what a year, 2022
The year 2022 has been filled with many adventures, and life is starting to feel normal compared to the pandemic times. I’ve been meaning to do a write-ups post adventures, but my negligence has lead me to logging only the highlights. Starting the year off with the exciting (early) birth of my niece, to running my half marathon personal best in October, there have been both several highs and lows to this return to normality.
Spring
Debra and I started the year off strong with regular hikes, ski days, and even a backcountry cross-country ski into the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park. Paul, Michael, and myself made plans just after the holidays to go ski a few of the PNW volcanoes, which lead to the regular adventures having a bit more focus with lots of elevation gain and weighted carries.
Michael made it out to CO about 5 weeks before our planned departure start date for a shake out trip where we could test our spring skimo gear and tick off a classic ski descent on the Angel of Shavano. This ended up being a bit more of a training hike with ski gear as the conditions on Mt Shavano were drier than normal and the snow had largely melted out, but we did carry our skis up to the summit and then back down to the top of the Angel where we got a few turns in.
Angel of Shavano
weighted water carries
Summer
Unfortunately, 2 weeks prior to our big PNW trip, I came down with a terrible stomach bug that had impaired any additional training and left me going to the ER twice. Unable to train, I came to a scary realization that were I ever to be permanently physically impaired, I might move away from the mountains. Still weak and recovering from whatever illness it could have been, we decided to change our plans away from the PNW volcanoes to the local mountains within Colorado. Aiming to tick off several 14ers for Paul, this was a solid substitute as we could easily pivot and keep the adventures to our relative backyards in case of ER care availability.
Driving over to Ouray, we quickly tagged Mt Sneffels even after seeing exceptionally low snow conditions up high. Hoping to do the El Diente traverse, we drove over to Telluride, packed our heavy packs, and headed out early anticipating 2-3 days in the wilderness. The forecast had different plans and the SW region of Colorado had been experiencing a “tsunami jetstream” where the moisture level were over 200% normal levels. Storms in the high mountains can be deadly and we opted to bail on the El Diente traverse. Legs only partially recovered, we decided to head back to the Summit County area where some other closer to home objectives could be done pending weather conditions. Mount Massive was a new tick of 14ers for me, and that was the warmup to a double 13er (Fletcher and Drift) day that had some semi-spicy route finding with beautiful views of the west ridge on Quandary. Although we didn’t tick off PNW volcanoes, I call this one a hugely successful trip into the mountains and then back home safely.
shoe skiing or skidding
Belated Honeymoon Adventures
After some searching around at possible honeymoon itineraries around the world, Debra found that our original 2020 plans for Glacier National Park could be nearly replicated with the updated season of early July. Booked for the west side of GNP and without any additional planning, we drove up into Montana for another week in the mountains. Unfortunately, conditions weren’t favorable again as the last snow for the year came in early June (just 4 weeks prior to our visit) and the one main road through GNP was still closed through our visit. We made a few trips to the East side, road in the famed Red Jammers, and saw beautifully chossy and snowy Montanan Rocky Mountains (including Mountain Goats, Grizzly Bears, and Moose).
My summer wasn’t over yet and I had registered for the Seattle to Portland ride, a 2 day tour North to South that’s roughly 200 miles. Unluckily as I was packing up my bike to fly, I smashed my hand into my chain ring and had to get my first ever stitches, and now I know to move the chain to the biggest ring before taking pedals off your bike.
The echoes of the summer were beautifully book ended with a friend’s wedding in California. Never fear, Michael and I managed to tag another summit with some fun 2nd class rock crawling (Mt Arlington)
Fall
But wait, the year wasn’t over and I registered for the Boulderthon 2022 half marathon route. I wanted to keep myself engaged physically and set a goal of breaking 100 minutes in this distance. My previous personal best being 1:48 in the 2021 Boulderthon. At the end of an 8 week training block, I struggled to keep to my targeted pace of breaking 1:40 but still exceeded my own expectations and ran a 1:43, a new personal best.
Yet another highlight to this year, and possibly one of the coolest trips to write about was going to Churchill, Manitoba. Debra and I went to find polar bears along the Hudson Bay, and polar bears we found! Also, Churchill (and bonus pics of Winnipeg) is a really neat place to visit, so isolated from the rest of the country.
This year has given me so much to reminisce about and to be thankful for. As the holidays round the corner, I have debated with family and friends about defining success and happiness. While I’m fairly certain any immutable definition of success is ethereal, progress is inevitable, up and down, in work, relationships, and our health. I have been reminded that in all things like training, mountains, and our careers, that how we perceive and approach the journey is the most important value.
