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Hemingway In Schruns

Hemingway In Schruns

“……there was a great glacier run,” Hemingway wrote. “forever straight if our legs could hold it, our ankles locked, we running so low, leaning into the speed, dropping forever and forever in the silent hiss of the crisp powder. It was better than anything else.”

Hemingway's Final Years in Ketchum Idaho

Hemingway's Final Years in Ketchum Idaho

During the winter of 1974, Hemingway’s impact on literature and writers had yet to be fully realized. The tourists had yet to leave Cuban cigars, empty shell cases, or glasses of red wine on his grave in the Ketchum Cemetery. The Nature Conservancy had yet to purchase The Hemingway house that overlooked the swimming hole upstream from the Warm Springs Bridge but now sat empty and haunted beneath a leaking roof.

Western Drought Devastates Idaho Fishery

Western Drought Devastates Idaho Fishery

I wonder, in the scheme of a state budget, if trout are less valuable than forests? It takes years to grow a big rainbow and a helicopter with a bucket could easily fly the breeders to nearby spring fed streams. But the Fish and Game is as stressed as the fish and need to balance the cost of helicopters against the loss of these big fish, their public relations value and the number of tourist dollars they bring to Idaho.

 Cordoba, Argentina, Doves, Trout, Tango & Polo

Cordoba, Argentina, Doves, Trout, Tango & Polo

We come to the dove blinds by way of a dusty dirt road that passes small, stuccoed farmhouses where sleeping hogs litter the front yard, horses sleep on their feet in poor corrals and gauchos push cattle off the road to allow us to pass.

Kamchatka, Russia, Flyfishing the Nikolka

Kamchatka, Russia, Flyfishing the Nikolka

Two hundred miles north of Petropavlovsk, the salmon appear in late August. Starting as a whisper, their numbers rapidly grow in volume until the river pulses with Silvers, Chums, Sockeye and Kings flooding agains the current.

Sun Valley, Idaho,  Mouse Flies in the Moonlight

Sun Valley, Idaho, Mouse Flies in the Moonlight

The moon is said to affect the blood in the same way it pulls at the tides and I wonder if, while finning beneath the dark over hung bank, Browns feel the same quickening, that betrays a need to breed and feed.

Andermatt, Switzerland, 4 Passes, 106 Miles, 16,000 Vertical Feet

Andermatt, Switzerland, 4 Passes, 106 Miles, 16,000 Vertical Feet

Knees have always been a cyclist’s nemesis, the weakest link in a dependable power train. Like a pitcher’s shoulder, or a runner’s hamstrings, when knees fail…game over.

Quebec City, Canada, Heroes in the Street

Quebec City, Canada, Heroes in the Street

I have watched the riders for two decades. In that time, the bikes have grown lighter, more complex. Carbon fiber frames, electric gearshifts and perfectly spaced cassettes where the chain flows seamlessly from one cog to the next, all serve to shave ounces and increase power.

Rodeoing on the Fourth of July

Rodeoing on the Fourth of July

He did not know why he found it more comfortable to sleep with his hands raised to the ceiling. A doctor claimed his shoulders had been separated then separated again until they now slid in and out of their socket like worn eight balls at a Gooding pool tournament

Northern Lights Fishing Lodge, Labrador, Golden Speckles

Northern Lights Fishing Lodge, Labrador, Golden Speckles

Standing on a boulder in the middle of a nameless river that swirls like hot oil, I am surrounded by rising Speckles–brilliant, broad backed fish that, until this moment have never seen a dry fly.

Shoshone, Idaho, Jack Russell Terrorists

Shoshone, Idaho, Jack Russell Terrorists

Rock. The man liked the name. Defined by hard consonants with the barest nod to a minor vowel, the Jack’s name conjured a short, tough, light middleweight who could take a punch.

Zermatt, Switzerland, A Morning On The Matterhorn

Zermatt, Switzerland, A Morning On The Matterhorn

Zermatt’s Matterhorn has gained a reputation as somethlng of a walkup, an exhilarating hike to 4500 meters. As recognizable as our own Statue of liberty, its profile dominates ads for watches, cars, butter, jam, chocolate and cheese.

