I love posts that look back on the year. Personally, Jan 01 is an arbitrary date to start the year, and not every culture follows the Gregorian calendar anyway, so I don’t like making resolutions. If there is something I want to change in my life, I want to start right now and not wait for an auspicious moment. But what I do enjoy, is a little retrospection, taking stock of how a period of time passed, and appreciating the moments and the lessons.
With that in mind, this post is going to be a list of highlights of the last year. But to stay on topic (and make it easier for me), I’ll stick to highlights related to the outdoors.
- Started backcountry skiing: One of the biggest “new things” for me last year was my initiation into ski-touring. Thanks to the warm spring, it was mostly limited to short day trips up a local ski resort (so I could ski down the groomed runs), so I’m looking forward to more trips this season!
- Discovered the Peakbagger app: It’s been an extra source of motivation for me to spend more time outside. Since being introduced to this app, I’ve “bagged” 31 peaks ranging in altitude from 90 m (Telegraph Hill in San Francisco) to 3975 m (Acatenango Volcano in Guatemala). It has also made me revisit an age-old problem over and over: balancing the greed of an objective against safety. A few times, I had to turn around from very close to the end, because I just didn’t have enough time and I did not want to push my luck.
- LASIK surgery: Sometimes when I’m tired, I still reach to take off my glasses when I’m going to bed. It has been a game-changer, and has made a noticeable difference to my camping and outdoors trips.
- A trip to Hawai’i: Not a place that had featured highly on my list before, but my two-week trip changed my mind. I loved the intense sea spray against jagged volcanic rock, the lush green forests with fruit and flowers unlike anything I’d ever seen before, and the warm waters with ridiculously colourful fish. I knew it’s very touristy but was surprised to find so many moments of solitude and remote wilderness. Some of my favourite moments were of us camping on the beach and the one time we camped inside a volcano.
- A surprise trip to Guatemala: When some changes in my employment occurred, I suddenly found myself with 3 weeks of free time. I consulted the Lonely Planet hiking book, did some very rushed Internet research and settled on Guatemala. Two of my main highlights there, were volcano hikes and a gorgeous 3-day hike through the highlands.
- The year of volcanoes: Maybe this is cheating as it refers to 2 things I’ve already mentioned. But between Hawai’i and Guatemala, I visited four volcanoes this year. Up from zero till now! I camped at two of them, climbed one as a solo day hike, and saw one other (not included in this total as I was not on it) erupt with lava and ash and all the works. It was incredible.
- Revisiting my very first backcountry trip: This summer, we played host to many of our friends and family (4 different sets + 2 who stayed at ours while we were away). It’s always really lovely to not only spend time with them, but also to show them around here. This time, I got to take two of my friends backpacking for the very first time. One of those trips was to Panorama Ridge, which had been my first backpacking trip a few years ago. That trip had been eventful due to us being woefully unprepared (with gear), so I was determined to make sure my friends had a significantly better time. It was a good opportunity to reflect on my knowledge and experience then vs now, and also to spend 2 gorgeous days outdoors with 2 close friends!
- Swapping one popular backcountry camping trip for another: If you’ve ever gone camping in the national parks in the Rockies here, you will know just how competitive and highly-in-demand the camping permits are. Certain backcountry campsites get sold out the day the reservations begin. So, I was quite stoked that I was able to snag 2 nights in Egypt Lake, in Banff National Park, during the peak season, for when a friend was visiting from out of town. Unfortunately, the wildfire smoke was so bad, we ended up cancelling that trip and driving north into Jasper instead. Luckily for us, there was actually an opening in a campsite on the Tonquin Valley trail, one of Jasper’s perpetually-reserved sites – for the next night. This trail had also been on my wish list for a long time. We jumped on it and had an amazing time! Life gave us lemons but also gave us sugar, so we ended up with a pretty fantastic lemonade.
- Solo bear encounter: I’ve encountered bears while hiking before, but this was a first for me because I was all alone. In fact, the trail I was on, was so less trafficked, I only met 2 groups the whole time. It was a black bear and a little shouting was sufficient to scare it off, but I was pretty shaken on my way back after that.
- Backpacking in Banff: Felix and I had set a goal for ourselves to do one large-ish backpacking trip in 2023, and this took shape in the form of the Sawback trail in Banff National Park. It was quite an experience, 6 days long and during late summer. But the two things that sum it up are – golden larches and grizzly bears.
If you’ve been reading my blog over the past year, thank you for joining me on this journey! What were your favourite moments from 2023? And if you believe in new year resolutions – what are yours for 2024?