Before I get distracted posting photos of my month in Iran, this important detail from the Huffington Post: former Playboy centerfold admits to helping Canadian boyfriend illegally enter the United States.
Such a scandal would never plague Iran.
Also, barring utter disaster, after last night’s 1-0 US victory over Honduras, the United States will be joining Iran in the final round of the World Cup in 2014.
It’ll take me a few posts to bust out the full run of trip photos, but first come pics from the early part of our exchange between the American Alpine Club and the Alpine Club of Iran. Shortly after we arrived, we headed to the Alam Kuh massif in the Alborz Mountains nortwest of Tehran. The single biggest memory I took away from this trip was of the warm and friendly Iranian people.
Alam Kuh is a gorgeous mountain with an impressive north face. I wrote about the Iranian-American climbing exchange in Rope Diplomacy: On the Steeps in Iran (available as a $.99 eBook), which includes more than 30 of Stephen Alvarez’s incredible photos. (Which are a hell of a lot better than these!)