2021
Awards, Locations & Highlights
On October 3rd, 2021, round the girdled earth, you DID this.
In the name of fun, laughter, connection, friendship, and most of all, the memory of a dear friend who reminds us daily to look after each other when we each need it most, you bagged the finest peaks in the land, far and wide, high and low. TOGETHER.
And that made all the difference.
THANK YOU, ALL OF YOU.
Ann, Kate, and Mary summit Washington Tower, Mt. Auburn Cemetery , Cambridge, MA
Lisa and Nick scaled the entire staircase, to the very top of The Edge, the highest outdoor skydeck in the Western Hemisphere. New York City, NY. An exceptional climb, in memory of an exceptional friend.
Jonathan goes all in -- kayaking upstream! Potomac River, MD
Tim gives it a go Down Under, at the absolute limits of his country's pandemic lock-down restriction, precisely 5km up the hill from his home. Bellevue Park, Sydney, NSW, AUSTRALIA.
Peak Bag logo designer, Stephanny, makes a valiant attempt at Rio's Sugarloaf Mountain... before the rain set in! (Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL).
Pearl takes a selfie video (while on her run!), for Omondi, through the streets of Hwidiem, GHANA
And even in Tokyo, JAPAN, Per Kendra, "88s" are everywhere, ....as are streets named after "mountains" 山 and "valleys" 谷. (Thank you for the Kanji lesson, Kendra).
Closer to Hanover, Dan makes his pilgrimage...
...to the mist-shrouded starting gate at
Holt's Ledge, Dartmouth Skiway, Lyme, NH...
...and Laura, Tory, Beth, bag Velvet Rocks + 1 very fine stadium, in Hanover, NH
...while just to the north, Jack, David, Bill, Scott take on their 2nd annual Obura Peak Bag ascent of our fair Mt. Moosilauke, NH
...where the weather atop the OG Granite of New Hampshire delivered on its promise of wily tempestuousness.
Slightly further afield, Nick and his good boy Chunk scale the other Mt. Ararat at sunrise, on Cape Cod, MA...
...Mary and Tom peak bag the isle of Acadia National Park, Maine
...While Val points to the lofty heights of Mt. Pisgah, Northboro, MA...
...Kate, Dartmouth Class of 2019, bags the nature trail near her grandparents house in Norton, MA...
...and Danielle scales Tippling Rock in Sudbury, MA...
Far, far to the east, Patrick makes a long distance run of it in SCOTLAND's Highland Perthshire. Creagan na Beinne, in the background on the right, clocks in at a perfect elevation: 888m...
...with Michelle not too far away, in Duke State Park, Lake Norman, NC
To the south, John makes his tribute to OO'88 on his journey through the forested trails of Umpstead State Park, near Raleigh, NC
...and Alex, Dartmouth '06 and former rowing coxswain, scales the insanely steep (12-25% grade!) Alpe Oneda high above Lake Como, Italy
in the pouring rain. And yet, through the struggle, "just glad to have spent time with Omondi today. He was there, with me."
...WESTWARD ho, Lauren, Katie, Aaron, Steve '88, Kelly '88, Eric, Jeff, Terri P '25, Elisa '88, Erica '04, Kamalani, Josh, Patrick
climb 4,000 feet up to the blustery top of Granite Mountain, WA
...and Brad, Jeff, Pamela, and Steve
hike Mt. Neah-kah-nie ("the place of the Supreme Deity") in Manzanita, OR
And then... ZOOMING back OUT for a moment...really, really FAR OUT... Zoe and Isabelle make back-to-back climbs up Observation Hill at McMurdo Research Station, ANTARCTICA
...after a brutal storm the day before, with windchills reportedly down to -50F. (Luckily, it had "warmed up" to 0 degrees on this day).
YES, that OCEAN out there is literally FROZEN
...while 19,340 feet up, on an entirely DIFFERENT continent, THIS happens:
Over the course of three intense days, Kris hikes to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, TANZANIA. A particularly magnificent tribute to Omondi, so close to his boyhood home.
...and Glenn simultaneously gives a beautiful memorial talk atop Mt. Helderberg, Western Cape, SOUTH AFRICA.
...While Bill offers his salute to Omondi from the foothills of the
Himalayas in Leh, Ladakh, India
...and then, ZOOMING WAY BACK IN...Bob blasts to the heights of Mt. Adams, Cincinatti, OH!
...Debbie and Fred gather at the memorial reflecting pools in Washington, DC...
And Elena makes it a memorial drive across the rivers and many bridges of the mid-Atlantic seaboard, US
While this one group stretched its arms across the American continent in one poignant multi-generation family tribute. Kristin, Dartmouth '88, and husband Bret, '90, trekked from Dallas, TX to hike Mt. Whitaker and Buffalo National River in Ozark National Forest, AR in memory of Omondi; the location was in the name of Beau Bray '24 (nickname -- "Buffaleau)." In parallel, Jonathan '24 and other '24 friends hiked Pine Park golf course, where Beau spent his last hours with them on 11/19/2020. Son Christopher '21 (Covid '22) hiked Balch Hill near Dartmouth. Daughter Abigail hiked Mt. Kearsarge, NH, also with friends.
...And back out to the west: Jon and Phil cycled to the top of Mt. Tamalpais (Marin), CA. (They won't tell us who won the climb, but the view of San Francisco was no less glorious).
...While Kristen and Kate simultaneously summited Lands End trail in the heart of San Francisco, CA below.
Diane and her dog Roscoe wound their way in contemplative solitude through the magical lands of Soberanes, aka Garrapata, in Big Sur, CA...
...Catherine captures Carmel, CA nearby...
...David scans the panorama at Mt. Palomar, CA...
...the two Brians scale Gaviota Peak just down the coast in Santa Barbara, CA...
...and Ken pushes himself to the limit* for this good cause, hiking 20 miles in the desert heat to the crest of San Georgino Mountain, CA...(*oh the poor knees)
...while Julie ambles along the arroyos near Los Angeles, CA...
...Katie gallops across Chimney Gulch, CO...
...and Elizabeth stands astride the view at Ski Sunlight outside Glenwood Springs, CO...
...and, Bart '88 and Dave '87 look down on the tiny people far, far below. Together, they ascend 6,934 feet on their bikes (19 miles straight up, 2,017 calories), to the top of 14,115 foot Pikes Peak, CO.
But here's the thing, says this wise young peak bagger named Aaron.
In one sense, it doesn't matter exactly WHAT peak we each bagged today, or how fast we bagged it. High, Low, Fast, Slow...?
Point is:
"Omondi would have loved this hike. And I would have loved to hear his laugh booming through the fog."
Indeed.
Be well, keep laughing in the fog, and most of all, look after each other.
See ya out there.