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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 /

By D. Dion

Telluride Snowkiting Instructor Mark Worth is a wind junkie. After spending winters here teaching people how to snowkite, he blows out of town and spends summers in Hood River Gorge in Oregon, where he teaches people how to kite surf. He owns his own businesses in both towns, Telluride Snowkite School and Gorge Kiteboard School, and leads something of a double life.

“The migration thing’s just become part of the deal. It’s really a challenge to deal with the logistics,” says Worth, “but the upside is that in the Gorge, in the summertime, it’s really sunny and dry; but in the winter, it’s cloudy and rainy, so it’s nice to be in Telluride where the sun is shining and the snow is falling.”

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 "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 /

by Tracy Shaffer

What a wonderful morning! One of those where it’s a bit overcast and you’re wishing you’d never scheduled one of those outside meetings, especially on a Friday. You'd be oh so content to work from home.
The light looked silvery in my golden room as I roused myself, vowing to keep my commitment. I’d set up coffee and an interview with Brooke Young, Autism Specialist with the Colorado Department of Education to discuss autism: not something I would normally bounce out of bed for, but April is National Autism Month and Brooke is headed for the Telluride region to mentor a Model Autism Team. I write for Telluride Inside... and Out. You get the picture.

I headed downtown to one of 15 Starbucks in a five block radius, ordered my Joe, asking if any of the many blondes in line was Brooke. Feeling luckily out of luck, I sat down to write and enjoy my overpriced java, secretly hoping I was at the wrong Starbucks as I guiltily scrolled through my Blackberry to find her number. One minute later in walked Brooke, apologetic for having gone to the wrong Starbucks, along with Gina Quintana, Significant Support Needs Specialist, also with the CDE.

19 April, 2010 /

Telluride folks travel to a wide variety of destinations, and much of that travel takes place in Telluride's slower seasons, early Spring and late Fall. TIO is no exception. But this Spring we decided to see some parts of Colorado we haven't spent enough...

18 April, 2010 /

[click "Play" to hear Kristin Holbrook talk about cashmere] In Telluride, it is the quiet before the storm of summer activities, the perfect time for Spring cleaning, which includes swapping sweaters for t-shirts, cashmere for cotton – or maybe...

16 April, 2010 /
IMGP1122 It's a long way from Telluride to TAG. Start by jumping into a rabbit hole.

If you are lucky enough to get in – the place is one of the hippest, read jammed, in Denver's oh so hip Larimer Square district –  expect the unexpected in this Wonderland of food, where, for example, onion soup winds up inside a dumpling. (Try it, you'll love it.)

Ignorance is bliss – or we have a guardian angel. We showed up without reservations with friends, former Telluride locals Jade and Ernie Graham, also TAG virgins, and managed to waltz right in. (With a little help from the charming young man at the front desk.) But it was a Monday night and TAG was merely full: pulsing, but not hyperventilating.

15 April, 2010 /