Hah! I am also a distance runner (trails, 50km), and am extremely anemic (working on this with my doc) so can very much relate to your brother in those regards.

No, I don’t think it’s related as the extremes thing predates the relationship thing. I have for quite some time experienced or sought out relatively high highs and low lows, and also get very very passionate about something. Used to be radio and music. Still love music. But now it’s mountains. Those passions have always been my compass in life.

Well I’m continuing to talk to and will be seeing girl who lives far away. Going on a date, hopefully, with another girl who’s a guide for a local/very well known mountain guiding company. So there’s some people out there for me.

I’ve been feeling like I numbed a lot of parts of my personality towards the end of my last relationship. I’m finding myself making more of each day, listening to music louder, staying up later, burning the candle more. We’ll see how long I can do this, but I am feeling more extreme highs and lows which is something I’ve gravitated towards over the last 10 years of my life. I wouldn’t say in a bi polar way, but I also wouldn’t say it’s a normal, necessarily healthy thing.

Yeah we went on another date and it just feels like there’s a “click” there, if you know what I mean. Haven’t felt that way in a long time. She’s not consistently back up here til her next break in December. Which is a month long break. Would love to patch these together until then, somehow.

Arrigetch, man. That's either going to be my holy grail or my white whale. I'm tellin' y'all.

You are wandering the Holy Land until you find The Grail.

So here's my problems with dating apps. I want to be clear to anyone reading this, i really do not give a shit about being single. But the apps. man.

I will get matches if people see my profile. The people/algorithms behind these apps know this. So, if I throw down $20 for a boost on Hinge, which I did to test this out, I get ~10 people matching. In the two days leading up to that, without paying, I got 2.

This applies to Bumble. This applies to Tinder. I am sure the business/tech people behind these things know that males are in the red on these apps, and will happily bury you and make you pay more to access what the algorithm identifies as better matches. Hinge and Bumble are especially guilty of this, where I have never come across a top pick outside of the curated selection they provide. Every single app works this way. I’m probably a week away from just deleting all of them and not even bothering to try and date. These things are bad for my mental health, and I’m sure everyone else’s.

Plus I'm now up to FIVE times where someone says they're up to dinner or a drink or whatever and then just never. communicates. again. What the fuck is that, it is terrible behavior that is only enabled because of the low stakes environment these apps provide.

Grumble grumble.

kleinbl00 you called me a seeker (or was it searcher?) when we got lunch. I've been thinking about that and still don't really know what you meant. You can text me or respond here.

Climbed a couple of more mountains on Sunday and Monday and am looking at actual training plans for rock climbing so I can work towards some bigger goals. And for the fun of it. Training should be fun!

Online dating though, sucks, it sucks a lot. I've been ghosted about 5 times now where I even get the persons' phone number, have a good conversation, make plans, and then never hear from them again. It's insane. I've gone on one amazing date with someone I'm still regularly talking to/flirting with but the problem is...she's only up here on long weekends/holidays/etc., as she's from up here, but is in an accelerated nursing program 8 hours south of here. So I don't know what to do about that. Easily and far away the person I'm most interested in and has the most commonality with. Kind of crushing in a poetic way.

Sigh.

Here's the big scary dream mountain range I'd like to climb in the next 5 years or so.

https://www.nps.gov/places/arrigetch-peaks.htm

Working backwards I need to:

1 - work my trad rock climbing lead abilities up to probably 5.11a/b from 5.9/5.10a. (lot of work)

2 - learn how to aid climb (lot of work)

3 - go on at least one smaller expedition that's more in the 1 week timeline as opposed to 3 and a half weeks

I think the advice is to marry Steve.

I'll actually show up this time! (Unless I'm climbing something)

What's got you thinking about relocating to the USA? Seems like there's some crossover in people coming and going from NZ to the PNW already. Have a friend who's been in NZ for like two months now.

Went to Squamish for rock climbing for the first time ever and am immediately in love. Unfortunately, one of my other learned loves from this year, Index WA, has nearly burnt to the ground with 5% containment of a very large fire that has totally shutdown one of the E-W highways. I am absolutely loving rock climbing and the people I've ran into at those two places in particular.

Got lunch with kleinbl00 recently, finally, three years too late!

I think I'm going down to Portland to see Pavement on Friday?

SO MUCH. I've mostly been re-listening to Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse and the new Sudan Archives album though.

Amazing! Love seeing the reports for back to back to years! Such an accomplishment doing a multi disciplinary race like this. What’s next for you?

You can't pretend that this stuff doesn't have an element of danger or that people aren't going to die. But 4 people in 2 years is...a lot...thanks.

The dating part is awful, I think some of it is coming out of a 3 year relationship I am not very sharp at even flirting with new people and going through that whole song and dance. And I don't really know if I even want to? I am so busy with hobbies from running to climbing to skiing that it's like...I can just keep doing those things and having just as good of a time. But that's also how you end up 45 and single (I am far away from 45 years old).

4/10.

A week ago I was supposed to climb a mountain via a rock route with somebody whom I hadn't met, but was well aware of as a lifelong climber in the area, and had communicated with via email in the past. Unfortunately the weather turned to rain and we were unable to climb and made different, separate plans. I ended up being able to climb that route the next day, he ended up taking the weekend to do what was supposed to be some easy hiking combined with scrambling and an overnight. Something happened, he fell, and he died.

Meanwhile dating is kind of a nightmare. Gone on a few dates now and they're all maaaaybe 6/10. Just not feeling connection either physical attraction or through the conversation like there's anyone I'm wanting to go on a 2nd date with. Been "ghosted" once, which is what it is. But the whole thing kind of sucks. It's much worse than it was in early 2019 when I was last single. Wonder how much the pandemic has to do with that. Or maybe it's just me being a few years older and in a different place in life.

Feeling kind of similar to where I was at in 2016 where now that I've moved a couple of times, probably best to find myself a community again and really be a part of that through the running clubs and climbing gyms in Seattle since most of my friends and community are 45-60 minutes away and feel much farther away.