My backpacking trip this year was a quick one - more driving than hiking.  But I accomplished a lot more than I have on other trips - summiting one of the highest peaks on the East Coast, we ascended (and descended) 4000 feet in an 8 mile stairmaster journey over the course of a single day.  Part of the Presidential Range in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, Mount Washington is topped by a summit 6288 ft above sea level, and known for some of the worst weather in North America.  In fact, my Dad used to goad me on drives up to school: “The only place that gets less annual sunlight than Ithaca is Mount Washington - and that’s always in a cloud!”  The summit boasts a wind speed record of 231 mph, an average temperature of 26.5 degrees and 42 feet of snow per year.

Luckily we started and ended in pretty decent Memorial Day weather.  The top was assuredly in a cloud - fog, really.  We set off from Pinkham Notch parking lot, and had an easy start on Old Jackson Road (1.9mi), then left up a much steeper Nelson Crag Trail (1.8mi).  It was during this stretch that we crossed above the tree line, and the wind really started to howl.  We got a little wet, quite possibly more from the workout than the weather.  We summited shortly after, and I was almost blown over while video taping the summit sign with my little flip camera.

On the way down we took Lions Head to Tuckerman’s Ravine, which had gorgeous views but typical rough White Mountain terrain.  There were snow patches in many areas, so we did some boot skiing.

This was definitely the most strenuous hike of my life, and the views didn’t disappoint, except for the summit.  Here are some pictures.  Thanks to Seth for putting us up in North Conway, and for showing us the way.  Also check out our silly road trip video, and soon to come a video of the whole hike.

We took a fishing trip - slash - baby moon this March to the Bahamas.  This was not your typical Bahamas holiday though… the island of South Andros, the largest in the Bahamas, is home to only 1700 people.  There are typically 50 tourists on the island at a time, most of them fishermen.  South Andros is the “bone fishing capitol of the world”.  It was beautiful and remote for sure (my favorite), but the fishing wasn’t great due to the windy weather.  Local food and a great beach house rental right on the beach made it a great little long weekend getaway.  Next time I want to do some scuba - some of the most untouched reef in the Caribbean, I hear.

One other little fun fact - we felt our little unborn daughter’s first kicks while in South Andros!

Some pictures

For the first time since living in New York, we visited the New York Botanical Garden’s 7th Annual Orchid Show, up in the Bronx.  Thanks to Brice for suggesting it and coming along!  And thanks to JPMorgan for getting us in for free!

See my artistic photos.

Lots of skiing this year.  In March we took a trip to Colorado - finally, some Western skiing!  I haven’t been skiing in the Rockies since 2002.  We got to see and ski with Carolyn and Uncle Ben at Mary Jane, near Denver.  Then we drove up to Steamboat and skied with Tom, Brett, Lindsay and Erin.  Lisa and I also took a day to snowshoe through Rabbit Ears Pass, which was a great 4 mile trek.  The Rabbit Ears motel worked out great, I got to drive around Erin’s Jeep Cherokee (my favorite car since I had one in 2000) and Lisa loved the hot springs!

The weather was absolutely perfect the entire time.  Conditions we good, an I got my fill of moguls.

Pictures

Our annual trip to Florida to visit Lisa’s parents was very nice.  I fished the ponds around the house with Skip, saw their neightborhood croc ‘boots’, and enjoyed our escape from the NYC winter weather.

Our annual ski trip this year to Killington was excellent - the best skiing I’ve done on the east coast in years… like 10 years.  Tons of powder, amazing tree runs, and great friends (14 this year!).  The only issue this year was the housing situation.  Our usual ‘chalet’ had some pipe freezing and bursting issues, so our reservation there was cancelled about a month before.  We found another house, booked it, only to find out 2 weeks before that the freaking guy had doubled booked it and said we couldn’t have it!  Luckily, we found a 3rd house, which was 25 minutes from the mountain.  The snow made the drive a bit tricky, we had some ‘fun’ skidding around up a hill in my 2WD car.

Pictures

My annual travel post, here’s what we have in the works so far for this year:

• Killington, VT - Jan 16-19
• Florida - Jan 24-26
• Steamboat, CO - Mar 12-17
• South Andros Island, Bahamas - Apr 23-27
• Mt Washington, N. Conway, NH - May 22-25
• Italy and Greece - May 28-Jun 13
• Montreal, Quebec, Canada - Jul 16-19
• Ocean City, NJ

The New Year has me feeling a bit philosophical.  This seems to have made me more aware of timeless quotes I come across.  Here’s one I recently found that will ring true for me this year:

Vision without implementation is hallucination.  ~Thomas Edison

I definitely have lots of ideas, so one of my goals this year is to talk about them more, and implement them more.

Lisa and I just returned from our 2 week trip to South Africa!  The trip was amazing - stories and impressions to come, but I wanted to share our pictures links:

Short photo tour

Artistic shots

I just wanted to take a second and brag about my littlest brother Peter - he’s just finished a shoot for his second print ad, this one for an off-broadway show in NYC called “Capture Now”.  Let me know if you see it around town!  Pete is living the tough life as a struggling actor in LA, but I really admire him for sticking with it and following his dreams to success.  Congrats, Pete!