Author: snukes

Expedition Poke-Everest, Day 4: to Tengboche

October 6, 2023

First Everest sighting today!! Starting location: Namche Bazar, 3,440m (11,286 feet) Max elevation: 3,860m (12,726 feet) Min elevation: 3,318m (10,884 feet) Ending location: Tengboche, 3,860m (12,726 feet) Total gain: 846m (2,775 feet) Distance traveled: 7.57 miles in 4:40 active time, 6:14 total time Average pace: 36’59” per mile Slowest mile: 45’01” Rain and clouds moved … More Expedition Poke-Everest, Day 4: to Tengboche

Expedition Poke-Everest, Day 2: Bistari, bistari

October 3, 2023

Today begins the upward trek! Starting location: Phakding, 2,610m (8,601 feet) Ending location: Namche Bazar, 3,440m (11,210 feet) Total gain: 1,000m (3,281 feet) Distance: 7.8 miles in 5:01 active time, 6:48 total time Average pace: 38’35” per mile Slowest mile: 44’57” Getting out of town at 8am was a whole lot like joining rush hour … More Expedition Poke-Everest, Day 2: Bistari, bistari

Expedition Poke-Everest, Day 1: Get yourself a guide

October 2, 2023

Here’s the best and most reliable tip I’ll have to offer for this whole adventure: hire a guide. If you hire a good guide, you can stand back and watch the guideless-tourists struggle to communicate and figure out all the red tape while your guide jumps to the front of the line and just makes … More Expedition Poke-Everest, Day 1: Get yourself a guide

Black Hills Winter Hiking: Cathedral Spires in January

February 5, 2023

Sometimes in January (or February or December or March), the weather in the Black Hills gets to be danged-near springlike, and you get the idea that you ought to go outside and enjoy yourself.

“Hey! It’s going to be 65 degrees tomorrow! Let’s go for a hike!”

And then you pick a hike you’ve been wanting to do for a long time. You drive down to Custer State Park, and then you realize that 65 degrees in Rapid City does not necessarily translate to 65 degrees anywhere else in the Hills. … More Black Hills Winter Hiking: Cathedral Spires in January

Canoeing and Camping in Voyageurs National Park

September 26, 2022

And then we found the real current. Between the current and the wind, we were suddenly fighting actual waves. My rowing muscles, which had been born only that morning, started to howl. As we came around the first knob of Mica Island, making progress against the shore at a rate of two inches per paddle stroke, I began wailing along with them. … More Canoeing and Camping in Voyageurs National Park