About AnnieUpHigh
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention . .
of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, . .
My age is irrelevant to me, but people tell me this is an important part of my story, so okay, I’m 70. Now you know.
Age three is very relevant, however. I was three the winter of 1950 when my parents bought forested, hilly land in Hocking Hills (view photo gallery), Ohio and began building our home. By next summer, my older brother and I had explored every acre of that hill and the winding creek below it. I got dirty and wet, skinned my knees, swung on grapevines, and scratched by briars. It was all so much fun! My Dad would often ask when he got home, “What did the little wild child do today?”
In my adult years I did my best (but not very well at times) to be a wife, a parent, have a career, and own a business. I humored the wild child occasionally with camping, rafting and hunting trips, but it wasn’t until I was in my sixties that I revisited the Rocky Mountains and realized I missed adventures from my childhood. I had a “reawakening” and discovered that I liked being “up high”. The wild child was back.
I started climbing Colorado’s 14ers (view photo gallery) and have summited 35 of them. Wanting to go higher to see more, I took a mountaineering course in Washington state’s Cascade Range, (photo gallery) and learned technical rope climbing in Eldorado Canyon, Colorado.
When I discovered the Great Himalaya Trail, I had to go. The 2012 journey was beyond amazing–words cannot describe the beauty of Nepal and her wonderful people. After my return, I fulfilled a lifetime wish to climb the Grand Teton. From its summit, I looked upon Jackson Lake where 47 years before I dreamed of standing on the Grand.
In 2014 I sold my house in Ohio and moved to Colorado. I’m either in the Rockies, the Cascades, or Nepal.
Home, though, is really anywhere “up high”.
