Zach’s 2023 Top Adventures
Near and Far
The search for adventure is a search for novelty, for escape, for thrills. While many of my adventures took me far from home, there were plenty to be found nearby. In no particular order, here are some of my favorite adventures of 2023
Climbing Outside
While I began my climbing journey indoors at the rock gym in 2022, 2023 saw my first forays outside, onto “real rock”. Climbing brought me to the foothills of Santa Barbara, Joshua Tree, eastern San Diego, and Yosemite National Park. With this new terrain came a humbling reorientation of expectations — getting my butt kicked by an outdoor V2 the same week that I flashed a V5 indoors. A healthy reminder of the subjectiveness of grading, these experiences have helped me to focus on enjoying the climb, rather than just chasing a grade/send.
Climbing outside unlocked a new form of vision, akin to those I’ve acquired from surfing and snowboarding. With a new lens to view the world, waves in the ocean become canvases for mindsurfing and steep mountainsides tantalize the imagination with unreachable fresh powder. This year, roadside rock faces were reshaped into routes to climb, and landscaping rocks were reimagined as miniature boulders, begging my hands to try out various grips.
Attaining a new vision is a rare treat. I can only hope to collect more with each coming year
Mexico City
A plane flight where I didn’t bring a snowboard or surfboard — a rarity for me these days. It was great to experience a different flavor of Mexico — CDMX is quite different from Northern Baja, Cabo, or Puerto Vallarta.
Lows:
- The miscalculation of the red-eye flight. Due to a misunderstanding of Mexico City’s timezone, the 5.5 hour overnight flight was actually 3.5 hours — not quite enough time to get any meaningful sleep on the way
Highs:
- Watching a Lucha Libre wrestling match. Yes, like Nacho Libre. The enthusiasm of the arena was infectious, and we found ourselves screaming our hearts out for one of the crowd favorites — “¡Místico! ¡Místico! ¡Místico!”
- The pyramids of Teotihuacan — inconceivable immense structures built over hundreds of years by a pre-Aztec civilization. Astonishing and thought-provoking
- Getting invited on a stranger’s boat in Xochimilco — waving to strangers in passing boats led to an unexpected evening with Mexico City locals
- Watching the América vs Pumas soccer game in the legendary Estadio Azteca. While in principle we had assigned seats, we watched from the upper deck near the away team’s cheering section. We found a new section to stand in after some polite nonverbal requests from the police officers with riot shield
- Punctuating each day with glorious street food: tacos, tortas, enchiladas, or tamales
Snowboarding in New Places
A year of record snowfall was also a year of record snow travel for me. For me, there are no bad days on the mountain. Based on a tracking app, I snowboarded for 79 hours across 21 days, totaling over 280 miles. Each day only left me wanting more
Lows:
- I honestly can’t think of any. Whatever low moments I experienced have been completely shadowed by the soaring highs. Ok, maybe biting through my tongue on a big bear trip was a low
Highs:
- Big Bear Boys Trip — continuing a tradition of snowboarding with dads and friends at Big Bear
- Utah ski trip with Liam and Annelise — some of the best snow I rode all year. This trip put SLC on my radar as an exceptional ski destination
- Colorado with Coworkers — Finding untouched powder in narrow tree runs and taking on the extreme terrain with Winter Park local Daniel. Also, how often do you get to snowboard all day with the CTO and cofounder of your company?
- Powder day at Mt. Baldy with Zach Reyes — the last day of my season. An unexpected powder dump in late March on an uncrowded local mountain perfect for that “choose your own adventure” through the trees
Surf Trips to Baja
While I’d been to Baja a handful of times, this fall I finally took advantage of San Diego’s proximity to our southern neighbor. I’d lived 20 minutes from the border for two years without going once, but once I “broke the seal” I made up for lost time. I sampled the full gamut of accommodations: a 10 person rental in a gated community, sharing a double bed in a surf hostel, and camping on the beach. Each trip scratched that itch for exploration, uncrowded waves, and sharing the joy of new places with friends, new and old.
Lows:
- An 8.5 hour wait at the border returning from Mexico. Knowing that other cars on our trip (that hadn’t missed a critical turn) made it through 4 hours earlier was a bit of salt in the wound
- Injuring my rib on the first day of a three-day camping surf trip. This followed by missing out on firing, offshore, tubing San Miguel that afternoon 😢
- Feeling the palpable contrast between a fun surf weekend and the down-on-their-luck folks we passed in the border line. A stark reminder of the privilege of possessing an American passport is visceral as you pass single mothers begging while holding their children and Federales aggressively apprehending men just feet from my surfboard laden car
Highs
- That first wave at Teresa’s, a reeling righthander. Made especially impactful after months of inconsequential summer surf
- My friends taking over the mic, guitar, and drums of the live band performing at dinner at a small restaurant
- A 3 day taco diet, courtesy of El Trailero. A trendy new diet that I hope to continue in the new year — take that Juice Cleanses
Books
In between trips, I found myself with loads of spare time to myself. Reading let me experience adventures from the comfort of my living room, the beach, and even my complex’s hot tub. Page turning fiction remained my go-to, often offering immersion to the point of disorientation, reminiscent of emerging from a movie theater slightly dazed
Lows:
- My beloved Kobo eReader inexplicably dying. A beautiful thing, gone too soon
Highs:
- 11/22/63 by Stephen King — an engaging thriller mystery. An interesting window into a time where things were more local and less processed, though the dark realities underpinning this era are inescapable
- What’s Our Problem by Tim Urban— while not an escape from the realities of society and politics today, it was a refreshingly sane examination of “how we got here”. A great reminder that how you think is just as important as what you think
- Rereading books:
I reread childhood favorites like Mathilda, tween mysteries from elementary school like When You Reach Me and The Name of this Book is Secret, and masterful fantasy that I read last year like Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s fear
