Well, another year down. 2025 was an eventful year with some great moments and some bummers. Highlights include Becca and I getting married, some amazing skiing and climbing trips, lots of international travel, and finishing my PhD! Bummers include the passing of our beloved kitty Sahara, and plenty of political stupidity.
The year started off with lots of great ski trips, then a busy spring and summer of travel: Peru in May, Austria, Denmark and Iceland in June. Back in Washington for the summer proper, Becca and I did several great and classic alpine traverses with friends, which were real highlights, and and I’m super proud of Becca for being infinitely more comfortable and steep snow and glaciated terrain than she was just a few years ago. We had an amazing wedding in August, with tons of friends and family coming out to Washington to support us, then shortly thereafter I dived into the last push at work finishing off my dissertation and preparing for my defense at the end of September. We immediately jumped into more travel, enjoying the larches in the Cascades (including some memorable early skiing season) and then back to Scandinavia and Iceland before flying back to the US and immediately heading out on a massive six week road trip to Utah, the East Coast, and California, visiting friends and family at every stop. Back in Washington for December, Becca started her new job at MagniX and had two brief weeks of onboarding before we headed back out of town for a honeymoon in Spain and France, then we returned to Seattle to ring in the new year!
Well, writing that all out, I realize I’m pretty darn lucky to get to spend so much time travelling and doing the things that I love. I am so thankful for my friends, family, and career that makes it all possible. It’s always hard to pick favorite photos, and this year had especially many great trips, but here are a few of my favorite shots from last year!
Looking forward to an even better 2026!
It seems like every year there’s a midwinter high pressure system that offers a few days of nice weather, and 2025 was no exception. In January, Adam and I grabbed our ski blades and headed up Gunn Peak for a great overnight. Here Adam is skiing off the summit of Wing Peak at dusk.
In February, Adam, Matt, and I headed up to British Columbia for a few days of skiing at Rogers Pass. The first part of our trip was stormy, and we had a great time skiing pillows (Adam pictured here).
Towards the end of our trip to BC, we lucked out with a day of great (but frigid!) weather, and skied the uber-classic Youngs Traverse in blower conditions all to ourselves. The hours of trailbreaking were absolutely worth the amazing feeling of being completely alone on the Illecillewaet, surrounded by massive mountains. Here Adam and Matt are approaching the summit of Youngs Peak.
Matt and Adam skinning along the Youngs Traverse, with Mount Sir Donald in the background. Dropping into Seven Steps with this view, just before sunset, is quite possibly one of my favorite skiing memories ever.
I had plenty of great skiing closer to home, too. Here Vadim and Luke are skinning up towards Chair Peak in the Alpental Valley.
In March, my family headed to Death Valley for a few days, including a great backpacking trip in the Mesquite Flat sand dunes. We also saw Dead & Co. at the Sphere on the way there (RIP Bobby).
With April came longer days and the ability to push up into some bigger mountains in the Cascades. Adam, Matt and I camped just below the summit of Dragontail and got caught in a surprise storm - but not before we watched this beautiful sunrise over the Enchantments.
In late April, Alex came up for his annual spanking by the Weld brothers, and this time around he happened to arrive on opening weekend of the North Cascades Highway. We headed up onto the Ragged Ridge for one of my favorite ski trips of the year, camping just below the summit of Cosho. Here’s the first light of sunrise hitting the north side of Goode.
The next day, on the way out, Adam and I checked out this very cool ice cave on the Katsuk Glacier. Pachyderm Peak in the background.
In May, Becca and I headed to Peru with my family for a trek in the Cordillera Huayhuash. It was an amazing trip punctuated by some less-than-stellar weather, but we had a few amazing days with stunning views. Here’s Jirishanca and Nevado Rondoy before sunrise on our second day of the trip.
A few days later, Dad and I had an amazing evening photographing this view of Nevado Puscantrurpa lit up by fiery sunset light.
In June, Becca and I headed back to BC for some climbing, then headed up for a quick camping trip in Garibaldi Provincial Park. We had a great time (and Becca did a great job) skiing back down from the Black Tusk by moonlight, with a stunning view of Lake Garibaldi below Mount Garibaldi still catching some alpenglow.
July brought the first of our alpine traverses: the Ptarmigan Traverse, which follows the crest of the Cascades south from the southern edge of North Cascades National Park towards Glacier Peak. I’d explored the area along the route from both ends, but had never done the whole traverse before, so it was fun to finally visit some places that had been on my list for many years, like this view of Dome Peak and the Chickamin Glacier from White Rock Lakes,
We’ll have to come back to climb Gunsight, though.
Adam and Helene and Becca walking past Glacier Peak on the last night of the trip.
