When I last posted, I was pulling into Te Anau after six days on the trail, wondering if the high pass on my next track – the Kepler- would be open for my planned crossing in a couple of days. A stop at the Department of Conservation (DOC) provided good news and bad. The good…
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Queenstown, on New Zealand’s South Island, is a gateway to the Southern Alps and a scenic lakeside hub for outdoor sports. A week ago, as our plane approached the airport, the view out the window suggested I was going to like the place. As explained in my last post, the overarching construct of this trip…
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Two years ago, in November 2023, I returned from climbing Cholatse in Nepal. That climb had been a bit of “bonus expedition,” on top of the many climbs, including Everest, that I did during my self-proclaimed “gap years” in 2020-2022. The past two years have been filled, happily, with serving on boards, skiing, sailing, day…
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I am now back in Kathmandu. When I last posted on November 7, Holly had just left the Cholatse expedition and the rest of us were gearing up for our attempt on the summit. In a typical component of high altitude mountaineering, we were eying the weather forecast waiting for the winds to drop. It…
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When I last posted, I was getting ready to trek to Cholatse base camp to meet Holly and our climbing team. I just needed to find the camp. Expedition Leader Phil Crampton had been a bit cryptic about its location, but assured me I would locate it. His basic directions: “look for the yak huts…
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Five days ago, I left the most visited and civilized aspects of the Khumbu behind and headed into more remote valleys. The morning I left Namche, the owner of the lodge, Mingma, surprised me with a ceremony to ask the gods for good luck on Cholatse. It was the same ceremony he performed for our…
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I am now on Day 3 of my extended solo trek to Cholatse base camp. My couple of days in Kathmandu passed quickly. Holly arrived by bus from the Annapurna region and we had some fun meals together. I got all my gear sorted out. The second afternoon, I took a taxi to Boudhanath Temple,…
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When I returned from Everest in May of 2022, I pronounced my “gap two and a half years” officially over. Then I turned to figuring out how I wanted to spend my time going forward. I knew I wanted to re-engage with some nonprofit boards, and to serve on a corporate board I was in…
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