Here’s a blast from the past from J’s first visit to Alaska in 2003. Many people have asked how J’s training for Denali is going. And now that he is leaving tomorrow, I am finally ready to answer. (I was really waiting to see the training start … JK). I must preface by saying J…
After tucking 2015 into bed, J & I realized we’ve had quite a year. If you are a long-time reader, you know I love me some stats. I’m also quite wordy. For your benefit, I chose numbers over words for this post. 111 = Days we spent out of the US (mainly New Zealand,…
You might have heard the big news. President Obama changed the name of North America’s highest peak from “Mount McKinley” back to “Denali.” You also might have heard that Denali shrunk from 20,320 feet to 20,310 feet. Denali sure is making the news a lot lately, huh? We are going to add to it. J…
Our goal of reaching all 50 high points has really taken a back seat to some other adventures of lately. We didn’t bag any high points in 2014. But being we had a little more flexibility this summer, we thought we’d put it back on our agenda. We took a little road trip last week…
We may be leaving Oregon in a week, but we will be back. We have to be back. We have some major unfinished business in the Mt. Hood Wilderness of Oregon. Back in May, J tried to climb the 11,240 foot summit of Mt. Hood and was turned back due to weather. And, as he…
This blog post is brought to you by my awesome and crazy husband, J. The above title is one of my favorite Blues Traveler songs and for this post it stands true for my latest adventure. In the pursuit to climb the highest peak in every state, my latest adventure brought me to Mt. Hood, Oregon’s…
Well, this week has been going much better than last week in terms of breathing a lot easier and having things under control. I felt like I was at the bottom of a pile of something (laundry? diced tomatoes? tipi liners?) and kept trying to stay afloat. But the thing about the hospitality business is…
Our whole summer has been speckled with spur-of-the-moment decisions and seizing the opportunity because we’re there. This weekend was no different. We had 2-3 days in southeastern California and wondered what to do. We knew we couldn’t hit the high point of Nevada even though we were driving RIGHT BY IT because the 14-mile road…
We knocked off 2 more high points as we have been making our way to the Southwest … this makes 7 for this year! With 17 left, you’d think we were in the home stretch. But many of the high points left are daunting with their elevation and difficulty … and we know how I…
We just spent the last week exploring Idaho. For those of you thinking Idaho is not so cool of a state, think again. It is way cool. This state is covered more by national forest and wilderness land than anything else. The state even survived a mysterious volcano and earthquake, so brownie points for that.…
I’ve always said it is about the journey, not the destination, and this is certainly true for my experience on Mount Rainier! As you all probably know by now, J successfully summited, along with Fire Marshall Mac. In J’s words, it was the most difficult outdoor recreation thing he ever attempted–even frightening at times–but he…
We are alive and well!!! J and Fire Marshall Mac beat the mountain and hit the summit at 5:45 am PST … on the other hand, the mountain beat me at a little over 11,000 feet. A more detailed account will come … soon!!!
We did a full day of training today with our RMI guides right under the shadow of Rainier. It was exhilarating, frightening and encouraging all at the same time. Even though these pictures may make it seem like we are just playing in the snow, it was not easy. This is brand-new territory for us. We…
After stopping in Seattle for a brief overnighter (and seeing Rainier from a distance for days and family!), we are in Ashford (with WiFi!!!) and had Day 1 of our 5-day summit climb attempt. We basically just met our guide (not Dave Hahn as we originally thought, but we did get to meet the legend)…
We are leaving Colorado tomorrow to head to Rainier!!!!!!!! Our summit climb attempt is July 25-29!!!!!!!! Overuse of exclamation points is meant to express my trepidation!!! Just do us a favor and think of us specifically on Sunday morning when you are sitting comfortably in your home and drinking your coffee … because hopefully we…
A lot of people have asked if J & I are still attempting to climb Mount Rainier at the end of July. Could be the fact I have not mentioned a single peep about it on the blog in a LONG time … Indeed we are! We were able to work the time in with…
10 days since my last post, but it feels more like 20 days because of everything we packed in! Sorry folks, I can’t just blog about one thing anymore, it’s going to be a package deal for awhile. Who would have thought being a professional backpacker was this busy?? We have now given our 3rd…
We are now 2 presentations in with 6,000+ miles driven across 16 states, all in 2 weeks. To say it’s been busy is an understatement! But we are happy. I have lots of updates, but a few take precedence over others. As we mentioned, we are going to see a lot of friends as we…
We ventured up to the Philly area for a quick overnight trip with 3 purposes. 1) Meet my college roommates’ 2 new babies. Here is my public apology to my 2 other friends in the Philly area who also have newish babies, but didn’t make the visit list. It was a short visit! 2) Attend…
Today marks the one-year anniversary of finishing our thru hike of the AT!! This time last year, we summitted Springer Mountain with heavy–yet excited–hearts. As we settled back into reality, we knew we couldn’t live without adventure. We decided to switch gears a little bit and focus on high pointing. We have done 26 high…