The Mountains – My Drug

If you know me at all, you’ll know that mountains have been and will continue to be a significant part of my life. Ever since one of my college roommates dragged me to the summit of Rainier in super windy/whiteout conditions, I was hooked. I love everything about them.

I, like most mountaineers, get the question “why?” a lot. “Why walk up hill for hours on end? It can’t be fun. Is there a trophy sheep or beautiful woman up there?” My answer: Nope. Usually there is nothing. Nothing at all. Which is often the best part. I’m not sure how often you get to experience nothing but a breathtaking view, but it is incredible. In today’s world, there are an increasing amount of things to do/see/have. It can be overwhelming at times. But there is a peace on top of mountains. A comforting feeling knowing that all you need is what you have with you: a couple of good buddies and a loving Creator.

Most of my deepest thoughts and realizations come from time in the wilderness. I get too busy in town: wake up, work, eat, work out, sleep, and repeat. I literally do not have time to let my mind wander and reflect on what has been happening around me. This lack of reflection can lead to negative consequences like obesity, abusive relationships, depression, etc. Even in my short couple months of office life, I’ve noticed a change. As humans, we are constantly growing. And if we never stop and take the time to reflect on whether it is positive growth or negative growth, we can wind up 20 years down the road looking in the mirror and wondering how we became the monster that is looking back at us. By that point, it feels like such a drastic change that we fear we cannot return to the person we once were.

So in short, that is why I climb mountains – as a means of spending time with myself, my friends, and my God, while reflecting on who I have/want to become and how I can continue to improve myself. As long as I am able, I plan to continue making free time to spend in the wilderness. Maybe that’s why God created mountains? I like to think so.

Advertisements

Moonlight Hiking – Flattop

So I’m officially a full time Alaskan now. I flew back into Anchorage yesterday and began life in the office today. I’m not sure that I’m ready for full time sitting but I’m looking forward to learning more of the behind-the-scenes work that makes projects happen.

Since coming to Anchorage, I have made a promise to myself that I would hike Flattop first thing when I arrived in Anchorage if possible – and I did not disappoint myself today. This morning I woke up fully planning on hiking Flattop after work. Flattop is a “mountain” that stands 3500 ft above sea level. It is one of the easy, more popular hikes in Anchorage. It can be very crowded in the summers but does not see nearly as much traffic in the winter. As I am sitting in my office, I start to realize that the sun was going down and I still had an hour left of work…kind of threw off my plan of hiking before dark. I forgot yesterday was daylight savings and we lost an  hour of light…

The start of the hike.

So I get off work, it already being dark, and decide to go for it anyway. I grab Diesel (my roommate’s dog who is a pit bull/lab mix) and head up the icy road in my new little Toyota pickup. I threw her in 4wheel and she handled like a champ. We arrived at the trailhead after dark and began heading uphill. I’m stubborn and didn’t want to use my headlamp so we climbed with nothing but moonlight.

If you’ve never hiked with nothing but moonlight, I highly recommend it. It adds a whole new element to hiking at night. Your light only exposes you to the darkness. Simply let your eyes adjust and use the reflection of the moon on the snow to light up everything around you. You will be amazed. I promise.

Summit with Diesel

Diesel and I continued to trek up the fairly steep, snow covered scree field to finally wrap around and reach the summit. The scene was unreal. It was clear to the West where darkness was lit up by the glow of thousands of lights in the city and the blinking red lights in the distance marking wind turbines on Fire Island. To the East, the moon penetrated the thin cloud layer and lit up the snow-covered Chugach Mountains.

After a few attempted pictures and some quality solitude/prayer time, we began descending down the easier route – I’m not sure Diesel would have been able to make it down the way we came up. The trail down was a well stomped out path with a slight decline. It was perfect. Diesel took off running and I followed him down, running with nothing but the contrast of a black dog on white snow to follow and trusting that my feet would determine where the ground was and keep me upright. We stopped every minute or two to listen – praying to hear nothing but silence.

View from the Summit

It wasn’t the smartest thing to do and could be seen as irresponsible for going out in the dark Alaskan wilderness alone, but I want to note that I had a dog that could sniff an animal a mile away, a GPS marking my trail, and someone to call EMS if I didn’t make it back in a timely manner. I feel I have mastered the art of being irresponsible in a very responsible way.

Student Loans – Paid in Full

I sent the final payment in for my student loans the other day. Yehaw! It took some dedication to give every paycheck back to the government but now they have nothing on me. Now I can start saving toward my future. Maybe start investing in a house? A cabin? A lodge? A plane? Who knows.

