Wowee, it's been a really long time since I posted here! I've been so, so busy, I've hardly had time to sit down and write. Rest assured I've been adventuring and getting after it, but all the adventures I've been going on have been relatively small scale stuff like hard cragging or some chill multipitches. If you want to see what I've been doing climbing-wise, check out my Mountain Project profile!
I also worked an awesome summer job over June and July in New England! I worked for Apogee Adventures, supporting many of their trips in the area. It was one of the hardest jobs I've ever had, but also one of the most rewarding and tight-knit communities I've ever been a part of. I felt like I was transported out of my universe into the Apo-verse for the summer! I made quite a few life-long friends, made a ton of great memories, and learned a lot about myself and what it's like to work in the outdoors industry. I was also able to live in my van all summer and road tripped from Chapel Hill to Maine and back, so I got to check out a crap ton of awesome new climbing areas!
I've also been playin a lot of piano. I picked it up again after I returned from the trip through Central America, and it's been so cathartic and the perfect way to take study breaks.
Here's one of my favorite songs to play right now!
I've also been very studious, of course, working towards my bachelors degrees in Psychology and Information Science. I'll graduate in May; almost there!
I've got some seriously big stuff on the horizon! Next weekend I'm heading up to Western North Carolina to try for some ground up first ascents at an unclimbed area I was put onto over the summer. I'm keepin the specific area on the down low for now, but a writeup of the trip will come soon, and if the area is fruitful enough I'll probably write a little guidebook and publish it here!
In December, over winter break, I'm going back to Mexico for Wells' first really big trip! I'm going down with a caver friend, B, to work on pushing a virgin cave he discovered in Oaxaca a year or two ago. On our way down we're also going to try to summit Iztaccíhuatl, my second attempt after having to turn back on the summit ridge two years ago. Here's the story about that first attempt!
After that the details are a little hazy, but the short story is that I'm going to be a guide at Seneca Rocks in West Virginia! On my way down from my summer job in August, I road tripped with my cousin from Brazil who is visiting the US for the first time. He's been staying with my family in Durham since June, and we all thought a big road trip would be just the thing to check out more of the US! Being the climber that I am, I had to get him on rock. His first time wearing rock shoes was at Seneca Rocks where we rented them from none other than the illustrious Tom Cecil of Seneca Rocks Mountain Guides! He was super friendly and even let us camp in his yard and use his kitchen. We were chatting, one thing led to another, and he offered to have me up next season to get trained up and work for him as a guide!
The haziness is that I don't know if I'll start in March, right when the season begins, or in May when I graduate. I'm hoping to be able to wrap up my classes remote or hybrid so I can be based in WV while I learn to guide, but it remains to be seen if that will be possible. Fingers crossed!
Oh right, also I made a super cool CV for my website, please look at it in wonder because I love it.
So there's the update! I'm not dead, still running about doing all kinds of stuff. Stay tuned for some awesome trips coming up!