Author Archives: kurczy

To climb the 8,839-foot-tall northwest face of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, you need a lot of gear. Aside from a rope, the leader’s harness is weighted with around 20lbs of quickdraws, alpine draws, wired nuts, and camalots (cams) used to create … Continue reading →

“What’s the temperature inside this frigid cabin?” “What’s the fastest time running up Mount Washington?”* “What’s the difference between a wet cup and a dry cup?”** This is what we talk about when we talk inside Doublehead Cabin, an uninsulated … Continue reading →

The Shape of Water, a movie about a lady who falls in love with an aquatic beast, has been hailed as a movie promoting diversity. And I’m very confused. “‘The Shape of Water’ Wins Best Picture as Oscars Project Diversity,” said The New York … Continue reading →

Photos by Jenna Cho (@TheDailyCho) “It has to be here!” I yelled to Jenna. She looked at me incredulously. “It could be anywhere under the snow,” she said. I kept scouring the ground. We’d been up since 6 a.m., wandering for hours … Continue reading →

The thermometer hovered in the single digits as Jenna, I, and Orbit hiked along the Metacomet Trail into Ragged Mountain in central Connecticut. The snow had that rubbery texture and squeaky sound that only comes with very cold snow. Ice … Continue reading →

I’m all about gorging at Thanksgiving. And one of the best gorges in the East is the 1,000-foot-deep New River Gorge in West Virginia, which is lined with miles and miles of vertical rock cliffs that beg to be climbed. … Continue reading →

Photo by Jenna Cho You wouldn’t know a fire burns beneath your feet. The ground isn’t hot; it was snow-covered when I visited this past March. Trees grow. There’s no smoke, at least not immediately visible. A few people even live in the area, despite most … Continue reading →

Photo by Jeffrey Gereige Several hundred feet above the ground, I tip-toed across the smooth granite of Cannon Cliff, wedged my fingers into a narrow vertical crack, and inched up toward a triangular overhang that is considered the crux of Moby Grape, a climbing route near where … Continue reading →

Photos by Jenna Cho Every time I hear about a new speed record for completing the Appalachian Trail, I feel a tinge of competition rise from somewhere in the crazier part of my brain. Could I run the entire Appalachian Trail, all … Continue reading →

At the spectacular cliffs of Seneca Rocks in West Virginia, a large sign warns rock climbers to call 911 in case of emergency. Thing is, there’s no cell service. Seneca sits deep within America’s National Radio Quiet Zone, where cell … Continue reading →

Would it be inappropriate to play with the Wogdon pistols that Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr used in their famous 1804 duel? Not that I exactly played with the guns, which are enclosed in a glass case on one of the upper … Continue reading →

In December 2014, while I was on a two-week mountaineering expedition in the Andes to climb Aconcagua on the border of Argentina and Chile, I met the Spanish skyrunner Kilian Jornet and witnessed him running up and down the tallest … Continue reading →

In southeast Connecticut, the car dealership Cardinal Honda is something of an institution. As a kid, I remember seeing the founder Stanley Cardinal on TV with his slicked-back hair imploring people to “Fly with a Cardinal at the wheel of a Honda!” — … Continue reading →

“Dude, I’m this close to kicking you out,” Rich Palatino, the bearded caretaker of Harvard Cabin, warned. “I will, unless you stop acting like a douchebag. Well?” It was New Year’s Day, 2017. Given that we were standing in the New Hampshire … Continue reading →

It was July. I was sitting inside a John Deere tractor rumbling through Mato Grosso, a landlocked Brazilian state whose name means “thick forest” but is now more famous for its vast fields of soy and corn. Farmland there stretches to every … Continue reading →