Photo: Kate Osborn
In my daily interactions with people, I'm often looked at with a puzzled furled brow. I do bring it upon my self, I'm a peculiar looking woman who is stuffing groceries into her back pack, folding up extra paper bags, and perpetually in a puffy jacket paired with Sorels on a warm spring day in the check out line. The more extroverted observers assume-idly ask "how was the boarding today?" mistaking me as a tourist with no other apparel. As I point out the peak I rode 5,000 ft above us on the Salt Lake skyline, causally mention the eggs need to withstand a snowmobile ride and the extra paper bags are for getting a fire started, most people ask iterations of, "really?"
So, Backcountry Living, why? As a consistent flow of blizzards pummeled the rocky mountain range this season, our snowbound cabin is buried deeper then we have ever seen. With ongoing sore muscles, maintenance, shoveling, fire building, remoteness, and vehicles encased in road sludge- I catch myself also questioning why. Why not live in a suburb where the mail man can bring me packages, the garbage/recycling magically disappears, and going over to a friends house is in no way considered "an epic adventure"?
Although my solutions and justifications for the perplexities of mountain life are not simple and by no means conventional, my husband Zach and I have managed to carve out our own little spot at 8,400 feet in a Wasatch blind spot. This was not simply a product of our own volition. This was a series of serendipitous events that united our family and friends around us and gave us the opportunity to give roots to our dream.
It started in 2004. We were 16-year-old love-struck snowboarders who dreamt of making our life in vast expanses of wilderness. After sneaking out of high school classes, we would drive past the small cabins that lined the road on our way to find an education snowboarding in Utah's Wasatch range. Our desire to live there, avoid the commute, and immerse ourselves in a life of frozen wilderness was ruminating in our minds.
As we put our attention towards living in the backcountry, coincidences started lining up. For the price of what a double wide trailer would have cost us in Salt Lake, we could have a cabin adjacent to world class snowboarding, a stream, and a view. we deemed it, to good to pass up.
As I use this blog to elaborate about how my life and its consistent stream of blessed coincidences unfolded. I know one thing for sure, I'm exactly where I am because I have been following my heart, even if that path is simply the pursuit of my own joy. The serenity, peace, and satisfaction I get from snowboarding to my house, meditating by the fire, drinking clean water, and breathing fresh air has taken my bar for what life can be, and raised to a level that will never recover from.
I believe the twists and turns of my life give me a unique vantage. Although I formed most my perspectives from fringes outside the norm looking even further out; I want to explore and share adventures, feminism, snowboarding, yoga, self love, guiding, mountaineering, meditation, nutrition, and even the subtltes of life here.
So, thank you for reading my blog introduction and cheers to more adventuring!
So, Backcountry Living, why? As a consistent flow of blizzards pummeled the rocky mountain range this season, our snowbound cabin is buried deeper then we have ever seen. With ongoing sore muscles, maintenance, shoveling, fire building, remoteness, and vehicles encased in road sludge- I catch myself also questioning why. Why not live in a suburb where the mail man can bring me packages, the garbage/recycling magically disappears, and going over to a friends house is in no way considered "an epic adventure"?
Although my solutions and justifications for the perplexities of mountain life are not simple and by no means conventional, my husband Zach and I have managed to carve out our own little spot at 8,400 feet in a Wasatch blind spot. This was not simply a product of our own volition. This was a series of serendipitous events that united our family and friends around us and gave us the opportunity to give roots to our dream.
It started in 2004. We were 16-year-old love-struck snowboarders who dreamt of making our life in vast expanses of wilderness. After sneaking out of high school classes, we would drive past the small cabins that lined the road on our way to find an education snowboarding in Utah's Wasatch range. Our desire to live there, avoid the commute, and immerse ourselves in a life of frozen wilderness was ruminating in our minds.
As we put our attention towards living in the backcountry, coincidences started lining up. For the price of what a double wide trailer would have cost us in Salt Lake, we could have a cabin adjacent to world class snowboarding, a stream, and a view. we deemed it, to good to pass up.
As I use this blog to elaborate about how my life and its consistent stream of blessed coincidences unfolded. I know one thing for sure, I'm exactly where I am because I have been following my heart, even if that path is simply the pursuit of my own joy. The serenity, peace, and satisfaction I get from snowboarding to my house, meditating by the fire, drinking clean water, and breathing fresh air has taken my bar for what life can be, and raised to a level that will never recover from.
I believe the twists and turns of my life give me a unique vantage. Although I formed most my perspectives from fringes outside the norm looking even further out; I want to explore and share adventures, feminism, snowboarding, yoga, self love, guiding, mountaineering, meditation, nutrition, and even the subtltes of life here.
So, thank you for reading my blog introduction and cheers to more adventuring!
Photo: Adam Clark
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