By Jennifer Pharr Davis, on November 24th, 2009 The Streets of Cotahuasi
You know how some people, just to be nice, will say, “You should come visit me sometime.” Well, you should never tell me that unless you are serious, especially if you live somewhere cool, like Peru.
When I was hiking the PCT I met a fellow hiker who was a missionary in the remote Cotahuasi Canyon of Peru. He mistakenly invited me to come visit him, and as soon as I saved up money and time off from work, I was on an airplane to South America.
I flew from DC, and my roundtrip airline ticket was less than $400. If you want a cheap international adventure than head to Central or South America – my international ticket was super affordable and flying domestically within Peru never cost more than $50. Overall, I’ve learned that traveling is so much more affordable when you spend every night in a tent.
A Rock Wall in the Canyon
From Lima, I flew to Arequipa in the southwest corner of Peru, and there, I was met by my friend Vic. Vic took me by car on a nine-hour expedition to Cotahuasi Canyon. We only passed through [Read More]
By Francisco Tharp, on November 23rd, 2009 “Shall I ski or shall I climb now? If I ski there will be trouble, if I climb it will be double.” [Read More]
By Justin Harkins, on November 19th, 2009 We left Bozeman just after sunset on Tuesday night and slept on a tarp at the trailhead. My phone alarm woke us up at 2:30, and I enjoyed a hero’s breakfast of crackers, Craisins, and a double-sized Red Bull in the chilly morning darkness. Half an hour later, we were traveling down the trail under a canopy of blazing stars. [Read More]
By Jennifer Pharr Davis, on November 17th, 2009 Okay, if you’ve been following my blog then we need to back up before the PCT. Consider this a flashback amid the other flashbacks. While I was on the Appalachian Trail in 2005 I realized how important family was. And in the January 2006 I had the opportunity to spend some quality time with family – on Mount Kilimanjaro.
There she is…
I wasn’t necessarily a prime candidate for climbing Kilimanjaro. I had never been mountaineering, I didn’t like being cold, and I was poor. But two very important family factors made it possible for me to go to Africa. First of all my cousin Wende married someone famous, at least I think he is famous. He is a mountain climber and photographer and an overall phenomenal person. His name is Jake Norton and he and my wonderful cousin live in Colorado (that is a state shout-out for all you local mountain shoppers). Jake has been up on Everest a couple times and he was even part of the expedition that found Mallory’s body.
So yes, Jake was 50% of the equation. I tried to make a mental note not to go mountaineering when I saw several of [Read More]
By Francisco Tharp, on November 16th, 2009 The pragmatically pointless pursuit of holding onto tiny things and getting a good scare from gravity illuminates a certain freedom to me – the freedom growing out of the notion that maybe life is one big Cosmic Joke and somewhere Buddha and Jesus are laughing a big-bellied laugh, and play and fun are the key to the lock. And in the light of that freedom, humor just spills out of and all over everything. [Read More]
By Justin Harkins, on November 12th, 2009 Took us twice the time we thought it would, but the view was nice…
There’s been a lot of action in Montana this week.
Last time I checked in, I was about to embark on a three-day trip with Jason, a local climber who answered my online personal ad. Jason has been climbing ice around the country for more than a decade and moved to Montana five years ago for the same reasons that I have come now.
On his suggestion, we loaded up my truck and drove three hours southeast to the Beartooths – a range Jason reveres as “very white, very tall, and very infinite.” The range occupies the area just northeast of Yellowstone and, as part of the greater Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, boasts some 900,000 acres in northern Wyoming and southern Montana.
The plan was as follows: get up early on Monday morning and drive into the mountains; knock out one route that afternoon; drive to another part of the wilderness that night; catch a few hours of sleep in the truck; get up around 3:00 am on Tuesday for the 5-mile approach to that day’s route; finish the climb and get back to the car [Read More]
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