One thing I want to convey to those currently attending or seeking to go to college is to really give it some thought, especially if you will be paying for it yourself. I didn’t really realize what it would cost until I looked at my bill saying I owed tens of thousands of dollars when I got out. Luckily, God provided me with a job that covered room and board so I could dedicate my paychecks solely to paying back loans week after week. I’m not saying it isn’t worth it by any means. Just make sure that you know what you are getting into when you sign that big bill every year.

One thing that was preventing me from pulling the trigger and paying off the last few thousand in loans was my credit score. I had heard that paying off loans early would hurt my credit. But after a little research, I decided that knowing that I am debt free to the government holds a much higher value than a few points on my credit score.

Asa’s Impact on the World

I spent this past winter working up on the North Slope in Alaska where I met loads of awesome people. One of those people I had the pleasure of working closely with was a man named Asa Swinney. He was a safety specialist who cared more about the people around him than about himself. We shared a tiny office together for 12 hours a day, every day, so we got to know each other pretty well. He would tell me stories of his numerous adventures from hanging out with his friends/family to his time as a boxer/fighter. He wasn’t in the safety field for the money or power…he was in it because he truly cared and wanted to see everyone go home safe.

Early in July, I was informed of his passing. It was harder for me to take than I realized. It struck me as interesting that someone can have such an impact with such a small chunk of your life. Call me a nerdy engineer, but I knew Asa for only 4 months of my life… which means I knew him for less than half a percent of my time on Earth, yet he changed my view of safety on the job and encouraged me to “love my neighbor as myself”.

He was the first person to support and pray for my buddy and me during our attempt of Denali. He sent us encouraging messages and let us know that he and his friends were continually praying for our safety and success. He genuinely cared.

I could go on and on but the point I want to make is that Asa made a positive impact on many lives during his time here. That should be every one of our goals in life shouldn’t it? Encourage and be there for the people around us? We have more power than we know – we must use it wisely and use it intentionally. Can’t wait to see that guy again in Heaven.

The man himself

Here is Asa’s memorial site if you would like to see pictures: http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Asa-Swinney&lc=4584&pid=171598415&mid=6034454

Denali Gear List

So, I finally got a chance to sit down and write out a gear list. Rather than write about every single piece of gear, I will touch on the important things that we noticed and will gladly respond to any questions. I wrote comments on the gear list of my thoughts on each piece which can be found here: Denali Gear List

In my opinion, the top items that could easily get overlooked are: booties, noseguard, wet ones, ice axe protectors, water bottle parka, and a good midweight glove. The booties are crucial if you have a trip like ours where you are stuck at camp for days on end. I definitely recommend Feathered Friends 800 fill down booties. They have a liner and a water resistant shell which is nice for keeping your tent clean…you have to think cleanliness. When you walk into the “bathroom” you will, without a doubt, pick up germs on the bottom of your booties so it was super nice to keep the shells outside and the clean linen inside.

Water Bottle Parka – These are crucial but still don’t even keep your water from freezing. At night, you have to keep it away from the floor or wall of the tent. Wrap a jacket around it or something or it will freeze.

Tent – Our tent worked just fine. Going back, I would have bought one with a larger vestibule though. And maybe even one with a large vestibule on each side – one side for a kitchen and one side for boots. It was really difficult trying to cook in our tiny vestibule. Luckily, we made friends with a group that had a cook tent that we borrowed when they were not using it. And on that note – a cook tent would have been stellar! It’s tough to justify for two people but any group of 3 or more I would HIGHLY recommend it. Like it said, it gets tiring trying to cook laying down in a small vestibule. And a cook tent is a great, warm, place to hang out and BS with everyone around you. It might also be a good idea to take an extra tent. We met some groups that would set one up when they cached so that on “move day” they already had a place to stay. It was particularly helpful between 14k and 17k because after summit day, you don’t want to set up another tent at 14k – and it’s a great way to save your spot. Also, the 3 person tent for two people was totally worth it – especially with the amount of time we spent in our tent. Extra pockets in the tent might have been nice as well – to keep things off the floor. Anything on the floor will freeze. Make sure to bring plenty of good snow stakes. We brought cheap stakes that ended up snapping in half. Spend the extra few dollars on actual snow stakes. An extra pole was helpful as well – we had one that got so cold that the cord inside became slack and would not hold the poles together. We knew others that had a pole break in the wind as well.

Snow Saw – The BCA snow saw worked like a champ. I would HIGHLY recommend it. Especially with the high amount of cutting block you will be doing.

