My Denali Prep course with AMS was both awesome and disappointing all at the same time. It was awesome because I was in Alaska for the first time, on the Kahiltna Glacier for 8 days, with “the tall one” standing right there. Our instructors were awesome too! Greg Runyan has an incredible amount of experience…
Denali Prep on the Kahiltna Glacier
DAY 3 – Flight In, Basecamp Setup, Anchors 101 The weather finally broke on the third day, allowing us to fly into the Range. We loaded an Otter aircraft, considered by many to be the quintessential “bush plane” due of its short take-off and landing (STOL) capabilities. Within an hour, our Talkeetna Air Taxi had us…
Denali Prep Grounded at AMS HQ
DAY 1 – Arrive at AMS HQ After a few days hanging out in Talkeetna, it was time to meet up at the AMS Headquarters to begin our Denali Prep Course. Participants arrived at 8am sharp with the anticipation of a big day, starting with a short tour, introductions and overall course orientation. I had…
Hanging out in Anchorage and Talkeetna
Traveling to Alaska for the AMS Denali Prep Course I signed up for back in February was finally here. Since this was my first time to the 49th state, I arrived a few days early to check out the Alaskan vibe. I didn’t capture a good picture of it, but downtown Anchorage is a few…
TUBBS HOOKED ME UP!!
After seeing my post about the limited repair options for my Limited Edition North Drinkware snow shoes, Tubbs sent me a pair of their latest Flex VRT and ALP models!! Here’s what each features: 2025 Tubbs Flex VRT “The Flex VRT is our premium composite deck snowshoe designed to deliver high quality performance for backcountry…
Sugarloaf Peak with a Heavy Load
I needed a big leg day to continue my prep for Denali, so I decided to do Sugarloaf Peak with a slower group but carry a heavy load. Since I didn’t have any sand on hand, I threw a 50lb bag of water softener salt in an old backpack. That, plus 2 liters of water…
Crampons vs. Cleats
If you are new to mountaineering or haven’t experienced much spring hiking, let’s clarify a few things about traction systems beyond snowshoes. There is a big difference between crampons and “cleats”. Crampons This tractions system is hardcore! Here we’re talking about serious mountaineering with more extreme conditions that would involve glacier travel, crevasse danger, ice…
Bummed Out By A Broken BOA Binding
We just got home from an epic snowshoe adventure on Mount St. Helens! Our timing was fortunate to be the first tracks in after receiving 48″ over the previous 4 days. However, I was pretty bummed out by a broken BOA binding on my favorite snowshoes and had to rely on some older ones instead….
First Tracks up Mount St. Helens
A window of good weather finally opened for us to make our winter attempt at Mount St. Helens. We had been waiting around for three days hoping for our timing of this trip to align. It had been snowing here for the previous week and everyone was getting antsy. Summit day would begin with a…
Waiting On a Weather Window
A small group of us from Utah made our way out to Washington state again for another Pacific Northwest volcano. This time was to make a winter ascent of Mount St. Helens. Two from our group tried it last year at this same time but experienced a whiteout and had to turn back within a…