A Routine Courthouse Climb

"If you never test your limits, how will you know what they are?"  Lene Gammelgaard, A Woman's Account Of Surviving The Everest Tragedy.

Climbing Duco: An Exercise in Mental and Physical Maintenance

"I discovered a passion to live my days fully, a conviction that will sustain me like sweet water on the periodically barren plain of our short lives.”  Jonathan Waterman

Red Mountain 3 to Red Mountain 2: A Gobsmacked Ridge-Run

We had all day to play above timberline. No threat of thunder and lightning, just deep blue sky overlaid with a smattering of vaporous white clouds, and a carpet of endless rolling tundra to hike on... now all greened up from recent monsoons. Perfect time to dig something out of the ole bucket of lists and get 'er done...

"Soberly Astonished" on The Ridge to Gilpin

“Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains?” ― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

The Missing Peace; and Stellar Light, Shadow and Color on Gilpin Ridge...

"What we want from art is whatever is missing from the lives we are already living... Something is always missing. Jane Hirshfield

One Hike, Two Lakes and Four Tired Legs...Oh, and one pair of Ptarmigan, but not in a Pear Tree

I sent out invitations to a few friends to join us for a hike to Bullion King Lake and beyond. Bobbie and I have been itching to try the "beyond" part—up and over the saddle/pass above Bullion King basin—a cross-county search for Columbine Lake. In the ineffable words of Gomer Pyle, "sir-prize, sir-prize, sir-prize;"  Nobody responded to my invitation. Maybe it was the vague wording...or the distinct possibility of an endless, high altitude traipse across tundra and scree and boulders that ends with a 911 call...