About Me
I was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania but my family moved to Calgary Alberta when I was 1 so I've spent the majority of my life in
Canada and am a dual citizen! I've always been a big fan of mountains and the outdoors in general thanks to the influence of my parents, coaches, and friends,
but I wouldn't have it any other way! My Dad had me on alpine skis at the age of 2 and we were going on hikes together by the time I
was 6 so it was clear what he wanted my hobbies to be!
I joined a biathlon club named the Foothills Nordic Ski Club at the age of 9
that does hikes often on the weekends and with that destiny was set in motion! I'm currently and based out of
Canmore and Calgary, and whenever I get the chance I'm in the mountains!
At the age of 7 I started my journey into the Nordic world with Nordic combined which is a sport that combines cross country skiing and ski jumping, but I always had a
preference for the cross country skiing so after a couple years I decided to call it quits there and take up biathlon. I always found the variability and challenge between rifle shooting training trying to hone your accuracy alongside
the muscular and aerobic training necessary to get stronger and faster at cross country skiing very engaging and it's thanks to this training that I have the engine I do now for chasing my lofty mountain goals and peak lists!
I was lucky enough to compete internationally and represent Canada numerous times in biathlon over the years all the way up to the World Cup and
World Championships level thanks to the support of my family, coaches, sponsors, friends, and thousands of hours of disciplined training.
Recently I decided to retire and hang up the rifle after 17 years pursuing the sport and 8 years of training full time and I now plan to shift
my focus fully to alpinism and see how far I can get!
So what lead me down this mountaineering / peak bagging path? Initially the mountains were a hobby or a fun passtime, something I
would do to mix it up and keep things fresh with the biathlon training. But having the strong base fitness from years of training allowed me to do the longer and more endurance / fitness heavy trips with relative ease making it an addictive process getting stronger on technical terrain and being able to knock out huge traverses and objectives right away.
As I've progressed from simple hikes to scrambling all the way to climbing and mountaineering I've definitely lost interest in the less technical peaks since I like a challenge, but I am still very much summit motivated! Where other technically capable climbers would stick to a crag or project a climb, I like to aim for bigger, higher, and more challenging peaks! I'm not exactly sure what mountains I'll be going for 5-10 years from now but it's safe to say that the
11000ers of the Canadian Rockies
are just the warmup for me and I'm excited to push my limits further on the hunt for higher, more difficult, and more elusive summits!
