Tell us your dirtbag days

Items that do not fit the categories above.
Forum rules
  • This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
  • Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
  • Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
  • Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
User avatar
LifeIsGood
Posts: 26
Joined: 4/30/2020
Trip Reports (0)
 

Tell us your dirtbag days

Post by LifeIsGood »

In general, this usually involves camping for months on end/ or living in a car/van.

While I have not been a true rock-climbing or ski bum, I have been a peak-bagging bum. I once spent 9 months traveling clockwise around the world, soloing high (but mostly nontechnical) peaks like Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro, and Mont Blanc.

And I also spent 8 months driving a Jeep from Alaska to Peru. I really need to go back there to buy another Jeep, and complete the journey to Ushuaia, Patagonia, also known as “The End of the Earth.”

BUT- now that I’m 42 and still a bachelor, I’m almost tempted to get married and have kids (gasp!)
User avatar
sigepnader
Posts: 216
Joined: 10/17/2011
14ers: 22 
13ers: 52 1
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Tell us your dirtbag days

Post by sigepnader »

LifeIsGood wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:02 pm

BUT- now that I’m 42 and still a bachelor, I’m almost tempted to get married and have kids (gasp!)


Don’t do this. You’ll be happier.
User avatar
SkaredShtles
Posts: 2411
Joined: 5/20/2013
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Tell us your dirtbag days

Post by SkaredShtles »

sigepnader wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:09 pm
LifeIsGood wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:02 pm

BUT- now that I’m 42 and still a bachelor, I’m almost tempted to get married and have kids (gasp!)


Don’t do this. You’ll be happier.
I mean... do get married if you find the right person. But definitely don't have children. :mrgreen:
User avatar
Mtnman200
Posts: 1112
Joined: 9/26/2012
14ers: 58  1 
13ers: 440
Trip Reports (85)
 

Re: Tell us your dirtbag days

Post by Mtnman200 »

SkaredShtles wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:52 pm
sigepnader wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:09 pm
LifeIsGood wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:02 pm

BUT- now that I’m 42 and still a bachelor, I’m almost tempted to get married and have kids (gasp!)


Don’t do this. You’ll be happier.
I mean... do get married if you find the right person. But definitely don't have children. :mrgreen:
Get married only if you find the right person, and have kids only if that’s what you both want.

BTW, you may discover (as I did) that your kids make great climbing partners. Making memories with them is fantastic.
"Adventure without risk is not possible." - Reinhold Messner
DaveLanders
Posts: 532
Joined: 3/7/2009
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Tell us your dirtbag days

Post by DaveLanders »

SkaredShtles wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:52 pm
sigepnader wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:09 pm
LifeIsGood wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:02 pm

BUT- now that I’m 42 and still a bachelor, I’m almost tempted to get married and have kids (gasp!)


Don’t do this. You’ll be happier.
I mean... do get married if you find the right person. But definitely don't have children. :mrgreen:
+1
You would be parenting teenagers while in your 60's, and then using your Social Security checks to pay for college
Every village has at least one idiot. Successful villages choose someone else to be their leader.
User avatar
montanahiker
Posts: 270
Joined: 8/30/2015
14ers: 38 
13ers: 185
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Tell us your dirtbag days

Post by montanahiker »

Mtnman200 wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 3:17 pm
SkaredShtles wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:52 pm
sigepnader wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:09 pm



Don’t do this. You’ll be happier.
I mean... do get married if you find the right person. But definitely don't have children. :mrgreen:
Get married only if you find the right person, and have kids only if that’s what you both want.

BTW, you may discover (as I did) that your kids make great climbing partners. Making memories with them is fantastic.
Nieces and nephews make great partners as well and they go home at the end of the day/week. :-D
There's more to life than 14ers. There are 13ers.
User avatar
SkaredShtles
Posts: 2411
Joined: 5/20/2013
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Tell us your dirtbag days

Post by SkaredShtles »

montanahiker wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 3:29 pm
Mtnman200 wrote: Thu Apr 29, 2021 3:17 pm
Get married only if you find the right person, and have kids only if that’s what you both want.

BTW, you may discover (as I did) that your kids make great climbing partners. Making memories with them is fantastic.
Nieces and nephews make great partners as well and they go home at the end of the day/week. :-D
Image
User avatar
Scott P
Posts: 9438
Joined: 5/4/2005
14ers: 58  16 
13ers: 50 13
Trip Reports (16)
 
Contact:

Re: Tell us your dirtbag days

Post by Scott P »

I don't think I have ever been a dirtbagger. I got my first job at age 11 and joined the military on my 17th birthday. At age 16 I slept in a tent for three months, but I was a backpacking guide. I have gone on extended trips as well, but I don't think either counts.

