One of my favorite films is a documentary called It Might Get Loud. The film details three guitarists: Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, The Edge of U2, and Jack White of The White Stripes, as they tell the story of how they built their musical careers out of the electric guitar. At one point in the […]
Read more "Back to Basics"Today I was reading an article that I found incredibly fascinating. It’s an article about the mental toll of football (soccer) players who are found to be extraneous to plans, whether by having another better person ahead of them in the pecking order, or coming back from injury and being seen as damaged goods and […]
Read more "The Unseen and Unheard – Injury and Mental Health"I’ve thought for a long time about if I was going to ever write in my blog again. I wrote professionally for a while, became disillusioned with the scene, took the time to concentrate on my own athletic ambitions and…here we are.
Read more "The Here and Now – Climber to Skier"I’ve been really excited lately. I feel for the first time in a long time, I’m starting to get my mountain jive back. While I didn’t get to knock off my winter objectives (A winter ascent of Kelso Ridge being at the forefront, and more snowy climbs) I had a pretty spectacular ski season, and […]
Read more "Grays Peak – Standard Route"I woke up from the back of my car, the rainbow colored prayer flags that hang from my trunk fluttered in the dusty rusted sand, and I watched ash skies envelope the Six Shooter’s towered architecture. Across the fields of sagebrush, and over the black stained bacteria of the cryptobiotic soil, a small rabbit scurried […]
Read more "In The Heart Of The Creek"This week marks five years to the day of my first attempt on Rainier. I was a rookie. Completely out of my element. Completely unprepared for what I was going to go up against. It was my first peak, my first glacial climb, and my first time using an ice axe. I wanted to do […]
Read more "The Photo"Colorado has a long and illustrious history with skiing. It’s the home to famed resorts known worldwide and some of the best snow on Earth (Utah likes to contend the facts but I beg to differ). Along with the powerhouse names, that bring skiers and snowboarders by the millions to the Rockies, there are still […]
Read more "Skiing an Abandoned Resort: Hidden Valley – Rocky Mountain National Park"“You probably won’t be skiing or climbing. You should not be this calm for what you’ve just done.” I sat in the hospital bed, trying to stay jovial, trying to stay calm, and internally destroyed. Those were the words of the doctor who had just seen the x-ray of my destroyed tibia and fibula. That […]
Read more "25 Days"Back in September, I was invited to the Outdoor Industry Association’s annual Rendezvous conference. The last session of the conference was to be an information session from surrogates representing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s respective camps, to explain what their candidate would do for our industry, my industry where I make my living. Clinton was […]
Read more "Protect Where We Play"Five years ago this week, I started Mike Off the Map. It was a blog that was simply meant to record some of the places I’d been to, a budding outdoor life, and just generally a way to get some thoughts out. I gave it a month, tops, before I’d probably forget about it. Five […]
Read more "Five Years"
MIKE OFF THE MAP 