Reviews....
From Tour Participants, Friends, Magazines and Newspapers
After many years of alpine and high altitude climbing, I was looking for a new and different
challenge in the mountains. Your introduction to me of ski mountaineering has been great.
The opportunities and level of challenge seem endless and exceptionally exciting, from the North
American Rockies, the European Alps, to almost any country with mountains and snow. But best, your
being my guide, and friend has added new enrichment to my life.
Thank you, Lou Kasischke
Michigan
Jean introduced me to mountaineering in 1994, and I have enjoyed many trips and summits with him since
that time. My travel and mountaineering accomplishments with Jean have been some of the most
personally rewarding experiences of my life, in addition to enhancing my knowledge and understanding
of our planet. Jean has guided us in the Rockies, Switzerland, and recently in Ecuador, and each
adventure is better than the previous one.
My daughter has recently begun to climb with us, and Jean continues to take us to the "edge" of our
abilities. Our recent mountaineering trip to Ecuador was fantastic. Jean not only safely guided us
to new mountaineering heights and accomplishments, but his local knowledge of the area made our tour
a complete cultural experience. We look forward to many more mountaineering trips and summits with
Jean in the future, and heartily recommend Adventures to the Edge for the mountain experiences of a
lifetime.
Richard Nelson
Kalamazoo, Michigan
Extract from a Kirk Purcell story:
Kirk and I ski many mountains and always found the best snow and perfect couloir to
enjoy regardless of the conditions.
From Fear to Intimacy: Steep Couloirs, Bad Bulls, and A Resilient Relationship
(When you drop into a rock-lined, terrifyingly steep couloir in La Grave or Chamonix,
just focus on the next turn...and the next turn...and the next turn. Feel the fear, but don't give
in to it. Just stay in the moment and suspend all judgment about how you are doing. Be forgiving.
Love yourself just for being so alive and doing something that most people would never try. Likewise,
when you are standing alone in the middle of a rodeo arena and an especially bad bull is coming RIGHT
AT YOU, feel the fear, but don't give in to it. Just wait on him. Keep both feet planted firmly on
the ground. Don't break and run for the fence. Look him in the eye! Let him keep coming. Then wait a
little longer. Be right there in the moment. Suspend all judgment. And when he's close enough that you
can touch him (or at least feel his aura), make your move nice and easy and just keep breathing and
turning. And watching and listening-in the moment. That's all.)
Looking down into a steep, rock-lined couloir (that's about 20-40 feet wide, at an angle of 38-45
degrees, containing perhaps 1,000 vertical feet of skiable terrain) is like leaning over and looking
into an ancient, rock-lined well on a farm or ranch in west Texas. It appears to be a vertical drop,
straight down. Any normal person would be afraid to drop into the couloir for fear of falling and never
being able to gain control-just a freefall to the bottom.
But a funny thing happens when you get the momentary courage to drop into a steep,
snow-covered couloir. The scariest thing is to square your shoulders and face straight downhill,
straight down the fall line. But it also turns out to be the safest place for you. When the snow is
soft and deep, it catches you, just like a giant sheet that stretches from the ground up to your knees
or hips. As long as you are skiing the fall line, you will be safe. (The trouble begins when you
momentarily lose your courage and you begin to traverse-skiing across the mountain, across the fall
line. You lose your vision, you lose your rhythm, and most importantly, you lose the safety net of the
giant sheet of deep snow that will hold you and embrace you and keep you safe as long as you keep
turning and ski the fall line.)
Skiing the fall line in deep snow on wild, steep terrain is just like having faith in God or placing
trust in a friend who has agreed to ski the steeps with you. You make all of your really important,
fundamental decisions way before that moment when you are standing together at the top of a really
hairy-looking couloir somewhere in the middle of the wilderness. By doing so, the moments of doubt
don't arrive. Or if they do, they don't live long.
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