When you haul your butt up a mountain
Whether you’re hiking, climbing or skiing, when you use your legs and feet to get up a mountain, you discover: Perspective. It’s obvious that as you climb higher, your point of view changes. How a mountain or valley appears from up high is different than it appears when you are down low. But the mountains give you more than just a different view. Mountain tops give you a different way of looking at life. How you look at yourself, nature and our place within it changes with gains in elevation. When you are surrounded by the results of geologic forces […]
Confessions of a beginner climber
I’ve taken up climbing. And not the corporate ladder style. After an introductory class in the climbing gym, I headed outdoors. First climbing sport routes, then mountaineering with some ice climbing, onto multi-pitch climbing and so on. I’ve been fortunate to have had many good climbing experiences in a relatively short time, especially for someone living in mountain-less Edmonton. However, after a one year accelerated program of learning, I must confess: Jamming and twisting your feet, which are equally jammed into tightly fitted climbing shoes, into mountain cracks and then using that vise-like leverage to hoist your body weight up to the […]