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The Five Mountain Year

By 29029 Everesting

January 12^th, 2024

“You might be going to a different beach, but it’s the same vacation.”

It was a simple line - part of a speech at an event I had attended - that woke something up in me.

I was living this crazy life full of fun things. Vacations started to blur together - it might be Bali instead of Mexico, but it was all kind of the same.

I wanted something different.

I wanted to get out of my comfort zone.

The most cardio I’d ever done was a 20 minute HIIT class. I'd also done some short mountain bike rides, mostly downhill, at Snowbasin.

That’s where I saw the 29029 flags for the first time.

The event looked really cool, but it was definitely more extreme than any physical thing I’d ever done.

I pushed outside of my comfort zone and registered for Snowbasin in 2022.

The magnitude of the challenge kept me honest with my training. I’d go to Snowbasin every weekend to hike as the event neared.

I felt so purposeful.

For the first time in a long time, I felt 100% engaged in life.

By the time the event rolled around, I knew the entire ascent by memory. I had hiked it dozens of times to prepare - what was another 13?

Finishing that first 29029 was such a surreal feeling. The final climb was unlike the dozens of others I had done in training and the event itself.

Accomplishment. Grit. Success. Community.

It’s hard to pick out a single feeling, because I felt it all.

I was hooked on it.

I thought it would be one-and-done, but instead, I felt drawn to more.

It was the memory of the community - pushing through the challenge alongside 250 others - that led me to do something I never thought I would.

I registered for all five mountains in 2023.

One a month sounded like the kind of challenge that would fuel me.

Sun Valley

The year started with Sun Valley.

It seemed like a mountain that had a little bit of it all. Alpine, steep sections, mellow sections, mild temperatures, warm temperatures, and even thunderstorms.

Maybe it was because I was fresh - it was the first mountain of the year - but it seemed to go by smoothly.

Of course it wasn't easy, but I was prepared for it. The gruelingly steep Wall came and went each ascent.

The hot solstice sun became shaded with storm clouds, and although it made for a lengthy shutdown of the gondola, the cooler temperatures were welcome.

I earned Red Hat #2 with Idaho's Smoky Mountains as the backdrop.

Jackson

Every mountain was an epic adventure in its own right, but the first time I felt like I truly flirted with injury was in Jackson.

During the second morning, my knees started shooting an electric pain up through my hips on each step.

Thankfully, I had plenty of time on the clock.

Even if each lap takes you hours, you can make the summit.

It wasn't easy, but I kept climbing. I had to fight harder on that mountain than any other - but the pain wasn't going to stop me from earning Red Hat #3 on the steepest mountain of the season.

I earned every Red Hat, but I really had to earn the one in Jackson if you know what I mean.

Snowbasin

Going back to Snowbasin, I was looking for a new challenge. Since climbing here the first time, I’d earned my Red Hat three times over.

It felt like I needed to do something different to make my 2nd 29029 at Snowbasin meaningful.

When I told Coach Jarrod my thoughts about Snowbasin, he gave me a challenge: climb through the night.

Don’t stop. Don’t sleep. Just climb.

With a new mission in mind, I tackled the familiar ascent trail. I'd climbed it enough times I knew the climb like the back of my hand.

Which was a good thing, because the familiarity was something I could lean on as the sun started to set.

My body screamed for sleep, but I pushed on - up towards the summit, working as best as I could to secure my footing on the loose, dusty, rocky terrain.

I finished around 2:30 in the morning, and even though it was the fastest I’d pull on a Red Hat at any mountain, it also felt like one of the hardest.

Whistler

Whistler was a magical mountain.

It was a beautiful trail, with beautiful scenery - which made for an easy up the first time.

On that first lengthy ascent, my knee started hurting again, so I went into the recovery room.

I’ll preface this with saying I tend to have an extremely high pain tolerance, so when one of the stretch therapists moved my leg and it shot an extreme jolt of pain through my body, it really scared me.

It was 11 am and I’d only done one climb... but there was no way I was going to quit.

I took some tylenol, wrapped my leg with some athletic tape, and hit the slopes again, grimacing with each step.

Slowly - with every step - the pain started to subside.

By Saturday, the jolt of knee pain was a distant memory, further squashed by the pure feeling of accomplishment after 8 ascents - another Red Hat.

Stratton

My five-time season only seemed to get more and more difficult as the year wore on. As if the accumulated fatigue and on-and-off knee injury wasn't enough, the weather in Stratton threw another challenge into the mix.

Epic is such an overused word nowadays, but it's really the only way to describe what it was like during those rainy 36 hours in Vermont.

I had no doubt in my mind that I would finish, but I knew it might be the largest test I'd faced yet.

There was a new level of grit to be unlocked.

I was proud of myself - and I was proud of everyone else on that mountain. Climbing through that torrential rain was insane. It started early into the first day, and then it never stopped.

The trail was slippery. Everybody was soaked. There were rivers that had formed across the trail.

It takes grit to finish any 29029, but this one felt like the ultimate test.

Cold. Wet. Terrible. Awesome.

The challenge only made the accomplishment that much sweeter.

I pulled on a waterlogged Red Hat - #6 for me!

Every single mountain has its own challenge. Now that I've done them all, people ask me all the time which one was hardest, but that’s an impossible question to answer.

Is the hardest mountain Sun Valley, with an impossibly steep segment known as the Wall?

Is the hardest mountain Jackson - the shortest, but steepest unrelenting route to the summit?

Is the hardest mountain Snowbasin, with the hot Utah sun and rocky, dusty terrain?

Is the hardest mountain Whistler, with the longest ascent imaginable - where even the fastest climbers spend hours on the trail before being able to rest on the gondola?

Is the hardest mountain Stratton, with the most unpredictable weather and highest likelihood of mud and rain?

It’s impossible to answer!

All I can say is that each is epic. Every mountain will test you in a unique way. Every mountain is an amazing adventure, and I’m so glad I got to experience them all!