Until the arthritis in my hands got too bad for technical work, I always considered myself much more of a climber than a backpacker. I backpacked mostly to get to the base of the mountain, not for it's own sake. I spent 15 years at the University of Washington as a student and faculty member. In those years, I climbed a fairly large number of the peaks in the North Cascades, some of them pretty remote, and seldom went backpacking just for recreation. Now, however, my climbing is more-or-less limited to scrambling and I find that I really enjoy backpacking for it's own pleasures.
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May I walk in beauty.