Fired up from my Glacier Peak C2C attempt and looking for a longer run I had the required skills to complete, I set my sights on a solo push of Jade Lake and Dip Top Gap. I wanted a trail I was familiar with so route finding wouldn’t suck up a lot of my time on the trail. I backpacked at Jade Lake in the fall a few years go and chickened out of doing Dip Top Gap since the snow looked super icy from far away and I didn’t have much experience with steep snow at the time. It’s been high on my list of places to see ever since so I decided it was finally time!

I had no idea if I was even capable of climbing Glacier Peak in a day. My longest day in the mountains so far was around 20 miles with around 4,000 feet of gain. The Disappointment Peak scramble route we were looking at had us clocking in 34-36 miles with over 10,000 feet of gain. COVID lockdowns had also given me an unreasonable amount of anxiety surrounding technical objectives for the 2020 climbing season. My anxiety was so bad, I had all but given up on a major summit in 2020. I finally hit a point where I was so frustrated with myself that I decided to just give it a shot.

It’s still possible to get outside and have fun while respecting the rules of social distancing. Eventually, this will be over and we will all be on the trails again. I can’t wait to test out the Merrell Bravada Waterproof hikers on the side of a mountain and be sure to check out Zappos.com to get your own pair so you are ready for the outdoors!

When I first started planning my trip to Nepal, I had a lot of questions about whether I should hire a guide or trek independently. After a lot of research, I decided to trek with a guide. I am extremely happy with that decision, and spoiler alert, my recommendation is to definitely hire a guide if you plan on doing the Everest Base Camp trek. But with that recommendation in mind, not all guided trips are the same. In order to make the right decision for you, you need to decide on your budget, and what kind of experience you are hoping for.

Acute mountain sickness or altitude sickness commonly occurs for people on the Everest Base Camp trek, so I figured it would be easy to identify if I got sick. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Learn about my experience with AMS and how to avoid my mistakes on your own high altitude trek.

If you haven’t heard of Berg Lake, you have most likely seen photos of the iconic scene. Mount Robson towers over Berg Lake and the Berg Glacier tumbles down the side of the mountain to meet with the turquoise waters of the lake. It’s an infamous photo and seeing it so many times on Instagram I started to wonder if it could actually be that beautiful in real life. Spoiler alert—it was.

Wedgemount Lake is an out and back hike in Garibaldi Provincial Park rated as difficult. The trail is 7.5 miles round trip with 3800 feet of gain. In order to camp at the lake you need permits which can be booked here. Permits for all of Garibaldi Provincial Park open up four months before your planned date. We camped in July, so we booked our permits in April.