My father swings the truck around another corner up a dirt road in Southwest Colorado. We’ve been traversing the state with our fly rods for the last few days, and as we climb into the San Juan Mountains, ranch land gives way to National Forest. As we crest another hill, our first view of the Uncompahgre Wilderness fills the windshield. …

I was 23 when I first lost a friend to the mountains. His name was Paul. He was a school teacher in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, loved telemark skiing, his wife, Jess, and their dog, Mica. He wore a Hawaiian shirt to his wedding shortly before dying in an avalanche in the Tetons on March 10th, 2007, just before his 25th …

“I travel across the skin of the earth, much like a blade of grass, held gently, travels across my skin. I imagine my hands and my feet moving over the ground in such a way that the earth finds sensuous. I feel her playful pinch in the sharp plants that I pass. I feel her desire in the heat of …

  Matt and I threaded pieces of cord through holes we had drilled in makeshift footbridges and tied the bridges to the backs of a couple of old snowmobiles we had purchased for Baker Mountain Guides. The goal for the day was to drag the bridges up to the trailhead for North Twin Sister and place them over numerous creeks …

I’ve been wandering the mountains for a good part of my life. In fact, I’ve built most of my life among the summits and the euphoric experiences they offer. I derive my livelihood by moving through the mountains, and there was a time when the argument could have been made that, simply put, this was the entire purpose of my …

The Chinook helicopter hung low over Mt. Rainier, its massive rotors hammering wildly at the thin air. From the edge of the Carbon Glacier, 5000 feet below, we could make out a second, smaller helicopter running sweeps up and down the mountain. Two black dots moved slowly in a grid pattern across the upper route, presumably climbing rangers looking for …