Oh, to be young again. STA, the world’s largest youth and travel organization, is searching for two people to travel to 15 countries this summer — all on STA’s dime. Sounds good, doesn’t it? You just need to know how to use a video camera, possess a charming personality and — oh yeah — be fewer than 26 years old. The “World Traveler Interns” will document their journeys with video, photos and blogs. To apply for the job, submit a video detailing why you should be selected. Entries are accepted through the STA Travel World Intern site through March 8. Now, do you suppose low lighting could mask my gray hairs and age lines?

St. Paul climber Mike Farris called from Base Camp on K2 in Pakistan last night to say he had waited long enough, and he’s going to walk away from the mountain. “It’s time to come home,” he said.

Farris, an associate professor of biology at Hamline University, spent the last 10 days waiting for a weather window to open so he could make a second summit attempt, but high winds are forecast for the higher altitudes, and Farris said he was starting to worry about his physical condition.

“The winds won’t be low enough for an attempt for at least 10 days,” he said via satellite phone. “I’ve been doing a lot of sitting around the last 10 or 11 days, and my fitness isn’t coming back to what I need to summit.” Farris had a bout of food poisoning on Monday, and he’s been living at 17,000 feet and above for nearly two months.

Farris was part of an expedition group of seven men attempting to summit K2. He had started a summit attempt but was waiting for an inner ear condition to clear at Camp II when the events of Aug. 2-3 unfolded. A large group of climbers had reached the summit and upper slopes of K2, the world’s second highest mountain, but an avalanche struck a set of fixed ropes as they were descending. Eleven climbers died, and the course of events still isn’t clear, Farris said.

“I and the other climbers here have spent a lot of time trying to piece together what happened,” he said. “It’s very complicated — more complex than what happened on Everest in ‘96. There it was pretty clear, a storm hit. Here there appear to be multiple causes, and it’s going to be some time before we know.”

Farris stayed at Camp II and assisted surviving climbers in their descents. He decided to stay on at K2, hoping for a second chance to summit. He said he’s disappointed, but that he was prepared for this eventuality.

” On K2, the weather rules the kingdom,” he said. “You have to take what you’re given. So far this season there have been two days where it was possible to attempt to summit. The chances are small to make it even when the conditions are good.”

Mike Farris’ original K2 team has now departed, leaving him on the mountain with a group reconstituted from several expeditions, he writes in a new post Saturday. They’re waiting for a suitable weather window to make an attempt on the mountain, which is several hundred feet shorter than Everest (or perhaps “less tall” we should say) but is much more technically difficult and unpredictable. That more than 70 climbers have died (including 11 last week) on K2 testifies to the severity of the challenge. That knowledge is even more sobering when you consider that on K2, there are not many wannabes, climbers who pay big bucks to have a guide usher them up to the top, as has become common on Everest. Generally speaking, those who have the guts to climb K2 have developed the mountaineering skills to make it seem feasible. When I interviewed Farris two years ago, I asked him the question that is probably most often put to high-altitude climbers. Why do it? His answer: “The British have an expression about the “rat in the belly” as a way to talk about why people climb. They say some people have a small rat that gets some food and is satisfied, while others have a rat that gets bigger and hungrier the more you feed it. When I am coming down from these trips I always think I’m never going to do it again. But after a while I start to remember the good experiences — which are hard to relay in words — and then there’s that rat in the belly, that challenge to try again. It looks suspiciously like addictive behavior, but I guess you can be obsessive about anything.” I think of that answer now, him sitting at the base of the mountain, waiting for another chance to climb. He’s been living there for most of the summer under trying conditions. He’s seen 11 people die, and still he’s waiting.  I don’t know if it’s heroic or foolish. But I know that I’m one of those people whose rat is more easily quieted, and I’m glad for it.

Farris has climbed in the Pakistani Himalayas several times: This photo is from a previous trip at K2.

Hamline associate biology professor Mike Farris has decided to stay behind at base camp on K2 as the rest of his six-climber team heads home.

“The calculus that went into this decision is both simple and complex. I want to explain my thinking so hopefully you aren’t convinced that I’m an utter idiot,” he wrote on his personal blog this morning. He goes on to say that he will only make the attempt under certain conditions. He said there is a group of competent climbers at base camp, and that his equipment is already set up at Camp 2: He’ll only have to carry food up the lower mountain. He said he’d only make a single attempt, assuming he is part of a group effort, then come home.

As for the series of accidents that led to the deaths of 11 climbers, Farris said it’s too soon to know what happened. “I know as much about the details of what happened as anyone does, and believe me, NOBODY knows just what happened yet.”

