Uhm.

I'm going on like 4-5 dates in the next 2 weeks?

I don't know.

Pablo! Alaska is a place high up on my list of places to go visit...any chance you have any pictures of the Northern Lights which you were able to experience? Good luck in Kuwait!

Sounds like you have found your community up there, with a healthy dose of self-reflection. Crazy to see this update from you and hope you pop back in for the next round of life highlights.

Here's what's up with me:

- I've totally immersed myself in mountains, from glacier travel, to alpine rock climbing, to more technical sport and traditional crag climbing, to backcountry skiing, to rescue systems for both myself and others. I instruct basic mountaineering/alpine climbing classes on a volunteer basis, and have an interest in joining Mountain Search and Rescue in the next year or two to continue to give back and further my knowledge and skills. I don't think this will ever be a career, but it's a passion. That said, I do miss music quite a bit and am getting excited for a few concerts over the upcoming fall and winter. I've fallen away from playing guitar too much and want to get back on that boat.

- Similar to you on the relationship except it was my partner who walked away, but it has turned out to be the best decision either of us could have made and probably happened 6 months later than it should have. Currently working on packing things up to move a good half hour west of where I'm at now, over to Seattle (please don't read my comment history talking about how I would never move to Seattle). Thinking about taking a month off next year to travel to someplace like Chamonix, Patagonia, or maybe Vietnam(?).

- Wondering, as always, where my career will go. At age 30 I have now managed a Quality Assurance team of 5, an Operations team of 5 supervisors and 115 employees, and currently work in R&D managing a team of 4 data analysts and engineers to work towards advanced analytics capabilities to stay ahead of the competition. Always wondering what the long term could, and should, look like and have been thinking a lot around the lines of "just because I can, doesn't mean I should" in career and personal life.

I turned 30 the other day. That was exciting. Trying to enjoy the process of life more than the results, but that's a challenging thing for me. The process right now looks like running 1 mile for the first time in 7 weeks because of a knee injury. I've had some ups and downs with that, but just being outside on a not-rainy day was amazing.

A bonus ask hubski / ask pubski:

What's one piece of advice you would have given your 30-year old self?

Man everyone at my new job is smarter than I am.

I AM BACK ON DAY SHIFT

ROCK CLIMBING OUTSIDE THIS WEEKEND

RUNNING A TRAIL MARATHON NEXT WEEKEND

SECOND ROUND OF VACCINE THE WEEK AFTER THAT

So I didn't get myself totally lost, hurt, and killed this past Sunday. Which was nice. Clear weather, ski touring at Mount Rainier somewhat deep into the mountains. Clouds cleared up per weather forecast, and then...came back with full force, which wasn't in any of the three forecasts I had referenced before heading out. Total whiteout conditions with about 3,000 vertical feet to descend and ~4 miles back to the car. NOT GOOD. This is the kind of thing that does get people killed yearly on that mountain. Fortunately I had a great GPX track to follow, though it took two hours longer with maybe 50ft of visibility made it back safe.

But the sensations were otherwordly. I could not tell up from down, left from right. At one point I thought I was following the "fall line" but ended up totally stopped and facing back upslope on my skis. Whenever I would stop I nearly fell over due to vertigo sensations and being so disoriented that without the GPX track things would have been very, very bad...but that's why you do the prep work ahead of time to either know your route well, or be able to get down no matter. It was ultimately a confidence booster, albeit a bit of a scary one.

This is a good opportunity to say thank you for writing a privacy and TOS statement that’s not all legal jargon and lost in vague, meaningless phrases. So, thank you for grounding your statements in reality, mk.

Let's spin the wheel! What did bfx get sick with?! A common cold? Could it be COVID19?

Try...Salmonella...? It's the only thing I can think of that would have hit me like a truck like this. Had a salad a couple of nights ago with raw onion and by the next day could barely make it up or down a set of stairs, splitter headache, basically every common symptom except for diarrhea, thank god.

https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/newport-07-20/index.html

Feeling a little better today which puts me at a solid 50%. Check your onions everybody!

