As we contemplate life indoors for yet a bit longer – a few words in this excellent Antarctica video from Jimmy Chin:

“Fear a great motivator, I’m never going to be able to keep up with them!”

Perhaps winning an Oscar just doesn’t prepare one for skiing with Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison in Antarctica after their descent of the Lhotse Couloir.

Conrad Anker has made many expeditions south, but as he recounts, it is never without adventure, as he describes the winds on Mount Vinson:

“You are a fly on the anvil.”

With the snow changing by the year on Vinson, and slopes that 20 years ago seemed stable now avalanching, route possibilities are changing, the rock ridges are looking more appealing and the endless ski slopes we previously explored now have to be checked and rechecked.

The inevitable and ever terrifying ‘whoomph’ of the snow-pack is moving up from the glaciers and onto the mountain-sides – more with every passing year.

On sitting in tents, waiting out storms and contemplating avalanches overhead, Jim Morrison considers in the video the ability to “Get quiet with yourself.” Perhaps not bad advice right now for all kinds of situations we find ourselves in.