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One of the most spectacular peaks in the Eagle River Valley is Polar Bear Peak. Just 5 miles from the trailhead, this peak rises over 6000 feet from base to summit, with many of its faces and buttresses still unclimbed.

On a crisp fall day as I was heading up the Eagle River Valley, I spotted this beautiful reflection of Eagle Peak (on the right) and Polar Bear Peak (sunlit on the left). This is just a little example of the beautiful vistas just 10 miles from my house.

The route's name came from the first ascentionists rodeo style antics when climbing the exposed roof. A leg over heel scum is the ticket!

A sunny spring day warms this alpine granite enough to climb in a T-shirt!

My 16 year old daughter Hallie and I after our recent trip up the Casual Rte on the Diamond. We are about to bail off the rappells and pick up our bivy gear.

Some alpine training with mixed climbing on bad rock (shale)and alpine ice.

Took a trip to climb in the cirque in August of 2001. I carried in nearly 80 pounds of stuff for 7 days in. I've since converted to ultralight backpacking btw. Luckily as the saying goes, alpine climbers have short memories, and I'd gladly hike the 11 mile approach again to climb more routes there. Pingora was all we did, but it well worth it!

This is the Glacier we followed up to the summit of Mount McArthur. A great day with stunning views.

This is me hiking the Iceline trail in Yoho National park. We were hiking in to stay at the Stanly Mitchel hut so I had to carry all my glacier gear, and our perviouse night was in tents, so we had to carry out tents and stoves and pots too! Arg, pack was 72lbs!

We came up the Glacier De Polaris, punch through a cornice, and were encountered by breath taking views

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This is page 8 of my presentation, and shows the soloists view up the bleak and intimidating South Face of Dhaulagiri.

Dry tooling at 7700m?!

That IS sick.

But even sicker in the link above, is a photo of Tomaz pulling out his OWN abscessed tooth!

Yep. No doubt about it. Tomaz Humar is as bitchin' as they come!

Unfortunately, if you are bitchin', then you are going to have detractors, and you are about to see that even the World's Greatest Climber is not exempt.

Please click here for the next photo in the series, and to return to Reticent Wall in Yosemite.

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This is page 7 of my presentation, and is a self-portrait taken by Tomaz Humar on his solo ascent of the South Face of Dhaulagiri.

Note: Tomaz' climb has been considered one of the GREATEST FEATS EVER IN THE HISTORY OF HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINEERING, and I would strongly encourage you to click the links you find on this page!

Please click here to read where Tomaz describes his nine-day epic on Dhaulagiri.

Now, please riddle me this:

just how "bad" IS Tomaz??

Before you answer, please click here for the next photo in the series and what I consider to be one of the SICKEST climbing photos I have ever seen!

[Photo of Tomas Humar taken on Dhaulagiri which Tomaz emailed to me, along with permission to publish here at RC.com]

Just a pic of Fletcher Mountain (13,951'), Summit County, Colorado that I submitted in order to post in a thread (It's a great hike) photo credit: K. Baldwin/August 2002

The east face of Longs Peak at some absurd hour in the morning.

Agrauch cruising up the snowfield on Navajo Peak in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, CO. The 50 degree snowfield leads to a bit of scrambling and a couple of fun 5.2-5.4 pitches. Its an easy but very entertaining route to the summit.

Kevin Caudil checking out the ice on Borah's N. Face route about six pitches up. We climbed easy fourth and fifth class rock to this point where we finally found ice. After setting a belay, Kevin downclimbed / traversed out onto the ice, and then back in after finding that the ice was thin and rotten. Looking back, we should have failed up, but we didn't, we bailed immediately after this shot was taken and proceeded to embark on a five hour death march back to the rigs. Photo by Sean Rasmussen

This is another new photo of mount damavand ..... The beauty of mount damavand :)

Helder, me and Bibi at the summit of the Aneto. No point in showing the landscape... It just wasn't there... We got lost in the fog on our way down, as soon as we got of the glaciar, as did many other mountaineers (we were allways meeting lost parties while descending)... it took us 5 ours from the camp at the Renclusa to the summit and 8/9 to come back...

Julie Leist (rocks4jules) got her photo in the paper after helping to rescue the instructor on a trip they took with North Idaho College to Kokanee Glacier. The instructor, Paul Chivvis, was demonstrating self-arrest techniques when he caught his crampon sending a spiral fracture through his right fibia above his ankle. He had to be flown out by helicopter to Nelson and then transported back to Coeur d'Alene, ID for surgery.

Beginning as a beautiful, warm, clear, early-August morning, a storm quickly blew in and enveloped Grand Teton. As you can see, the sun is still shining at the AAC's Climber's Ranch, where the photo was taken. Friends, planning to climb the Exum Ridge, were subsequently delayed for a day while stranded on the lower saddle in their tent. They endured strong winds, cold temps, horizontal rain, sleet, and snow! The following day, however, proved to be much better. As is common on alpine routes, the weather suddenly cleared and ultimately allowed a successful summit of the Grand!

This is the view up Eagle River Valley from the bridge over Eagle River half a mile from my house. The picture does not do justice to the spectacular size of the peaks and the beautiful fall colors.

A late December ascent of Mount Washington took darkside and two friends up through Huntington Ravine via Central Gulley and on to the summit late in the day. A good (and almost free) feast of ribs, chicken, nachos, and beer awaits them back in the valley later.

Classic shot of Pigeon Spire taken near the Bugaboo/Snowpach col

Taken from the approch to pigeon spire by Christiaan Burchell

Mike Burke just before the false summit of Pigeon. Taken by Christiaan Burchell August 2002