Land of the Earth-born Spirit From the Land of the Earthborn Spirit. IN MEMORIAM: Craig Luebben, 1960 – 2009 “If you put limits on everything you do, it will spread into your work and your life. There are no limits, only plateaus. You must not stay there, you...

CUBA   I first went to Cuba in the summer of 1997 in search of rock climbing potential. I was climbing in the Caribbean, fairly close to Cuba at the time, and out of nowhere came an ‘opportunity’ to go there. I HAD to see this place! I had heard rumors of...

PUERTO RICO In the summer of ’96, several friends (Craig Luebben, Tom Kelly, Leslie Barber and George Bracksieck) and I took a journey to explore virgin climbing on Mona Island, an isolated 5 x 7 mile limestone plug rising abruptly out of the northern Caribbean Sea...

KILIMANJARO In the climbing community, this part of EAST AFRICA is known for two big peaks, Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya. Kilimanjaro is the highest point on the African Continent, rising some 19,350 feet ‘off the deck’. When done by the standard routes such as the...

MT. KENYA The ancient Greeks wrote of the existence of peaks on the Equator capped with snow, although it was still an open question. Ptolemy stated that the Nile had its source in two great lakes supplied with water from the ‘Mountains of the Moon’. Aristotle called...

NEPAL I was jarred awake by a huge explosion followed by the deafening roar of a full force hurricane that terrified me – or was it just a nightmare? I poked my head out of our tent only to get bitten by a blast of very cold air. An avalanche had calved off...