Race reports, adventures, travel, fun, misc...

I'm almost done with a book called Dopamine Nation by Dr. Anna Lembke.  From Amazon: This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting… The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we’ve all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption.   I'm as addicted to some of the above as the rest of the world. My biggest vice comes in the form of adventure sports and at the top of the list is Ironman triathlon racing. For me there is no better dopamine rush than the one that is triggered at the finish line after swimming 2.4 mi...

With unfinished business from my 2014 expedition on Denali I booked a second attempt with my favorite tour company RMI. I purposefully selected the expedition lead by Hannah Smith as I though she did an incredible job getting me and my team to the summit of Aconcagua, elevation 23,000 ft, the highest mountain in South America located in Argentina in February 2019.  I’m writing this as I go along and am currently at basecamp at 7,300 ft but I already see that her knowledge, skills and leadership will result in another memorable adventure. Summit or not. Hopefully the former since every RMI team ahead of us has successfully done so this climbing season.   Denali, also known by its former name of Mt McKinley, is the highest mountain peak of North America with a summit elevation of 20,310 ft (6,190 m) above sea level. With a topographical prominence of 20,194 ft (6,155 m) and topographic isolation of 4,621 miles (7,436 km) Denali is the third most prominent and third most isolated...