The mission: To climb Australia’s highest mountain, Mt Kosciuszko (pronounced kahz-ee-ahz-koh) at 2,228 meters above sea level. The highest peak on the continent. A feat for anybody aiming to climb the highest peaks on each continent. A real notch for the climbing belt, if you ask me.

            We’ve all seen the dramatic frame-by-frame footage the 1980 Mt. St. Helens eruption. On second thought, “eruption” is not the right word, explosion or mountain-suicide is more fitting. Mt. St. Helens...

            The mountains of central Maine stand before me, mere round-topped hills compared to the the towering white-granite face of Mount Katahdin.  I have just cleared the scrubby, trees, shaped by the constant wind into crude natural...

The sun had set hours ago and the temperature had dropped to a point at which moving in our down jackets was comfortable. We were hungry and tired. Counting the approach, the climb, and the descent, we had already spent more than 10 hours in continuous movement. When we hit the approach trail, two...

I just posted a "Screening Log" entry on Not Coming to a Theater Near You about the new IMAX movie, The Alps. From my entry:

"Unlike some IMAX productions, The Alps has a
clear storyline: climber John Harlin III, whose namesake fell from the north
face of the Eiger when the younger Harlin was only 8...

Kicking crampons into steep ice at 21,000 ft, you have about the brain capacity of a six year old. Even the things that mattered most to you earlier that morning don't seem to concern you. You don't mind that its 40 degrees below zero. You don't even seem to care about the 50 mph gusts of wind trying...

Saludos a todos de Santiago,

Still alive down here in the old sur de america, and a lot has happened since I threw out the last grouper billy buddy so fasten your seatbelts low and tight across your lap and brace yourself for turbulance and a loss of cabin pressure, because we have a lot to talk...