We had a crazy awesome winter. It was the perfect winter to be pregnant and everything we had hoped for (big snow year so lots of soft snow to ski, and then lots of snow for easy access to summer turns). We are SO GRATEFUL for our bodies and where we live and our little family! Pics and little ski edit below. :)
Halloween + November
December: and so it begins
Januburied: and so it continues
Februburied: mas mas mas
March: came in like a lion
April: early bird
Although not in the way we expected, the stars truly aligned for us this fall to get in our High Sierra fix. Dani had been patient with her ankle recovery enough to reasonably test carrying a pack and just keep an open mind. We figured: if worse came to worse, we still would be taking off two weeks together, no phones, and just do day hikes every day. Luckily, the ankle held and allowed carrying a pack on uneven terrain, enough for us to get in an eight day loop. Doubly luckily, Dani saw her OBGYN two days before the trip who gave a master tip for some medicine (B6 + Unisom) to help reduce the morning sickness. She hadn’t been able to leave the house or do much of anything for weeks due to extreme nausea and lots of unfortunate throwing up….all day long. The B6+Unisom pretty much fixed that overnight, making the nausea low level and manageable/tolerable. Truly: a lucky trip this year for getting our granite fix, this time with Teeny. No ego, lots of trail time, and plenty of food.
The trip we broke into three pieces: (1) test overnight trip in the Minarets, (2) eight day trip with one food cache, and (3) October turns plus peak bagging in Yosemite. And in the fall, when there were basically no humans in the backcountry, and perfect weather exactly during these 2 weeks of the trip. SO LUCKY!!! So much gratitude for each other, this place we live, and our bodies for allowing us to do this!
Total days: 14 // Total mileage: 120.75 mi // Total vert: 29,200 ft of climbing
PART 1: OVERNIGHTER TO TEST DANI’S ANKLE AND PREGNANT BODY + DIERKER’S BACK
Devil’s Postpile to Minaret Lake and back. Had hoped to get up to Cecile and loop around by Shadow, but weather kept us from pushing too much and we had a lovely time at Minaret Lake, crazily enough all to ourselves, and on the last day the road to Red’s Meadow was open for the season.
Total days: 2 // Total mileage: 16.3 // Total vert: 2,752 ft of climbing
PART 2: GLACIER DIVIDE LOOP
Started and finished at Pine Creek; made a loop down French Canyon, up Evolution Canyon, over to North Lake via the cross country route up Darwin Bench and over Lamarck Col, and picked up a cache at North Lake. We then headed up over Paiute Pass into Humphrey’s Basin, and then took another cross country route across the basin to Puppet Pass to drop back toward Pine Creek Pass and back to our car. Were on the JMT for a few days, and only saw two other people. Pretty amazing 8 day trip.
Total mileage: 67.7 // Total vert: 14,030 ft of climbing
PART 3: OCTOBER TURNS AND YOSEMITE PEAKS
We had spotted a small flat patch of ice and snow on the way down from Lamarck Col on the Glacier Divide Loop, so we decided to immediately go back up there the day after finishing the backpacking trip to get in our October turns (luckily had packed the skis in the car, just in case!). Was a big day but SO AWESOME to be able to hike to turns again after a summer of not being able to. The nausea was pretty real that day, but leftover pizza from the night before helped.
The next 3 days, we decided to bag a backpacking trip in Hoover Wilderness and instead get in more vert by tagging some summits in Yosemite. Did Mt. Dana one day (and got to randomly take engagement photos for a super sweet couple at 13k ft!), Mt. Hoffman the next day (most central peak in the park), and the last day before driving back to Rocklin did Glacier Point just as the weather changed and a storm rolled in. WHAT A TRIP!!!
Total days: 4 // Total mileage: 36.8 // Total vert: 12,420 ft of climbing
Literally! Found out was pregnant day we drove up to Hood for the Sept turns and then instantly was hit the next day with near debilitating morning sickness and Alex drove us all the way back home. The next 6 weeks were pretty much just terrible morning sickness lasting all day long. Managed to get out for a few easy short walks with lots of snacks and breaks and dry heaving. It was a rough time, partially too trying to act like nothing was wrong but secretly having a hard time functioning. Yet again: Alex, a true champ!! (Meanwhile Dani feels nauseous just looking at these photos :( )
We kicked off the summer season by running Broken Arrow 26k, during which about 8 mi in, Dani broke her ankle (still managed to get in another 2 and all of the vert of the race). :( Needless to say, all of our summer running and backpacking plans suddenly evaporated, and we had to pivot. Luckily had invested recently in a bike for Dani, so we were able to get in a good amount of riding on pavement and gravel. Even managed to continue our monthly skiing streak by commuting north to Bend and Hood once a month, where the approaches were significantly shorter and easier. Dani also worked all summer like a crazy person. We got through it though! Alex was a true champ and adaptable life/recreating partner.
