About Zero Latitude

In 2014 I started the Zero Latitude blog to document my travels and adventures.  Primarily focused on backcountry skiing, I was attempting to climb and ski Volcano Cayambe in Ecuador and chose the name in honor of the equator that crosses the South face of the volcano (0 degrees latitude).  Due to the inherent dangers of backcountry skiing and volcanoes, I liked the play on words and got into the habit of ending each blog entry with a cheesy catch-phrase such as: "at 19,000 feet above sea level, on an active volcano, there is zero latitude for error..." 

That's me, skiing Tuckerman Ravine in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  The shot was taken by Robert Bukaty, a Pulitzer Prize winning AP photographer.

A general theme for my entries involves reflections on the importance of mind, body and spirit and how to develop each through travel.  For instance, in Ecuador, I spoke about training and acclimating the body for exposure to extreme altitudes.  I also delved into geology and earth sciences with respect to the seasons, the equator and volcanoes. And finally Kimberly and I had a local shaman perform a spiritual cleansing prior to our climb. 

Over the past few years, I've expanded my entries to explore other interests of mine, and in the process, another theme has emerged - the importance of now.  I came to realize that a motivating force behind my choice of hobbies and interests is that they all tend to focus my attention and demand that I live in the moment.  We all have a tendency to dwell on the past and worry about the future, and we all know that ultimately, both of those activities waste a lot of time.  Activities with consequence that require concentration and focus push the irrelevant aside and reward us in ways that can only be found outside of the daily grind.

My most recent obsession is auto racing.  I'm currently active in two autocross leagues and will probably tackle this in my next entry.  For now, here's a picture of the Tradd Motorsports #6 Nissan 350Z that I'm racing.

UPDATE!: My rookie season is officially over.  I won both leagues, here are my official results:

South Carolina Region SCCA: 7-0, first place C-street.

Middle Georgia SCCA Autocross: 7-0 First Place, C-Street:

I also received the Driver of the Year Award for the Middle Georgia Region.

Below are links to my blog entries.  My hope is that something in these pages may inspire others to explore exotic places and push their own limits.

The Great American Eclipse - on August 21st, 2017 Dad and I captured pictures of the total eclipse near Walhalla, SC.

The Dawn of AI - some thoughts on Artificial Intelligence and Google's Alpha-Go, a convolutional neural network.

Maserati GT - A tribute to the history of my favorite car the Maserati Granturismo.

Mount Everest Base Camp - a fairly extensive documentation of me and Kimberly's trek to EBC via Delhi and Kathmandu.

Tuckerman Ravine - Kimberly and I traveled to New England so I could ski Tucks.  

Skiing the Volcanoes of Ecuador - Kimberly and I travel to Quito Ecuador to climb and ski the Volcanoes of the Andes.

The Led Zeppelin Balloon Project - Cam and I launched a weather balloon into the stratosphere and took pics.