I’m 30 in just over 1.5 years… I’m not quite sure when that happened. It seems only yesterday I was jumping in fountains with people dressed as smurfs at university, generally causing chaos… When I was younger, I was adamant that 30 was ancient and even last week I had a mini crisis about whether I was where I ‘should be’ on the timeline we seem to all be expected to follow. I’m one of the few from my friendship group who isn’t married or doesn’t have kids… It’s not that I’m against either of those, I just haven’t yet found someone who will add more adventure to my life, inspire me daily and be as motivated and ambitious as I am with all of the crazy plans… Until such time, there are too many people I know settling into unhappiness and I realised that whilst there are so many things I’m yet to do, settling isn’t one of them.
Things to do, places to see, mountains to climb…
Somewhat inspired by fellow GetOutside Champion Tracy and her 40 mile run for her 40th birthday, I’m planning on a similar challenge.
30 Mountains.
30th Birthday.
30th December.
It’s not a huge number, because I want it to be feasible around working full time. Now, I could cheat and tick them off by using any number of the the 120 ‘mountains’ above 600m that we have in the UK, but I thought it needed to be a little more adventurous than that, and any excuse to play in crampons is ok by me.
So, over the next year and a half, I’m headed for:
- Country high points.
- Mountains I’ve dreamed of climbing since I was a kid.
- Mountains that will push me out of my comfort zone (the best place to be…) and allow me to learn more about myself and have more confidence in my abilities.
I already know I’ll be ticking off 6 in South Africa next year for #DrakTraverse19 as well as the Matterhorn (all going well) so that only leaves me 23 to come up with. The more comfort zone pushing the better, though when the time comes, I may regret that decision… Still, I love a bit of Type II fun. Who doesn’t?
Suggestions for peaks are welcome, the more unique the better… though I have a long list here on my desk already! I will pretty much be spending most of my annual leave on this challenge, as well as long weekends, so they can’t be hugely long walk ins etc…
In the immortal words of Romeo Dallaire – Peux ce que veux. Allons-y!
(Where there’s a will, there’s a way, let’s go!)