Waking up to fresh snow on April 1st would certainly be a surprise, but this is no joke-- after the weekend I hit the road, the start of a long adventure! I am leaving behind a 10 year career in international corporate real estate finance, moving into my car, and plan to climb as much as possible.
‘So a blog?’ you ask. I like lists, spreadsheets. Concise explanations and calendars. Occasional passionate postcards, my illegible handwriting jammed into a 4x6 rectangle. I am not a writer. Or a photographer. But it took me three years of planning to pull this off, mostly to find the courage to make the change, and so I suppose it warrants sharing!
A corporate guided ascent of the Grand Teton in the summer of 2004, lead by two inspiring women Nancy Feagin and Amy Bullard, followed by my introduction to the quartzite cliffs of the Gunks in the spring of 2005 forever changed the course of my life. In 2008 I took a much needed but temporary break from my job in New York, driving 14,000 miles by myself in four and half months. During that trip I climbed in Zion, Yosemite, the California Needles, the High Sierras, Devil’s Tower, Smith Rocks, Squamish, Index, the Bugaboos, Lake Louise, Eldorado Canyon, Lumpy Ridge, Rocky Mountain National Park, the Tetons, and City of Rocks— a big expansion from my usual and much loved vacation stomping grounds of Red Rocks, Joshua Tree and Acadia National Parks.
Highlights of my 2008 trip included climbing the Nose on El Cap with Janet, a super strong and supportive fellow east-coast female and two one-day ascents of Half Dome: once all on lead via the easy but run-out Snake Dike with another great girl and a week later via the Northwest Face Regular Route with the best climbing partner anyone could ever ask for. In addition to climbing, I stopped in Madison, Wisconsin for my sister’s graduation from vet school; to visit friends in Salt Lake, Jackson Hole, Portland and Seattle; for Chris and Bill’s wonderful wedding in Colorado; and to see the sights at Mount Rushmore, Mount Hood, Mount Shasta, Crater Lake, the Redwoods and Califonia’s Lost Coast. Along the way I met some unruly characters and a few I hope lifelong friends.
The past two years I have split my time working in NYC and Paris, managing the company’s French investments. I will miss summer escapes to Chamonix; quiet afternoons in Fontainebleau; weekends in the Verdon, Ceuse, Les Calanques, even Siuranna, Sardinia and Lisbon. I will miss the energy of New York City and my quiet house in the Gunks, my comfy couch and bath robe, the delicious food of the Hudson Valley especially from Kira’s farm and at my favorite spot the Village Tea Room two blocks away. But I will not miss sitting out on a bridge all alone, watching two separate worlds, belonging to neither. Time to follow passion; rediscover persistence; visit places so few people on this planet will ever know. Time to climb!
Pick a place and join me along the way! See my Three Year Plan
Well said. See you out in the world. Travel safely.
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