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MountainLessons is the personal website and blog of Patrick Fink, MD. I am an ER physician and athlete residing in Bend, Oregon. I share my adventures, tips, and reflections for posterity and for your your enjoyment.

I enjoy learning, and the knowledge I end up collecting is often a melding of different disciplines. I use this site to record and share that knowledge.

Contained within this site is my free resource, the Mt Hood Ski Map. You can find that here.

Uncategorized

January 3, 2026

On Keeping Books

As a dad, doc, and dude with demands on his time, I’ve found it more challenging in recent years to both DO things and WRITE about them also. In the last few months, I’ve felt increasingly compelled to return to the practice of writing and plan to put some more thoughts on the digital page …...

Adventures, Travel, & Writing, Skiing

April 26, 2025

Pre and Post

On the morning this emerges, I’m 175 days post-op from back surgery for a herniated disc. Almost half a year. Having just returned from a fine day in the mountains today, I was reflecting on a few good days from before and after surgery. With only a few words, here are some photos. The Ramp …...

Recovery

November 3, 2024 • 3 Comments

Floppy Foot

Well, I’m going to be out for a while. At least, out of what I usually do to fill my time. Yesterday, November 2nd, I had surgery for only the second time in my life, and for the first time on my back. Things moved pretty quickly this week. On Sunday, I developed a strong, …...

Skiing

April 14, 2024 • 2 Comments

Broken Sun, Broken Top

Ever head out for a ski tour and realize you’ll be out for an eclipse? In Oregon, we were nowhere near the chaos of the totality, and cloud coverage was thick, but the moody weather made it possible to view the 1/4 eclipse using only a “Donald Trump Squint”....

Skiing

April 3, 2024 • One Comment

A New Range

If you know me in the real world, then you already know that last spring we plucked up our little family and transplanted from Salt Lake City to Bend, OR. We moved out of Utah because the pollution, the politics, the liquor laws, the water crisis, the traffic, the and the weird LDS culture were …...

Mountain Biking, Racing

October 8, 2023 • One Comment

Ring of Fire 2023

A quick administrative note: I’ve migrated this site to a different host and there have been some changes to the theme and page structure. If you received this post by email, you were previously a subscriber and I hope you’ll stick around. If you happen to notice any issues with the site, please let me …...

Mountain Biking

October 21, 2022

White Rim in a Day

Over the last few years I became increasingly interested in the White Rim route as a day effort. This 4×4 road loop in Canyonlands national park is typically done as a multi-day trip with a vehicle sag-wagon, with decadence akin to a rafting trip. While in the right context that sounds like a good time, …...

Skiing

February 16, 2022

Coming Back

It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted anything here. Life, work, training, COVID, and many other things have gotten in the way. Recently, I’ve been rethinking my relationship to social media and other forms of digital distraction, and having moved off of Facebook, I’m now moving off of instagram, the social...

Mountain Biking

October 31, 2020 • 2 Comments

San Rafael Swell Night Out

We’re bad Utahns. We don’t follow the usual patterns of a Salt Lake adventure-bro. The adventure-bro is more migratory, in part because he has to justify owning an $80k van with an environmentalism sticker on it. He moves constantly between the Cottonwood Canyons, the desert, Western Colorado, and Southern Idaho depending on...

Adventures, Travel, & Writing, Mountain Biking, Routes

October 14, 2020 • 5 Comments

Western Uintas Bikepacking

This past Spring, I joined the hipsters and bought a gravel bike, and it has led to no end of trouble. Obscure riding routes, kitschy and expensive bike bags, solitude in nature, and bonified adventure on poorly described trails. Wanting to expand my bike touring to the Utah desert, I also managed to talk Taylor …...

Uncategorized

January 3, 2026