Author: mallorie estenson
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Better Days in the Backcountry: Know Before You Go
Did you know that you can preview your tour using GPX tracks imported to Google Earth? I find that this is a great way to get a clearer mental model for new terrain.
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Better Days in the Backcountry: Aligned Partnership
The secret sauce to great days in the backcountry is alignment with your partner.
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Become a More Savvy Backcountry Traveler: FOR FREE
I was recently introduced to the idea of becoming 1 percent better each day by the extraordinarily savvy Rob Coppolilo. If you get 1 percent better each day and you go out 30 days in a season, you could be 30 percent better by the end of your season! That’s huge!
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Mallorie’s Nepal Beta: Trekking, Ama Dablam, Lobuche
For my first Himalayan foray, I wanted a route that was inspiring but known. Ama Dablam is exactly that. My primary goal with this trip was to learn about how to get around, how to manage expedition logistics, to learn what resources were and weren’t available to me.
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Glacier Peak Ski – Cool Glacier Headwall Solo: Mountain Yelp Review (5 Star)
I spent the majority of the ascent in a cloud and wrapped up in my thoughts. Just as I got to the col, the sun popped, god smiled down upon me and if there were animals on the mountain they would’ve started singing like something out of Snow White.
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Infinite Bliss: Not the infinite choss I expected (4 Star)
It’s not very often that you get to clip bolts in an alpine setting for 23 consecutive pitches with very few B.S. walking pitches to link up the route. I guess you could say that I consider myself a connoisseur of alpine bolts (or a lazy alpinist.)
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Late Stage Quarantine
At one point, I discovered that I could crawl out of a window and onto the top of my house. Standing there in a slight breeze, I felt a simulated sense of what it’s like to summit a mountain.
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A Frozen Moment
I tried to place a screw in thick ice covered by a layer of slush. The screw wouldn’t go in. I tried a second screw. And this is how I simultaneously clogged and eliminated two screws from my rack. When I realized that I wasn’t going to get a screw where I wanted one, I willed myself to climb higher to find a better placement.
mallorie estenson 