Justin enjoys moonlit walks in the mountains, margaritas on the rocks, and the occasional Peter Cetera love song. He wants you to know that he'll be the hero you're dreamin' of.

After a week or so of deliberation, we finally pulled the trigger on a trip back to the Sphinx. Several intervening factors led to the decision: Jason wanted to lead the first pitch, I wanted to find my crampons, and we were able to talk Ryan, one of Jason’s old climbing buddies, into coming along to further split up the weight and trail-breaking duties. Instead of sleeping in the parking lot and tagging the climb in one 17-hour push like last time, we decided to leave early on Monday afternoon and camp at the saddle; we’d succeed in shaving five miles off our climbing day, and we’d be able to sleep an extra three hours.

That’s what we like to call a “win-win situation.”

It didn’t make a difference in the end.

We hiked in by moonlight and set up shop in a protected grove just beneath the saddle. A storm blew in during the night. By the time we woke up, the snowfall was so [Read More]