Smoky Revelations
Great Smoky Mountains NP, NC
"At times, the width of the trail would be like a catwalk as the ground dropped sharply away on either side. Tennessee was still to my left, and North Carolina to my right..."


Hiking the Great Smokies
Great Smoky Mountains NP, NC
"The fall seems to be a pretty good time to hike the Smokies. There really aren't many folks on the trail, the weather is pleasantly cool, and you can see..."

Smiling at Fate
Squamish, BC
"Days of effort have welded sweat-soaked clothes to grimy skin, and thighs trembled under the weight of one more downhill step after thousands of feet of steep rocky trail under a full pack..."

All Powder, All the Time
Golden, BC
"Awaking to a bluebird dawn at the base of Rogers Pass, the sun glints off the surrounding crown of Selkirk Mountain peaks and reveals a blanket of freshly fallen snow..."


Elusive Jove Peak
Jove Peak, WA
"Rated 'advanced with high avalanche potential,' Jove Peak is one of those coveted ski tours that you do only when the conditions are right..."


Scaling Ouray Ice
Ouray Ice Park, CO
"Even armed with the knowledge I was in the safest ice-climbing environment imaginable, the intensity was immeasurable..."


The Minturn Mile
Minturn, CO
"Sitting neck deep in the most rotten snow in the Rockies, the irrefutable truth was forced through my skull faster than the crud crammed down my pants..."


Schussing Worm Flows
Mount St. Helens, WA
"The image of myself as a sun-kissed and suave telemark skier was quickly extinguished. This was a mogul run designed by evil worms..."


24-Hours of Adrenaline
Conyers, GA
"I had never been in a mountain bike race of any sort before. Some thought I was a little crazy for making a 24-hour race my first one..."


Ice Challenges
Estes Park, CO
"With my cerebral palsy, I wasn't sure I would be able to ice climb my first time out, but I've always had a love for adventure and challenges..."


Traipsing the White Mountains
White Mountains, NH
"The Zealand-Bond range is one of the most spectacular routes in the White Mountains of New Hampshire..."


Sunset on the Summit, Mt. Whitney Part II
Mt. Whitney, CA
"As the sun got lower and closer to sneaking behind the Red Spur ridgeline, the long red beams cast a wonderful glow on Mount Chamberlain looming above us to the southeast..."


Go West on Whitney
Mt. Whitney, CA
"There may be two routes to approach hiking up Mt. Whitney, but as far as I'm concerned, there's really only one way to go. Come from the west..."


Volcano High
Mt. St. Helens, WA
"After 4,000 feet of vertical gain, cresting over the crater rim of Mount St. Helens was way beyond my greatest expectations..."


Cascade Scrambles
Cascade Mountains, WA
"The scramble up the east ridge of Vesper is joyous - everything a scramble should be. The ridge drops a stunning thousand feet to both sides..."


Boarding Dunes
Great Sand Dunes, CO
"Soon enough, the sand began to feel like heavy spring snow and the familiar sensation of speed took hold..."


Tempting Fate
Vail, CO
"I should have turned back, but something pushed me further into ever more precarious and dangerous heights..."


Gold Fever
Vail, CO
"The first sign was the aspen. Just one, sitting high on the hillside, glowing like some coveted golden treasure from an Indiana Jones adventure..."


Soloing the West Face of Leaning Tower, Day Four
Yosemite, CA
"There was a little section of fourth-class climbing that needed to be done before I could start the rappels over the back-side of the Tower..."


Soloing the West Face of Leaning Tower, Day Three
Yosemite, CA
"Even though my instincts were to climb down, something drove me to press on. I had come to the Valley this week to prove something to myself..."


Soloing the West Face of Leaning Tower, Day Two
Yosemite, CA
"I woke up before first light, sometime around 5:30am, because I knew I had another long day ahead of me..."


Soloing the West Face of Leaning Tower
Yosemite, CA
"The lower part of the Tower overhangs an average of 110 degrees, while the upper section averages about 95 degrees - making it one of America's most continuously overhanging cliffs..."


Yurts on New York Mountain
New York Mountain, CO
"The promise of pristine alpine vistas, wild mountain meadows and cool, starry nights to come helped to hold my urge in check for the final trudge up to 11,200 feet..."


Finding Liberty on Liberty Ridge
Mt. Rainier, WA
"In the blink of an eye, Todd was violently spit off the slope. His rapidly accelerating body looked like a stiff board tumbling end over end..."


Mountain Dreams
Mt. Hood, OR
"The view from the top of Mt. Hood was spectacular...This is why I want to climb...This is why I feel like I can almost cry whenever I reach the top of a mountain..."


Make a Friend of Pain
Vail, CO
"There is a very genuine feeling of dread when you simultaneously feel and hear your bone structure altering in class V whitewater..."


Exit Glacier
Kenai Peninsula National Park, Alaska
It couldn't possibly be a bear with all the people I've seen on the trail. "Hey bear. Top of the food chain coming' through...."


Shooting' the 'Chuck
Sunshine Coast, BC
"Skookumchuck Narrows is a tidal rapid on Canada's Sunshine Coast that might best be described as the Old Faithful of whitewater...."


First Climb on Mt. Hood
Mt. Hood, OR
"I had been looking at this mountain and visiting it for 19 years. I'd even run around it several times in ultra-marathons...But, I had never actually climbed it..."


The End of the Drought
Devil's Canyon, AZ
"The river gathered itself from the highest snow-kissed peaks, as three days of sleet and snow caught the first light and were transformed..."


A Dance with the Devils
Devil's Canyon, AZ
"An hour away on the cacti-covered, boulder-strewn plateau surrounding Devil's Canyon lay a pack of climbing gear, waiting for my impatient attention..."


Trees, Nothing But Trees
Parsenn Bowl, CO
"I have no idea how many more trees are out there. Feeling the burn in my legs by now, I get back up and proceed to weave my way through the pines..."


The Maze
Canyonlands, UT
"The canyon required a rappel to get into at the top, and at times was barely wide enough to walk through. It kept getting deeper, narrower, darker, narrower, deeper..."

Volcano Boarding
Planet Earth
"Nowadays, whenever I drive by a construction zone, I find myself looking longingly at the piles of gravel..."

The MacGregor Slab
Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
"These last 100+ feet turned out to be the hardest of the whole climb only because the rock kept on getting wetter..."

Guy's Night Out
Mohican State Forest, OH
"I was hitting the trail today with Dave the GearMan (he personally owns 300 pounds of the lightest camping gear made)..."

Leaving Las Vegas
Red Rock Canyon, NV
"It was a thigh-burner and it did have some exposure. The views from the peak took my breath away..."

Canyonland's O-Rama
Canyonlands, UT
"Primrose Dihedrals... the best desert climb in the world... was orgasmic mid-5.10 climbing..."