Hey everyone, do I sound any different from the last post? I just celebrated my 30th birthday last Monday the 25th and everyone tells me I'm getting old. But I couldn't care less what they think because this past year was a pretty awesome year, I would dare to say the best so far. I feel that if you live your life doing what you love it's just like a fine wine, it just keeps getting better with age. Sure, I have to stretch these days and sometimes I wake up feeling sore or with a hangover, but my philosophy is that if this year was better than the last then who cares how old you are.

As far as festivities go we had lots of visitors in August, did some great hikes, and had some fun times. The Wilderness Forever exhibit is now up in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History with one of my photos. Thanks for all the well wishes and here are the highlights from the past couple of weeks.

Summit Soda Syndicate Evening Hike to Lava Cliffs

Trevor Hiking Lava Cliffs (2) Tundra Sunset Hike Tundra Cartwheel Lava Cliffs Sunset Monica and Upslope

Sunset Hike with Mom and her Friends at 12K feet.

Crepuscular Rays Sunset From Trail Ridge Road Mom and Friends Watching the Sunset

The biggest part of the last two weeks has bee the attempt on Longs Peak. We did everything we could to make it a successful summit but the weather didn't cooperate with us... not much you can do about that.

Backpacking Trip with the Crew up to the Boulderfield

Group Before Shot

It was a pretty cloudy day with spitting rain all day. We made it to camp about noon and we decided to take a nap and see if the weather was going to get any better as the evening went along.

Cloudy Camp spot in the Boulderfield

Annnnndddd... it didn't. It actually got worse so we decided to do a short hike up to the Chasm view ridge regardless.

Mount Lady Washington Ridge

Our plan A was to bring beer to drink on top of the summits, but since we weren't gonna get a summit we decided to just get drunk instead. It was pretty spectacular having a 24 pack of Upslope with us at 13K ft.

Beer Thirty

The next morning this is what we woke up to. For a brief moment the sun broke through the clouds and onto Longs Peak. I would say that this made the trip worth it, even though we didn't get the summit.

Boulderfield Sunrise

Not a bad way to celebrate the big 3-0...

Sunrise from Camp

Even though the wind was pretty extreme we headed back up to the ridge where we would be able to check out the views of Longs and Chasm Lake.

Cristos at Chasm View

Taking it all in just before a huge gust of wind caused me to fall over... Scary shit.

Self-portrait Chasm View The Diamond and Chasm Lake-

Projection: Cylindrical (1)

FOV: 186 x 103

Ev: 14.45

Chasm Lake and the Diamond as seen from Chasm Lake

Cristos,Mount Lady Washington, and Chasm Lake from Chasm View

It is a really amazing view from up there. I hope to get back up at a later date in order to explore a little more.

Chasm Lake From Chasm View

Not a whole lot of sense carrying all that beer down back to the car. So we just drank it all in the boulderfield. Delicious.

Camp Beers at 12.7K ft

Mount Lady Washington and Longs Peak from Chasm Lake Junction

Chasm Lake Junctino

Last weekend we decided to just do a short hike up to Bridal Veil Falls before the weather was supposed to hit.

Afternoon Hike to Bridal Veil Falls

Jon Climbing Bridal Veil Falls Sunny Day at Bridal Veil Falls

Backcountry Bromance... No homo.

Backcountry Bromance

Then Lina jumped in to fix the ratio. That water is crazy cold...

Cooling off with some Upslope Backcountry Beers Bridal Veil Falls

Visitors Stop by the House

Bull Elk and Harem

Nursing Elk

The last thing that happened this week is that the Wilderness Forever exhibit in the Smithsonian just started and my photo in now on display through 2014. If you are in the DC area you should check it out. Here is a Washington Post article about it with a photo of mine and the shot that will be displayed in the Museum of Natural History:

Trees Aflame