I grew up in a really run down and low income neighborhood and we used to do a lot of camping and hitchhiking (my dad used to say that it was easier to hitch hike if you had a little kid with you), but since we still had a home (albeit a run down one), I don't think it counts as dirt bagging.
I'm old, slow and fat. Unfortunately, those are my good qualities.
ker0uac
Posts: 547
Joined: 8/30/2016
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Tell us your dirtbag days

Post by ker0uac »

It's weird when you are happy living a life as an outcast by society standards... like, I must take antidepressants unless I have a career, a house, a wife, a bag of kids and an annual pass to six flags.... we still have this evolutionary instinct of wanting to live with others for protection and survival, even though we are nowadays all technically self-sufficient
Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves and half in love with oblivion
Atlasjb87
Posts: 6
Joined: 9/9/2019
14ers: 58  7 
13ers: 16
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Tell us your dirtbag days

Post by Atlasjb87 »

I'm not sure if I was a true dirtbag, but throughout my 20's I volunteered and had a couple jobs around the world as a scuba instructor and biology student. I've lived in hostels, dorms in the tropics, and an old research ship owned by an Arab prince. Somehow, I was able to accomplish this while living in Colorado which has been my home since 2006. I guess Colorado was an aquatic region at one point in geologic history 😂

I didn't have much money during that time and would often live off giant avocados, various fruits, fish, etc. I roomed with guys from everywhere -- Great Britain, Singapore, Israel, etc. Made a lot of friends when I lived in Honduras -- locals and travelers. Guided scientists underwater in unmapped regions to collect data on the Great Barrier Reef and studied shark migration which was...um... adventurous and eye-opening to say the least... In regards to the ecosystem -- coral bleaching, algal blooms, lack of biodiversity, etc. was terrifying (increasing global temperature will do that).

After all of this swashbuckling fun, I had to make a big decision in 2014 (27 years old at the time). Go to grad school and rack up the student loans, or get into IT and try to keep affording to live here. Long story short -- I do Linux stuff for space stuff now and still lead a pretty adventurous life in the mountains with climbing, trail running, etc. Met my wife in 2014 during a hike up La Plata Peak.

If you're in your 20's, do as much traveling as you can. Collect the stories. Let the experiences shape you into a good person. I came from an impoverished, broken home in Oklahoma City and still found a way to insert myself into adventure abroad and at locally! I'm 33 now and I believe that all of those crazy times in other countries softened my heart and opened my mind.

Go for it!
User avatar
SkaredShtles
Posts: 2411
Joined: 5/20/2013
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Tell us your dirtbag days

Post by SkaredShtles »

Atlasjb87 wrote: Fri Apr 30, 2021 8:41 am
If you're in your 20's, do as much traveling as you can. Collect the stories. Let the experiences shape you into a good person.
This bears repeating.
User avatar
Eli Watson
Posts: 218
Joined: 5/29/2020
14ers: 58  17 
13ers: 74
Trip Reports (2)
 

Re: Tell us your dirtbag days

Post by Eli Watson »

Summer 2016
Bikepacked across Washington state from Port Angeles to the Gorge Amphitheatre. While not 'true' dirtbagging, I still got into some adventures. I jumped on a Greyhound in South Dakota with a bike and backpack, no tent, no hammock, no tarp, not much of anything beyond a sleeping bag, clothes, food, water, and outdoor gear relating to hiking and biking. I slept in the fenced enclosures around a church's HVAC units in Port Angeles, another one surrounding a Walmart dumpster in Sequim, as well as a park and a construction site in Seattle. I hitch-hiked on the Olympic Peninsula to a ferry when I used my last inner tube and my patch kit glue had dried up. I met some characters at the Gorge, hitch-hiked back to a bus stop, then had to search the recycling units of a shopping area to turn into a bike box to get my bike back on a bus. I'd do it again, but with a better set-up. Carrying 35 lbs on your back is not ideal. I bombed Hurricane Ridge Road after watching an amazing sunset of cotton candy skies over Mt Olympus, road up to Mt Rainier NP and saw Mt Rainier atop Tolmie Pk Fire Lookout, road through the central Washington desert as close as I could to the bridge over the Columbia River Gorge and hitch-hiked again. A week later I moved to Colorado and started graduate school. I'm still working on writing this one up in a longer form, because it was quite the experience.

