A poem I wrote for my dad (1946-2023) panoramajournal.org/issues/issue...

In autumn, like a ptarmigan, I camouflage into the land, wishing that my soul, too, could blend into the light and leaves--so much unutterable beauty in the world.

Each autumn starts a personal liturgical season for me, since it was the time, in 2023, that my dad began dying. I thought of him, tonight, as I ran higher through golden light and golden lands

Back in 2021, when I published a book about North American mountaineering hoaxes, I was already thinking about the larger role of misinformation in US society. (link and excerpts in comments)

"To write the way you do, you have to live a certain way," another writer told me. It can be hard, sometimes, to find my way to that life again: wholly open to the something beyond me, stilling my mind to these cadences, my thoughts to this love--

Back at my usual Saturday street corner with some of the usual crew. Because we will not be silenced. #climbersagainstfascism

I missed a few protests because of being away, but I'm back at it. #climbersagainstfascism For the Front Range: Saturdays, 10-12 at the Tesla Dealership in Superior, CO, there's a weekly protest--I often get there around 11 a.m (planning to go this week) see comments for more

One final Innsbruck post. I'm back in Boulder, still sifting through everything I've learned--each night I've had vivid dreams as my brain keeps trying to sort though a flood of ideas, encounters, inspirations.

I got off route, only to hear a voice calling from above "...nicht richtig!" An Austrian woman was also soloing and I followed her to the summit. At the point in the ridge where most people jump across, the ridge, in true galumphing style, I found a way to flop across instead.

Beyond happy that my Himalayan Journal article "Writing Like a Mountain: Mountain Literature in the Anthropocene" is on the finalist list for the Banff Mountaineering Article Award at the Banff 2025 Book Festival! www.banffcentre.ca/film-fest/co...

Since it's been a while since I've posted a photo of the indomitable Kathy Ives (Sr)--here she is! She and my stepdad have been wandering about Innsbruck's mountains too.

From my talk at the International Mountain Conference in Innsbruck about Faye Latham’s British Mountaineers and And Nandini Purandare and Deepa Balsavar's Headstrap: Legends and Lore from the Climbing Sherpas of Darjeeling--as featured in the 2024 Banff Book Festival.

Here, the mountains grow from city streets, through montane forests and alpine meadows into sharp limestone and dizzying sky. The peaks are always there, at the end of an alleyway or pressed up against panes of glass, like spectators watching humans below.

At the International Mountain Conference, the shadow of what's happening in the US hangs over conversations about American scholars' lost funding, censored science, uncertain futures--and how Trump threatens the climate, health, and safety of the world. #climatechange, #climbersagainstfascism

In Innsbruck to join a panel on mountaineering festivals for the International Mountain Conference--I'll be talking about book festivals as potential sites of resistance against the growth of fascism. #climbersagainstfascism imc2025.info/imc25/sessio...

#climbersagainstfascism #WorkersOverBillionaires #laborday At the Longmont protest on Labor Day. Most of the protestors were grey-haired, fighting for the rights of workers of the younger generation and for the future, just as they did during the Sixties and Seventies.

America should be a democracy for the people, not a fascist regime run by and for billionaires and tech oligarchs. #climbersagainstfascism Go to mobilize.us to find a September 1 protest near you.

In "The Writing on the Wall," (Summit) Astra Lincoln addresses the history of climbing as protest, and focuses on the Stop Genocide banner on El Cap (Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La). It is a rousing cry to action, both for more protests and acts of conscience related to the ongoing genocide....

"I am still seeking those moments of complete, undistracted immersion, beyond self and beyond words, like a vision of ice crystals that fall, silent, through the air. A light that flares up in a moment of experience and turns to ashes." --me, Appalachia (the journal, not the place)

When the heavens become a mirror to the earth, the clouds and sky reflecting the tumult of rock and glacier, hope and unrest, fear and desire.

"The power of authoritarians is not unlimited. The power of people under authoritarians is not nonexistent.... Even in the worst circumstances, people have power, the power to decide how they will conduct themselves in the choices that remain to them...." --Rebecca Solnit. #climbersagainstfacism

www.them.us/story/sj-jos... Spread the word and help SJ Joslin get their job back. #climbersagainstfascism

For an under-2,000 word article on women's winter alpinism in the 19th and early 20th centuries that is due next week, I have more than 200 pages of notes. I think I have set a new record for myself of notes/final article ratio. Also, clearly, there is a lot to say on the topic.

