This granite tower is the highest peak in Patagonia.  
It is focus for storms and wild winds rising from the huge Ice Cap beyond.

This granite tower, higher than the Sears Tower, stands amid
other spires in the evocatively named "Cirque of the Unclimbables" in 
Canada's Yukon Territory.  I tagged along on an attempt to climb the
face.  In two days our four-man team reached 3/4 of the way up, after
having slept on a ledge half way up.  Though we had ten days in the area
bad weather kept us in our tents the balance of the time.  The region is 
one of fierce beauty and twenty-hour days in June.  As memorable as the
jagged skyline and perpetual rockfall were the delicate flowers that clung
in the cracks all the way up the granite walls.   The tale of this adventure
is fully told in my essay "Journey to the Lotus"

Bolivia's highest peak, in the remote Cordillera Occidental, near the Chilean border.  This painting is based on an oil sketch painted on site at 13,500 feet elevation, during a 2003 climbing expedition.

Twin 20,000 foot high peaks, in the Cordillera\ Occidental, right on the Chilean border.  This painting
is based on an oil sketch painted in Sajama Village at 13,500 feet elevation, during a 2003 climbing expedition.

         Ridge of Cordillera Real around 5000 meters
         just outside La Paz.  Looking east towards the
         Amazon basin where humid air builds into towering 
         cumulus clouds every afternoon.  The blinding whites
         and angular shapes are as close as I have come to 
         capturing the experience of mountaineering. 
         Frame based on Bolivian textiles.

  Several great Bolivian trekking routes cross the 
  spine of the Cordillera Real and descend through 
  grasslands into clouds forest and the jungles.  The 
  Yunga Cruz trail ultimately drops over 10,000 vertical
  feet.  This scene is near our first camp, the flat topped
  peak is Mururata (5869 meters). 

  The remote peaks of this range mark the border
  of Peru and Bolivia on the east side of lake Titicaca.
  High moist uplands, shown in the foreground are
  ideal habit for llamas, alpacas and their endangered
  wild relative the vicuna.  This is the site of a 
  national park, Ulla Ulla, devoted to the
  preservation of that delicate animal.

  5648 meter (18530 ft) Condoriri is considered one of 
  the most beautiful peaks in the Andes.  It is situated amid the
  Bolivia's Cordillera Real, which has six peaks over 6000
  meters.  The form of this mountain resembles a condor with 
  outstretched wings.  The main summit is called "Cabeza", the
  head, while, peaks to the left "Ala Izquierda" & "Ala Derecha"
  right are the wings.  We visited the area during an expedition
  in '03 but did not attempt this peak.  When I first sketch
  Condoriri I was so altitude sick that I was crawling on all fours. 
  Saved only by coca tea.

Highest mountain in Mexico 
at 5610 meters (18,405 ft), 
it is also the highest peak that I have
climbed without a guide.  The journey, took
from 2 a.m. until 9 p.m. the following day
and was very demanding.  The painting is shows
the mountain from an imaginary viewpoint, 
based on kinesthetic memories of that epic.
 

Highest peak in the U.S. outside Alaska. 
The east face rises nearly two miles above the desert.

This fast oil sketch was painted in a single sitting.

The east face is one of the longest alpine rock climbs 
in country and an goal of mine.

Distinctive spires rising along 
the front of the eastern Sierra Nevada.

  Eleventh highest peak in North America,  Bona is 5005 meters
  (16,421 ft) high in Alaska's Saint Elias Range in Wrangell
  -St. Elias National Park. We made a good attempt on the
  mountain in May 2001.  We waited through a 24-hour blow at 
  high camp.  Briefly the sun came out, shining brightly on our 
  tents.  I had visions of starting for the summit at four pm 
  (theoretically possible since it never got dark!).  When I  saw 
  this cloud structure over the summit, I knew it was not to be. 
  These lens shaped, "lenticular" clouds form when wind speeds 
  are over 100 m.p.h.  What's more the storm wasn't over... 

Highest peak in New England it is known
for it fierce weather.  Record wind speed was
recorded on the summit.

This view was painted Christmas Day 1990.
The vertical line left of center is the path of 
the cog railway, which carries tourists to the 
summit in the summer.

  Winter climbing in New Hampshire's White Mountains
  has been compared to conditions in Alaska.  We had topped
  out an ice climb in Tuckerman's Ravine on day in April and 
  were making our way along Boote Spur when we saw this 
  apparition in the sky.  It was a lenticular cloud, which often 
  form over mountains during high winds, sometime mirroring 
  the shapes below.  How high were winds that day?  They lifted
  one of my partners Matt Powell off the ground for 15 feet 
  and he never saw his ice ax again