Fall 2019
Finished graduate school and took some time off. I decided I was going to get as close as I could to finishing the 14ers before the snow stuck around. I think I started at 30. I had an arrangement where a guy in the house I just moved into needed housing for a few months while he looked for work, so he didn't want to sign a year lease. I wanted some time off to bum around and didn't want to pay rent for a few months if I didn't have to, so it worked out perfectly. The day after I finished my work at CSU I headed for the San Juan and hit the Wilson Group over 2 days, both from the 2WD access at Rock of Ages. The first night I summited Wilson Pk around dusk and topped Gladstone under a full moon on Friday, September 13th. Getting back over RoA in the full moon light wasn't too tricky. The next day was the ED > Mt Wilson traverse. My fingers hurt for days after gripping onto that horrendously loose rock for two long days straight; I could barely hold onto my Dominos in Montrose. From there it was straight to San Luis for another night summit and then Lake City. Lake City is a weird place for me, and I absolutely attribute that to the conditions in which I experienced it: driving up that dark CO-149 road with no service, no radio, listening to the White Zombie Astro Creep: 2000 album. I met a great hiking partner I still keep in touch with, and we day-tripped Unc + Wetterhorn that week after racing up Handies from opposite sides. Boogied up to the Aspen Valley and summited Capitol with another partner, then Pyramid a day after, then the Bells with a solid crew. I don't think I saw a cloud in the Aspen Valley all week. I would have liked to hit Snowmass while I was out there, but the snow coverage by late September was not to my liking - I prefer to enjoy my snow climbs. During that 13 day stretch I summited 14x 14ers & 3x 13ers that were new for me. Took a week off and then hit the Chicago Basin from Purgatory in 19.5 hr. I started at dawn so I could know the route I would undoubtedly return on in the dark. That was a bit gnarly. I definitely hit 'death march survival mode', in which stopping before the car simply could not happen, and had a $0.37 Cup o Noodles that I will never forget at 2 AM. I did go home and sleep for about a week after that before heading down to the Sangre. By then snow was starting to linger up high, so I hit Blanca and Ellingwood from 8000' to put me at 51/58 and called it a season before driving out to LA to visit a friend.

Spent a week doing city things, digesting the mecca of entertainment industry, hustle, and filth that is the southern California supermetropolis. Not every footpath in the woods around LA leads to somewhere you want to go. Driving through the Arizona and eastern California desert through the night (I don't have working AC so driving during the day was not happening) and dropping over the San Bernardino Pass watching the lights of LA dominate the view is really something. The speedway down Loveland Pass into Denver is nothing compared to that of I-15. From there I left for the southern Nevada area for climbing and mountain biking, ended up staying in the area for the better part of a month since it was so warm and I was thoroughly enjoying the riding. Cowboy camped just about every night with abundant dry wood everywhere ready for a fire. BLM land is awesome. Some guy at a gas station noticed my climbing helmet hanging in my window and invited me out to a bonfire with some desert rats. Ended up riding a Tyrolienne zipline across a 400' canyon at midnight, and hung out for a day. Some expensive gear got left behind, so I tracked down the owner by asking around climbing gyms and the like. Got a lead at the Vegas REI, got in touch, and met one of the OGs of the Red Rock Canyon area as well as some other characters. The desert is full of outlaws. Bopped over to southern Utah for some mountain biking before I had a bad crash. It was time to go home and rest and recover, so I headed back to Colorado. I drove over 3000 miles without incident, until coming over Kenosha Pass an oncoming drunk driver tried to pass about 10 cars in a row. I had to drive off the road to avoid a head-on collision at highway speed. Luckily it was Kenosha Pass where you can actually do that and not another one of our Colorado mountain roads. I had an amazing time in the desert, and it made my soul want to dance in the sun and run every trail that I could through the barren beauty... but as soon as I saw those mountains over Cortez and Durango I remembered that Colorado is home.

Winter 2020
I mentioned this in another thread, but after returning to Colorado in the Fall I took a full-time position at Katabatic Gear in Salida. I was on the hook for my lease in Fort Collins and didn't want to bail without finding a replacement, but couldn't afford additional housing in the Arkansas River Valley. So I loaded up the car again and slept out there. Oscillating between Salida for work and BV for the climbing gym, I slept wherever made sense and was legal. I had the swing of it down by this point. I think the coldest it got down to was -10 F. That was chilly. I'd buy my $1 tickets at McDonalds to for heat and Wi-Fi when I needed it - taxes and the like. I had a fridge at work and I had figured out my lunches. Dinners weren't super luxurious but I made it work and it was sustainable for a short term basis. I remember us talking about what might happen to supply chains with the Coronavirus in late February. We were in a tough spot from a business standpoint, that much was obvious, but we took it week-to-week. I hiked or ran nearly every day after work, kept in touch with my friends and family scattered across the country, and controlled what I could.

Everything changed in March. My gym in BV went from "Please sanitize your hands frequently ! :)" to closed almost overnight. Hotels closed. Tourists were directed to leave the state, allowing single night stays only for travelling back to their homes. Restaurant lobbies closed. Every aspect of life was in flux with uncertainty of a rising pandemic. I'm sure none of us will ever forget March 2020. Chaffee County had a delayed introduction to the pandemic compared to Denver, but I was waking up to check the radio every morning to see if I was still allowed to be in that county. I wasn't a tourist - I was a full-time employee - but I definitely didn't have a residence there. March 23rd happened, and I went home. The rest is history, and I had probably my best spring and summer ever. The snow of Spring 2019 is hard to beat, however - what a year for couloirs.

I'd do it all again, but I definitely appreciate sleeping on a mattress, using a fridge, parking my car in the same place every night. There are parts of the mobile lifestyle that I miss, and parts that I really don't. Echoing an above comment, I recommend getting down. Get gnarly. There may be a time in your life when you can't.
People who are hardcore don't think they're hardcore. Marshall Ulrich, Fastest Known Podcast #85
Post Reply