Author: Cascoly

I've been exploring and leading trips for over 40 years. climbing & trekkng in the Alps, Andes, North American mountain ranges and the Himalaya. I'm retired from mountaineering now but world travels in Europe, Africa & Asia continue to expand my portfolio. Besides private travel, I now focus on escorting trips to India & Turkey. Other interests include wide reading in history and vegetable gardening / cooking. You can download digital images here, or find images at https://steve-estvanik.pixels.com. We have many thousands of images we haven't displayed yet; so, if you have a special need or request please contact us

Pipeline to Battle – a Memoir of World War II

When the Jasmine revolution of early 2011 erupted, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt returned to the headlines; probably the most active coverage since World War II with the Desert Rats and Rommel’s Afrika Korps.  Libya’s eastern province was known as the Western Desert in World War II since it protected Egypt’s western border.  Throughout the early… Continue reading Pipeline to Battle – a Memoir of World War II

King Hereafter – Dorothy Dunnett’s recreation of Macbeth

The King Hereafter is Dorothy Dunnett ‘s unique retelling of the Macbeth story — actually, most resemblance to Shakespeare’s ‘Scottish Play’ is purely incidental.  Like the revisioning of the Arthur tales by Bernard Cornwell, Mary Stewart and many others, the barebones of what we think we know of the story become mere background whispers. For… Continue reading King Hereafter – Dorothy Dunnett’s recreation of Macbeth

The Road to Wigan Pier – George Orwell on Fascism

Hoard of United States penny coins isolated on table

He realizes that the standard progressive stance fails to see that many of the goals of MAGA are compatible with a progressive program – it’s the higher-level ideology that results in the cause ‘that dares not speak its name ‘– fascism.

Where the Mountain Casts Its Shadow – Maria Coffey

Losing a friend or loved one is never an easy process, but it becomes even more tangled when they leave for a mountain adventure and never return.  I first experienced this in the early 70’s when 3 close friends were killed while attempting Mt. Elias in Canada. 

Best Way to See Seattle is to Leave It

  As you leave Seattle, there are great views back to the city skyline, showing the sprawling city from Seattle Center and Queen Anne hill, south to the still-unpaid-for stadiums and dockyards.  On a clear day, you can even see Mt. Rainier, over 50 miles away.

Goats Do Roam

Audrey & I were on a cross country trip in Olympic National Park here in Washington.  On our second day, we’d dropped packs on the trail to climb the rotten rock pinnacle of Cruiser.  All went well until on descent we saw a group of mountain goats examining our packs. Alternately glissading and sliding on… Continue reading Goats Do Roam

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Alexander’s Path – Freya Stark

This was the perfect complement to be reading during our hiking trip in Lycia. Challenged by the meagerness of the historical record of Alexander’s progress along the Lycian coast, Stark set out in the 1950s to retrace and discover his most likely trail.  Alexander had come to Xanthos, then after starting to the north, towards Gordium, suddenly made a sharp change of direction towards current day Antalya.

Byzantium a trilogy by John Julius Norwich

“Of that Byzantine empire the universal verdict of history is that it constitutes, without a single exception, the most thoroughly base and despicable form that civilization has yet assumed…The history of the Empire is a monotonous story of the intrigues of priests, eunuchs and women, of poisonings, of conspiracies, of uniform ingratitude of perpetual fratricides.”;