“Franz,” one of our yaks, which carried our goodies up to Interim Camp

Rombuk Monastery Stupa in front of Mount Everest (our green kitchen tent is in the foreground)

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.-Albert Einstein

This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it.

-Thomas Carlyle

“The world will never starve for want of wonders, but for want of wonder.”

-Gilbert Chesterton

Firstly, for the good of the order, I think Kyle deserves major props for his work on this site. These digs are looking absolutely money and I am thrilled that this is going to be our new home.

This site is the collective expression which was birthed out of many long chats over bourbon with Kyle. In fact, I think the idea of adventure and exploration found a place with the both of us way back in March of 2000 snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park. That would be the trip where none of us had a pair of gloves, yet we still found it compelling to climb a small mountain in two feet of snow. After a few hours, with some frozen hands and a few mishaps–one of which ended up with Kyle in a tree–we were standing on the top overlooking all of Rocky Mountain National Park; Long’s Peak loomed in the background amidst the cobalt sky. I’ve had quite a few adventures since then, but that day is still one of the best days I’ve ever had in the outdoors.

When I was overwhelmed and staring down Mount Everest this spring, my Nepalese Sherpa, Chandra, would say “burti, burti, burti.” Slowly, slowly, slowly–one step at a time. That’s going to be my approach here. Slowly, slowly, slowly–one post, one picture, one video at a time. Enjoy our new site and our new concept, Continuous Wonder.

Hours slide by like minutes. The accumulated clutter of day-to-day existence — the lapses of conscience, the unpaid bills, the bungled opportunities, the dust under the couch, the inescapable prison of your genes — all of it is temporarily forgotten, crowded from your thoughts by an overpowering clarity of purpose by the seriousness of the task at hand.

-Jon Krakauer

So maybe a blog on a website isn’t as serious a task as the one Krakauer is referring to in the above quote, but the principle behind his words is something worth writing about. Doug and I are looking forward to a great run; this post being the first step.