Posts tagged #reflections

"For a time he belonged to this world, now he belongs to the mountains"

A couple of days ago W called me and was telling me that one of his best friends just died, that he'd checked facebook and all of a sudden his friends name had been tagged and a news article was attached talking about a ski accident. I knew who this person was, and my heart raced a bit as I said "wait what, what do you mean he's dead". The feeling of surrealism when these things happens is so incredible strong, one day someones there and the next day they're not. I too found out on facebook that one of my friends died and it's actually the worst way to discover things like this, if there even is a good way? There isn't like a button to push on your phone that immediately sends out a message to all your friends that someone died, especially when your friends are spread all over the country, maybe even outside the country too.

I only met him once, at a wedding, the first time I met a big crowd of W's old friends, all of them sharing stories of past adventures in this world, we laughed and had fun, but that's a pretty good memory I would say. I've talked with W about this, how someone that I don't really know can affect me so strongly, the fact that it hits me right in the heart. He and W are (were) pretty alike, they are both dark haired bearded outdoor men that shares a passion for the backcountry, and when W and I have talked about our wedding ceremony for our family and friends that we will have (since we got married at the courthouse) his name is always one of the first that he has mentioned. So, even though I didn't know him per see he was always included in our conversation, in W's life. He is one of the people W has adventured with, they've learned and taught each other things as they grew up to the men they are today, and as always once we are grown up we spread and go to different parts of world. I think this is also one of the reasons I feel it so strongly, because it could have been W, and W feels the same, that it could have been his dad, or anyone else who ventures out in the backcountry every now and then. These are people who have done this their whole life, who partially live for this, this is where their passion lies. Everyone are a bit puzzled by the details and as always we shouldn't always trust the stories that the media hang on to.

It has also made me think about how vulnerable we are as human beings, how we can only handle so much, how we don't have an outer shell that will protect us from accidents. When you are in the backcountry, you are far away from help sometimes, and unfortunately there wasn't enough time for him, and the trek wasn't easy enough for help to arrive faster. I can't even imagine how hard this must be for everyone involved and left behind, I've only scraped a tiny bit on the surface of his life and still have gotten so emotional, and the only thing we can do is to say we are sorry for their loss, but sometimes that is enough too. There is so much sadness in the whole story. I read a story from one of the people from his job and he wrote something beautiful

"He was a true mountain mystic. For a time he belonged to this world. Now he belongs to the mountains" - Michael Hatch

W to the right and his friend to the left, photo courtesy Nicole. S

Live Video "Take me to the river" aus dem Film "Stop Making Sense" (TV-Mitschnitt)

Posted on March 11, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under The great wide open and tagged reflections life emotions passion 2016 Mountains Dreams.

Hence they went wavering northward over icy Alaska, brave spruce and fir, poplar and birch, by the coasts and the rivers

Quite recently the Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic of summer 2014 happened. Like any other race in Alaska this is one where you are on your own. There isn't any life support and as most races you sign a liability form. Most parts of Alaska don't have any cell service, because you are far out in the wilderness. Where self rescue, as stated on the wilderness classic blog mean: Self-rescue does not mean that you know how to dial a sat phone for a rescue. Self-rescue means that you know how to stabilize serious injuries enough that you can walk (or crawl) dozens of miles to a possible fly-out zone. You are on your own and you have to take care of yourself. Most people will never acquire the experience necessary to run a Classic

As W says, this is stupid and selfish, why would anyone ever do that? Well as a human we are born to challenge ourselves. Some people are of a "different breed" as the wilderness classic blog call it. Some humans want to experience the impossible, some people want to experience the wild, but you don't need to do the wilderness classic to do that. In fact, you only need to take your hiking boots, backpack, tent and sleeping bag and venture off to some backcountry creek or alike and just start to hike. There are plenty of land to explore in Alaska, but there are also plenty of obstacles, or challenges that you might not have thought about prior to your wilderness experience.

A couple of weeks ago one of the veterans in the Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic died. He died just after putting in into the Tana river which is described by the park ranger Peter Christian: "The Tanana River is known for extremely cold, swift, large water and difficult rapids, when the water is high it's big water. "As soon as Rob put in, he was swept into big, boiling hydraulic". You can read the rest of the story in Alaska Dispatch which has a detailed article about it. We have had so much rain in large parts of the state, so a lot of rivers in the interior at leas are swelled. Our small streams are about 10 times as big as they usually are, I would for sure be scared putting into the big rivers now. But then again, if you already had your mind set to do it, would you call it off?

A lot of people just want to live a little, they feel more alive and get that specific rush when they do something they are afraid of, I think most people feel the same. Weather its braving to pet a spider or a snake at the zoo, or conquer the Grand Canyon in a kayak. This is how all extreme sports are born, and along the way some people loose their life's, just by chance, just like we could die walking down to street in a car accident. Either way it's sad, but it happens.