Sleeping Pad – Make sure your pad holds air. And that it will continue to hold air. Don’t go cheap. It made my life pretty miserable having to get up every 3 hours to blow up my pad. That can definitely wear on you.

Sled duffel – I had a Backcountry duffel that worked alright but it was kind of short and stubby. It would have been nice to have a long duffel that fit the dimensions of the sled to spread the weight evenly and not have it so tall.

Entertainment – Everyone told us to bring lots of books. I don’t agree. Books are heavy and bulky. I would recommend bringing an iPod and downloading a few books on tape beforehand. After a long, hard day it’s nice to just lay there and zone out while someone is readying you a book. You won’t want to preform even the simple task of holding a book up to read it. You can also put music and movies on it if you have one of them fancy things…just don’t let it get too cold. If you have to read then bring a Kindle. Saves on weight.

Alarm Clock – Definitely get one of these and make sure it works beforehand. I’ve never had good luck with watches. Don’t trust them. This may or may not have cost us the summit due to waking up late and not starting before the crowd – rookie mistake.

Cookware – Our stoves seemed to work fine – the MSR XKG and Whisperlite. I’ve heard the MSR Rocket and Jetboil both work as long as you keep the canisters in water so they don’t freeze. However, white gas is much more abundant on the mountain than canisters should you run out. As far as pots go – make sure to bring a lid for each and a good pair of pot tongs.

Stove Base – This is another crucial item. One group made bases out of wood and were able to secure their stove and fuel to it. It worked really well. I HIGHLY recommend something like it. Otherwise your stove melts into the snow and tips over.

Fuel Bottles – We split the fuel into bottles which was nice so we could cache them in different places. We left some at 11k, then cached some at 16k for the move up to 17k. It would have been smart to keep some at base as well. We knew some people that got stuck at base for 5 days.

Water purification – We worried about it in the beginning but you go through so much water that it’s nearly impossible. My recommendation if you really feel the need for it would be the iodine tablets or the life straw. It would require quite a few tablets though…2 per Nalgene, roughly 3 – 4 Nalgenes a day times 20 days = nearly 150 tablets for each person.

PLB/Communication Device – The Delorme InReache was really nice to have. It allowed me to send messages to friends/family and let them know we were safe and that things were good. It killed some time while sitting in a tent as well. I would recommend getting the unlimited messaging service for one month. And it’s cool to have people follow you up the mountain on a map as well. On the same note, it would be really handy to have a good friend that will look up the weather and send it to the device every day – the park service tended to be quite vague in their forecasts.

Vaseline – We forgot this. It would have been real nice for our lips which felt like sun dried tomatoes by the end of it.

TP – Bring more than 1 roll of toilet paper. It’s fairly light and could be a real trip ruiner if you run out. Trust me – you won’t want to wipe with snow when it’s below 0 outside with wind.

Earplugs – Bring something to keep the noise out while you sleep. People are up at all hours of the night. Noise cancelling ear buds work great – especially with some nice soothing yoga music. Sleep is another thing that prevented us from summiting…

Wristband – You may look like a goober but these are super nice to wipe your glasses/nose or wick sweat. It will be the only thing that can soak up a fluid.

Backpack – I had a Kuiu. It’s more of a hunting pack than mountaineering. It worked but didn’t have any axe loops. Whatever you do, make sure to get one that is close to 100L. Nick brought one that was 70L and that was definitely not big enough. Although that is the best way to make your partner carry more gear…

Compression Sacks – These were pretty nice to keep everything organized. Come up with a labeling system and try to stick to it. I didn’t do very well because I planned on wearing more clothes than I ended up wearing – so I didn’t have enough space in the sacks.

That’s mainly it on gear. Most everything else should be in the comments section of that document. A word of advice – don’t over pack. It is really easy to do. Just bring of the essentials. If I think of anything else, I will add it. Feel free to leave a comment/email me if you have specific questions!

All my gear that I brought

Muk Tuk and Seal Oil

Over the past year while working in Alaska, the word “muk tuk” has been mentioned on numerous occasions. Everyone always talks about the dreaded muk tuk and seal oil. So seeing as I am now an Alaskan resident and currently live in a village – I figured it was about time to give it a whirl. Turns out muk tuk is whale blubber. I’ve been told that Native Alaskans take this whale blubber (along with the skin) and cut it up and dip it in seal oil. So one fine day in Buckland, a young woman came knocking on our door trying to sell things. I wasn’t interested in anything she had but asked if she had any muk tuk. “Of course” she said. So I proceeded to buy what is known as black whale and a jar of seal oil to go with it. I asked how seal oil is made and found out that it is essentially melted seal blubber…yum.

