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Beyond Telluride

Editor's note: For eight years, Telluride local Ben Clark and a few friends/professional colleagues have made Spring treks to the majestic mountains of the Himalayas. Follow his adventures on Telluride Inside... and Out, including links to his regular podcasts. If you have missed any of Ben's posts, just type "Ben Clark" into Lijit Search to find them all.

Benbioshotlr-254x300 "Dispatch 7: 17,600'/So we wait

Gray clouds build overhead as high winds stream and batter our position. Boy are we lucky to be landlocked today rather than our initial plan of ascending to camp one at 20'000'. We set out in clean clothes under sunny skies this morning only to be turned back with an equipment failure. The mountain is now being blasted hard. Fighting upward would have resulted in dodging rockfall and hunkering into a stormy night. Bad luck is good luck sometimes, no?


26 April, 2010 /

Editor's note: For eight years, Telluride local Ben Clark and a few friends/business colleagues have made Spring treks to the majestic mountains of the Himalayas. Follow his adventures on Telluride Inside...and Out, including links to his regular podcasts. If you have missed any of Ben's posts, just type "Ben Clark" into Lijit Search to find them all.

Benbioshotlr-254x300 "Buffalo Soldier, Bryan Adams and Mera La pass...What do they have in common? The cell phone of one of our porters, Nema. He swears that the Bryan Adams song (one I regretfully learned with all other 7th graders when the Kevin Costner Robin Hood film came out) was loaded on his cell phone when he got it. Priceless and yeah...busted, in the dizzying heights of 17,600' Mera La pass we sung it with him while his phone rang That was after Buffalo Soldier. The world loves Marley.

"We are now settled on a beach, sands blowing against our tent and sun shining overhead. The backdrop is not exactly coconuts and grass skirts, but five star nonetheless...Everest, Lhotse and Baruntse stand vigil over our site erupting early season plumes like an unbridled mare. This was definitely the most enchanting and rewarding day of this year's trek into the mountains for our climbing and skiing expedition. We have two and a half hours left before we will build a semi-permanent site at the base of 23,390' Baruntse and begin our ascent to become the first climbers to ski Baruntse's white frigid flanks.

25 April, 2010 /

Editor's note: For eight years, Telluride local Ben Clark and a few friends/business colleagues have made Spring treks to the majestic mountains of the Himalayas. Follow his adventures on Telluride Inside... and Out, including links to his regular podcasts. If you have missed any of Ben's posts, just type "Ben Clark" into Lijit Search to find them all.

Benbioshotlr-254x300 "Dispatch 4: Khare/16,000'/Day 5

"Sweeping buttresses of untouched granite glimmer overhead as our team moves through the alpine zone again en route to Baruntse basecamp. The temperatures are mild, the weather is predictable and the trail winding and spectacular. This is a trek worth doing for those who wish to experience the Himalayas from the valley floor and only sample the heights.

"The last two days have brought us out of the lower juniper forests and the many sherpa dance parties that drive late through the evening. Yeah, that's right, for all the Buddhist oh mani padme hum soundtracks that fill our ears, there is an equal amount of chang 'a special Nepali beverage' and pop tunes flowing through each misty night. It's cool, I've traveled these regions for eight years with several of the cooks and porters we have on this trip and every morning they are bright eyed and bushy tailed...but we exchange smiles.

24 April, 2010 /

Editor's note: For eight years, Telluride local Ben Clark and a few friends/business colleagues have made Spring treks to the majestic mountains of the Himalayas. Follow his adventures on Telluride Inside...and Out, including links to his regular podcasts.

Benbioshotlr-254x300 "Dispatch 3: Khote/11,850.

"The world is full of intrepid explorers. Each day,  at each village we meet travelers from all over, on their way from one adventure to another. That is what makes expeditions to the Nepali Himalayas so inviting. It is a melting pot of culture and mountain-inspired endeavors.

"Some trek, some climb, there are all ages and abilities..We are the only ones with skis. It's funny how a resounding sigh of agreement and perhaps a bit of hindsight washes over each person's sun-affected face who we share this fact with. Hidden in the creases of age, we all identify with having fun.

"We were once alpinists tired of fighting our way downhill, overwhelmed by storms seiging the steep slopes and faces we had already climbed. Now, we work with the elements...It is silly to constantly challenge what you can't control. This expedition, to climb and ski 23,390' Baruntse, is especially satisfying with that philosophy in mind.