Later in July I got to explore another new-to-me area of the Cascades, climbing Daniel, Hinman, Lynch, and Dip Top on a great 1.5 day solo trip. This view of Daniel, the Lynch Glacier, and Pea Soup lake was awesome! My knee started giving me some IT band trouble on the way out, but thankfully it seems to be doing OK now.
Matt, Eric, Becca, and I set out a few weeks later to attempt the Torment-Forbidden Traverse in another 1.5 day trip. We had a grand time, including an airy bivy just below the summit of Torment. We woke up to this stunning undercast filling the Cascade River valley, looking south to some of the peaks along the Ptarmigan we’d passed by earlier that month: Spider, Dome, Formidable, and Glacier Peak. Johannesburg is the closer peak to the right.
Normally I wouldn’t include photos I didn’t take in this, but this one from August seems important :)
Later in August, I engaged in a harebrained scheme to camp above Sibley Pass and have Adam and Shawn intercept me in the morning for a trip up the Three Dicks. The sunrise on Hidden Lake Peaks was gorgeous, and I went back to sleep until Shawn and Adam found me in my bivy sack along the ridge an hour or two later…
The climb of the Three Dicks itself was a ton of fun, with incredible views of the West Face of Eldorado as we scrambled along the exposed ridge.
Over Labor Day weekend, Matt, Austin, Becca and I set off across the border into BC to do a traverse across the Tantalus Range, a rugged part of the Coast Mountains looming over Squamish. It was a super fun trip, with amazing views, lots of elevation gain, a surprise thunderstorm, and bunches of rock-ice-rock transitions that late in the season.
Rappelling off the summit of Mount Tantalus itself was epic, and we descended past the Witch’s Tooth, an impossible-looking rock needle. Alpha Mountain in the background.
The rest of September flew by, and I was busy at work finishing my dissertation and preparing for my defense. Before I knew it, autumn arrived in the mountains, and we headed over to the Methow with my family, including a nice overnight at Copper Glance Lake among the golden larches.
The next week brought an early winter storm to the Cascades, and I headed right back to the Methow a week later, this time with skis, for an early October overnight ski tour up to Raven Ridge. It was exhausting breaking trail through deep snow, so I didn’t make it to the summit, but after a frigid bivy I was rewarded with an amazing sunrise, with backlit larches above Crater Lake. I skied back out to my car, got my flat tire repaired, and drove straight home to catch a flight that very night to leave for CSCW in Norway. A full-value day!
On the way to Norway, I stopped for a day in the Catskills, and I had a grand time photographing the fall foliage, waterfalls, and mountain landscapes. Here’s North-South Lake and Kaaterskill High Peak at sunset.
Bastion Falls on Spruce Creek in Kaaterskill Clove
I gave myself a few days to explore the Bergen area in Norway before my conference started, and the fall foliage there was more striking than I expected. Here’s a view of an old building across the fjord on Osteroy Island.
On the way back from Norway, I met up with Dad in Iceland, and we went straight from the airport to catch the sunrise near Grindavik.
We got super lucky with the weather, and a highlight was a sunset hike in Vatnajökull National Park. This view is looking up above treeline towards Kristínartindar.
Later that evening, at dusk, we enjoyed this spectacular (and cold!) view out over the Skaftafell Glacier.
We made it as far east along the south coast of Iceland as Hvalnes, where I had fun photographing this frozen pond with grass hummocks, before we started making our way back towards Reykjavik.
The weather changed for the return leg of our trip, and after a long drive through a dark, snowy blizzard, Dad and I camped and awoke to this cool view of snow covered braided river channels north of Vik.
Becca and I had just a few days at home before heading out for the next leg of our fall travels, this time heading down to Utah for a few weeks in Moab and the surrounding area. One of many highlights of our time in Moab was riding a few of the classic mountain biking trails, including the Whole Enchilada, and the Slickrock Trail pictured with Adam riding here.
We didn’t only bike, though! We also did some canyoneering trips, some climbing, and an early morning climb and rappel off of Looking Glass Arch, which Becca is framed by in this photo.
The most memorable part of our time in Utah, however, was a quick backpacking trip in Canyonlands National Park, where by an extraordinary stroke of luck we happened to see the aurora from some of the darkest skies in the country. Normally the aurora isn’t visible as far south as Utah, but a strong solar storm happened to arrive on the one night we were camped in a stunning backcountry spot!
After Utah, we drove west towards California to spend Thanksgiving with Becca’s family. I was able to get out for a few nice trips with friends, family, and solo, including a fun sunset excursion with Alex to Point Pedro in Pacifica, CA.
After even more travel in December, I finished off 2025 in my favorite place, back at home in Washington. Despite an abysmal start to the ski season, Eric and I made the most of a high pressure system with a New Years Eve ski descent in glorious weather of the Nisqually Glacier in Mount Rainier National Park, checking out a new line that neither of us had skied before. We are so lucky to live someplace with such beautiful mountains nearby!