It’s probably nothing to brag about. These guys are carrying incredible loads and we’re packing nothing but our own water and a few changes in clothing (and Carrie with the saxophone). As I sat in the warm base camp sun appreciating our arrival at the seminal point in our journey…

The hot water bottles they give us at night to stay warm in our mummy fart bags somehow hold heat until morning. It’s some kind of mountain magic, we think. Every day we have a wake up call at either 5:00 or 6:00 am depending on how far we have…

I don’t want to brag but I am no longer decorating trees with my recycled underwear and today I put on clean pants. Black climbing pants that I have coupled with a black shirt and I’m feeling pretty badass about it. I’ve also brushed my hair out for the first…

It’s so weird. I thought I was having a stroke when my fingers tips went completely numb and my face felt like it was on fire. “That is a common side effect of the attitude meds,” said Guide Erik when I confessed this to him midway through our hike this…

Holy crap it’s cold sleeping up here at 10,000 feet. We fell asleep last night to the most astonishing views of the miraculously cleared up mountain in full view and rising stars all around us on the moorlands. …

“I don’t know how much I’m really going to be able to eat at this hour,” Carrie said to me. She sat across from me in the dark little green dining tent intended to cocoon just the two of us as Amos, the team server, darted in and out with…

I’m told that today was the easy day. Now that I’ve finally seen the mountain in daytime framed by a clear blue sky, I can believe that. After an astonishingly terrible nights sleep, Carrie and I were dressed, packed, fed, and ready for our 8:00 pick up. When we boarded…

Fucking jet lag. It has punched a hole through my tried and true drugging strategy of the past. Maybe that’s because three years ago when I last traveled internationally, requiring me to prolong waking hours and sock myself with a hearty dose of anything on hand, I wasn’t having ridiculous…

So Interesting news- I’m still a really shitty flyer. Anyone who has traveled with me has the early-onset arthritis in one hand from me mangling it in terror. Sometimes it is someone I know. …