I decided to try the muk tuk alone first. I was told to keep it frozen and cut off a small chunk. So I did. My initial reaction was not bad. It didn’t taste like a whole lot. Just kind of chewy. But as it started to thaw in my mouth, the taste hit and the chewing continued. I could feel the oils being squeezed out of the blubber. It was a very fishy taste but the texture is what got me. It had a thick gooey texture that coated my mouth. I began to start to gag so I swallowed it quickly. Without the skin, it was tolerable. But the skin was super chewy and I couldn’t handle it.

So I decided to continue to the full experience and try it dipped in seal oil. Just like I expected, it was worse. As soon as I started chewing, my mouth instantly began to warm even though it was frozen. The texture was that of the whale but ten times more. It was a warm, thick, oil that coated my mouth and nearly made me puke. I’m not sure how to describe the taste other than a combination of B.O. and semi-rotten seafood.

I’m not sure that I will ever understand how the locals eat it. One of my (native) coworkers just arrived and was super stoked that we had muk tuk to eat. I’ve tried it two nights in a row and can tolerate it – but I’m definitely not at the stage of liking it. I could definitely see how it could keep you warm in the cold winters though. Maybe someday I will be man enough to eat a full meal of muk tuk dipped in seal oil.

Home At Last.

Well, we are back from the trip of a lifetime with all our fingers and toes still in tact! (more that some can say). The adventure was a success in many ways and a failure in others. I don’t have time right now to go into detail about the trip since we are in Anchorage and want to continue our Alaskan adventure but here is a quick summary (I will post a full trip report hopefully in the near future):

1) We flew onto the Kahiltna Glacier (7,200 feet) and after 3 attempts, we made it to high camp (17,200 feet) where we had to turn around because we had limited time before a storm was going to hit and my partner was feeling ill from AMS (acute mountain sickness).

2) We spent a total of 23 days on the mountain: 13 days being stuck at ABC (Advanced Base Camp 14,000 feet) due to a massive storm that wouldn’t leave. We heard someone had a tent fly away, a few tent poles being broken, and the town of Talkeetna lost power. Planes could not fly in or out of the mountain for 5 days straight. We were literally stuck.

3) Carrying 145 pounds of gear from 7,800 ft to 14,000 ft was one of the most difficult things we’ve ever done in our lives; even though it was over a couple days.

4) We learned a ton – What to pack and what not to (we over-packed), how to read the weather without a forecast, how to get creative while cooking in the backcountry, and much more. We were tired of the food we brought after day 1. Luckily, we made friends at ABC and people gave us food and fuel as they headed down.

5) The most dangerous and disappointing aspect of the mountain was the high number of incompetent climbers. We had one guy fall 400 feet down a 55 degree pitch of put blue ice – bouncing off other climbers along the way (keep in mind the crampons he was wearing). We had another woman slide down the fixed lines and nearly crampon me in the face. Another man dropped wands, trekking poles, and gloves onto people. Not to mention the large guided groups going so slow that we became way more susceptible to frostbite. The list could go on for days…

6) But for every ignorant climber that we met, we met another that was super cool (a few from the Tacoma area) and that we plan to stay in contact with and hope to climb with in the future.

7) Most importantly – The mountain is always in control. And should you forget, she will remind you very quickly.

Overall, we had a phenomenal experience. Wouldn’t trade it for anything. We met a lot of cool people and got to literally live above the clouds for a couple weeks. Everything went smoothly for the most part; we just didn’t get the weather that we were hoping for to summit – Apparently only 16% of people summited by the time we returned to Talkeetna (most summiting before we arrived at ABC). Normally this number is around 50%.

However, we learned that we never want to do one of the 7 summits again (at least not the standard route). They are just a huge tourist trap that attract too many “trophy climbers” who don’t actually appreciate or respect the mountains that they are risking their life for.

Success Rate

What’s Next?

First thing we did was shower for an hour and order a full pizza each (mine came with 30 toppings). For the next couple days we are borrowing my buddy’s pickup and driving down to the Kenai River to catch some Reds and hang out at my Uncle’s cabin. I’ll then have about 4 days to hang with the family in Washington before I have to head back up to Alaska to get dropped off by a helicopter out remote to continue paying off my student loans. If you would like to hear the full trip report in person, shoot me an e-mail (my address is in the about me section) and I’d love to meet up.

The Mountain High Pizza Pie