Traditional and or annual themed trips

[Pilchuck71]

I have a large pool of climbing buddies.

Some still get out alot.

Some don't get out much anymore.

Some are old hands and some are noobs.

Not all of us get the chance to see one another over the year and so, many years ago we started doing two annual outings so that all of us could at least stay in touch and get outside together on a semi annual basis.

We do one trip on Superbowl weekend every year and we call it the January Overnighter. The only rule for the overnighter is that there are no tents allowed. The locale changes yearly based on a group consensus. Some times we go for a summit, sometimes we do not.

The other trip is our summer trip called "the 5 pounder". The rule is you get 5#...period (not including beer) This incudes the pack you are carrying your stuff in. Each person is allowed thier clothing to wear on the hike in but this is limited to - t-shirt, shorts, socks and boots. The pack and contents are weighed at the TH and if it is over weight we remove items. We try to stay at a lake for this trip so food can be caught. We also tend to go for a scrambleable summit.

I am curious if anyone else has any traditions or annual trips with like rules or themes.

 

Anyone????

[goatboy]

I go to Joshua Tree (or a mutually-acceptable alternative) for the week of Thanksgiving every year with a core group of good friends/family, for the past 12 consecutive years. It is a great annual tradition. We deep fry turkeys and buffalo wings, drink a lot of Tecate, and grovel against gravity, monzonite, and the sands of time. I look forward to it as an annual tradition. This year, we are swapping it up a little and going to El Potrero Chico.

[ScaredSilly]

Each May for the past 15 plus years I run up a couloir on Mt Olympus (in Oootah). It is an easy climb with a great bum slide. I named the couloir after a friend who climbed it well before I could wipe my own butt. The climb is mostly a way to stretch ones legs but it is also a pilgrimage as on top I often toast friends who are no longer around. This spring was kinda grim as we found gear from a person who fell into the couloir and died. We toasted them at the top.

 

Otherwise I try to get out to Rainier each spring. On average I have managed to do every other year for the past 26 years.

[catbirdseat]

There were two guys who used to go to Lake Serene every year at Thanksgiving time to camp. One year there was terrible avalanche danger, but they went anyway. They were overdue and couldn't be found. That was until a bit of their tent was seen sticking out of the snow. They'd been buried.

 

A cautionary tale. Don't get too stuck on a routine.

[Off_White]

I've done an annual climbers reunion with a crew of folks loosely based on Tucson AZ climbers in the mid eighties. My (now) wife's attendance of library school at the U of A led me to meet these absolutely wonderful people. They met at Indian Creek in the fall for a few years, I joined in for three years at City of Rocks, we went to Red Rocks last year, and we're actively discussing where to go this October. I'm pulling for Hell's Canyon, but the location is secondary to getting together with well loved friends where we can all get up something or other. It should be noted that climbing at mid to high 5.10 puts me squarely in the lower third of these mostly 50 and up climbers; even the off the couch crowd has impressive skills in the old kit bag.

 

I gotta say that recurring events with old friends are blissfully wonderful and take some of the sting out of the sort of thing Bill Coe complained about in his "getting old sucks" thread. New friends are beautiful and lovely, but old friends have a resonance and luster that only time can burnish.

[Pilchuck71]

Hmmm...Lake Serene+high avalanche danger= bad news.... No new story there is it?

Catbird - The locale changes based on group desire and or objective dangers. Trips are really only fun when you get to come home and tell your family about them.

 

I am enjoying the few responses of what others do. I hope to hear more.

I am in complete agreement about the old friends comment. There are no relationships like the ones formed over the years.

 

Thanks folks!