Katie Ives
@katie-r-ives.bsky.social
Mountain writer and editor, follower of the art of galumphing, climber against fascism. Author of Imaginary Peaks: The Riesenstein Hoax and Other Mountain Dreams. (she/they)
In A Culture of Stone, Carolyn Dean writes: “Not subject to death and decay, stone was...was animacy ‘paused’ for an unspecified period. The challenge here is to understand rocks...as ancient Andeans saw them—potentially animate, transmutable, powerful, and sentient…both normal and numinous”
October 27, 2025 at 3:45 PM
In A Culture of Stone, Carolyn Dean writes: “Not subject to death and decay, stone was...was animacy ‘paused’ for an unspecified period. The challenge here is to understand rocks...as ancient Andeans saw them—potentially animate, transmutable, powerful, and sentient…both normal and numinous”
Light the color and translucency of amber, quickly paling and then darkening into dusk and then night. I lay on a clear-cut hill watching the soft gold flow across so many treetops, so much deep silent green of woods, and fearing more clear cuts to come.
#protectnationalforests
#protectnationalforests
October 22, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Light the color and translucency of amber, quickly paling and then darkening into dusk and then night. I lay on a clear-cut hill watching the soft gold flow across so many treetops, so much deep silent green of woods, and fearing more clear cuts to come.
#protectnationalforests
#protectnationalforests
At the Golden. Colorado, No Kings Protest, October 18. Two years after the day of my father's death. How the autumn light seems to glow from within everyone and everything, a gold beyond memory or imagination, recalling miracles and hope.
October 19, 2025 at 1:03 AM
At the Golden. Colorado, No Kings Protest, October 18. Two years after the day of my father's death. How the autumn light seems to glow from within everyone and everything, a gold beyond memory or imagination, recalling miracles and hope.
The indomitable Kathy Ives (Sr), my mom.
October 9, 2025 at 4:53 PM
The indomitable Kathy Ives (Sr), my mom.
October 1, 2025 at 3:45 AM
In autumn, like a ptarmigan, I camouflage into the land, wishing that my soul, too, could blend into the light and leaves--so much unutterable beauty in the world.
October 1, 2025 at 3:37 AM
In autumn, like a ptarmigan, I camouflage into the land, wishing that my soul, too, could blend into the light and leaves--so much unutterable beauty in the world.
Each autumn starts a personal liturgical season for me, since it was the time, in 2023, that my dad began dying. I thought of him, tonight, as I ran higher through golden light and golden lands
October 1, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Each autumn starts a personal liturgical season for me, since it was the time, in 2023, that my dad began dying. I thought of him, tonight, as I ran higher through golden light and golden lands
Back in 2021, when I published a book about North American mountaineering hoaxes, I was already thinking about the larger role of misinformation in US society. (link and excerpts in comments)
September 30, 2025 at 8:15 PM
Back in 2021, when I published a book about North American mountaineering hoaxes, I was already thinking about the larger role of misinformation in US society. (link and excerpts in comments)
"To write the way you do, you have to live a certain way," another writer told me. It can be hard, sometimes, to find my way to that life again: wholly open to the something beyond me, stilling my mind to these cadences, my thoughts to this love--
September 29, 2025 at 2:47 AM
"To write the way you do, you have to live a certain way," another writer told me. It can be hard, sometimes, to find my way to that life again: wholly open to the something beyond me, stilling my mind to these cadences, my thoughts to this love--
Back at my usual Saturday street corner with some of the usual crew. Because we will not be silenced.
#climbersagainstfascism
#climbersagainstfascism
September 27, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Back at my usual Saturday street corner with some of the usual crew. Because we will not be silenced.
#climbersagainstfascism
#climbersagainstfascism
I missed a few protests because of being away, but I'm back at it.
#climbersagainstfascism
For the Front Range:
Saturdays, 10-12 at the Tesla Dealership in Superior, CO, there's a weekly protest--I often get there around 11 a.m (planning to go this week)
see comments for more
#climbersagainstfascism
For the Front Range:
Saturdays, 10-12 at the Tesla Dealership in Superior, CO, there's a weekly protest--I often get there around 11 a.m (planning to go this week)
see comments for more
September 23, 2025 at 7:02 PM
I missed a few protests because of being away, but I'm back at it.
