Category: What Mattered Today

July 30, 2024 / / Family

My hand reached blindly into the predawn darkness, feeling for one of the two dangling chains on the bedside light. Catching one, I slid my hand down until it ran…

October 31, 2023 / / NOLS
June 30, 2023 / / Climbing

Editor’s note: I haven’t done a lot of recreational writing as of late. This past winter most of my writing has been technical, professional, writing. In the process a co-creator…

February 14, 2023 / / Climbing
November 7, 2021 / / Family

Author’s Note: The November 7th of 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of my father’s unexpected passing.  He was 46.  In the 23rd year after his death I actively engaged with…

December 25, 2020 / / NOLS
June 15, 2020 / / Family

Editor’s Note:  a compilation of various things I have written in the past mixed with new material, this is posted here today in honor of what would have been my…

June 4, 2020 / / Pandemic Dialogues

NOLS courses are hard. My jaw thrusts downward and outward while my hands cup the sides of my mouth. “Rrreeddd tent, close your vestibule” I yell from my tent door…

April 26, 2020 / / NOLS
March 21, 2020 / / Pandemic Dialogues

Saturday, March 21, 2020–I wallowed in bed this morning.  Four-thirty had me looking at my watch on the nightstand; in typical Jared world that is a normal-ish time to wake…

February 21, 2020 / / The Engine of Survival

I keep a running list of ideas for blog posts.  At the top of it lie three quotes which have struck me hard over the past months.  They bring tears, desire…

July 28, 2019 / / Climbing

“I’m willing to bet that the drive and the walk will take more time than the climbing will, even with three of us.” Above us lay 200 feet of granite…

December 29, 2018 / / Risk and Responsibility

For those of you who pay attention to detail, you may have noticed that I changed the tagline on my blog.  Thanks Leonard Cohen.  I think there is a lot…

December 25, 2018 / / The Inner Workings

Standing in my living room, looking at a growing daylight spreading across the mountains, I seek the truths of who I am.  I like climbing.  I like working for NOLS…

April 30, 2018 / / What Mattered Today

March 2016—Purple, red, and pink streaking from the setting sun paints the sky.  My shifting eyes dart around, searching, they try to take it all in. Here, there, and everywhere…