You’ve heard a lot about Tom from us over the last year. Let us just say that it was an honor to be trusted by him along his 46er journey, and we can’t wait for the next one. Thanks, Tom! 🙌

Started reading: Dirtbag Billionaire by David Gelles 📚

I’ve long been fascinated by Yvon Chouinard’s story from, well, dirtbag climber to luminary billionaire who started Patagonia and what would become Black Diamond.

No Bingo for me, but a fun trip down memory lane from BasicAppleGuy. Totally forgot about the iPod nano Tubes!

🆕📝 Grandma Beck

My maternal grandmother, Laureen Ann Beck, passed away recently. We had a memorial service for her yesterday, filled with family and friends. Here are the reflections of her that I shared at the service.

Well done to all the competitors at Mt. Van Hoevenberg’s boulder comp today! It was great to see all the stoke in the room! Big thanks to the staff who put it all together. 🙌

Robert Birming: ‘Your blog, your home’

Maybe you’ve thought about launching a blog. Maybe you’ve felt a bit overwhelmed when looking at other blogs.

Don’t be. We all start with an empty home. Then we add a little paint here, hang a picture there, and decorate it with things we like.

A blog becomes a home, that’s the beauty of it, and I’m looking forward to visiting yours.

I recently received compliments on my blog’s design. It gave me a sense of pride that eclipses compliments of my home — perhaps because my blog is all me. I’ve customized nearly every nook, and then filled it with my words.

What a gift, ice season has come early! We worked hard for those first swings, skinning 5 miles up the toll road and leading in gusty winds with sub-zero wind chill. But so worth it to get that good ice! Thanks to Corey for the company on this fun adventure. 🎿 🧊

McDonald’s isn’t wasting any time in phasing out the penny here in the U.S. I actually snapped this photo at the drive-through a couple days ago, before we stopped minting pennies:

The U.S. ended production of the penny Wednesday, abandoning the 1-cent coins that were embedded in American culture for more than 230 years but became nearly worthless.

The iPhone Pocket has already made it into the general zeitgeist. During today’s stop at a gas station, I heard a local radio host talking about it — well, chuckling at it for its outlandish price tag. I actually think it looks quite nice and could have had wide appeal, but not at $150/$230.

It’s when you’re least expecting it, that’s when they getcha! 😆 Glad to see it’s got some traction — hopefully leads to more folks taking control of their spot on the web.

Oh cool, Jarrod Blundy’s blog post about Micro.blog Studio made it on Hacker News.

I can’t say I’m completely comfortable with all of Mantia’s argument, but it’s certainly got me thinking. A few bits that caught my attention:

In the Declaration of Independence, the founders wrote a long train of abuses by the King to justify their actions. Some may feel …unfortunately relevant today:

• He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone […]
• He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures
• He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power
• For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us […]
• […] For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world

And

And so, believing that violence is never justified only makes you vulnerable to those who believe it is.

That’s how it’s always been. If the government successfully convinces civilians that violence is never justified, then it gets to maintain its own monopoly on violence, legalizing the atrocities it commits itself, while punishing everyone else for what civilians have always had the right to do.

It’s right there, in the founding document of the nation, that it is the right and duty of civilians to overthrow any government that systemically infringes on its rights.

By all rights, I’m a firmly non-violent person. I even sometimes bristle at the notion that the best thing to do with a Nazi is punch them. It seems so barbaric, sure to escalate, and unnecessary when words and logic exist. But I have to admit that when words, logic, and compassion fall on intentionally-deaf ears, other options start to look more reasonable.

John Voorhees has some great recommendations (🔒) for developers offering in-app subscriptions, such as using consumables rather than time to limit their free trials, as Notion does with their Notion AI trial:

As my setup grew, I started exploring more advanced features and asking Notion AI for help implementing my setup. The Notion AI trial didn’t begin until I was ready to try it, and the free query allotment was enough to convince me of the feature’s value. The experience felt so natural that by the time I’d run out of free Notion AI queries, I was happy to start paying.

🎿 Ski season has begun in the Adirondacks! Coverage is great on the @whiteface_mt Veterans’ Memorial Highway — it was a good way to spend some time on Veterans’ Day. Thanks to @bbrianandersonn for joining and helping to scope out some ice! 👀

🆕📝 Micro.blog offers an indie alternative to YouTube with its ‘Studio’ video hosting plan

What was at first going to be a quote post about the new feature turned into an essay about how this fits with Micro.blog’s ethos and why it’s good for the open web.

Rewatched: The Queen’s Gambit 📺

What a show! I had a hankering to watch this again after a few years, and so glad that I did. Marathoned it over two days. It’s a masterclass in growing empathy for nearly every character, and showing dull things dramatically. And a triumph in set and costume design.

