Year Review: 2024

Posted January 2025

Background

In 2023, I combined everything I've learned with legendary conditions and the most freedom I've ever had for a truly prolific year. At the end I was winding down but still totally psyched, so I was inspired to write a summary documenting the experience. That's something I'd like to make a tradition. In December of 2024 I felt a little low on stoke and never made time for the writing. But not for lack of desire, or material. So, here it is, my summary of my 2024.

By the numbers

I won't bother comparing these numbers to 2023, but I'll keep the same categories and add a few. In 2024, I logged:

First day of new house!

Our beautiful kitchen thanks to the help of my Dad

Spending money makes you cool, right?

By the stories

Our winter snowstorms got going slowly throughout January, which made for a balanced month of desert biking, skiing, and some local running. Cold but dry weather and regular work in town conspired to get me trail running more than ever this year. Early February delivered our biggest snow dump of the year which made for a couple of great powder days and got the rivers flowing as well. Joelle and I enjoyed a couple of nice days on the Verde and finally checked out Tonto Creek. We went for a fun weekend ski trip to Durango with a big party of friends, but the snow quality was degrading and I let skiing go for the year.

March 1st was closing day on our new townhouse, and for the entire month I did nothing but work and work on house projects, many with the help of our parents. We scraped popcorn and retextured our ceilings, installed new light fixtures, ordered furniture, and redid our kitchen cabinets (green for a nod to our old trailer home). It was exhausting but worth it to have a beautiful, more permanent new home in a fabulous location.

By mid April it was becoming clear that we were once again gifted an above average snowpack. I fulfilled two packraft dreams: running the full Wild & Scenic Verde and executing quite literally a first known descent of Bright Angel Creek. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I had one of my best weekends ever doing the Four Peaks Traverse and the Salt in a Day.  Between it all, I had some nice backyard outings exploring the locals hills on foot and bike. This was a truly great month!

I'm not sure if it can compete, but the lingering snowpack and lovely weather made May a month to remember as well. I kept running with decent frequency, and we got to reunite with our best friends from college to finally check out Dark Canyon, which was amazing! The Salt once again flowed beyond permit season, allowing me to share the magic with more friends. Then we did our longest and most blissful river trip of the year; a 6-day highlight reel on the Escalante. It was amazing to finally be able to share all these glorious experiences with Joelle. In June I let paddling go and focused on soaking up summer in Flagstaff. Lots of great days running, biking, and hiking canyons were had, some quite big! I began to feel like a noticeably stronger runner and had a stunning flow-state experience descending Elden Lookout trail in 17 minutes!

For me, the best summers happen outside of Arizona, and at the beginning of July we left home promptly after buying Hydra. Joelle and I spent the first half of the month bopping around Washington together, then my brother Miles came to visit for a nice backpacking trip. I finished out the month hanging out in Darrington with some new friends, paddling the Sauk and getting sick. In August I got to show my parents around some of the unclosed parts of the North Cascades, and guided three really nice backpacking trips. Towards the end, Daniel came to visit and we did the Alpine Lakes Crest Traverse in the only rainy week of the summer. Joelle came back for early September and we had a lovely time hiking the Wonderland Trail. After that I got to spend a few great days on the White Salmon before guiding a final trip and heading home, satisfied with an amazing summer.

It's become tradition for me to leave the fall mostly unplanned and ease back into life at home as the leaves change colors. I arrived to find Joelle had caught up to me in mountain bike endurance and we did some nice big rides together, well into October. It was a nice season, once again enjoying the beautiful trail access from our home. I began to get eager for more adventure, but struggled to plan and execute many throughout November and December. Highlights were certainly the Royal Arch Loop, showing friends down Fossil Creek, and a multisport day trip in Marble Canyon. That was all well and good, but in other times I often felt saddened by cancelled plans and a general lack of excitement in life. Visiting our families around Christmas went well and Joelle's Birthday Bike Bash blended into some great New Year's day hikes which definitely lifted my spirits. 

Balance

At the end of my incredibly self-indulgent year of 2023, I wrote at the bottom of my review that my goal for 2023 was balance. I stand by that goal still; I think it was well-intentioned, important, and not naive. And honestly? I'm quite impressed with how well I nailed it! This year, I worked more hours than ever, and not only that, but I spent a lot of time on home and car improvement projects. I'm not necessarily proud of that, but it felt responsible, and what I am proud of is that I didn't swing too far in that direction. This amount of work didn't feel like too much - it felt just right. Given that it was a lot, I'm very satisfied with the quality and quantity of time I got to spend outside, moving through and learning about the land. I feel strong, healthy, I had fun, and I realized some dreams.I think I could die happy if the rest of my years have a similar volume. What I'd like to work on next, naturally, is increasing the caliber. For where my skills are currently, this year was a great match, but I value challenge and self improvement. In 2025, I hope to do that by paddling more hard whitewater, training for longer runs, and continuing to do rugged backpacking traverses.

I have a variety of feelings about other aspects of my life in 2024. One big win is that most of my favorite experiences from the year (and a great deal of other good ones) were shared with Joelle. I hope to continue living that way as much as possible, but I'm also not afraid to spend time on my own in pursuit of the goals stated above. I'm happy with our new home and summer home (truck), but I feel a little bit conflicted about allowing my inner dirtbag to slip away at great expense. With most of our gear dialed in, and big life purchases out of the way, I hope that we can be better at saving money in 2025.

There's one more category of what living a balanced life means to me that I have thus-far largely neglected: community service, charity, activism, etc. I actually have a fairly optimistic and inclusive view of what counts for these (i.e. hopefully my obnoxiously strong internet presence inspires people to get outside, thus improving their lives and motivating them to protect the environment). But truly, I feel that the importance of these things is more real than ever (something about the incoming federal government..) and I want to do more than move a few logs.  I sincerely would like to figure out how to get more politically involved, donate and volunteer with more organizations I care about, and think of other ideas too.