Topic: Mountain

Wondering what happened to Ben Clark and friends? Well, here's the latest udate from Ben Clark, Josh Butson and Tim Clarke, whose plan is to summit and ski down Annapurna IV. The three are posting blogs and audio dispatches on their website.

"Himalayan climbing is challenging, pioneering in this great range is an even more daunting proposition. The mountain has spoken to us, it is all around us, it is inside of us as we melt and drink it to sustain ourselves. This is the awareness and connection I come here for. It is not what everyone wants and feels.

Plum went to Sundance Film Festival last winter to discover some of the coolest, most unique and independent films and filmmakers around. While there, Jeb Berrier interviewed documentary and indie filmmaker Trent Harris, who lives in Salt Lake City.

Harris' career includes documentaries and films that border on bizarre. He is best known for a science fiction film about Mormonism called "Plan 10 From Outer Space" that was banned in many areas, for an early '90s comedy called "Rubin and Ed," and for a set of documentaries called "The Beaver Trilogy," starring Groovin' Gary, Sean Penn and Crispin Glover. His latest film, "Delightful Water Universe," is a political thriller that stars a bigfoot, and premiered at Sundance Film Festival.

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.

When the Plum crew went to Sundance Film Festival this past winter, they stopped in Ken Sanders' Rare Books in Salt Lake City to interview the bibliophile with so many great stories.

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.

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!

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.