Mountaintop adventures
January 27, 2025
We arrived at Refugio San Gabriel in the late afternoon. This was the lower of two huts we’d stay at en route to summit Cayambe, Ecuador’s third-tallest peak. Summit day would involve high winds, crevasse-riddled glaciers, and volcanic rock, high above tree-line. But here just below 12,000′ elevation, the scene involved grazing cows and shrubby trees swaying in the breeze.
Continue reading “Volcán Cayambe”
Jan 24, 2025
We arrived at Ecuador‘s Cotacachi-Cayapas National Park for a quick hike around the gorgeous Cuicocha Lake. We unloaded our bus, fresh from trundling up the hillside above Otavalo in the Andean Highlands north of Quito. The park was almost entirely empty on this drizzly Friday in late-January—quiet, moody, and ours to explore.
Continue reading “Cuicocha Lake Loop”
Jan 23, 2025
In January 2025 I joined a guided trip to summit some of the Ecuador’s tallest volcanoes. Typically, getting to a 19,000′ summit involves a lot of time huddled in tents, rehydrating freeze dried dinners, and staring at endless snow and ice. But climbing in Ecuador would not involve any of this “fun.” The benign climate of the equator meant we could acclimate in cities and relaxing haciendas at progressively higher altitudes. And we wouldn’t be dealing with any snow or ice until the “summit days” themselves.
Continue reading “Ruku Pichincha”
Jan 3, 2025
I parked in one of the large, paid lots at the base of Manitou Springs. It was 7:45am on a Friday in early January, and the lot was basically deserted. From the lot, I caught a glimpse of a bullet-straight cut through the pines of the nearby foothills below Pikes Peak. That cut was my intended hike that morning: the Manitou Incline.
Continue reading “The Manitou Incline and Barr Trail to Barr Camp”
November 11, 2024
I touched down at SFO on a rainy November Monday for a work onsite. This was the first time I’d ever personally experienced robust rain in California (I was beginning to think it was a myth!). Water dripped from the terminal ceilings as I made my way to the cabs. The Bay Area is among the richest communities in world history. But apparently that didn’t guarantee much of anything in terms of public works.
Continue reading “San Bruno Mountain”
October 20, 2024
It was late October, and we were nearing the end of “dry” hiking season in the Colorado Rockies. The aspens were bare. The bushes had turned orange and brown. And a recent snowfall dusted talus fields on the highest summits.
Continue reading “Mystic Island Lake”
October 13, 2024
I spend a lot of time in Eagle County, Colorado. So it was only a matter of time before I tried the much-hyped Booth Falls trail. The timing was more or less an accident. I’d overheard that this weekend in October was the last for the “hiker express” bus between Vail Village and the Booth Lake/Booth Falls trailhead.
Continue reading “Booth Lake and Booth Falls”
September 20, 2024
I arrived shortly after 9am at the carpark in Craster. It was a moody morning in late September in this tiny coastal village in Northumberland. I walked down towards the small harbor, where I could see the misty North Sea beyond its walls.
Continue reading “Dunstaburgh Castle (Northumberland)”