On Saturday (3/16) I took another trip up to the Catskills and crossed my second 35er off the list: Wittenberg. I had originally planned on pressing on to do Cornell as well, but I was worried I’d be too tired for the journey back down and figured I should play it safe. Conditions were spectacular: it was a beautiful, nearly cloudless day. The trail was somewhat muddy but mostly in good condition save for some patches of ice near the peak and some downed trees....

I decided that, since I live near the Catskills anyway, I might as well try and do the Catskill 35ers and try and join the Catskill 3500 Club. On President’s Day (02/19/2024) I decided to hike Slide Mountain. I had read that despite being the tallest of the Catskill High Peaks, it is a relatively easy hike and it is also one of the four peaks that the 3500 Club requires be climbed twice, once in winter....

Last week I spent two days hiking near Boulder, Colorado. It was sort of an impulse decision trip: I had a few days off that my wife didn’t have off and I wanted to do something more than just sitting around the apartment all day waiting for her to get back. I knew there was a ton of hiking around Boulder so that’s what I settled on. I was pretty scared at first because I hadn’t ever been out hiking on my own before and I was planning on doing longer and more difficult hikes than I’d ever done before....

My 2024 nudge word is go. Go do the thing. Go to the place. Go see the friends you haven’t seen in a while. Go attend the conference or networking event you were too shy or scared to go to before. Go to new places, go see new sights, go do new things. Go challenge yourself. Go. Since the pandemic started I’ve found it really hard to get out and do things, both due to fear of the virus and because of increasing social anxiety after long periods of relative isolation....

I have always admired the kind of people who, at the beginning of every year, can write a detailed post of their goals and aspirations for the coming year (and then at the end of the year, write a similar post recapping the year against those goals.) I’ve also always thought I’m not the kind of person who can do that sort of thing. But then, I’ve never actually maintained a space where I would be able to do that sort of thing....

Another year has gone by, but it will not end (at least not on the east coast of the US) without me publishing my first blog post on this new site! In some ways, not much terribly exciting happened to me in 2022, but it was a year of a lot of introspection and growth for me, and I believe I come out of this year a stronger person than going in....