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”
August 28, 2022
Our truck ambled slowly up the rough road to the South Colony Lakes Trailhead. It was mid-morning on a gorgeous, sunny Saturday in late August. Puffy white clouds had begun to coagulate as we donned our packs and divvied up the climbing gear.
Continue reading “Crestone Needle via the Ellingwood Arete”
September 25, 2021
Our “day” began around 1:30 am. Yes, you read that right. The forecast called for unstable weather in the Elk Mountains that afternoon. And so my guide advised we meet in the parking lot at Aspen Highlands before the bars in town had even closed.
Continue reading “The Maroon Bells Traverse”
September 1, 2020
I met my guide just before dawn for our ascent of Three Fingered Jack: a craggy, prominent remnant of a shield Volcano in central Oregon. This would be, far and away, my most technical rock ascent. As such, we had met the day before at Smith Rock to tune up my climbing skills.
Continue reading “Three Fingered Jack”
August 31, 2020
I met my guide in the parking lot at Smith Rock State Park for a day of introductory sport climbing. After introductions, and a quick gear check, we set off on a short hike towards the day’s climbing targets.
Continue reading “Sport Climbing in the Marsupials at Smith Rock”
August 6, 2020, Lone Pine
The morning after successfully summiting Mount Whitney, I joined a friend for some rock climbing in the nearby Alabama Hills. We had spent the night in Lone Pine, roughly 4000′ below the trailhead for Whitney.
Continue reading “Rock climbing in the Alabama Hills”
August 14, 2018, Paradise WA
In summer 2018 I signed up for a guided mountaineering seminar on Mount Rainier, in the gorgeous Cascade Range. Four years earlier I visited a friend getting her Ph.D. from UW in nearby Seattle. It was my first time in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest. While roaming around town, I caught my first glance of Rainier, towering over the landscape. It was unlike any mountain I had seen before, clearly taller and more isolated than anything in the Rockies, let alone the Northeast. I asked my friend if we could hike it. She looked at me like I had three heads and said “What?! No! You need to like, train for that. And acclimate. It’s like a real mountain.” I decided then and there that the next time I was in Washington, I was climbing Mount Rainier.
Continue reading “Mount Rainier (PNW)”