#climbersagainstfascism
For the Front Range:
Saturdays, 10-12 at the Tesla Dealership in Superior, CO, there's a weekly protest--I often get there around 11 a.m (planning to go this week)
see comments for more
#climbersagainstfascism
For the Front Range:
Saturdays, 10-12 at the Tesla Dealership in Superior, CO, there's a weekly protest--I often get there around 11 a.m (planning to go this week)
see comments for more
One final Innsbruck post. I'm back in Boulder, still sifting through everything I've learned--each night I've had vivid dreams as my brain keeps trying to sort though a flood of ideas, encounters, inspirations.
September 23, 2025 at 6:41 PM
One final Innsbruck post. I'm back in Boulder, still sifting through everything I've learned--each night I've had vivid dreams as my brain keeps trying to sort though a flood of ideas, encounters, inspirations.
I got off route, only to hear a voice calling from above "...nicht richtig!" An Austrian woman was also soloing and I followed her to the summit. At the point in the ridge where most people jump across, the ridge, in true galumphing style, I found a way to flop across instead.
September 19, 2025 at 9:23 PM
I got off route, only to hear a voice calling from above "...nicht richtig!" An Austrian woman was also soloing and I followed her to the summit. At the point in the ridge where most people jump across, the ridge, in true galumphing style, I found a way to flop across instead.
Beyond happy that my Himalayan Journal article "Writing Like a Mountain: Mountain Literature in the Anthropocene" is on the finalist list for the Banff Mountaineering Article Award at the Banff 2025 Book Festival! www.banffcentre.ca/film-fest/co...
Mountain Book Competition
2025 Book Competition Finalists Announced!
www.banffcentre.ca
September 18, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Beyond happy that my Himalayan Journal article "Writing Like a Mountain: Mountain Literature in the Anthropocene" is on the finalist list for the Banff Mountaineering Article Award at the Banff 2025 Book Festival! www.banffcentre.ca/film-fest/co...
Since it's been a while since I've posted a photo of the indomitable Kathy Ives (Sr)--here she is! She and my stepdad have been wandering about Innsbruck's mountains too.
September 16, 2025 at 9:17 PM
Since it's been a while since I've posted a photo of the indomitable Kathy Ives (Sr)--here she is! She and my stepdad have been wandering about Innsbruck's mountains too.
From my talk at the International Mountain Conference in Innsbruck about Faye Latham’s British Mountaineers and And Nandini Purandare and Deepa Balsavar's Headstrap: Legends and Lore from the Climbing Sherpas of Darjeeling--as featured in the 2024 Banff Book Festival.
September 16, 2025 at 9:00 PM
From my talk at the International Mountain Conference in Innsbruck about Faye Latham’s British Mountaineers and And Nandini Purandare and Deepa Balsavar's Headstrap: Legends and Lore from the Climbing Sherpas of Darjeeling--as featured in the 2024 Banff Book Festival.
Here, the mountains grow from city streets, through montane forests and alpine meadows into sharp limestone and dizzying sky. The peaks are always there, at the end of an alleyway or pressed up against panes of glass, like spectators watching humans below.
September 16, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Here, the mountains grow from city streets, through montane forests and alpine meadows into sharp limestone and dizzying sky. The peaks are always there, at the end of an alleyway or pressed up against panes of glass, like spectators watching humans below.
At the International Mountain Conference, the shadow of what's happening in the US hangs over conversations about American scholars' lost funding, censored science, uncertain futures--and how Trump threatens the climate, health, and safety of the world. #climatechange, #climbersagainstfascism
September 14, 2025 at 8:49 PM
At the International Mountain Conference, the shadow of what's happening in the US hangs over conversations about American scholars' lost funding, censored science, uncertain futures--and how Trump threatens the climate, health, and safety of the world. #climatechange, #climbersagainstfascism
In Innsbruck to join a panel on mountaineering festivals for the International Mountain Conference--I'll be talking about book festivals as potential sites of resistance against the growth of fascism. #climbersagainstfascism
imc2025.info/imc25/sessio...
imc2025.info/imc25/sessio...
