Our Adventures

I am so blessed to have been able to live this wild love story with my best friend. There are many people who live wild lives just like Joe and I, but not many can say they’ve done it with the one they love. This is truly what our lives look like between school, work, and ministry. Adventuring is not just a hobby for us; it is our way of life.  Or should I say, the way that we find our life and hear the voice of God. I have found that life is most fulfilling when you are living intentionally and chasing after the heart of God with the one you love. Whenever people try and search for God with all of their heart they end up on the wildest adventures.

Most of these accomplishments required or involved many of our friends and family. These are the accomplishments that we are proud of, but very few of them we did alone.   I hope that this list of our adventures is inspiring to you.

 

2006

  • We took our first backpacking trip together in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. We climbed Pingora and had an epic on Wolf’s Head.

  • We became scuba certified and dove in the Bahamas with spotted eagle rays, sharks, and myriads of fish. In the same week we snowboarded deep powder in the mountains of Colorado.

2007

  • We road tripped down to Seneca Rocks, West Virginia where we climbed on a frigid cold rock all day and then explored an underground river in a cave all through the night.
  • We climbed Lost Arrow Spire in Yosemite National Park, along with sections of El Capitan.
  • We backpacked to the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind Rivers with my parents, Dave and Diann, and our friend Halley. We summited Pingora on this trip.
  • We traveled to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks for a week of climbing, camping, and sight-seeing.  We made our first attempt up Mount Moran.
  • We finished off the year with a two week trip to El Potrero Chico, a world class sport climbing area in Mexico. We met up with some friends from Yosemite, climbed a couple 10+ pitch routes, hitchhiked, and explored the nearby town of Hidalgo.

2008

  • We climbed and canyoneered slot canyons in Zion National Park.
  • We climbed the Royal Arches traverse in Yosemite National Park, California.
  • We road tripped with Joe’s family to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks where we hiked through giant trees and lush vegetation.
  • We put together the vision and the website for a Christian climbing program in Wyoming, www.DangerousDesigns.com.  This project is on hold during our honeymoon year.  We plan to develop it more in 2012.

2009

  • We cimbed at the Shawgunks in New York, where Ann lead Crystal Cascading Kaleidoscope – a classic trad route in the park.
  • We traveled all summer on the Live Offensively tour, where we climbed at the Red River Gorge in Kentucky, cliff jumped in Pennsylvania, explored the Oregon coast, and climbed at Smith Rock.
  • We finished up the summer in Moab, Utah and Zion National Park, exploring slot canyons and summiting crazy rock formations in the desert.
  • We snowboarded in Breckenridge, Colorado and Killington, Vermont.

2010

  • We took the Advanced Free Fall course, and are now licensed skydivers. We have jumped in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, South Dakota, and California.
  • We traveled on the summer tour with Live Offensively, where we skydived and climbed with our friends between festivals.
  • We went backpacking in the Wind Rivers in Wyoming for our fourth trip together. Joe summitted Haystack, Warrior I, and Warbonnet. Ann summitted Haystack and Pingora.
  • We climbed and summitted Mount Moran in the Tetons with some of our closest friends.