Above 11,000 feet, signs of autumn appear, faint as twilight: the red of alpenglow across a dry, rocky peak; the yellow-tipped leaves of small alpine plants; a new golden hue and sudden chill in the evening air; the way the waters seem suspended, waiting, for the ice to form.

As we climbed above land that seemed dead with heat, the dark clouds and light rain that hid the sun, the quiet murmurs of distant thunder, seemed like a source of dread and hope--we almost longed for storms to cool us. The world is a match, always alit or on the edge of burning. #climatechange

A mass-galumphing event took place on the Second Flatiron, photos by Sylwia Hendrickson, with Jane Reuteler-Schmid. Leela O'Brien, Lacee Ankeney

I met some neighbors and chatted about climbing history during World War II, from the role of some German and Italian climbers in fascist propaganda to the French climbers who joined the resistance in the Vercors, and the Americans who served in the 10th Mountain Resistance.

Jean Dempsey--first all-female free ascents of the Naked Edge (1978) and the Diamond on Longs Peak (1980)--celebrating her 75th birthday at the weekly protest in Superior. With Sallie Greenwood, Mike Munger (who made me my new sign) #climbersagainstfascism

putting all my thoughts into a photo of text, since it's impossible to fit anything into Bluesky's word count.

Air and stone turn pale with heat and wildfire smoke. Summer burns--a sharpness in the lungs, a bleached appearance to the land, the flowers already dry as autumn. Only the distant sky is still blue. #climatechange (photo of me by Leela O'Brien, short break from work)

Still at it. #climbersagainstfacism

My latest column in Gripped is out! Continuing my journey to encounter and amplify alternative ways of looking at mountaineering literature as a genre of resistance. Please check out the print or digital magazine (there's no online link yet). gripped.com/subscribe/ Also on Apple News+

Now, as there begins to be more momentum of condemnation of genocide, is a good time to keep speaking out, keep contacting representatives, keep protesting—even if you’ve been silent before. (Photo from a Climbers for Palestine event I attended in June.) more in comments

Heat sears the city until the foothills turn bone dry. The higher peaks begin to seem like an otherworld of columbines and bluebells, of cool granite crevices and blue-gree lakes, of rising pines and shrinking snows--a dream that fades into the heat of approaching mornings. #climatechange

At the July 17 protest in Boulder, remembering that my body and my sign can still speak, even when I feel too sorrow laden to find words. #climbersagainstfascism

lI'll be at the Boulder one, along with some of the usual climbers. Go to goodtroubleliveson.org to find one near you. more in comments. Thu, Jul 17 4:00 PM — 6:00 PM MDT Boulder Bandshell Boulder, CO 80302 #climbersagainstfascism

Another one of my dad's unpublished poems. Bill Ives (1946-2023)

At our frequent street corner earlier today. A reminder: There will be another nationwide protest on June 17, go to www.mobilize.us to find one near you. There are ones in many towns and cities around the US (including many Front Range and Colorado places). #climbersagainstfascism

To write is an act of love. You must open yourself completely. Quiet everything in your mind except the cadence of creation, outside of you, inside of you. (more in comments) gripped.com/uncategorize...

I'm not protesting America, I'm protesting for America's sake--out of love for this land and the people who live here. (more in comments)

Here's a really good resource shared by Rebecca Solnit for calling Republican house representatives to stop the bill. There are explanations of why this bill would be disastrous and contact information for all the representatives (including ones in Colorado). docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Happy Canada Day! With deep gratitude to our northern neighbors (and for my friends and colleagues there), and apologies for all the harm the current US government is doing--you deserve better! (A photo from a happier era, during a Banff writing residency, May 2023)

Logging more meters for the Climbers for Palestine fundraiser. (more in comments)

Fragment of a story-in-progress

My dad Bill Ives (1946-2023) loved wild places and fought to save them from development. He was also a writer of many nonfiction articles. He only published one poem (that I know of) during his lifetime, but left stacks of unpublished ones from his youth. I think this one came from ca. 1970.

Attended an emergency protest at the Denver State Capitol this evening. For my American friends who are wondering what to do, please contact your representatives to ask them to invoke the 1973 War Powers Resolution and to oppose this illegal, unconstitutional war.

When I was reading books on the history of fascism, one idea chilled me--the notion that fascist governments sustain their power through war. And now, Trump has begun an unconstitutional US war with Iran. To the world: I am so sorry. We will keep opposing him. #climbersagainstfascism

The Senate draft of the budget reconciliation bill mandates the sale of more than 3 million acres of public lands and leaves 250 million acres vulnerable for future sale. Please contact your representatives. The Access Fund offers an easy tool: www.accessfund.org/action-alert...