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...was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He
was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing
came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human
race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Why not start at the very beginning? My name is Daniel Smith,
and I'd like to start off by saying "thank you" for taking the time to visit my humble piece
of cyberspace real-estate. You've probably found your way here by either 1) knowing me and
looking to see if you have made the infamous annals of my Photo
Gallery or 2) are looking for information on hiking and climbing in the mountains and
have found beta in one of my trip reports (Google has been very good to me). Either way,
thanks for looking around!
I've spent the better part of my life in the outdoors. I started Cub
Scouts in elementary school and went all the way up through Eagle Scout by 1994. During that
time, I went on three tours of duty at Philmont Scout Ranch in Northern New Mexico where I
gained a real appreciation for spending time in the mountains.
My mountain activity portfolio grew much larger when I went on my first
ski trip in 1998 to Breckenridge, CO. What began as a high school Spring Break trip, has
blossomed into one of my true passions; now I'll ride down just about any slope shallower
than 55°, even if there are "moguls the size of volkswagons!" (Quote courtesy of Anita
Bickley.) I try to make a few ski trips per year, but living in the hot and flat, albeit
great, state of Texas makes it somewhat difficult.
While a Horned Frog at Texas Christian University, I became captivated
by stories of extreme athletes like Doug Coombs and Marco Siffredi riding down the great
8000-meter giants of the Himalaya. Though I can only dream of performing on that level, the
dreaming made me think outside of the box on just what a Texan should do. I thought about
skiing from the highest summit in Colorado, Mt. Elbert, which I found out was not too extreme
of a proposition, even for me. In the spring of 2003, I lugged my heavy wood-core Salomons
part of the way up a quiet Mt. Elbert, and despite underestimating the effort required to
haul the planks up to 4,401m, I found an appreciation for the solitude and peace that come
with off-season hiking.
Thus was my love of winter-climbing born...
If you're interested in the non-climbing side of Daniel, then my
happiest feature is that of being a content husband since February 2004. Carol & I have known
each other since high school, and there is no doubt in my mind that she is the person with
whom God wants me to spend the rest of my life. The two of us enjoy spending time with our
family and friends and decorating our newly purchased house in north Fort Worth, Texas. We
have a friendly golden retriever, Denali, named after the Athabascan "Great One" and a
"spirited" cat named Bart who we rescued as a stray from outside our church.
I am first and foremost a Christian who attends St. Bartholomew's
Roman Catholic Church in south Fort Worth. Carol & I are both active in the parish Young
Adult group, leading a bi-monthly group discussion called Caffeinated Catholicism at a local
coffee shop. Some of my best friends have come out of this tight group of believers.
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