Park perennial: Minnesotan is on a 42-year camping streak startribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from startribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In 2010 I spent a month at Mount Everest’s Base Camp in Nepal. As part of a summit-expedition team, my assignment was to write news, both for
Outside and other publications, from the comfort of a tent pitched at the terminus of the Khumbu Icefall.
Say what you will about Base Camp, but I was there to do a job, and I found my work space to be stunningly beautiful and surreal. Where else can you wake to the rumble of an avalanche at dawn, check out expedition setups straight out of James Bond, and stumble across artifacts (like a human arm) emerging from the melting glacier? Some mountaineering companies stake down absurdly luxurious glamping spreads, but ours wasn’t one of them. That’s why I grew attached to my Ugg boots. It gets cold at 17,500 feet elevation, and those boots kept my feet warm.