the sound of mice scurrying in the walls.
Category: Mountaineering
Пик Кумбель (Kumbel Peak) – Summertime
To see and hear such amazing energy generated from hiking and seeing mountains, from people who hardly knew such things before that exact moment, was a simple reminder about why I am here and who I am. While I love traveling and I am really starting to enjoy teaching, I realized four years ago while hitchhiking across Norway that when I am in the mountains, I am completely at home.
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Mt. Elbert on Memorial Day (Reblog)
(Editor’s Note:I skied this line back in 2009 with Jenny. I didn’t really take any pictures the second time around, so I’ll point you to Collin’s well-written post about our Memorial Day Mission.)
On May 28th Jon Jay and I set out for an early morning assault toward a thin Box Creek Cirque on Mt. Elbert. I climbed Mt. Massive over 5 years ago and have wanted to get after Elbert for a while now. However, I figured if I was going to climb it, I’d rather get a good ski in as well. I’d just been waiting for the right time and Jon was down for the trip… it was on!
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The Hopeful Couloir
We hooted and hollered all the way down, sharing high-fives and reveling in the prime conditions underneath glorious weather. Moments of celebration like this were so few and far between this season; the better ones like this seemed more valuable than ever before.
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Skiing a 13er in January?
The only sign of instability occurred when Maggi took a tumble and I skied up to check on her when we were just entering treeline. She was OK, and when she made about 3 turns away from me, the slope I was standing on made an ominous "whoompf" as the snow settled. Maggi called back to tell me she just saw it crack, but I was already straight-lining to safer terrain. The slope did not slide, but instead just gave us a verbal reminder that it was January 2nd in the San Juans.
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June + July
I put this together, so hopefully it makes the next 7 minutes of your day more enjoyable.