Been a rough few days. Mount Rainier was a character building experience for me this time around. Didn't actually summit - two person rope team for me with a set of friends on a three person rope team. Going up my partner got acute mountain sickness. Nausea, vomiting, confusion & dizziness at about 13,000ft. Not an amazing situation to be in when it's you and one other person on a rope. I went into guide mode, short-roped my partner, and forced us back down the mountain. By about 10,000ft my partner was feeling better but that was probably the longest feeling and most stressful few hours of mountaineering I've had so far. The aftereffect though is good, knowing that I am capable in practice of handling a situation like that in a safe and efficient manner. One bad step though and things could have been different.

Then, later on, this story broke...turns out a person I know was on a different route with much, much greater objective hazard and didn't make it off the mountain alive. Couple of deaths around my life in the past few weeks. Lot of processing and wondering what to do.

Four of the past five days have involved somebody or another crying. I could use getting through a full day without anyone in my life crying. It’s tiring.

Got the highest possible rating for my year end performance review at work. Between that and hopefully a nice bonus I’m that much closer to a cabin up north...

It’s amazing to me the difference in speech pattern and manner of speaking by Trump in 2008 vs 2019.

Am I...am I allowed to say I think an unhealthy portion of this country is pretty fuckin' stupid?

Granted, the reason they're pretty fuckin' stupid is they're pretty fuckin' poor. But, still...

Pubski, what are you doing?

Last night I went to Banff Mountain Film Festival as it made it's way into town. One of my favorite nights of the year! It's a great excuse to run into a lot of friends who I may see once a week, and others I see once every few months to drink some beer and watch some amazing outdoor adventure films. That said, man, I find myself getting pissed off.

One of the films was about the Grand Canyon and two people hiking the length of it (730ish miles) and a development group wanting to put in a tram and resort at the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers, which is a sacred place for 3 indigenous tribes. I think one of the most poignant points was the former Ranger Superintendent of the park making the point that they are not there to provide an experience for every single person based on their ability. Not all outdoor spaces are for everyone. But it pisses me off that people continue to try and do this, it pisses me off that Bears Ear National Monument was shrank, it pisses me off that people are trying to start a resort at Mount Rainier. These are not mistakes, these are purposeful decisions attempting to reshape the landscape of our public lands to industrialize and Disney-fye them. And it is, and I'm sure will for the rest of my years, continue to drive me crazy.

Meanwhile I'm at a point where I feel like I'm walking on eggshells with my partner and it's really not a ton of fun. I like her, I like spending time with her, but I'm currently at a point where I am just waiting for the next issue to come up - will it be this week? Will it be three weeks from now? I don't know, but I know it's going to happen. Things were amazing and fun for a while but for the past month plus they haven't been and as I reflect on things it almost makes me want to say that the most relaxed and most "myself" I have been in a relationship in the past long time was either the start of this relationship or the 3ish months I was the 3rd in an open relationship.

Maybe it's that time of year where I start to freak to fuck out because it feels like these things bubble to the surface around the Holidays most years for me.

Went to Bhutan and Thailand. Came back from Bhutan and Thailand. Somehow no less busy than before I left. Next year has the potential to be even busier. Yikes.

I'm thinking it's time I start applying to jobs and think about moving. There's a place where whenever I go and come back, friends and coworkers comment on how I seem just a little happier than normal. So I think I'm going to try to live there.

Aaaaaaaaaaand this is why Hubski is the community I choose to stick around...

Work

Business requirements and project management have become my life at work.

Health

I'm allergic to peanuts! It's good to know what keeps causing my throat to swell! Tried some peanut M&Ms earlier and had swollen throat, racing heartbeat, etc. etc. within ten minutes. Fucking sucks. Time to find new protein sources...

