Steve Pomerance

Sept. 17 was a great day. At 5 a.m. my climbing partner and I left Boulder to climb Navajo Peak via Niwot Ridge. After some hours of hiking, we started on a mile long section of rock scrambling along the steep, exposed ridge. The route finding was complex, and the views toward the Boulder watershed, the plains, and the Continental Divide were great. Conditions were perfect — sunny, warm, and not too windy. Some hours later, we finished by descending Airplane Gully, passing wreckage from a post-World War II small plane crash. We then hiked out, also beautiful, but more hours on top of an already long day. We got to the car tired and thirsty, but satisfied and no blisters. This wonderful day followed a not-so-good Tuesday evening at the City Council meeting, which started with a study session on growth and development. Many of council members’ initial comments were seemingly directed at convincing those who came to ask for action on controlling growth that there was no problem. Accor...

A few months ago, I discussed “Disruptive Challenges,” a paper published by the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the research arm of a large group of investor-owned utilities. The paper accurately describes renewable energy as potentially disrupting the business model used by these utilities to extract high profits with little risk. Disruption is now manifesting in Europe, where the growth of renewables has been extremely rapid. Apparently the initial subsidies led to lots of installations, which reduced overall costs, which then allowed subsidies to be reduced. According to a recent article in The Economist entitled “How to lose a half a trillion euros,” market valuation of European utilities has dropped by over half since 2008. One major factor is the inability of their coal-powered generation plants to integrate with the variable output of renewables. Because the Europeans require utilities to accept all the renewable energy generated, these slow-ramping plants are becoming fo...

I just returned from a great trip to Ecuador. I have never been there before, although I’ve traveled elsewhere in South America, including multiple trips to Peru (starting with the Peace Corps) and to Argentinean and Chilean Patagonia. Ecuador is a wonderful place to visit. The people, scenery, and accommodations are terrific, and the country, at least from a traveler’s perspective, is well-managed and easy to deal with. And I have to say that the quality of the meat, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruit and baked goods was superb — I looked forward to every meal. The big event of the trip was a climb of Cotopaxi, a 19,347-foot volcano. My wife and I, with the assistance of a guide (mandatory allegedly) started at 1 a.m., after a sleepless night in a crowded refuge at just under 16,000 feet. After six-plus hours of mostly headlamp climbing (which produces its own version of motion sickness) using crampons up a glacier and through an icefall, we popped out on the sunlight summit to supe...

I was going to write about national politics this week, but the death of local climber Jack Roberts led me down a different path. Jack was a friend and a climber who inspired me to do more. His death from a fall on an ice climb near Telluride hit me much harder than I would have expected. I have been climbing for about 50 years. Climbing is important in my life, and has consumed large amounts of time and energy over all those years. For me, climbing is not like most other activities. When I’m doing it, I am fully engaged — physically, mentally, and emotionally. At the moments of choice which occur in climbing — about whether to keep going up or turn around, or more starkly to climb up or fall off — there is nothing else in focus. And at the “up or fall” moments, when it’s not possible to just quit and walk away, making the choice to commit, stay focused, and let go of the fear, is a microcosm of what a lot of life is all about. Climbing is also an aesthetic experience. It is outd...