September 14, 2025 at 8:46 PM
In Innsbruck to join a panel on mountaineering festivals for the International Mountain Conference--I'll be talking about book festivals as potential sites of resistance against the growth of fascism. #climbersagainstfascism
imc2025.info/imc25/sessio...
imc2025.info/imc25/sessio...
#climbersagainstfascism
#WorkersOverBillionaires
#laborday
At the Longmont protest on Labor Day.
Most of the protestors were grey-haired, fighting for the rights of workers of the younger generation and for the future, just as they did during the Sixties and Seventies.
#WorkersOverBillionaires
#laborday
At the Longmont protest on Labor Day.
Most of the protestors were grey-haired, fighting for the rights of workers of the younger generation and for the future, just as they did during the Sixties and Seventies.
September 2, 2025 at 4:19 AM
#climbersagainstfascism
#WorkersOverBillionaires
#laborday
At the Longmont protest on Labor Day.
Most of the protestors were grey-haired, fighting for the rights of workers of the younger generation and for the future, just as they did during the Sixties and Seventies.
#WorkersOverBillionaires
#laborday
At the Longmont protest on Labor Day.
Most of the protestors were grey-haired, fighting for the rights of workers of the younger generation and for the future, just as they did during the Sixties and Seventies.
America should be a democracy for the people, not a fascist regime run by and for billionaires and tech oligarchs.
#climbersagainstfascism
Go to mobilize.us to find a September 1 protest near you.
#climbersagainstfascism
Go to mobilize.us to find a September 1 protest near you.
August 26, 2025 at 7:24 PM
America should be a democracy for the people, not a fascist regime run by and for billionaires and tech oligarchs.
#climbersagainstfascism
Go to mobilize.us to find a September 1 protest near you.
#climbersagainstfascism
Go to mobilize.us to find a September 1 protest near you.
In "The Writing on the Wall," (Summit) Astra Lincoln addresses the history of climbing as protest, and focuses on the Stop Genocide banner on El Cap (Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La). It is a rousing cry to action, both for more protests and acts of conscience related to the ongoing genocide....
August 25, 2025 at 9:12 PM
In "The Writing on the Wall," (Summit) Astra Lincoln addresses the history of climbing as protest, and focuses on the Stop Genocide banner on El Cap (Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La). It is a rousing cry to action, both for more protests and acts of conscience related to the ongoing genocide....
"I am still seeking those moments of complete, undistracted immersion, beyond self and beyond words, like a vision of ice crystals that fall, silent, through the air. A light that flares up in a moment of experience and turns to ashes." --me, Appalachia (the journal, not the place)
August 24, 2025 at 3:30 AM
"I am still seeking those moments of complete, undistracted immersion, beyond self and beyond words, like a vision of ice crystals that fall, silent, through the air. A light that flares up in a moment of experience and turns to ashes." --me, Appalachia (the journal, not the place)
When the heavens become a mirror to the earth, the clouds and sky reflecting the tumult of rock and glacier, hope and unrest, fear and desire.
August 23, 2025 at 7:39 PM
When the heavens become a mirror to the earth, the clouds and sky reflecting the tumult of rock and glacier, hope and unrest, fear and desire.
"The power of authoritarians is not unlimited. The power of people under authoritarians is not nonexistent.... Even in the worst circumstances, people have power, the power to decide how they will conduct themselves in the choices that remain to them...."
--Rebecca Solnit.
#climbersagainstfacism
--Rebecca Solnit.
#climbersagainstfacism
August 23, 2025 at 7:31 PM
"The power of authoritarians is not unlimited. The power of people under authoritarians is not nonexistent.... Even in the worst circumstances, people have power, the power to decide how they will conduct themselves in the choices that remain to them...."
--Rebecca Solnit.
#climbersagainstfacism
--Rebecca Solnit.
#climbersagainstfacism