Life outside of work, great. My ankle is kind of fucked but it should be something which can be fixed with physical therapy. Seeing basically the best in PT in town as far as running injuries goes. Time to buy a bike (I have no idea what to look for when it comes to buying one, help???) and climb more...

Climbing and Girls

Hit my first indoor 5.11 climbing yesterday, which considering I'm two months in is pretty fucking fast progress. Stoked, and can't wait to climb outdoors for the first time this weekend!!! When a girl says "hope you're okay with lots of climbing dates" you know you've found someone great. Or, at least I know that she's great for me.

This is a pretty good representation of how things are going.

The only thing of note is that dating is going really, really well right now. Somehow have stumbled upon a girl (we even initially met in real life - wow) who makes me feel a lot of emotions I haven’t felt in years. She’s...awesome.

I went backpacking. It was nice. The fires were not.

fin

I don't need this shit.

Roommate 1: In her 40s. Has 3 cats, two are super cool, one is horrible and I spent a half hour this morning trying to coax it out of my room. Quit her job a couple weeks ago. A family member is moving in. Neither of them have their shit together. Oh and she baby talks her cats all the fucking time. Made a big deal out of making space and consolidating things when I first moved in, yet leaves her shit everywhere. Guess I know what that was about now.

Roommate 2: Extremely passive aggressive. Loud. Generally an unpleasant person.

Which is weird because I met em both through running and they're fine in those groups but, I'm moving out sooner rather than later. Make enough money to not have to deal with this kind of shit.

Having my annual late spring life freak out where I question everything I'm doing but.

I think big things are coming. I believe that. Likely finally moving to Seattle at the end of the Summer. Getting universally positive reviews at work and realizing that I already check off all the boxes for group manager positions for the department I work in. Hit a new high last week for miles ran and hiked in a week (39.7!!!). It's getting weird. When I solo hike I'm the person people approach to ask for directions, distances, view points, etc., like they think I'm some sort of expert.

Take the job. You are already a world traveler, and this is an amazing opportunity to see parts of the US and Canada that people take for-granted. It would make a great portfoilio piece for you, and could potentially open up other opportunities while you're on the road.

I have a friend who did something similar out of college, nowadays he works in CO and spends most of his time doing photography to make a living, for groups such as Red Bull for their snowboarding tour, or for outdoor publications, etc. etc. And you know what? He's one of the most relaxed, down to Earth, and humble people I know. Everybody can travel to a monument or park and take a picture. Very, very few can do so while getting paid to be there.

Edit: Think I misinterpreted this a bit thinking it was specifically focused on Parks, but in either way, most of the points above still stand, I think. Unless that grant related project is super amazing.

LIFE CHANGES

I bought a car! Lil bb 5dr Impreza (WanderingEng) and I love it so far. It's going to be very nice for getting me to/from work, and to/from mountains and a bit more rugged areas.

To help subsidize this, and to deal with the fact that I will be gone for large chunks of the summer, I'm moving to a less desirable area, but with two people I know, for very little money each month. Planning on this for the next 9-ish months, and then revisiting at that point. Likely to move into a studio after this endeavor.

THE THING I REALLY WANTED TO TALK ABOUT

This past Friday for work I ended up going to the Global Specialty Coffee Expo, and had an amazing time. Went up to the convention center in Seattle, and entered this crazy busy and high-flying world of the coffee industry. One lecture on Agroforestry, one on Roasting Automation, and probably 60 ounces of coffee were drank from various roasters and companies. Got some great knowledge out of it from talking to some of our equipment manufacturers, as well. The more fun part, though, was the after-parties. If you're good enough at talking to people you get to go to after-parties. Which means I spent my evening drinking with the Arbor Day Foundation at Speakeasy, and then in this crazy industrial art studio near the Starbucks Reserve Roastery, and now have an open invite to Papau New Guinea. So that's kind of cool. Giving me a lot of thoughts about the Coffee Industry and what kind of role I actually want to have in it in the future. Yikes.