It's all the better when living the adobe life with Dave Hahn, in his hometown of Taos. Dave says he has lived in Taos since 1985, but with 9 trips to the summit of Everest (and the rest of the year booked at Mount Vinson, Antarctica, South Georgia Island, Denali, Rainier, etc.) he has probably spent more time traversing the Khumbu Icefall than he's spent in Taos. The air and view from Dave's house were as clear and sharp as anything I've ever seen.
I met Dave a few years ago in the Alpes when he dragged my butt up Mont Blanc and Monta Rosa, then later across Shackleton's route on South Georgia Island, and up Mount Rainier. Dave's nine Everest summits might not seem like much compared to my 48 summits of Mount Washington, but he’s going at the pace he has chosen for himself and I'm still proud of him.
Turns out Dave was in Yosemite on the same days I was. He was on assignment from Outside magazine climbing El Capitan with Jimmy Chin, Conrad Anker, and Ivo The Crazy Bulgarian. Dave tells a good story, so it was fun to hear his perspective on big wall climbing, complete with all his personal fears and photos!
They were on the wall six days, climbing a tough Pacific Ocean route. Dave is an entertaining and insightful writer, so the Outside article will be a good look at big-wall climbing, and whole paragraphs of it will be true and accurate.
We went up the road to some beautiful backcountry behind the ski area, beside a little lake. It was mostly uphill, and Dave had no trouble keeping up with me
even at this altitude. Good job, Dave. There was a light, dry, new snow on the ground, and again, the crispy air was so clean and sharp... I gotta come back with skis in the winter! 
Dave is known as The Bird Whisperer of Taos. Here he is balancing a bird -- a Peregrine Falcon probably -- on his toes.
I headed downhill from Taos (everything is downhill from Taos), and pointed the car towards -- gasp! -- Texas!
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