It's the beginning of a brand new year, a time when many reflect on the recent past and make resolutions for the immediate future.
I'm not immune to the tug of sentimentality, and I'm certainly in possession of stereotypical Capricorn determination, so I'll add my personal duo of lists to the newly minted 2012 blogosphere.
The recent past (2011) saw the blossoming of what used to be a personal hiking blog into a more publicized hiking/homeschooling/parenting blog. Total number of unique visitors to this blog, Alex's old blog, and Sage's old blog combined breached the 50,000 mark last November. Number of daily unique visitors averaged 100-200 a day. The number of comments significantly increased, though most readers who want to tell me something continue to do so through my email account, patriciaellisherr@post.harvard.edu. I get a lot of personal stories from young women and girls around the world who are happy to read about Alex and Sage's adventures -- this is the reason I feel more and more compelled to share more and more of what we do. I'm honored if our lives can provide even an ounce of inspiration to others. If we can do even a small amount of good by sharing our trip reports on the internet, well then, that's a fine thing.
My book, UP: A Mother and Daughter's Peakbagging Adventure, went to the printers late last month. All copyediting, double- and triple-checking, photo placement, etc. is complete. Galleys are now in the hands of reviewers and various media folks nationwide. UP will be published by Broadway Books on April 3, 2012.
On the hiking front, Sage finished the New Hampshire Four Thousand Footers at the age of 6 years, 7 months, and 13 days, bumping Alex off the second-youngest-girl-to-ever-finish spot. The girls and I hiked our first high-altitude mountain, Arizona's Humphrey's Peak, and brought our highpointing total to 39. Alex and I embarked on what we hope will be our final season pursuing the winter NH4K list. If Alex finishes before March 20, then she might be the youngest person to ever finish this winter list (however, though we think that's pretty cool, that's not our impetus for hiking).
Hugh continues to do fantastic work at MIT and with his company, iWalk. Look for him in the news, listen for him on the radio, and check him out on the internet. I'll continue to post media links whenever there's something new to see/hear/read.
The immediate future (2012) will hopefully bring more of the same. Alex and I will hopefully finish the winter NH4Ks, the girls and I will hopefully tag at least three or four more highpoints, and Hugh will undoubtedly remain a prominent scientific and inspirational figure as he continues to do more and more media interviews. Hugh and I also plan to start the girls (and me!) ice-climbing and glacier-traversing. I don't have much to write about that at the moment, as that's Hugh's area of expertise and not mine. I'll trust him to guide us through that next step of mountaineering as he continues to trust me with taking the girls long-distance mountain hiking in all four seasons.
This will also be the year UP: A Mother and Daughter's Peakbagging Adventure is published (April 3, 2012). The folks at Broadway Books/Crown are wonderful to work with and I look forward to the months ahead. We are so lucky to have such a huge New York publishing house behind us; I can't say enough good things about working with my editor, Sydny Miner, or my publicity/marketing team, Caroline Sill and Jonathan Lazarra. I also couldn't have a better agent. Laurie Bernstein is fantastic -- without her, none of this would be happening.
That's it for now. Tomorrow's post will be the trip report for Alex's 12/30 winter Owl's Head hike (winter 4K #29).
Happy New Year, everyone.
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