23 April, 2010 /

Editor's note: For eight years, Telluride local Ben Clark and a few friends/business colleagues have made Spring treks to the majestic mountains of the Himalayas. Follow his adventures on Telluride Inside... and Out, including links to his regular podcasts.

Benbioshotlr-254x300 "Dispatch 2: Thuli Kharka/13,900'.

""The hiss of stoves, songs of porters and cries of ravens fill the damp air here at 13,900'. Our team has traversed a 15,000' pass to reach a granite filled bowl and crossroad of expeditions exploring the Hunku valley. This is day three of our eight-day approach, and we are in a crude site known as Thuli Kharka.

"The trekking here has been magnificent. In addition to being immediately surrounded by jagged thrusts of granite and icy 20'000' plus summits, we are charmed by the presence of French, Dutch and Nepali accents as we ascend and descend into our approach valley, the Hunku. This year is far different from last...There are people here and we are happy to greet old friends and porters I've expeditioned with in years past.

22 April, 2010 /
IMGP1140 The presence of Lama Tsultrim Allione alone is worth the price of entry to the 3rd annual Telluride Yoga Festival, July 8 – July 11, whose presenters are among the Who's Who of the world of transformative practices, including Yoga. Lama Tsultrim is the first American woman to be ordained in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and is a world renowned teacher, sought out and respected for her lucid, plainspoken explanations of Buddhist teachings.

Telluride Inside... and Out took a break from our Spring break in Denver, our home away from home, to visit Lama Tsultrim at her awe-inspring 700+ acre Tara Mandala retreat just outside Pagosa Springs. We were to there to interview the world renowned teacher on the subject of the talks she plans to give over the long Telluride Yoga Festival weekend: Prajnaparamita (prajna, transcendent wisdom, and paramita, "perfection" or "that which goes beyond") and the paradigm shifting practice she explains in her national best-seller "Feeding Your Demons."
20 April, 2010 /

Just a little reminder to those of you who love hot rods, street rods, muscle cars, classic trucks and vintage automobiles. "April Action" - the Moab Classic Car Show - takes place this weekend, Apr. 23-25, in the town's downtown City Park. On Friday,...

19 April, 2010 /

Tia 1 "Tia Fuller’s sophomore release on Mack Avenue, "Decisive Steps," is a beautiful, musical journey. It has been a wonderful experience, watching Tia blossom from an eager music student in high school, to being known as one of the “up and coming” saxophonists and composers in the jazz world. Just like the Montgomery and Marsalis families, Denver’s Fuller Family is filled with talent and their musical roots run deep."
Susan Gatschet Reese
Assistant Program Director/On Air Host
jazz89 KUVO/KVJZ Vail

Telluride Inside... and Out has spent a whirlwind week in Denver. Friday evening we caught Tia Fuller's set at Denver jazz hotspot, Dazzle. Fuller was in town celebrating the recent release of her CD, "Decisive Steps" for the Mack Avenue label.

19 April, 2010 /
IMG_1808 Telluride Inside... and Out scratched the surface of Denver's robust art scene, visiting two major public spaces and our favorite gallery.

IMG_1815 On a beautiful albeit very windy Spring afternoon, we made a pilgrimage to see Henry Moore (1898 – 1986) in the Denver Botanic Gardens and were blown away (very nearly literally). The show, the very first major outdoor exhibition of the artist's works in the American West, features 20 monumental sculptures, primarily bronze, some fiberglass, by the celebrated Brit, from a reclining " Naked Maya" stretching nearly 30 feet long and dominating a grassy knoll to an tender depiction of  a mother cradling a child, standing under three feet tall, hidden in a clearing.
19 April, 2010 /
Mariela-in-the-Desert-main419.sflb Mariela's bummed, and Jose is in a major slump, but Telluride Inside... and Out is riding a wave that just won't quit on our whirlwind tour of Denver's rich cultural landscape.

Encouraged by Telluride Inside... and Out contributor and member of the Denver Center Company, Tracy Shaffer, on Wednesday night we attended a performance of Karen Zacarias' Award-winning play "Mariela in the Desert" at the Denver Center's Ricketson Theatre,  a tour de force of magical realism –  ghosts live and paint brushes are weapons –  that left us dumbstruck and moved to tears.
18 April, 2010 /