He did it! In only 18 months, and just a few weeks shy of his 70th birthday, Tom Sagers became the newest Adirondack 46er by summiting Seymour Mountain! Tom and I hiked 42 of the 46 high peaks together, and in that time, I have come to know him as a capable, enthusiastic, and dedicated hiker — and as a friend. It’s been incredible to see his skills progress over that time, and we battled some pretty challenging conditions together. 🏔️

If I can still handle hiking these peaks in icy conditions at Tom’s age, I’ll consider myself quite fortunate indeed. 💪

A rough estimate of what it takes to become a 46er is 300+ miles and 70,000+ feet in elevation gain worth of hiking these unforgiving “trails”. Please join me in congratulating Tom on this monumental achievement! 👏

Until the next one… 🥾

Watched: Pluribus S1E1, We Is Us 📺

My wife and I watched the first two episodes yesterday and are hooked. We had to pause multiple times to debate the implications and moral quandaries of what was happening on-screen. The mark of a good show! (And Severance-esque 👍)

Ryan Christoffel: ‘iOS 26.1 lets you close Activity rings even if you forget to start a workout’

Inside the Fitness app, tap the Workout tab, then hit the icon in the top-right to add a new workout.

You’ll be able to choose from any workout type, then manually log several parameters:

• Duration
• Start Time
• Active Calories
• Effort

After you choose a workout type and duration, iOS 26.1 will automatically populate the ‘Active Calories’ field with an estimated number. This estimate takes into account your personal health details.

Very happy to see this after a decade of working out with Apple Watch!

Winter conditions on Colvin and Blake today for Tom’s 46/46! We did Colvin earlier this year, so that was a repeat peak, but Blake was new for him. Wind and snow made it feel very real up there, but trail conditions were much more forgiving than our last few hikes. 14 miles, 4000’ elevation gain, 11 hours. ONE PEAK LEFT!!

Today marks one year since my first client took a chance on Onward Mountain Guides as a brand-new guide service and we climbed two mountains together. Since then, we’ve hiked 40 peaks together, and I couldn’t be more grateful to him or the dozens of other awesome folks I’ve been able to share the outdoors with as an independent guide this year.

I didn’t have high expectations going into this first year. It’s a fairly crowded space with excellent guides who have been here much longer — but something has clicked, and I’m delighted and proud to share that with over 100 days in the field, OMG operated “in the black” all year and business is accelerating! I probably won’t ever get rich off guiding, but that has never been the goal. I feel rich to be able to spend my days in the outdoors with so many different people, and sharing what I know about climbing, hiking, camping, paddling, and skiing with others. I’m so fortunate to be living my dream.

There are many family, friends, and mentors who I owe a debt of gratitude for helping me get to where I am today. You know who you are. The Adirondack community, too, has been so kind, welcoming, and supportive. But, I’d be remiss if I didn’t directly mention my wife, @jo_marie07 , who was on board from the first minute of me suggesting that we start this new business. She’s been my biggest supporter, my patient sounding board, and she shouldered immense responsibility to keep us housed and fed while the business found its legs. Thank you, I love you.

Here’s to many more years of adventuring in the mountains. 🧡

—J.B.

By the way, that first client? It was Tom. A year ago, he had no aspirations of climbing all 46 high peaks — he was just in it for the views. But the mountains took hold, as they often do, and he’s now on the cusp of completing the 46er challenge. We’ll be hiking his final two peaks this week. Big thanks to him for kicking this whole thing off! 🙌

Cliff & Redfield packed a punch for Tom’s 43rd and 44th high peaks. More snow AND more water made conditions quite challenging in both the low and high elevations. Getting to the Uphill Lean-to from the Loj via Lake Arnold and the floating logs took about 5.5 hours, then up and down Redfield (nice views, and snow 6-inches deep!) in about 3.5 hours, and Cliff (the cliffs weren’t too icy yet) in about 2.5 hours. About 6 hours for the return hike in headlamps (incredible full moon!) put us at around 17.5 hours of constant movement — our longest yet. We head into the mountains to test ourselves, and Tom continues to impress!

Just two peaks left on his #46er journey: Blake and Seymour. Thankfully, both should be shorter days.

18 miles and about 5,000 feet of elevation gain. 😅 Tom proved his mettle on this hike through snow and lots of ice. We broke trail up Gray, experienced otherworldly views on Skylight, and incredible cloud inversion on Marcy. A very memorable day for Tom’s 41st and 42nd high peaks. Only 4 left!

TIL (also) that Apple TV has an official Giphy presence with collections of GIFs from their shows.

The new Apple TV animation (or “mnemonic”) is cool, though it doesn’t feel nearly as timeless as the original. The accompanying audio, credited(!) to FINNEAS, is pleasant and ethereal. But the original (Mac startup chime-inspired) thrum was perfect and I’ll miss it. Here’s a comparison.

New Apple TV Intro

TIL that Scott Forstall (yes, that one) created WordArt while he was an intern at Microsoft. 🤯 (Via Louie Mantia)