2024 Goals

[Ed_Groves]

With only a month to go before old man 2023 moves on and 2024 rears its head, it is that time of year to start thinking about goals for the new year.

In addition to my yearly goals for Colorado peaks, I have a mid to late June road trip planned with my wife to travel the Maine coast eating real seafood, going to Acadia National Park, and then crossing over a few states to hit some peaks that are on my bucket list. It would be nice to hang out in the White Mountains again and scale some more of those peaks but it will have to wait until another time.

Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont:
1. Mount Katahdin
2. Mount Washington
3. Mount Monroe
4. Mount Clay (sub-peak)
5. Mount Mansfield

Colorado:
1. Humboldt Peak
2. Crestone Needle
3. Crestone Peak
4. Pike's Peak
5. Long's Peak
6. Mount Meeker
7. Redcloud Peak
8. Sunshine Peak
9. San Luis Peak
10. Mount Shavano
11. Tabeguache Peak
12. Mount of the Holy Cross
13. PT 13,248
14. PT 13,831 (Holy Cross Ridge)

[climbingcue]

Only 1 Bicentennial left, Wheeler planning on a snowboard descent in spring of 2024 May 27th 2024
Continue my streak of at least one 13er or 14er per month 75 months as of June 2024
Get as many snowboarding days in as possible on my Keystone and IKON passes 61 resort days and 7 backcountry days 1,275,000 vertical feet dropped
Splitboard some more 14ers and 13ers 7 13ers on the snowboard, Peak 8, Willoughby, Bushnell, Buckskin, Guyot, Wheeler, and Kelso
More 14er snowflakes Not so good on this one, two repeats of Massive and then Castle and Conundrum
Lizard Head
Get to 180 14er summits 177 as of June 2024
Get to 300 ranked 13er summits Colorado 286 as of June 2024
Palisade Traverse in California
Lost River Peak ID, my last ID 12er, going to snowboard it in April 24 April 13, 2024
Grand Teton
Climb more of the State highpoints I still need see below
Mt Rainier June 24, 2024
Boundary Peak NV
Wyoming 13ers at least Gannett
Kings Peak UT
Mauna Kea HI
Mount Hood OR
Break 200k vertical feet climbed again
Finish the last grand traverses in Colorado, I need Little Bear, Blanca
Attend the Spring, Fall and Winter Welcomers
Go with partners on their 14er finishers

[kushrocks]

Nanga Parbat

[Matt]

I'm looking forward to hiking above treeline again.
It's been a rough few years and while I was out, Lidar took a centennial away (e.g. Dallas) and gave me Arrow and Trinity in return.
Thanks a lot, technology!

[HikerGuy]

My 2024 goal is to reach 400 ranked 13ers.

[two lunches]

posting early so i can find this easily next year--

Colfax- 2-Day Mile High Challenge
Stay Healthy
Renew WFA certification
Complete two more segments of the CT
Chi Basin trip, sans D&SNG

And adhering to tradition, one vague goal and one that's probably out of reach
Spend some quality time with my ice axe and crampons
More 14ers than 13ers- haven't done this since 2017. curious what that would look like!

[Ryan P]

-My first calendar winter 14er
-Mount Massive
-Mount Yale
-Huron Peak
-Mount of the Holy Cross
-San Luis Peak
-Handies, Sunshine, Redcloud

[d_baker]

posting early so i can find this easily next year--


Spend some quality time with my ice axe and crampons

Brilliant, both of those! ^ ^

2023 was a good year but I didn't really persue my bicent goal of cutting in half, and didn't do a backpack.
Soooo.....
Summer '24 .... hopefully at least one backpack into SJ's/Weminuche to achieve some more bicent summits and whatever other summits in vicinity.
Help a shazzy friend finish her 14ers!
Help a few friends learn and practice snow climbing skills so we can do snow climbs together...
Maybe climb some rock since I didn't at all in '23.

Winter goals, maybe a peak or two. Ice climbing trips.
Manitou incline as often as possible. (A '23 goal was inclinathon...I didn't have time in my perenial winter downtime to train towards that goal, but I did get 6 laps one day...so '24 goal: 7-8 laps!)

Spring:
Some snow climbs
Fall:
Don't fall. I like autumn though...

Edit: rectify a few lidar summits missed/moved/whatev...maybe even become a cent finisher again!

[Jon Frohlich]

I'm looking forward to hiking above treeline again.
It's been a rough few years and while I was out, Lidar took a centennial away (e.g. Dallas) and gave me Arrow and Trinity in return.
Thanks a lot, technology!

Let us know if you want to get out sometime. I need Arrow and Trinity as well so I'd be happy to join you.

My main goal is the peak that shall not be named. If I don't say it's name maybe I'll get up the thing finally.

Other minor goals:

200 ranked peaks over 13k (at 192 now)
300 ranked peaks in CO (I'm at 299 so this is just a matter of getting up a new one soon which probably will be before the end of the year)
Get Maya closer to 200 peaks in CO (She's at 174 but about to turn 12 so who knows....she's still healthy but this might involve some silly peaks to get there)

[Matt]

Let us know if you want to get out sometime. I need Arrow and Trinity as well so I'd be happy to join you.

