Climb, Trek & Travel – A Look Back at 2020

Wish you a very Happy New Year!

I started 2020 with a good plan, at least about the climbs I wanted to do locally and outside Canada. As a family, we also had plans for backpacking in Ecuador. Thanks to the global pandemic, none of that happened. However, I am grateful for the fact that we are all healthy, have a job and have still managed to do some trips locally.

COVID-19

It is probably the first time that one thing, COVID-19, played a vital role in everyone’s life across the world. It didn’t matter which country you were in or your background the global pandemic disrupted your life. For few, it meant loss of livelihood or, worse, loss of a loved one. 

In British Columbia (B.C.), the first case of coronavirus was reported on January 28, 2020. By mid-March, B.C. declared a public health emergency, and I started working from home. Essential services were allowed to operate, but most other businesses, including restaurants, hair salons, were closed. Even B.C. provincial parks were closed in Phase 1. 

In the first few weeks of the lockdown, going to our local supermarket was a crazy experience. Most of the aisles had sparse supplies, but one product that became the most challenging to find was toilet paper.

No matter what time of the day I went to the store, there was no toilet paper. Once on an early morning visit, I saw a lady grab the last bundle of toilet paper. She seemed as happy as the Gollum getting his ring – my precious!

I even enquired about the delivery and stocking schedule and timed my visit. No luck! Kasturi and I half-joking talked about doing it Indian Style if we ran out of toilet paper. Fortunately, it never came to that.

Family

In India, my mother and mother-in-law live alone. One of the things they look forward to every year is visiting us and spending some time with their granddaughter. Their travel plans got cancelled, which was probably the most significant impact for us as a family. We increased our call frequency, and now Kavya talks to my mother and mother-in-law almost daily.

Around mid-year, we had flatted the curve in B.C. with less than 10 new cases reported per day across the province. Unfortunately, in August, we started seeing a jump, and by October, we were officially in the second wave of COVID-19. Cases continued to increase, and on November 24, B.C. reported a record 945 cases in a single day.

Since then, COVID-19 number of new cases reported has dropped and stabilized. Now, there is a vaccination plan, and a timeline has been announced. The pandemic is not over yet, and we still have to take all precautions, but at least there is hope.

“Tough times never last, but tough people do”

– Robert Schuller

My Blog

In Phase 1 of B.C. lockdown, provincial parks were closed, and most BCMC trips were cancelled. So what do you do when you can’t climb, trek or travel? You start writing about them. On April 10, I launched this blog intending to write one post per week about my trips.

The goal was simple, to be Authentic, Inspiring and Valuable. Here is some feedback I received over emails/texts/comments – 

” I enjoyed your blog post about training…Thanks and keep writing-I like and appreciate the authenticity.”

“…was my first read from your blog… was fantastic. The blog inspires people…”

“Your posts are very interesting and informative…”

These comments are not only encouraging but also reassuring that I am sticking to my goals for the blog. 

Since April, I have been publishing a post every Friday. Here is a quick summary of the posts – 

Climb, Trek & Travel

The year started off with some ice climbing trips in the Lillooet area. First, it was top-roping in Marble Canyon in January and then a multi-pitch climb of Closet Secret. 

In February, we made a 600 km Vancouver-Squamish-Whistler-Lilloeet-Vancouver road trip with another family.

As the pandemic related restrictions eased in summer, we made some camping trips. Our first backcountry camping trip with Kavya was in Golden Ears, which my daughter recalls as “the worst camping trip ever.” It was raining most of the time, and our neighbours on the campsite enjoyed music late into the night. And yes, we forgot the stove. I don’t blame her. 

Thankfully, we were able to reestablish her faith in backcountry camping with a trip to Singing Creek. This was probably the best family trip of this year.

This summer, we also started doing some long hikes with Kavya. We started with a 10 km hike in Golden Ears and gradually increased the difficulty. 

Hike to on Mount Seymour turned out to be much more strenuous than I expected. A combination of car sickness and a hot day led to Kavya throwing up twice during the hike. While our friends continued the hike, we turned around from First Peak.

The hike to the top of Peak 1 on Squamish Chief was short and beautiful. The longest one was the Tunnel Bluffs hike at about 12.5 km. 

I lead more BCMC trips this year since I had joined in 2016. These trips were mainly hiking and scrambling trips. I also had fun organizing some family hiking and climbing trips for BCMC. 

My favourite trip, though, was one organized by Oudi, where we climbed Garibaldi North-East Face. It was late in the season, but the conditions were right, and we had a great two-day weather window to do this climb.

Here is a short video I prepared for the BCMC video contest – 

Training

If there was one thing I focused on this year – it would be training. I started following the 24-Week Uphill Athlete Mountaineering Training Plan and started my second cycle in December.

In total, I accumulated 415 hours of training/activities covering a distance of about 1,180 km.

Training Peaks Charts –

The majority of my training was focused on improving my Aerobic Capacity. After a year of low-intensity training, I feel stronger and more confident about long days on the mountain.

2021

No one knows when this global pandemic will be over, but 2021 looks more promising than 2020. I hope by the end of 2021, we have put COVID-19 behind us and are back to a normal life.

As a family, we would love to socialize with friends in person (need to specify these days) and travel more. I am hoping that my mother and mother-in-law can visit us and maybe we can visit India for Diwali.

I would love to do more of family backpacking and hiking trips. Maybe this year we can venture out to some more remote places in B.C. and possibly a family trek in the Himalayas on our India trip.

I will continue to train and build my aerobic capacity with the intention of doing more mountaineering trips in Pacific Northwest. If things work out, maybe a climb in India as well. Ambitious? Yeah, a bit but doesn’t hurt to dream.

What are your plans for 2021? Let me know in the comments.

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