Hi, I’m Jake. I wear a bunch of hats – climber, photographer, filmmaker, etc. – but most importantly I’m a husband and a dad, and on some days I think I do an OK job at those.

This year is at once incredibly exciting and breathlessly terrifying. The exciting side is an obvious one: we, as a family, will travel to new places, meet new people, immerse in different cultures, and learn and grow in ways none of us can yet fathom.

The terror comes from a deeper place, a fear not of injury or death or dismemberment (although any of those would be unfortunate), nor from angst about people, place, or culture, but rather from the very real and pressing reality that this adventure will force me to confront those deep places within myself that the normal thrum and throttle of life allows me to conveniently forget, pass over, and keep moving. In short, it will force me to change what I can, accept what I can’t, and live into notions we speak of frequently and practice rarely.

Away we go…!