You can count on it.
Sorry to lose touch. I've climbed out of where I was and am looking to get back to my old life. Hope you two and your lil ones of all kinds are well.
Are you all still in the same part of town?

[HikesInGeologicTime]

posting early so i can find this easily next year--

Good idea, also we need to exchange PMs about the CT!

I’ve been really vague about goals the past couple years because the last time I stated specific numbers in a given timeframe - to wit, finish the f—-ing fourteeners by the end of that calendar year - I failed miserably and nearly died in the process. Now that I finally made good on that goal, I want to be a little more detailed, although I think I’ll be sticking to not giving specifics on timelines or numbers of a given set of peaks so I can keep the pressure off and keep the focus on having fun. So with that in mind, goals by category:

Type I fun


Hiking: I finished the fourteeners September 2nd, so I had all the rest of September and then most of October to (re)visit some nice, boring, scenic trails up nice, boring, scenic peaks like Mt. Audubon and Huron. Those were great! I remembered that I actually like hiking, so more Class 1-2 exploration/revisitation is high priority:

1. Lots of trails in RMNP I haven’t seen yet plus several I want to see again on the west side of the Park in particular
2. Also spending more time in National Parks that aren’t RMNP
3. Trying out segments of the CT/CDT closest to home (probably as section hikes…I sleep better in my car than on the ground)

Skiing: My real priority in having fun! After two years having to do everything in my old resort boots because the swelling in my ankle lingered for a long time after I fell off Pyramid, I finally have a somewhat normal-sized foot and ankle again, and that plus those old resort boots literally falling apart meant I had to switch to a full-on backcountry setup over the summer…and I love it! Already excited to get out more with it.

4. Resort days…got to 100 last year, but that was easy because it started snowing early at Steamboat and kept snowing somewhere or another on one of my passes. I’m not sticking to a specific number of days because it is already apparent that this year is not last (), but I do intend to take advantage of uphill access where I can (and where it’s free), and I want to continue taking advantage of days at some of the fancier resorts on my passes (Aspen, Jackson, Big Sky, Taos).
5. More backcountry days in general…Berthoud Pass is great, and there are so many other passes that would be good training and fun skiing (or at least, funner than hiking back down).
6. More fourteeners! I’d be open to thirteeners, too, I guess, but there are sooooo many of them. Controversial opinion ‘round these parts, I know, but fourteeners are way more interesting to me.
7. Keep up my at-least-one-day-of-skiing-per-month goal…going strong since October 2021, and now I know about summer options outside of St. Mary’s!

Type 2 fun

I was so ready to be done with lists after I finished the fourteeners, but let’s be real here: if you’ve got the sort of mental health issues - er, determination - to power through the fourteeners even after your ratio of anxiety to excitement about them is 1 gazillion:0, the only way to cut lists out entirely is probably via a several-month inpatient treatment program, and ain’t nobody got the time or money for that. So instead, here are a couple at least semi-reasonable sounding checklists I can work on at my own pace:

8. Front Range Bicentennials, named, ranked, and otherwise. Still need Bald, Bard, Rosalie, Sawtooth, “SE Longs,” and “West Blue Sky” (or so I assume is its new name). Most are Class 1-2, so maybe I’ll actually enjoy those??
9. State high points. Kings actually sounds fun to me, and others I could theoretically ski down, so maybe some legit fun to had there as well???

Paying forward

I’ve thought it would be cool to give back in some way for some time, but I haven’t signed up for anything formal because I wanted to keep my schedule as clear as possible for when the perfect weather window came up on some hideous fourteener I still needed. Now that that phase of my life is over, time to be less selfish with my time in the mountains:

10. Volunteer as a peak steward with CFI. I think I’d be worse than useless at trail work with all those injuries in various stages of recovery (or lack thereof), but I can tell people everything they need to know about Bierstadt, Grays/Torreys, and Quandary!
11. Help my friends get closer to their checklist goals. This might mean playing Yente for them - hooking them up with other friends who are also looking to (re)do various peaks I would very much like to never go anywhere near again - but there are quite a few I wouldn’t mind checking out for the first or repeat time(s).
12. If anyone I haven’t already discussed skiing with (or even I have) wants to get some laps in on the slopes before skimo season starts, PM me!

Off-mountain

I put a lot of the rest of my life on hold the past couple years so I could get serious about finishing. I’m now out of excuses for my creative drought.

13. Start filming again. I have an idea for a feature-length film, though some of it will have to wait for warmer weather. I also have a couple short ideas I could shoot in enough time to maybe submit to festivals in 2024.
14. Start writing/audio-recording some of my fourteener stories to see if there’s a wider audience for them, i.e., maybe some payoff to all the suffering i did in pursuit of that list…?

Hmmm. Maybe I’ll be making it a 2025 and Beyond goal to never get specific about my goals again.

[two lunches]

Spend some quality time with my ice axe and crampons

Help a few friends learn and practice snow climbing skills so we can do snow climbs together...

Darin did you do this on purpose

14. Start writing/audio-recording some of my fourteener stories to see if there’s a wider audience for them, i.e., maybe some payoff to all the suffering i did in pursuit of that list…?

ITS A CHRISMUKKAH MIRACLE.