Summer in the 206

Summer...round 2. The July high pressure system has settled in once again and we are being hit with a nice bout of warm and sunny weather. Last night found our team from Alpine Ascents on the summit of Mt. Rainier around 7:30 pm. I brought up the rear of the team with a couple struggling climbers, but we successfully got 5 climbers and 3 guides to the summit. That made summit #6 for me. A small number compared to the dozens of ascents other guides have, but I suppose it's fairly good for my first season with Alpine Ascents and guiding on Rainier. Everybody has to start somewhere.

a change in the air
faint smell of earth and new life
awakening now


Here I am in the final frontier, the great state of Alaska. It's only a small slice of such a vast amount of land, but I've enjoyed every day so far. It's day two for us in Haines and with the mostly clear skies above us, we're hoping to get up in the air to do some scouting over the surrounding mountains. Drake is our connection to the glacier and he stands up to the cliché ski plane pilot profile. A smaller and well built man, his greying hair flows back from the aviator sunglasses, giving him a look of flight even when he stands still. With our best interests in mind, he advises us on flying conditions and is excited for the flush of women our group has brought to his world.

Our group has shrunk by a couple folks, but we still have the core people whose passion has brought us all together. As the dynamics begin to form, our roles will become more defined. While we may not get the high pressure system that sat on this region for the last couple weeks, we will certainly have a memorable experience and a good story to bring back to our other lives.


a change in the light
soft warmth on skin with brightness
propelling forward

transitions

April will come and go like a delicate snowflake landing on the back of your hand, frozen in place with the backdrop of skin and life. Body heat will transfer to Nature's tiny work of art and the snowflake will move on, becoming water that one day might again take the form of snow. For now, I am packing my life into separate bags. Each one has a purpose. A final destination to which they will help propel me. In 48 hours, I fly to Alaska to sample a small part of the state. Upon my return, I will journey onto Rainier for a summer of guiding and the continuation of life on the snow. I won't be able to send out individual updates to everyone, so check back periodically for photos and/or words as to what I've been doing. Happy spring!

Liberty Link Up - 14 hours, 5 summits, 2,000+ ft of technical climbing

It starts with a dream. A thought, a desire, a hope. A wish to succeed. From there it grows into something more. You stare at route topos. You imagine pulling through the crux pitch with bleeding hands, sweat in your eyes, heart racing. Think about standing on that first tower, looking across to four other summits. Move forward. Now look back, at four summits that you have stood upon. Five summits, including the one you are on now, all experienced in a day.

Or less than a day shall we say? All it took was 14 hours. Fourteen hours of your life that you dedicated to a passion. A passion for experiencing the mountains in ways that many people do not experience. For 14 hours you connected with a landscape. The landscape influenced you. It took over your life and made something different. When you woke up today, you were a different person from the previous day. Different from every other day of your life. You had now experienced the land in a way unique to itself.

In 14 hours, your feet crossed stone and snow, from early morning dawn to late afternoon sunshine. Your hands felt the weathered alpine granite. On a micro scale, the rough crystals pressed deeply into fingertips. On a macro scale, the soft curves of headwalls and faces, aretes and ridges, all faintly reminisced of a glacial touch. The first pitch experienced a night's worth of heat loss radiating into chalked hands. The crux pitch imparted a sense of vulnerability, as well as an awing sensation at the power of the earth and the humans.

And so it ends with a dream. The return to civilization, reconnection with friends, tales of what you saw in a day. As your head hits the pillow, your sore fingertips and tired limbs remind you of what they experienced. Drifting thoughts cover moments your brain chose to remember, but why do we ever really remember? Sleep envelops, wrapping your body and soul in the comfort of rest, the peacefulness of the night, the sense of accomplishment, the solace of your mind.

So I was going to write something grandiose about all that I had gained this summer, but words are currently failing to convey the pure feelings of the experience. Here's a quick update on what has been, what is, and what will come...

The scout group left a week ago and it was good to have some normality back in life. Unfortunately, my time here for this round of life is coming to an end during a busy part of the year. We've been trying to wrap up miscellaneous projects in preparation for fall training which will start in earnest any day now. The nights have been getting cooler with multiple mornings of frost last week. The dog yard has been extended into the new kennel area and a new musher's cabin has been brought in. We also did a little landscaping to prevent the over curious public from wandering into the kennel area.

I'm all set for the return journey and will hopefully relax once I make all my flight connections. Tomorrow begins with a bus ride to the eastern coast and the city of Umea. Not too sure what to expect, but it'll be a quick stop before heading out the next morning to Stockholm, then Iceland, and then Seattle. From Seattle, it's going to be a lot of traveling for the next month as I make my way through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. This thing will probably become dormant again, so if you need an update, call me or come find me on the open road...

title not necessary

the glow of fall,
deep sunsets, leaves on fire.
through a changing season
low-angle light.

when the sun hides
behind distant ridges,
brisk air creeps in
alive.

the cycle continues,
winter is coming.

I am alive, feeling the change of the seasons. Cold air has returned and my body begins to recall the joys of the winter season. My senses constantly look for signs of freezing: the thermometer in the morning, dew now frozen into frost; the need for an extra layer, even with the sun shining bright; the evening star winking as I drive home, high hopes to see the winter constellation of Orion; a smell in the air and a feeling in my bones. I am yearning for the change of seasons. What would life be without this predictable change? It occurs everywhere in the world, in many different forms. The rainy to dry season, summer to winter with spring and fall in between. Every individual feels the change and experiences it as a community with the surrounding landscape. Winter is coming...

This last week has seen some action happening. The new dog kennel has moved forward with most of the walls being put up and new we are just waiting for door panels to arrive and it will be complete. A large stack of fire wood has been moved to make room for a future cabin. We're also starting to see the first signs of fall and preparations for winter are creeping into our thoughts. Birch trees have begun turning to shades of gold and yellow. A familiar coldness accompanies the night time and the smell of wood smoke drifts though the valleys.

A boy scout group from the UK is arriving in a couple weeks, so we have been preparing the property in Morka to serve them as a base camp. This has included setting up a rather large tipi with 8 m long poles and a diameter of roughly 10.5 m. The canvas is almost too heavy for 2 people to lift and it took 6 of us to set everything up. There are a ton of metal clasps and whatnot, which led me to the realization that this was another instance of the white man taking a perfectly good idea, making it "bigger and better," but really only making it more difficult and cumbersome. Let's just say I'm not looking forward to taking the bloody thing down...

I've decided to take my experience with scooping dog poo and building dog houses, combine the two, upgrade the concept, and build a cozy outhouse complete with magazine rack and windows. The frame is up now and the rest of it will come together in the next few days. Photos to come as another Swedish masterpiece is created! In other news, the fishing at Morka has proven worthwhile. Dave and I each caught a grayling and we smoked them using the newly constructed campfire oven/grill/smoker. The set up was tested and approved with some tasty steaks and pork chops coming off the grill.

That's it for now, more to come as the story unfolds.