2024 Recap

As 2024 comes to a close, I am reflecting back on this year gone by and reminiscing some of my most cherished memories:

• Spending my 30th birthday in a cozy alpine hut surrounded by my dearest friends - and receiving my birthday wish of a blue angel!
• Many days spent skating on a frozen Windermere Lake 
• Soaking in Nakusp Hot Springs & a weekend in Galena Bay with Zoe, John, Nicole, Max and I. 
• Some sweet skiing in Kootenay Pass with my Backseat Bitches
• Fernie weekend with my highschool pals - furs on furs on furs; and excusing ourselves from the Bingo night after being referred to as the "greenhouse girls". 
• Surprise celebrating Natasha's 30th birthday
• Celebrating Em at a most fun bachelorette weekend!
• Three wonderful weeks exploring the incredible country of Bolivia (and a few days in Peru too). See June 25, 2024 post for more on this!
• Long Range Traverse & Newfoundland travels with my wacky Wellies
• Hiking Chalice Ridge with Braille Mountain Initiative - pivoting when the weather situation was not in our favour. 
• Heiko's Trail (outside of Fernie) with my ladies hiking/backcountry skiing group - and a majestic (safe) coffee encounter with a young grizzly.
• Wedding season - had the honour of witnessing the love & commitment of some dear friends and travel to some beautiful places along the way: Zoe in Vernon; Faro & Em right here on ʔakisq̓nuk land in Fairmont; Brianna in Parksville; and Valerie in Ucluelet.
• The arrival of little Vira on April 18, and her parents arrival to Canada just briefly before then.
• Dancing the whole weekend away with the most magical energy and vibrations at Wicked Woods.
• Having my Ma & Pa spend a week of quality time in the Kootenays - floating the Columbia River, sailing on Columbia Lake, attempting to drive to Brewer in my low-clearance car. Many glasses of wine on the patio surrounded in nasty mosquitos.
• My first ever Women's enduro - where I didn't quite finish the race, but did take out the photographer en-route, and had a blast nonetheless. 
• Thanksgiving with my Grandma, wearing wigs and laughing our hearts out.
• Cruising around with Hilary in her hearse on Halloween handing out candy
• Fall weekend riding the fantastic trails of Whitefish, Montana with good pals.
• A weekend in Nelson - exploring the Remac Mine, and partaking in burger week festivities. The Indian burger was hot as heck, but did not disappoint. 
• November trip to Vancouver to take a Functional Capacity Evaluation course (which unbeknownst to me, my childhood friend was also enrolled in) & seeing the fam!
• Getting engaged! While the convention of marriage has never felt important to me (and the feminist in me doesn't want to perpetuate the misogynistic traditions around marriage), it has been such a really special time to celebrate our love both with each other, and with our friends and families. Feeling warm, fuzzy, and smitten. 
• Weekend at a fancy (gondola view) hotel in Revelstoke, with raclette awaiting us on arrival and 30cm of fresh pow overnight (no Gnorm in sight)!
• Christmas on the Nitidus sailboat in Point Roberts - doing GIS-themed crafts, beach-combing, and hearing childhood stories of memories on the boat.
• Watching Tiffani perform in the Cinderella Deep Cove pantomime - and holding up coordinated letter in the crowd to spell her name the first several times she came out on stage. 
• New Years shenanigans at the wetlands cabin, and the prior sauna/cold plunge celebrations on Lake Lillian. 

This list, of course, showcases the highlights and not the low-points in between, or the difficult times that balance out the good ones. A few shit moments for realism:

• Burning myself with a propane torch, melting my clothes and causing blistering on my hand and face, and singeing of my hair.
• Constant diarrhea on the glacier of Huyana Potosi & throughout a majority of our Bolivia trip.
• Losing 2 phones in the course of one month due to carelessness.
• Dramatic friendship conflict causing anxiety & stress.
• Witnessing the ongoing devastating genocide in Gaza, and feeling so privileged but so helpless nonetheless.