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.
Tag: mountains
Toes of the Tien Shan
We made out way back down slowly, mindful of the slick trail and non-hiking footwear of my coworkers, and found the bus stop. It was a terrific weekend on the Toes of the Tien Shan Mountains, and I have a feeling I will continue to spend a significant amount of time there this year.
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An American Roadtrip
The next morning, I intended to go on a ~9 mile run to Hermitage Point, a peninsula that juts into Jackson Lake. I took a wrong turn at one point, so it turned into an 11.5 mile run, but the views were well worth the work to get there.
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Scenic Photos from Barnard Hut
Advice for those looking for it: Stay more than one night; go here if you are looking for mellow ski terrain and good views; and make sure you come back to Aspen when there is some stereotypical wild techno-champagne party at the base of Aspen Mountain (complete with tacky, expensive outerwear) to make it feel as if you took a wrong turn in Basalt and ended up in Europe somehow...
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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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Catching Up with the Fall 2011: Conundrum Hot Springs
After an early-ish start, we finished the last hour of the hike and arrived at the Hot Springs, which had a total of four people at first. For reasons pictured at the beginning of this post, I didn't take many pictures at the Springs themselves. After a few hours, the place became packed with people, and I think there were close to twenty in the big pool by the time we decided to leave.