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
With Broken Arrow coming up and warm temps rapidly advancing the spring ski season, we spent a little more time on the trails trying to get the legs ready for quicker turnover and downhill pounding….ended the month for my bday with a weekend of running on the coast! Double Dispea was pretty dang sweet.
Pretty sweet: April 1, 2022, hit 100 days of human powered skiing AND 200,000 ft climbing on our skis for the season. It was like a job hitting that goal, but we did it! And the locale of that final day was pretty sweet, getting to ski into Yosemite for the day. The rest of the month was just straight bonus time. We had hoped to do a multiday ski tour in the Southern Sierra but were foiled by a major spring storm and ended up taking a few days off just to ski around Tahoe mid-week and get some house projects done. :)
Month 100 WOOHOO!!!!! Yet another month of some great skiing, even did our first skimo race. Also managed to plant 5 trees, find/fix leaks in our irrigation system, and start working on dismantling our old rickety back deck!
Biggest accomplishment of this month was doing a 10,000 ft day on Rubicon! Big deal for us. :)
MAC & CHEESE!!! <3<3<3
It was a hard month full of difficult and mixed emotions; had to say goodbye to my most incredible Auntie, but welcomed our new kittens Mac & Cheese into our lives.
So many things. Foot rehab, lots of fruits of the garden/trees, August turns, meeting the kittens for the first time, and a trip to CO for officiating Ally and Eric’s wedding (on our anniversary!), all of which culminated in us getting COVID. Le sigh!
Not everything goes to plan, and your experience is dependent on your perspective.
We had planned a 9 day backpacking trip from North Lake to Onion Valley via portions of the SHR, trail, and other cross country routes. We weren’t able to do a backpacking trip last summer due to COVID and the Creek Fire shutting down all of the national forests in CA. The summer prior, I was still on a slow hip and back recovery and unable to carry a heavy backpack. This summer, my hip was back at 100% and we were able to go earlier to beat the odds of another wildfire-related closure. I had injured my foot and ankle several weeks prior trying to talus-hop on the Dana Plateau in new, soft shoes, but had been very careful and “good” about resting prior to our trip. We were hopeful.
We knew a monsoonal pattern was setting up and that we’d likely be trying to outrun the weather almost every day of our trip except the first one. We packed the bare minimum of food, hoping we wouldn’t be too hungry for the first week and that we’d be able to supplement by helping eat up some of the invasive brookies out of the high alpine lakes. My foot was taped and we were hopeful and ready to roll.
Our trip didn’t go to plan. The weather was far more monsoony than we had anticipated, and we got a day behind on day 2. On the afternoon of day 3, my foot was aching badly while we were laying in the tent, and I knew I had to make a decision between “toughing out” 6 more days of mileage and cross country travel or being able to recreate the rest of the summer. Tears were shed in Leconte Canyon as my guilt set in and made me feel like the entire thing was a lose-lose scenario. I was forced to talk to Alex about how I was feeling instead of bury it. We both decided it made the most sense to cut off part of our trip and take our time going out over Bishop Pass….maybe we’d do a little side trip on the Palisade Traverse, but we’d just stretch out the mileage and take things one day at a time. At first it was really hard to accept that I needed to just hike what I could and then focus on resting my foot. Somehow “the mountains aren’t going anywhere” is both true and not always helpful— after all, the mountains may not go anywhere, but our ability to get back to some of these places (as I’ve learned these last few years) is nothing to take for granted. But Alex was incredible supportive and firm in our decision to respect our bodies, which made it a little more bearable. We came out two days early so that we could do some day hikes and sleep out of the car. We were able to hike up to the pass (Kearsarge) that we would have exited at, which felt incredible, regardless of how we got there.
It was the best medicine. We were both exhausted from a difficult 7 months in new jobs, and by the end of 9 days felt like ourselves again. We didn’t touch our phones the entire time. There’s something incredibly healing about being in the southern Sierra that’s hard to describe in words. For my body and heart, it’s simply needed.
My hip injury taught me that sometimes I need to say no to my ego. This summer taught me that I can actually put that into practice. I know when to push, and when not to push. Even with us taking the rest of our trip easy, I wasn’t able to run again for another 6 weeks but was able to hike and we still got in our monthly turns. Good thing I didn’t try to “tough it out!” Even though it still sucks to change plans (particularly when it affects other people around you, aka Alex), this summer taught me that my worth isn’t tied up in the number of miles or vert we did in 9 days or how fast we did our route finding, or whatever. It’s all about the experience of being out in a sea of granite with your loved ones. Although next time, we’ll make sure to pack more food. :)
