About Stav is Lost

By the numbers

Trip reports
1,857
Miles hiked
14,727
Vertical feet gained
4,750,000
Photos
60,233
Stav on a summit in the Mojave desert
About Me

I love exploring!

Originally a Jersey shore boy, I took my first road trip in 2012 and haven't been able to stop playing outside since. I started as a climber and shifted to the hiking and canyoneering realm. Peakbagging has been my most recent life-consuming interest.

I lived out of my car from April 2014 to January 2020 and it was a wild time, but now reside in Las Vegas with my boyfriend and plan extended road trips around the country.

Aside from the obvious, I also love board gaming, psytrance, weight lifting, and web development (yes, I work). I'm also probably too silly for my own good.

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My goal

My goal is to hike to ridiculously cool places in the US, optimize the most interesting routes I can, and share them with fellow PG-13 adventurers through streamlined ratings and high-quality photos, maps and descriptions.

Every trip report gets an overall rating plus a breakdown for class, effort, beauty, personality and solitude, along with a short description, trailhead coordinates, stats, a map and photos. Difficulty ratings are based on my own experience, relative to other hikes on the site.

There are plenty of easier hikes here, but much better resources exist for beginners. If you have questions or are skeptical about a route, get in touch before heading out. I’m not responsible for your mistakes. Use this site at your own risk, and show me some love if you like what you see!

How ratings work

Every trip report gets an overall rating plus component scores, each on a scale of 1-10. Here's what goes into each one.

  • Effort

    1-10

    Determined by distance, elevation gain, terrain ruggedness, and route-finding complexity. A hike on my site with a 3/10 effort rating is roughly what the NPS labels a strenuous hike.

  • Beauty

    1-10

    A subjective assessment, relative to the hike’s geographic region because it’s hard to compare desert to forest or mountains.

  • Personality

    1-10

    Influenced by scrambling, canyoneering, variety of terrain and obstacles, and uniqueness of the outing.

  • Solitude

    1-10

    Based on popularity, distance from civilization, route-finding difficulty, and mileage.

YDS grades

Trip reports use the Yosemite Decimal System for terrain difficulty. Canyons use American Canyoneering Association standards.

  1. Class 1 Trail or off-trail hiking with minor rockiness.
  2. Class 2 Easy scrambling: occasional use of hands.
  3. Class 3 True scrambling, with a risk of injury.
  4. Class 4 / 5 Risk of serious injury or death. A rope may be necessary.
  5. Technical canyon Requires rappelling through canyons. Graded with American Canyoneering Association standards.

Get in touch

Questions about a route, a correction to a trip report, or web development work? Send me a note.

    Hire me or show some love!

    Hire or refer me as a web developer, or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I'm not sponsored, so it's funded by yours truly. It also takes a ton of work to edit photos and write these reports. I really appreciate it!

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