Dear Harold and Maude, I know, I’d promised new names. We will get there—we still have five weeks to come up with them. Five weeks until you launch yourselves into the outside world. Five weeks until I hold you in my arms instead of in my belly. Back before I knew I was having you, or even sure I wanted … Read More
8 Lessons Learned During the Non-Climbing Days on a Climbing Trip in Europe
When you’ve waited 35 years to go to Italy, the wine, pasta, meat and cheese will be just as good as you imagined. When you’ve waited 35 yeas to go to Italy, you will likely have overestimated the amount of wine, pasta, meat and cheese that is reasonable to consume. My Garmin Nuvi has a search setting for “Winery.” It’s … Read More
The Bird and The Bear
There are dog people, and there are poodle people. I am a poodle person. But for the past year, I’ve been a poodle person without a poodle. That was a problem. Said problem manifested in scenes similar to this one: At 3:00 one afternoon in Boulder I spotted a woman with two standard poodles—one black, one gray– starting off on … Read More
Osito And A Frog Named Turtle, An Additive Adventure Entry
In Conjunction With OutsideTV.com and Osprey Packs Osito is a poodle, which may explain why he’s never been an animal person. I’ve tried to convince him otherwise over the past ten and a half years. We’ve gone through cows, hippos, squirrels, and a warthog, but these are all temporary fascinations of mine, and of little consequence to the poodle. Somehow, I thought the … Read More
Community On Ice, An Additive Adventure Entry
In Conjunction With OutsideTV.com and Osprey Packs Two weeks ago I was in Minneapolis—the city where I grew up—for a showing of Chris Alstrin’s and my movie Waypoint Namibia. Afterwards, a man from the audience asked me what I did in the winters when I was not in Africa. I told him I ice climbed. Midwest Mountaineering, the gear shop in Minneapolis, had partially … Read More
The Rebirth of Slick, An Additive Adventure Entry
In Conjunction With OutsideTV.com Three weeks from today, I’ll be flying to Ethiopia. I’ve been training for trip. I’ve been aqua jogging. Actually, I just had to stop aqua jogging. I was over-training with the 12”-wide water-flotation device. In my defense, I was just trying to keep up with Astrid, the 65-year old woman with a hip and knee replacement. At … Read More
Bigger This Time
Believe the hype, drink the cool-aid, make the trip. That’s my motto this month. I didn’t start it. My friend Sara did. Actually, an intuitive did. Or, to be precise, my decision to go see an intuitive. A month ago, while driving through the dark streets of Bozeman, I called Sara in Bend. We’d both lived together in Boulder a … Read More
Hoarding the Collection
It takes two people 94 days to use 36 rolls of toilet paper. This is pure science. This is my life. Or it is give-or-take the two half rolls I left behind in North Conway last week. My friends Jim and Sarah came over on my last night in New Hampshire to load my van for me. They each went … Read More
Post Op
Last year, during my first winter in New Hampshire, I made the mistake of asking what one does for culture in North Conway. Not that wanting culture in North Conway is a mistake–you can want it–you’re just not supposed to admit you want it. Especially not to someone like Freddie. When I slipped last winter and inquired about culture, Freddie … Read More
Terminal Effervescence
I started skipping winter without knowing it, a few years back. Today, 1.5-inches of rain into the New Hampshire afternoon, I’m making up for what I missed. The poodle has to go outside to go to the bathroom, and I promised him I’d take him once the rain let up. That was three hours ago. I’d let him out to … Read More