"Do hard things" is a frequent mantra in our home. While both of my kids take this to heart, the elder sibling has had more time to put it into practice.

A close friend invited us to climb Mt Adams with his older boys when my son was only eight. I figured that it was too monumental a task for him, but that the kids would all train together and we would see how it went. That summer, he wound up being the only one of the three kids who completed his training and found himself at the summit after a two-day effort.

The following year, he added summits of Mt St Helens and a second Mt Adams--in a single push this time--to his résumé. When school picked back up, he joined our gym's competition climbing team, qualifying for and competing at the USA Climbing Region 12 Championships for both bouldering and rope climbing at ages 9-10.

That summer, he wanted to do something big again. He had heard about the Triple D through conversations at our gym. The challenge consists of summiting three mountains in the Columbia River Gorge in one day, for a total of more than 25 miles and 10,500' of elevation gain and loss. He decided he wanted to become the youngest person ever to complete it. He committed to his training, and turned it in on June 14, 2025. In the Portland-area outdoor community, the Triple D is a big deal. Word got out and his story made it onto the local news the next night.

At almost eleven, he is crushing his second competition climbing season for his division, and is starting to pick up some creative tech nerdiness. You can try one his creations, a four-player version of Tic-Tac-Toe he made for us to play while waiting for dinner at restaurants at tictactoctuctoe.com. Proud dad stuff.

Dottie, his little sister is hellbent on repeating, or surpassing, his achievements, but at a younger age... and she's well on her way.