For 2021 year my trip report was a bit late (like a year and a few months), but this "year" I am so late I am including nearly 2 years. We will start with March 2022 and a bunch of climbing and biking around Bishop. There were a few short trips in the desert and some peaks and climbing down towards San Diego. I was down in Yorba Linda when I got the chance to join team NorCal for Expedition Oregon. I did a few big bike - hikes for training before driving back to Bishop to pack up for the race and head up to Oregon. Expedition Oregon is a 6 day adventure race made extra epic this year by some late season snows. It was pretty grueling with lots of treking in the snow, serious whitewater (including a lot more swimming than desired), skipping non-mandatory points, walking bikes through the snow, barely making time cutoffs, not nearly enough sleep, and finishing the entire race with minutes to spare. We came in 7th. Not surprisingly on the drive home I was quite tired even stopping to sleep next to my truck in the afternoon. Some of my teammates tested positive for Covid, and by the time I got home I figured I had it and sure enough tested positive. There is a lot of overlap between Covid and post adventure race symptoms so it was hard to be sure of why I had various symptoms, but mostly I wanted to sleep and do nothing for a few weeks.
I relaxed and isolated as best I could back in Bishop while Iris stayed down south to avoid exposure. Then Iris had some time off and I rallied for a backpack trip into the Southern Sierra. I was not fully recovered and it was Iris' first backpack post knee surgery so I carried a big pack - and felt awfully slow and tired. We still managed to do 8 days out plus a few more car camping peak bagging days. In June we did another backpack over Cottonwood Pass to the Crabtree Meadow area and more Sierra peaks. Then I went to Idaho to race with Tower Racing in the Teton Ogre 24 hour adventure race. We came in 3rd in that one, but it didn't feel like we did our best with some navigation problems and overall not going as fast as we maybe could have.
In July we did Sierra Backpack trips to Pioneer Basin as well as a number of day hike trips and some camping up in the White Mountains. August brought the Sierra Challenge which I completed all 10 days and even managed to add extra peaks on some of the harder days. Iris managed to do 5 of the peaks and fished on the other days. After a bit of recovery I started training and scouting for the Mammoth to Bishop adventure racing nationals in September. We also did a backpack trip into the Lake Merriam basin. Tower racing recruited Jenica from Mammoth for USARA Nationals and we put our local knowledge to work actually leading for some of the race and finishing a strong 4th in the main co-ed division. Then I flew to Boston to visit family.
In October we did a trip to Arizona - mostly peaks in the Sedona area plus some Grand Canyon peaks as well as Las Vegas stuff on the way home. In November we did a trip to the area East of Joshua Tree National Park all the way into Arizona with some fun climbs and scrambles. In December we spent more time down south and did trips around and in Joshua Tree for peaks and climbing and then up to Apple Valley for the New Year with friends.
In January 2023 we did a few desert peaks and resuscitated the refrigerator that tried to commit suicide. In February we did a Vegas peak trip that got cut short as serious weather came in. This weather cut into a few more trips, but there wasn't actually that much in Bishop compared to the seemingly endless string of major storms up higher in the mountains.
The weather plus Iris' work cut into bigger trips for the next few months but spring finally came to California with flowers and high water (the snowpack was very high this winter). I built some more garden beds and tried to solarize an older bed to kill the invasive grass in it. This was a good year for growing things in Bishop with a slow start to the season but no late frost - this led to many bumper crops for fruit trees including my figs.
We did a number of weekend trips from SoCal mostly to climb peaks in the desert as there was a lot of snow up high. Back in Bishop I did some rock climbing and worked on the garden.
In May Iris took some vacation time and we headed to Utah climbing peaks and exploring mostly in the area in and around Zion National Park with many long days scrambling and climbing up slickrock peaks and then up to SLC to visit friends and for work and to check out the OR show and more peaks. Then we tagged a few peaks on the way home at the end of June.
Back in CA the fridge passed on and we avoided the snow in the high mountains and didn't do a whole lot of bigger adventures until a 3 day trip to McDuffie Peak in the Sierra near the end of July. In August we had the Sierra Challenge again - another 10 days of mostly long or very long hikes to usually obscure peaks. I did all 10 days again, and Iris did 10 days although she skipped the longest days for more reasonable goals. We also harvested the fruits of earlier garden work with nearly all the zucchini, tomatoes, figs, and grapes we could eat.
By September I had part of a filling fall out kicking off a long drawn out series of dental visits that are hopefully over (fingers crossed) in Jan 2024. Also more day trips and then a car sale and purchase (selling an Element, buying a different Element) that involved a fair bit of work but hopefully was a good long range move - the AWD version is certainly more capable on bad roads. Iris was ramping up work even more than usual in preparation for a big milestone at the end of November but we still managed to take a long week trip out to the desert originally planned for central and western Nevada but diverted S by weather to the Pahrump area for warmer and more modest peaks and then to the LV airport to drop off Iris for a work trip. By the end of the month Iris successfully completed her milestone at work and then took most of December off.
We started December with another trip out to the desert near the AZ-CA border to climb peaks with and without ropes, adventure climbing to a few more "Leaping Lizard" summits. Then we flew to Boston for first and second Christmas with family (early because the logistics worked out better, bonus - cheaper less crowded flights) and then back to CA and a trip to the desert to climb mostly DPS peaks (a list of mostly commanding peaks made by the Sierra Club's Desert Peak Section). We were out on this trip sleeping early for the new year.
So far in January we finished up the DPS trip and then did a long weekend trip to rock climb in the desert and another weekend scrambling and climbing peaks in Joshua Tree.
According to Peakbagger I climbed 290 peaks in 2022 and 242 in 2023, that doesn't include all of the peaks I did climb, but also counts some pretty dubious points and repeats. I didn't get in as much climbing as I used to, but still managed 50 days in 2022 and 63 days in 2023.
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