From one season to the next, from one walk of life to another, life seems to fly by. Recently I sat down and caught up on about a months worth of email. My inbox was full of emails from trips to Mexico, to guiding schedules, to future work opportunities that are currently taking place this winter. Deleting some of those old emails and returning some others, all in all I got caught up and my inbox is empty. While this is provides a wonderful feeling of relief, I realized one important lesson; no matter where I am I cannot forget where I have come from. As I have written before my life has been incredibly blessed with so many amazing people. I have been blessed with the life of my dreams and all of this is for nothing if I don’t acknowledge the people that helped make it possible.
I recently had the opportunity to take a group of six men up Mt. Rainier in the heart of winter. This week long trip was a training program preparing these guys for future winter climbs. I was a bit nervous going into this trip because it was my first time being the lead on a trip of this magnitude. With my assistant guides at my side we walked into the white winter wonderland of the Muir snowfield. During our week we had all kinds of adventures. Anything from 60 mile an hour winds to blue bird climbing days. The clients learned all about avalanche science, beacon rescue, and strategic shoveling techniques. It was wonderful to take a group of six random guys into a place completely out of their element. After the week the end product was much more than anyone had imagined. We all learned more about ourselves than we ever thought possible. Thank you for the lessons guys!
