Andrew's Awesome Adventures

Japan. A country with legendary swordsmiths who create deadly works of arts. A country where things are done the right way irrespective of time and cost. A country where traditions are built over centuries, and are lived rather than just respected.

Apparently Andrew is still doing things and posting on here. I said I would too. It's been a while: I'm not even sure what year the last one was. When you know Andrew, time becomes an irrelevance. It's like Purgatory, but without the vague sense of hope.

Some good friends came to visit me for the weekend. We started with the simple, exploring a few of the National Monuments nearby. After that, we decided to try something a little more adventurous: hike from the rim of the Grand Canyon to the Colorado River and back in a day.

Last winter, my brother and I went to Ouray, Colorado. A reasonable drive from my new home, I wanted to show my brother what I enjoy so much about ice climbing.

The Ouray Ice Park is an awesome place. This natural gorge has water pipes running along the top rim . Many years ago, some clever climbers decided to tap the pipes to run water down the cliffs. This makes for very reliable ice climbing conditions with some awesome climbs. As a bonus, the natural hot springs in town make an excellent way to relax after a day on the ice.

As some of you know, I recently moved to Flagstaff. Things have been busy and I'm way behind on my travel photos but even staying home can be an adventure. Simple yet special. These are some photos from near my new home--a bit of mountain climbing, playing in the river, the recent eclipse in Flagstaff's beautiful dark night skies, and even some ancient pueblo ruins. Lots more to do here--I'm looking forward to it.

Sometimes it's easier to just put stuff up than write about it. These are old ones from Toronto.

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January 6, 2014

Chimborazo: at 6,268 meters (20,564 feet), Ecuador's tallest mountain and, due to the equatorial bulge, the point farthest from the center of the Earth. Starting from around 4,800 meters (~15,750 feet), it's also quite a long climb.

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January 4, 2014

After a day at Hacienda La Cinega, we started moving towards Chimborazo. On our way, we stayed at the Alta Montana, a retreat run by Rodrigo. Rodrigo is a very interesting Ecuadorian, having spent much of his life in the mountains and traveling. Several years back, he was the producer of a documentary on The Last Ice Merchant of Chimborazo, which has won awards at many international festivals.

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January 2, 2014

What a way to start the New Year. Cotopaxi, the second highest active volcano in the world, is a beautiful cinder cone volcano capped with a majestic glacier. At 5,897 meters (19,342 feet) it is only a couple of meters taller than Kilimanjaro but, despite similar proximity to the Equator, has managed to maintain significant glacier coverage--wet winds from the Amazon basin provide significant moisture to replenish the loss from global-warming-induced melting.

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January 1, 2014

New Years is a special time in Ecuador. Remember those effigies I mentioned yesterday? Seems they are "married".