Meditations
The Heart of the Desert
Years ago, Edward Abbey concluded that the desert had no heart. I wonder if he just didn't look upstream.
Latest
Search & Rescue
Mountain Rescues
When I worked as a Jenny Lake climbing ranger in Grand Teton National Park, I would often take my dinner over to the west porch of the rescue cache. Our cabins were nestled along Cottonwood Creek on the east side of Lupine Meadows and from my evening vantage, I could
Meditations
Meditations on Suffering
Not long ago, I was in the upper reaches of Bells Canyon in the Wasatch Range and came across an older man grimacing as he sat awkwardly next to his pack. I've broken my fibula, I believe, he said. I'm a retired orthopedic surgeon. I don&
Avalanche
The Power of Belief
There is a lone Engelmann spruce that stands near the bottom of the Hogum Fork drainage in Little Cottonwood Canyon that is often referred to as The Medicine Tree. Hogum Fork is difficult to reach in winter and perhaps even more so in summer. But the tree. She must be
Meditations
Swimming with the Perseids
My good friend Miles completed the Teton picnic a couple of weeks ago. This was a good outing for the 20 year old....but what made it mind-bending was that he was swimming across Jenny Lake at 3am during the Perseid meteor shower. Imagine swimming in 65° degree water watching
Meditations
Cold Mountain
Some studies have revealed that our current drought is more severe than the one that turned the Plateau into a ghost town almost a thousand years ago. So we headed to Ridgeway and Crested Butte as climate refugees. For my friend Jerry Roberts Here for Cold Mountain. Instead - old
Meditations
The Monsoons
The monsoons missed us last night. One could see gunmetal grey all around us and pretty colors on the radar in a circle but we saw not a drop of rain. (I had to go back into the archives Jan 5, 2010 for the piece below). There is a beautiful
Meditations
Are You Resilient?
I didnt mean I'd seen everything, John Grady said. I know you didnt. I just meant I'd seen things I'd as soon not of. I know it. There's hard lessons in this world. What's the hardest? I don't
Meditations
The Power of Storytelling
I worked for many years as a climbing ranger in Grand Teton National Park. The old joke was that superintendents come and go, but the rangers stay forever. One of the more memorable superintendents was David Vela. Vela was a large man with an even larger personality. He had a
Meditations
The Cities of the Plain
Last week, two backcountry snowboarders in Colorado agreed to probation and community service. The year before, they had triggered an avalanche and submitted the GoPro footage and the relevant data to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. But it wasn't just any avalanche. The slide destroyed an O'
Meditations
The Caineville Case Study
A few years ago, a shirtless man walked up to a Chevron gas pump with an empty gas can, paid for five gallons of gasoline and promptly dumped all of the contents over his head. Then he walked into the store. Within minutes, the cops arrived, cleared the building and
Meditations
Renny's Epic Failures
I've had some conversations with some good friends lately who are eager to cut their teeth and head out on some adventures. They're young and - in a nod to Joseph Campbell - keen to look not for the meaning of life so much as the