My speaking career has taken me around the world, but my most recent event was hosted in a unique place: Mauritius, an isolated island in the Indian Ocean, well known for its natural beauty, and for being the farewell setting of the last Dodo bird. Mark Twain said of the island, “Mauritius was made first, […]
I was recently invited to be a guest on The View as part of Teacher Appreciation Week. Before I forged a life for myself in the mountains I was actually a 5th grade teacher at Phoenix Country Day School in Arizona. I loved teaching and even met my wife, Ellie, who taught 7th grade, during […]
Earlier this spring I spent a morning at the Anchor Center for Blind Children teaching some toddlers the basics of rock climbing. I have been connected with the Anchor Center for many years now and it is an amazing resource in the Denver area for blind and visually impaired kids and their parents to get prepared for […]
I’m not sure if everything is really bigger in Texas, but the folks at St. Michael’s Catholic Academy sure put on a huge event! Continuing in the theme of excellent school visits, I hopped over to Austin, Texas, this past Spring, to speak to the students as part of their Edify Speaker Series and return […]
I started my career as a teacher, so I absolutely love working with schools across the country to share the No Barriers message. Every now and then, a school district goes above and beyond to help their students really embrace that message, like Spirit Lake in Iowa did. This school year, they have been using […]
I was really psyched when Colorado Mountain College called me up and I learned they had chosen No Barriers for their Common Read Program. It resulted in a really fun week and getting to know an amazing school. To cap off their read, they invited me to come speak at 4 of their campuses. My introduction to […]
It’s been 20 years since I last touched the crumbly sandstone of the classic desert route, “Ancient Art,” in the Fisher Towers near Moab, Utah. It is a favorite climbing area for many with a striking topography of thousand foot towers rising up from the barren martian red desert landscape. For me however, it is […]
Part 1 – White Rim – Setting the Stage “We climbed it not because it’s there, but because it won’t be there much longer” So said famous climbing pioneer, Layton Kor, of Standing Rock, an improbable, inimitable sandstone tower deep in Canyonlands National Park. This formation was one of the three towers we scaled on […]
Hemsedal, Days 1 and 2 For rock climbing, it’s Yosemite. Alpine climbing – the Himalayas. But for ice climbing, Norway is Mecca, and this winter I made my pilgrimage. I had heard tales of 1,000-meter waterfalls, immobilized in the harsh grip of Norwegian winter, some massive, wide, and blue, others steep, narrow, and yellow, flowing down nooks […]
What a wild week in New England! My friends Steve and Andrea Charest invited me to speak at their ice climbing festival, the Smuggs Ice Bash, so I decided to do a “Tour de New England,” climbing classic routes across the region before the grand finale at Smuggs. We started off in New Hampshire with […]
