Adventure is in my blood.

I have had a variety of hobbies in my lifetime, almost every one entails being outside. There really isn't an artistic bone in my body, those gifts were bestowed to my brothers. I don't know if it really means anything but almost all of the pictures of me from my childhood were taken outside. I have memories playing and tramping for hours through the old gravel pits in Cedar Springs, not wanting to come inside when the sun set. There were canoe trips, Boy Scouts, riding my bike down to Lake Erie for some adventure on the beach, lots of days wallowing in snow and playing pond hockey on the coldest days of the year.

Spring ahead to May 2005, we move to Colorado with mountains and valleys almost too numerous to name. Soon after arriving I started taking courses that would teach me the skills to be active and safe on these glorious peaks. I recently completed Basic Mountaineering School and I have started to work on requirements for Advanced Mountaineering School. This past weekend I was in Rocky Mountain National Park learning how to climb in crampons and I had this sense come over me that all the things I had done in my life had prepared me for this moment. I am a climber, albeit an amateur with more to learn and experience but a climber none the less.
Becky and I have had a conversation about me climbing Everest some day. She doesn't want me to go, she would prefer that Kai be married and she was actually dead before I attempted that peak, well she needn't worry anymore. There are less crowded and more enjoyable mountains in the world that can be climbed, and I intend to climb some of those magnificient monsters.