How Many Lives Have I Used?

Looking back over my life, I've often wondered how many of my nine lives I've already used. Decades of climbing, mountaineering, paddling, backpacking, and travel have given me incredible experiences, but they've also produced a number of moments when things could easily have ended very differently.

Over the years I've nearly frozen to death from hypothermia, almost stepped on a bushmaster snake in the Amazon, nearly fallen during a solo climb on Bloody Fingers, slipped on steep snow and ice, nearly drowned in a borrowed paddle boat during winter, survived a head-on collision with a truck, walked away from a rollover accident, endured a dangerous lightning storm on Longs Peak, and spent an unexpected bivouac on Haystack Mountain.

These pages tell those stories—and the lessons in preparation, judgment, friendship, luck, resilience, and gratitude that came with them.