Another year come and gone, time to recap my 2025 and look ahead to 2026!
From a professional level, not a great year as I lost my job in late January and had to scale back my plans due to being unemployed for nine months. That said, despite being on a shoestring budget most of the year I was able to get a lot done so I can’t complain too much. And I got a pretty good job towards the end of the year which puts me much closer to the mountains of New England, so it worked out in the end!
On the injury side, my woes continued in 2025, but my commitment to physio and mobility work definitely neutered things a little bit (at least until the end of December…). I dealt with calf and hamstring strains most of the year due to overuse from ski touring, but was able to work around these fairly well. My (now second) most significant injury was a dislocated shoulder (suffered trail running in Toronto of all places) in August, which recovered very nicely (shoutouts to Axis Therapy and Performance in Toronto – miss these guys a lot!) – I was able to do pull ups a couple months later.
At the very end of the year I suffered probably my worst injury in quite some time – a broken ankle (distal fibula) and tweaked knee from a skiing mishap in the backcountry near Jay Peak. I’m pretty devastated as this might jeopardize my entire ski season, but I’m cautiously optimistic I’ll recover in time to be back on the slopes before the end of the 2025/26 ski season.
2025 – What I Did
It was my first year of ski touring and wow I got a lot done on that front! I skied a total of 38 days in 2025 and got very comfortable with the uphill as well as handling mellow, lower angle glades. A ton of time was spent at Limberlost early in the year (will miss this place!) and I also got a decent amount of outings in New York and New England, notably an epic ski summit of Mount Marcy.
I spent a bit of time out west and got unlucky with avalanche conditions on one trip and lack of enrolment in another, but got some great powder skiing in the Icefields Parkway area as well as Sunshine.
After moving to Massachusetts, I got a lot of touring (mainly morning resort uphill at my local hill, Wachusett Mountain) in late November and December, but was able to get great conditions on Mount Washington on my first ski of the season. At the end of the year, during my trip back to Ontario for Christmas, I made pit stops along the way in both directions to tour at a couple spots in Vermont (Big Jay, where I broke my ankle) and New Hampshire (Cannon Mountain) and took my cross country setup out for the first time, a 15 kilometer session of six laps of the frozen lake near my parents’ place.
My second ski of the season was my most memorable, with a climb and ski descent of Cayambe, the 3rd highest mountain in Ecuador, with Alpenglow Expeditions. This marked a new altitude best for me (by a couple hundred feet). Super epic trip with the best people!
On the high points/peakbagging front, I completed five in total across Canadian provinces and US states. First up was Mount Rainier in July, a multi-day climb via the Emmons route, marked by forgotten gear, a gastrointestinal issue, and a bluebird summit day. Thanks to Bryan Thompson for organizing the trip!
In the fall, just before moving to the US, I tackled Katahdin in Maine, as well as Western Barren in Nova Scotia. Katahdin was incredible – the Knifes Edge is a must – and Western Barren was… a thing. But glad to get both done. I also hiked four other Maine 4000 foot peaks and lost my inReach in the process (which was later found).
Finally, after moving to the US, I took a couple weekends to tackle Mount Frissell (the slope on its south is the highest point in Connecticut) and Jerimoth Hill (a very basic, two minute flat hike in Rhode Island). On this trip I also climbed two 4000 foot peaks in the Catskill Mountains, Slide and Hunter.
2026 – What’s to Come?
My initial plan for 2026 was to climb Mount Logan with the Canadian Eh Society, and support the re-enactment of the first ascent from 1925. Unfortunately, circumstances required us to postpone the trip another year (to May/June 2027), but the silver lining is that gives the team another year to train and prepare. After realizing my glaring weakness on downhill skiing on Cayambe, this is definitely something I’m planning to work on over the next 17-18 months, though my current ski setup is not great for downhill at resorts.
I plan to do a TON of skiing in New England and the Adirondacks this coming year, provided I recover from my ankle injury. There are a lot of objectives on my list and I’m looking forward to tackling them. Notably, I plan to try and ski some of the 4000 foot peaks in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont as I work towards my Northeast 115. I also hope to ski Mount Greylock, the highest mountain in my new home state (Massachusetts) – the Thunderbolt ski trail is a New England classic but the snow is quite fickle. The trick is finding partners to go on these crazy adventures with, so I’ve been interacting on socials in New England backcountry communities. In addition, the Logan team plans to do some winter camping in the White Mountains to test gear, and I hope to get a lot of winter camping done on my own in general to prep for the conditions in the Yukon. Finally, I’m planning to finally get into cross country skiing – while touring and backcountry will be my primary focus, I aim to try and do some classic cross country once a week for some cross training / active rest days. I definitely need to work on my technique (balance) here!
Since Logan is a long trip and PTO is limited, I’m hoping to bank a week of PTO from 2026 towards Logan in 2027, leaving me two weeks (again, depending on recovery!) to use on, naturally, a ski trip out west, specifically Banff/Jasper. I plan to tackle a couple of ski mountaineering objectives and also do a lot of tree skiing. The pinnacle of this trip will be to make an attempt at Mount Columbia, the highest point in Alberta, which would mark my seventh Canadian provincial high point. Notably, I don’t plan on booking this trip in advance (including booking expeditions) – due to my issues in 2025, my goal is to carefully monitor the snowpack conditions throughout the winter and target a two week period when things are most optimal, likely sometime in April or May. One of my Logan teammates, Dan, is spending the winter in the Canmore area and I’ll be checking in with him on how things look. At the end of this trip, I hope to also tack on a quick jaunt over to California at the end of this trip to team up with some of my Ring of Fire teammates and ski Mount Shasta, a 14er and popular ski objective in the Pacific Northwest. These were my goals prior to my injury and I fully expect this plan to be abbreviated, we will see.
I’m also planning to work a lot harder on mobility and strength training, with a focus on injury prevention (the repetitive kind – as you might know by now, freak accidents can happen and I firmly believe no amount of prehab can completely stop this!) moving forward. Of course, I plan to tackle objectives within my skill and comfort level to reduce the chances of freak accidents. I also am working on improving my nutrition – making a huge effort to eliminate junk food (I have a sweet tooth), avoiding excess carbs, addressing dietary deficiencies, and focus on keeping my animal product consumption to a minimum. Also really trying to stay super hydrated – I’ve seen a direct correlation between lack of hydration and injuries – and taking full rest days 1-2 days per week to recharge. Getting older (I am older than I look) means getting smarter!
Finally, I hope to invest in a proper camera and editing tools to make short vlogs of my trips to complement my written content. I need to think about how I want to do this to avoid redundant info and make sure both mediums (blog and vlog) bring value. This will all be done purely because I enjoy it – my current work status in the US prohibits me from making money as a content creator.
Thanks for reading my blog this year! See you in 2026!
Veg 'n' Alpine 