The title of his blog entry was “Back to the Dragon’s Lair.” “The title refers to the scene near the end of the Hobbit where Bilbo creeps into the dragon’s lair and steals a gold cup while the dragon sleeps,” Farris writes. “Ascending K2 involves stealth and intelligence, not a massive military style attack. My goal is to see if the dragon is asleep, then maybe, just maybe, steal a trinket and escape.”

ike Farris, a biology professor at Hamline University, was attempting to climb K2 with six other climbers when an avalanche roared down the mountain in the Pakistani Himalayas Friday, resulting in the deaths of at least 11 climbers.Farris (who I profiled two years ago) reports in his blog that he helped in the rescue attempts and was back at base camp as of Sunday. It seems possible his team was among those who helped rescue Italian climber Marco Confortola, the last climber rescued today.At last count, 11 climbers are dead, and it will be some time before we know exactly how it happened. Farris’s last blog post was Sunday. I’m trying to contact his friends and relatives for any new information. Watch this space for updates, and if you know Farris, please e-mail me at welsch@startribune.com.Farris, 52, is an accomplished climber who wrote “Rock Climbing in Minnesota and Wisconsin” for Falcon Guides. On Sept. 2 his new book comes out: “The Altitude Experience: Successful Trekking and Climbing above 8,000 Feet.” The new book combines information on the affects of altitude on the body with advice on how to climb safely in extreme conditions.Farris has climbed high peaks in the Himalayas multiple times. In 2006 he successfully summited Gasherbrum in Pakistan, a 26,362 foot high mountain. He was a key player in a high altitude rescue on Broad Peak in Pakistan in 2004.

As you read this, three tall ships are en route to Duluth’s harbor. The biggest of the three is the Niagara, a three-masted brig with a War of 1812 pedigree. I was in Toronto in mid-June when the Niagara and Pride of Baltimore II arrived, and I’ll never forget it (check out the video here).

Capt. Wesley Heerssen sent me a progress report, most of which is copied below. Tune in for updates as the ships get closer.

Dear Chris,

I thought you’d like to know that NIAGARA is in Port Huron, MI right now. I’m sending this message via laptop from the RAVEN coffee shop in Port Huron (the best coffee shop in the Great Lakes).

We are awaiting a fair breeze. Right now the wind on Lake Huron is gusting to 25 knots and the seas are building to an anticipated 6 feet in height. While this forecast would not be much problem for us upon the open lake where we can sail the ship at angles to the wind, we cannot motor the ship directly into such conditions. Because Port Huron is at the southern-most tip of Lake Huron, we are effectively embayed in the port due to the North wind and the shape of the lake, and seamanlike prudence are delaying our departure.

Fortunately, we anticipate just this sort of occurence each year in the voyage planning process and we allow for this sort of delay when setting the ship’s sailing schedule. So, I fully intend to sail tomorrow morning in anticipation of calmer conditions. Tomorrow night’s forcast indicates a wind shift to the southwesterly quadrant (some west winds, some south, and some in between at various times of day and night). Suffice to say, I intend to and am confident we will make our Thursday arrival next week on time as planned.

There are 32 souls aboard at this time; sixteen crew and sixteen trainees. We are a little light on trainees, as twenty-four is our normal trainee-count. While we have been training novices to sail square-riggers for eighteen consecutive years now, we only recently started charging a $1200.00 tuition. I am not sure if it’s the impact of our sluggish economy, or the fact that we have yet to learn how to market our unique adventure-education/ adventure-travel product, but I’ll not rest until we are brimming with trainees with waiting lists and the whole nine yards.

One day, when folks are better informed about the glorious experience of sailing by moonlight under a 12,000 square-foot press of sails, we’ll have met one of our prime objectives. Our ship is the sleigh, and our crew are the work-horses who pull it. The sense of accomplishment felt by the trainees is mental, physical, and emotional. The task of learning the location and purpose of more than 200 lines (ropes) that control the sails is mind-boggling (at first). There are actually a few rules of thumb and a system of logic that once explained, help trainees to learn the lines and sails rather easily.

As my boss, and mentor Walter Rybka likes to describe it, “These ships eat men, rope, and canvas…the chafe and general wear & tear on the ship and crew are tremendous…the grocery bill alone for such a large crew is enormous when compared to the fuel bill…But the greatest myth in sailing is “THE WIND IS FREE!” “Still, and consequently, the experience is worthwhile and rewarding beyond words” …I’m paraphrasing on the last quote there.

We are all looking forward to the remainder of our sail to Duluth, and certainly to our arrival. I’ll try to drop you a few lines from Sault Ste. Marie, MI when we lock through to Lake Superior.
Best regards,

Wesley Heerssen