Summits for days!  It’s the call of the open sky, big views, and miles of peaks.  Little can make me feel more refreshed and liberated than running along an alpine ridge, pushing endurance and technical ability.

In 2010-2018 I lived in California, exploring the Sierra Nevada alongside work as a sustainability consultant and later a PhD student. The outdoors was a big part of my identity, and alpine climbing, long-distance backpacking, and ski mountaineering filled my dreams.

Itching to explore more of the West, I worked with my then-wife to convert an old FedEx van into a tiny home, and in January 2018 we left our home in Lake Tahoe and set off on 8 months of vanlife adventures with our two dogs.

The van and this blog this blog went dormant in September 2018 as we moved to New York City to follow my career. Two years later the COVID-19 pandemic upended the world, a divorce scuttled my marriage to Galina, and I found myself roaming again. Hitting the road in July 2020, this time as a solo traveler, I’m working full-time, with only the loosest itinerary.

Next long-term stop is Austin, Texas