 Sawtooth Valley, Idaho, Middle Fork of the Salmon

Sawtooth Valley, Idaho, Middle Fork of the Salmon

When a quarter inch of plywood is all that stands between a granite boulder and a cold swim, a collision that will simply scuff the bottom of a rubber raft will sink a wooden drift boat. Even a glancing blow from one of ten thousand submerged growlers will splinter the Sapeli.

Cambridge, Idaho, Hiking Hell's Canyon

Cambridge, Idaho, Hiking Hell's Canyon

From a distance Suicide Point resembles an outlaw’s weathered face. Disfigured by the trail’s gray scar running across nose, cheek and jaw, in September’s 100 degree heat, its 800 vertical feet serves as the last major barrier to Gracie Bar.

Ottawa, Canada, Monster Muskellunge

Ottawa, Canada, Monster Muskellunge

Muskies are ambush fish and, as such, are both extremely territorial and cannibalistic. The biggest defend clear, quiet water filled with submerged weed beds, sunken stumps and logs. Lying in wait for hours, they’ll attack fish, frogs, snakes, mammals, ducks or, less often, feet and hands that are carelessly dangled off boats and docks.

Ottawa, Canada, Maserati 3200GT

Ottawa, Canada, Maserati 3200GT

Stirling Moss, who raced Maseratis in the 1950s and ’60s, said “I only know about cars and women………..and I can’t see one thing bad about this car.”

Mountain Home, Idaho, The Bruneau River

Mountain Home, Idaho, The Bruneau River

The Bruneau most resembles a punch drunk prize fighter of the same name, staggering across Southern Idaho’s high desert.

 Grand Targhee, Wyoming, The White Room

Grand Targhee, Wyoming, The White Room

It appeared as if an enormous pillow had split a seam and dumped a million tons of prime goose down on Targhee’s glades, bowls, gullies and back country extreme.

 Sun Valley, Idaho, Skiing with Arnold Schwarzenegger

Sun Valley, Idaho, Skiing with Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger on skis is a force of nature. It is his expression that speaks volumes–the Terminator’s single-minded sense of purpose that refines the image of a 225 pound, six foot two, granite boulder bouncing from edge to edge.

Smithers British Columbia:  Remembering Gary Brettnacher

Smithers British Columbia: Remembering Gary Brettnacher

Photographer Gary Brettnacher introduced me to British Columbia’s deep powder and wild Steelhead. It’s a gift that continues to haunt me forty years later.

McCall, Idaho, Mike Dorris Backcountry Pilot

McCall, Idaho, Mike Dorris Backcountry Pilot

Turbulent winds sweeping Salmon Ranch’s rock cliffs have downgraded the short dirt strip into a dicey uphill landing and as he lowers the flaps for final approach, the horses stampede toward the far fence line, the plane flashes over the river, Dorris cuts the throttle and we sink.

Mürren, Switzerland, Surviving The Inferno

Mürren, Switzerland, Surviving The Inferno

 He has been knocked unconscious and now moves like wet liver, slithering around moguls, pausing on the odd flats between them before seeking the next gutter and sliding around the next mogul.

Big Sky, Montana, Grizzly Lake

Big Sky, Montana, Grizzly Lake

Pepper Spray is a witch’s brew of ground cayenne and propellants guaranteed to make ursus horriblus wish he’d never laid eyes on homo sapien. “Use in short, timed bursts,” the instructions read.

Okanagan Valley, Canada, Silver Star Mountain Resort

Okanagan Valley, Canada, Silver Star Mountain Resort

Over the years I’ve had heard myths of snorkel deep powder but, having never personally skied it, I was convinced that snorkels were simply sight gags––props photographers employ to make a foot of powder imitate five.

Sun Valley, Idaho, The Bataan Death Ride

Sun Valley, Idaho, The Bataan Death Ride

To ride the Bataan, you need big guns–buttocks like cannonballs, hamstrings as thick as bridge cables, cordwood for thighs and massive striated calves.

Flims Laax, Switzerland, The White Arena

Flims Laax, Switzerland, The White Arena

Why Flims? Or, for that matter, why Switzerland? Because there is something about Switzerland’s vertical Alps, crystalline air, chiming church bells and incredible skiing that leaves you touched by magic.

