Introduction

When you’re 20, you care what everyone thinks of you, when you’re 40, you stop caring about what everyone thinks about you, when you’re 60, you realize nobody was ever thinking of you in the first place.

-Some guy who almost certainly wasn’t Winston Churchill

Mount Moran, Sickle Couloir Approach, June 29, 2002

A Simpsons afficianado might picture Homer Simpson when reading that quote, tittering like a schoolgirl and saying, “It’s funny because it’s true,” like he always says about non-humorous truisms. Which is funny.

And the quote is mostly true - the only suspect part being that a 60-year-old might have gained the enlightenment to realize nobody cares.

I’m not 60 yet. Hence this blog. But I’m older than 40. So you can read it or not, I don’t really care. At least, I … don’t think I do? I feel like writing, and I don’t know what else to write about.

Brian Ladd near the summit of Teewinot, May 2002

I never set out to ski every month in perpetuity. In 2001 I decided to try and ski every month, and I did. The next July I felt like skiing, so I did. And then I did the next month, and the next. And now it’s 20 years later.

When I was in my early 30’s, I was a newspaper reporter. Part of my duties included a bi-weekly column called “Junk Show.” My writing was good, but I fell victim to one recurring sin: Many weeks was just thinly-veiled navel gazing. I say “thinly-veiled” because I would try and disguise my constant self-examination through self-deprecation (I was the “Junk Show” in question).

I will try and avoid such self-centered posts in this blog; the aim is to celebrate the mountain experience rather than to blow my own horn.

Brian Ladd on Mt. Woodring, June 1999

But hopefully this blog can be inspiring, in that it shows what normal people can accomplish. Unlike many uber-athletes in and around Jackson, I'm pretty much an average Joe: a 53-year-old weekend warrior who eats way too many potato chips. If I can do this, you can too, right?