2024 Year in Review

2024 Year in Review

  • Winter:

    • Teton Winter work. Mainly, ski mountaineering guiding. Like east foothills powder skiing, big Teton Pass itineraries, some Military work and a little bit of ice climbing. And 2x Skillet Glacier descents and a Middle Teton ski descent.

    • A January family Galena Summit yurt trip

    • Gnarly February health and injury matters. Toddler-borne diseases, plus two badly tweaked shoulders in a skiing fall.

    • A March “Moran Camp” guiding gig.

  • Spring:

    • Family Zion camping and climbing visit

    • Waddington Range ski mountaineering guiding

    • Some Teton spring skiing. “Diagonal” on Mount Owen, East Face of Rockchuck, SW on Middle Teton.

    • Denali expedition guiding

  • Summer:

    • Teton summer time rhythm. Work, hikes, bike rides, water time.

    • Complete Exum Ridge, Ice and Storm Points, Cloudveil Traverse, Moran CMC, multiple GT summits, Irene’s, Blind Man’s Bluff, etc.

    • An amazing High Sierra family wilderness trip. Mitre Basin with Ian McEleney and his little family.

    • Closed out summer with an amazing visit to New York. Mainly family time, but some rock climbing and a quick smash of the Adirondack Great Range Traverse.

  • Autumn:

    • Late season Teewinot and 2x Grand Tetons

    • Jed-and-Charlie, 4-day backpacking trip in Wyoming’s Salt River Range

    • Wind River Range smash and grab climbing weekend.

    • Elephant’s Perch smash and grab climbing weekend.

    • Beautiful family and climbing time around the Tetons.

    • 3 weeks in Red Rock. Balance of family city time, personal climbing, work climbing

  • Early winter:

    • Sisters, OR for Thanksgiving.

    • Family Targhee days

    • Focused week of intentional, valuable, self-directed professional development refreshers

    • Ouray, CO ice guiding

    • Teton powder skiing

Working stats.

  • 108 days field guiding (13 year average is 114). 54 days of “other” work. Guiding admin, freelance writing, landlord stuff. Of course, in the ever-connected age, parts of virtually all of the year’s 204 “non work” days held some sort of productivity. The metric for whether a day “counts” as a work day is if I would need someone else to care for my child. If I need someone else to care for the child (wife, daycare) for the day, it is a full work day. If I can “multi task” as a parent (whether I do multi task like that or not), it does not count as a work day.

  • 2394 hours worked. That’s everything: guiding, commuting, computer time, land-lording, etc. Including, while on a work expedition, 24 hours a day. For reference, 40 hours x 50 weeks is, of course, 2000 hours a year.

  • 35 trips had a specific goal (peak or route) in mind. Of those, we made the summit and/or completed the route 28 times. That's a "sending percentage" of 80%. (13 year simple average is 72%)

  • 31 days of alpine guiding. (13 year average is 38)

  • 5 days of ice guiding. (13 year average is 7)

  • 19 days of rock guiding. (13 year average is 26)

  • 53 days of ski guiding. (13 year average is 43)

  • 104 days as an employee of another company. That's 96%. (13 year average is 90%)

  • 4 days working for my own company. That's 4%. (8 year average is 14%)

  • 73 days were with returning clients or clients that came directly to me in some fashion. That's 68% of my volume. (12 year average is 61%)

  • 86 days I worked in the field largely or entirely without a co-guide. That's 80%. (7 year average is 77%)

  • 22 days I worked directly with at least one other co guide.

  • 62 nights away from home/family for work. 7 year average is 67. Omit 2020 (for Covid) and since 2022 (for a new family balance) and average work travel was 76 nights away. I cut way back in 2022 and largely kept that cut intact since. It has crept a little, to be sure. But not anywhere back up to pre-family status.


Athletic and Adventure Stats

All this is drawn from my “training” spreadsheet. So the focus is on athletic development and such.

  • 897 hours of action (10 year average is 993)

  • 446400 vertical feet ascended (7 year average is 537000)

  • 501 climbing pitches (8 year average is 547)

  • 212 days outside, active.

  • 108 of them were work, as noted above.

  • 25 alpine climbing days (10 year average is 28)

  • 82 BC skiing days (10 year average is 86)

  • 15 bicycling days (dedicated “exercise” cycling. Lots more errand cycling around town. 10 year average is 5. I got a new mountain bike early in 2024. I get a new bike every 10 years or so. And that always reignites the stoke.)

  • 11 Rock Cragging days (8 year average 16)

  • 25 Rock Multipitch days. (8 year average 27).

  • 4 cross-country ski days (3 year average is 6)

  • 13 hiking days (10 year average is 20. Of course, many climbing days of all kinds involve hiking. But days logged here are hiking for its own sake or without any climbing involved)

  • 26 climbing gym days (9 year average is 24). That’s 26 days in which the primary or only activity was at the climbing gym. I also went to the climbing gym (and/or lifted weights or went for a run or went to the ski area) on days that get logged with a different “primary” activity. For the climbing gym, that’s 7 more sessions. For a total of 33 visits to the climbing gym.

  • 17 days Weight Training (10 year average 15). Plus 17 more times as a secondary activity. For a total of 34 weight training sessions.

  • 16 ski resort days (10 year average 8). Plus 3 more times as a secondary activity. For a total of 19 ski resort visits. Charlie time at the ski resort really bumps up this number! In a good way!

  • 14 Running (10 year average 7). Plus 13 more times as a secondary activity.

  • 1 paddling day (3 year average is 2). Plus 2 more times as a secondary activity.

  • 72 rest days (10 year average 84)

  • 20 sick/injury days (10 year average 13). 2024’s numbers are high, but not a record for me. However, the truth is between the numbers. There were 20 days that I had to shut down all activity for sickness/injury. But there were many, many more days on which I went out while feeling poorly to some degree. 2024 was a sick, injured year. I’m still working on it all. Mainly, some sort of lung condition tracing to a February 2024 triple-whammy of respiratory infections. Just recently ruled out asthma… what is it?

  • 19 travel days (10 year average 25)

Service

I engage in tiny bits of community service. 2023 saw a ramp-up in this sort of involvement and that stepped up level continued in 2024. In increasing order of commitment/complexity.

  • The Teton Rock Gym in our home town of Driggs Idaho is a non-profit business offering a community gathering space, fitness and training facility, and kids programs. A few times a year I offer volunteer instruction in the gym.

  • The Teton Backcountry Alliance is a grassroots organization representing, educating, and communicating to human-powered skiers of the greater Jackson and Teton region. We offer a variety of programs, including an active social media presence, Teton Pass Ambassadors, Beacon parks, automated beacon checkers, periodic events, and a weekly free Teton Pass Shuttle. I joined the board of the Alliance in 2023. We meet monthly, and converse more frequently than that.

  • The Certified Guides Coop is an entity that supports sustainable income for mountain guides in the US. I am the president of the board and the interim, volunteer operations director. 2023 saw significant upheaval in the CGC and, as a result, a huge increase in the commitment required. Rosie estimated that, in the early months of the upheaval, I spent up to 20 hours a week on CGC matters. This is an exaggeration, but not by much. I am still working to wrap up my commitments to this floundering organization.

Jediah Porter