I ran a slow and steady pace up to the hut on the side of New Hampshire’s Mount Lafayette on this, the second morning of the new year. It’s a mountain I know perhaps better than any other, having worked and lived in its shadow for many years. Its profile, as painted by my late … Continue reading Across the Lines of Straighter Darker Trees
World Philosophy Day
I've reposted this from Ecologies of Knowing to share here. Unde aether sidera pascit?Lucretius, De Rerum Natura I.231 On this World Philosophy Day, I find myself in the not-always comfortable position of recognising just how the ever-present movement of our world can pull, unravel, remake, and how stillness and rest are nonetheless intrinsic elements of … Continue reading World Philosophy Day
From Fall to Winter Fell
Mi sono proteso verso l'ignotoe mentre mi avvicinavo alla sicurezza della vetta,Sono caduto e mi sono ritrovato in un mondo lento. I reached out into the unknown,and as I neared the safety of the summit,I fell and found myself in a slow world. After Dante, Purgatorio IV, between lines 39-40. I’ve had the opportunity for … Continue reading From Fall to Winter Fell
Running in the Rain
I am no stranger to running in the rain. The many times I've found myself buffeted like Rimbaud's boat along crests and troughs of mountain ridges -- alone where no doubt I should not have been. I have countless times, in places both remembered or nearly forgotten, found myself in the embrace of the cold … Continue reading Running in the Rain
Radical relationality
I’ve recently completed a short contribution to the One Day in 2050 project – a vision of what a climate utopia might look like at mid-century. Almost inevitably, my chapter’s character is drawn to a stream on Dartmoor as a starting place for being connected to a network without limits, a circular enfolding of planet, … Continue reading Radical relationality
Mountains and memory: philosophy and physiology
I spent today at rest, my tired body embraced by the stirrings of a deeply embodied cognition of mountains, muscles, and memory from the past few days, dozens of kilometres and thousands of metres of ascent. As a mountain runner of some decades now, my legs have steadily become a topography of the ranges I’ve … Continue reading Mountains and memory: philosophy and physiology
Headwaters and wonder
Eastward toward an undercast sky from Hangingstone Hill, 603 metres There is an inherent tousle between the solid and the indistinct on the moor. I’m never entirely sure what will be underfoot with my next step, where the faint trail I follow will branch out and meander, diffuse into fescue and bent. This is a … Continue reading Headwaters and wonder
Moving Over Imagined Ground
On the undulating gravel highlands between Iceland’s Vatnajokull and Hofsjokull icecaps and, nearer by, the Hágönglón and Kvislarvatn lakes swollen in summers with pale blue-gray meltwater, is the low, rounded gravel summit of Skrokksalda. The summit plateau is home to one of Iceland’s many GPS monitoring site. This one, SKRO, has measured some of the … Continue reading Moving Over Imagined Ground
Contemplating Dartmoor
I woke ten minutes before the alarm I had set for 3:30 this morning to the sound of clearing winds pushing the last of the night’s rains to the east. By the time I clipped into my pedals an hour later, the sky was clear and the stars guided me westward toward the moor. It … Continue reading Contemplating Dartmoor
Interval
Morning on Dartmoor, November 2020 For many, the first of January is a day of reflection, anticipation, planning, and taking stock. For runners, and athletes of all kinds, it can be a day to start a new logbook, make a race schedule, set goals, or reshape a training plan. In our different ways, we try … Continue reading Interval
Climate Run 