Alaska

I arrived in the lower 48 last night, drove to Jackson, and tomorrow will set off on another adventure to climb the Grand Teton. More on that later. Let me recap Alaska. If there is one place any climber, hiker, skier, or plain vacationest tourist should see, it would have to be Alaska. The peaks are inspiring to see. They can be nice to you and they can also be mean.
I went up there to guide for MICA Guides. You can view the little promo-vid I did for them here:


It was great taking people out and showing them the time of their lives. I appreciated the work much more this go around. I feel as though I have matured a lot since 2007 when I worked for them last and had the opportunity to learn new rescue systems from some of the other senior guides. It's a nice confidence boost going into a job application knowing/understanding these skills.

The fellow guides were a blast to hang out with, climb with, and work with. I will really miss there presence but hopefully our paths will cross again. I have a feeling they will. It seems I always run into old familiar faces somewhere randomly.

The real cherry on top was at the end of my time there. I had 3-4 days to basically climb or do whatever I wanted. Unfortuently this summer was a wet one, and that continued for my last hurray trip. This made me change my plans, so I decided to road trip to Talkeetna. Along the way, and inbetween 2 different low pressures that were burrowing through from Anchorage, I had the chance to see the great one, Denali. Looking at it from the south I could see my future. Forget Europe, forget about South America, Denali has all that I need in my lifetime to cure my needs. Putting things on a time line is arbitrary. But I do want to work my body and increase my hard skills to accomplish clicking into my skis at the top and ski down, along with (a long-term future goal) climbing the Cassin Ridge. I have a feeling yearly pilgrimages to the Alaskan Range are in store for me.

So, sklpping ahead to today. I am at the Climber's Ranch in the Teton National Park, looking at this big hunk of rock called the Grand Teton. I am over the hype of climbing this thing. It's iconic, its looks like a fun climb, but the hole area around here has this weird vibe that I can not stand. I almost want to leave, but will do it just to do it. Maybe my tune will change when I am in the mtns. Or maybe I should just move to AK and be among hundreds of "grand tetons" w/o a single person around.