Bagging Peaks and Ticking a Goal

I'm very goal oriented. My goals might be modest, but I really like having projects and a ToDo list that can direct my activities throughout the year. Each January I make up a list of goals in a whole bunch of different categories. I usually don't do that well against them, as I'm overly ambitious in my planning and overly lazy in my execution. But I do it nevertheless.

One of my goals for this year was to climb 52 unique summits. These didn't (and weren't) have to be peaks I had never climbed before, I just wanted to average a new summit each week for a year. Of course, I started off way ahead of pace by bagging all the local summits: Green, Bear, South Boulder Peak, Flagstaff, and Sanitas. As you can see, my definition of summit was somewhat liberal. Any named highpoint was considered valid.

Yesterday, I completed this goal with the first summit (Half Mountain) of our Glacier Gorge Traverse. I then did nine more new summits for the year. Longs didn't count at this point since it was my tenth ascent of that peak this year. Here is a list of my totals to date. First, and most important, my partners:

Unique Partners	Number of Ascents with them
Mark Oveson	14
Homie	8
Octavian	1
Sheri	12
Charlie Nuttelman	18
Derek	24
Arthur	4
Chris Weidner	2
Jason Antin	3
Will (new minion)	1
Marcus (new minion)	1
Corey Kline	4
Mallory Oveson	3
Danny	1
Jon Ortega	2

I've done 128 summits this year, but many are repeats due to the Longs Peak Project and my other goal of climbing the five local peaks in each month of the year. Here is the complete peak list to date:

Date	Peak	Notes	Number of Ascents
1/1/2015	Flagstaff	First person to top out Flagstaff in 2015. Nicely packed trail until I went off-trail for the summit. Then snow nearly up to my knees	17
1/2/2015	Mount Lady Washington	Cold, but no wind. With Mark Oveson. 5h20m for the roundtrip.	2
1/3/2015	South Boulder Peak	Combined with Bear Peak. Packed snow all the way. Went easy the entire time	11
1/3/2015	Bear Peak	See above	8
1/4/2015	Sanitas	Did a cool loop to the west. Cold: 12 degrees	9
1/6/2015	Green Mountain	With Homie. Up normal route and down via First Flatiron route. Microspikes the whole way up and down.	16
1/10/2015	Estes Cone	With Mark and Octavian	1
1/29/2015	Longs Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	10
1/29/2015	Mt. Meeker	With Charlie Nuttelman	2
2/15/2015	Coal Creek Peak	Solo, all off-trail. Avoided snow mostly	1
2/15/2015	Crescent Mountain	Solo, all off-trail. Avoided snow mostly, except near the very summit where I did a bit of postholing. Took it slow	1
3/22/2015	Independence Monument	With Derek, Arthur, and Homie	1
3/23/2015	Ancient Art	With Derek, Arthur	1
3/24/2015	Assembly Hall	With Derek, Arthur, and Homie	1
3/25/2015	Window Blind Peak	With Derek, Arthur, and Homie	1
3/29/2015	Twin Sisters	solo	1
4/19/2015	Rainbow Mountain	via Rainbow Wall w/Chris Weidner.	1
4/20/2015	Juniper Peak	Linked two rock climbs to the summit with Chris Weidner.	1
5/2/2015	Wigwam Peak	In the Lost Creek Wilderness with Homie, Mark, and Charlie	1
5/2/2015	Buffalo Peak	In the Lost Creek Wilderness with Homie, Mark, and Charlie	1
5/2/2015	The Castle	In the Lost Creek Wilderness with Homie and Charlie. A dicey 5.6, bouldery, scramble in my hobnail shoes	1
6/7/2015	Wheeler Peak, Nevada	In Great Basin National Park with Derek. Cold, windy, and no visibility on the summit.	1
6/9/2015	Half Dome	Snake Dike with Derek	1
6/10/2015	Lembert Dome	Hiking and scrambling with Derek	1
6/12/2015	Cloud's Rest	My Favorite Things with Derek	1
6/13/2015	Boundary Peak	Highest peak in Nevada - with Derek	1
6/25/2015	James Peak	Early morning ascent with Mark	1
6/29/2015	Eldorado Mountain	Solo. Found a good trail up the lower part and then a decent route at the very top. The steep section in between is difficult and tedious	1
7/3/2015	West Spanish Peak	With Sheri and Derek. Fun, casual hike. Top part is steep and loose, but not too bad.	1
7/4/2015	Wheeler Peak, New Mexico	With Sheri and Derek. Super fun, beautiful hike.	1
7/4/2015	East Spanish Peak	With Sheri and Derek, after Wheeler Peak - huge day. Raced the darkness on this one, not starting up until 2:40 p.m.	1
7/10/2015	Handies Peak	With Sheri and Derek	1
7/12/2015	Sneffels Peak	With Derek	1
7/15/2015	St. Vrain Mountain	With Corey, Jon Ortega	1
7/15/2015	Meadow Mountain	With Corey, Jon Ortega	1
7/22/2015	Mt. Audubon	With Corey and Mark	1
7/29/2015	Gannett Peak	With Derek - awesome!	1
7/29/2015	Miriam Peak	With Derek	1
7/29/2015	Dinwoody Peak	With Derek	1
8/1/2015	Grand Teton	With Derek - Major crowds, a couple doofuses	1
8/3/2015	Granite Peak	With Derek	1
8/3/2015	Tempest	With Derek	1
8/5/2015	Pawnee Peak	With Mark	1
8/8/2015	Apache	With Mark, Derek, and Mallory	1
8/8/2015	Dicker's Peck	With Mark, Derek, and Mallory	1
8/8/2015	Navajo	With Mark, Derek, and Mallory	1
8/22/2015	Green Mountain (RMNP)	With Sheri	1
8/22/2015	Nisa Mountain	With Sheri	1
8/22/2015	Mount Patterson	With Sheri	1
8/23/2015	Mount Ida	With Sheri	1
9/6/2015	Mount Antero	With Sheri, Derek, and Danny	1
9/20/2015	Half Mountain	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Storm Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Pagoda Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Chiefs Head	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	McHenry's Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Powell Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Taylor Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Otis Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Hallet Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1
9/20/2015	Flat Top Peak	With Charlie Nuttelman	1