Topic: Community Interest

Ken Sanders, a legendary bibliophile, owns Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City. The Plum crew stopped in to talk to Sanders while they were in the area for Sundance Film Festival this past winter.

This welcoming storyteller was happy to show off his most prized books and share his eclectic stories. Sanders has ties to the famous Cosmic Airplane head shop in Salt Lake City, was friends with author Edward Abbey, who wrote "The Monkey Wrench Gang," and is also close with comic book illustrator and author R. Crumb. In addition to owning the bookstore, he also runs Dream Garden Press, and specializes in books about the literary west, Mormonism, Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, national parks, public lands and the environment.

If you've been wondering how Ben Clark and friends are doing on their trek up Annapurna IV, then wait no longer. Here's the latest of the colorful dispatches from Ben Clark:

"Twisting wisps of wind dance along the solemn northwest ridgeline of Annapurna IV. Playfully the dance has drawn us in forcing us to question, will the jet stream push away these little snow devils and surge the ridgeline with the power of a hurricane or will we enter a window of opportunity? We will be there to see, we begin the ascent tomorrow.

Ramona Bruland headed to Moab, where she tried out rafting and kayaking. With the gorgeous Utah desert only a couple hours from Telluride, it's the perfect getaway for just a couple days or even a couple weeks. Mountain biking, rafting, kayaking, hiking – it's all there.

Need a break from the mountains? Try heading to Moab for bit of rafting or kayaking, where the cool rapids are the perfect match to the warm, dry sun.

Here's the latest dispatch from Tellurider Ben Clark, who is ascending Annapurna IV:

"A long storm pattern is blanketing Annapurna IV with snow. Each hour we hear thundering avalanches ripping down the north face. Eerily we wake in the middle of the night as if a dumptruck just pulled into camp. Annapurna IV is a dynamic mass, the same gravity that pulls at its slopes is the same force that is our ticket to fun!

Ben Clark, a host for Plum TV's Fresh Tracks show, has traded the San Juans for the Himalayas. Here, he writes about waiting out a storm:

"It won't stop snowing, the Austrians have retreated and each day the mountain is slowly cleaning itself of the newfallen precipitation. We are avalanche pros and know to stay off the peak...but smaller lower angled aspects around basecamp? Oh, you should check out the pics on the website!

Swing dancers Ronni Creel and Todd Dewey are founders of "Step Step Triple Step" and stopped by the set of Morning, Noon & Night to show off their moves.

The latest dispatch from Ben Clark, a Plum TV host who is summiting and skiing down Annapurna IV in Nepal:

"We spent most of the day today dodging thunderstorms and Austrians. Both are omnipresent and change the nature of base camp. It was a classic rest day in a secluded Himalyan locale.

Here's the latest update from Plum TV host Ben Clark, who is in the Himalayas and plans to summit and ski down Annapurna IV.

"Annapurna IV is a striking peak cutting the cobalt sky and breaking the jet stream. A long technical shoulder leads to it's lofty summit, this will be our path. We now sit below this shoulder at 15,500'. Distant echoes of glaciers calving are now drowned out by thunder. Thunder.

By Emily Setzer

You've probably seen Plum's Tennessee native, Ben Clark, on Fresh Tracks in the winter as he tells Plum's viewers where to find the best stashes of snow on the mountain and which runs have been groomed. Now he's spending his off season on a different mountain – hiking through the Himalayas with the goal of summiting Annapurna IV.

After sitting on multiple plane rides, dealing with last-minute changes to travel plans, and nursing his swollen "cankles," he and his teammates are now in the high country at about 24,000 feet, with Annapurna IV looming above them. They still have a couple thousand feet to go before summiting the incredible peak, and will blog their experiences along the way.