Chamonix, France, Vallee Blanche

Chamonix, France, Vallee Blanche

It worries me that Robert, my thirteen-year old son, has no fear. Studying the Aiguille du Midi's forbidding blue ice and black rock north wall from the sixty person tram skims, he does not blink when Mark Jones tells him, “People ski that!”

Altay Mountains, Russia, Deep Powder Days, Vodka Nights

Altay Mountains, Russia, Deep Powder Days, Vodka Nights

The storm raged through the night and dawn rose to a vaulted blue sky and four inches of fresh powder. The conditions will haunt my dreams, but dampening that joy is the realization that each turn counts a minute until I must leave.

The Seven Citadels, Romania, Search For Count Dracula

The Seven Citadels, Romania, Search For Count Dracula

From Bucharest to the Castle Bran to the Tihuta Pass, I discovered Dracula in the sound of footsteps in the Seven Citadel’s locked towers and in the wet shine of fresh blood spilled across white marble steps at the Golden Crown.

Glen Plake and Darren Johnson escape into the Sierras

Glen Plake and Darren Johnson escape into the Sierras

I watch Glen and Darren boot up a narrow, north-facing chute to the 13,330-foot summit of Mount Emerson. A camera cannot capture the forty-five degree pitch or the width or length of this chute. A camera would flatten it out, make it appear as dangerous as a city sidewalk flanked by brown stone walls.

Zermatt, Cervina, Alagna, Switzerland & Italy, Circumnavigating The Monte Rosa

Zermatt, Cervina, Alagna, Switzerland & Italy, Circumnavigating The Monte Rosa

Robert is fearless…a fact that concerns me when I think about the skier who died today on the Gornergletscher. Witnesses reported he was twenty feet away, linking turns on a gentle, sunlit slope when the powder suddenly collapsed into an enormous blue cavern.

Robert ane Mark powder day

Robert ane Mark powder day

Mürren, Switzerland, Surviving The Inferno (Copy)

Mürren, Switzerland, Surviving The Inferno (Copy)

 He has been knocked unconscious and now moves like wet liver, slithering around moguls, pausing on the odd flats between them before seeking the next gutter and sliding around the next mogul.

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Previous Next
Hemingway In Schruns
Hemingway's Final Years in Ketchum Idaho
Western Drought Devastates Idaho Fishery
 Cordoba, Argentina, Doves, Trout, Tango & Polo
Kamchatka, Russia, Flyfishing the Nikolka
Sun Valley, Idaho,  Mouse Flies in the Moonlight
Andermatt, Switzerland, 4 Passes, 106 Miles, 16,000 Vertical Feet
Quebec City, Canada, Heroes in the Street
Rodeoing on the Fourth of July
Northern Lights Fishing Lodge, Labrador, Golden Speckles
Shoshone, Idaho, Jack Russell Terrorists
Zermatt, Switzerland, A Morning On The Matterhorn
 Sawtooth Valley, Idaho, Middle Fork of the Salmon
Cambridge, Idaho, Hiking Hell's Canyon
Ottawa, Canada, Monster Muskellunge
Ottawa, Canada, Maserati 3200GT
Mountain Home, Idaho, The Bruneau River
 Grand Targhee, Wyoming, The White Room
 Sun Valley, Idaho, Skiing with Arnold Schwarzenegger
Smithers British Columbia:  Remembering Gary Brettnacher
McCall, Idaho, Mike Dorris Backcountry Pilot
Mürren, Switzerland, Surviving The Inferno
Big Sky, Montana, Grizzly Lake
Okanagan Valley, Canada, Silver Star Mountain Resort
Sun Valley, Idaho, The Bataan Death Ride
Flims Laax, Switzerland, The White Arena
Chamonix, France, Vallee Blanche
Altay Mountains, Russia, Deep Powder Days, Vodka Nights
The Seven Citadels, Romania, Search For Count Dracula
Glen Plake and Darren Johnson escape into the Sierras
Zermatt, Cervina, Alagna, Switzerland & Italy, Circumnavigating The Monte Rosa
Robert ane Mark powder day
Mürren, Switzerland, Surviving The Inferno (Copy)
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