Normally on guided trips, my clients and I are dropped of by wheel-plane or floatplane somewhere deep in the wilderness. Fast forward seven, ten, or twelve days later and another plane comes to pick us up from an equally remote place. It often leaves me wondering, "did we really get anywhere?" Don't get me wrong, I love my time in the wilderness, we cover impressive distances and we work hard to get to where we are going. But apart from our arrival at an alpine lake or a gravel airstrip, there is often little delineation that we "made it".
This traverse was different. We (my co-guide Aaron, myself and our guests) flew from Fairbanks to the village of Anaktuvuk Pass, located within Gates of the Park. We left this outpost of civilization, hiked for eleven days and on the final day emerged from a spindly spruce forest on the edge of the Dalton Highway. I found myself on the final day of this traverse, thinking, for the first time on a guided trip, "wow, we really went somewhere".
This was my third annual trip with guests Mark and Joan, a couple of quirky, badasses from the Twin Cities with a real Alaska addiction. They've been coming to AK for 15 years and this was their 13th trip with Alaska Alpine Adventures. Over the past three years, Mark, Joan and I have covered over 330 miles of Alaska's Brooks Range together and I am always blown away that such competent people keep coming back for guided trips with us. Its a real treat to travel with guests like Mark and Joan because after so many days and miles together, there is an undeniable comfort. We don't make too much small talk, we're comfortable with silence and we don't shy away from the big issues like politics, religion or fixing all the world's problems, while sharing a meal under the tarp. Plus Mark and Joan are tough, they endure the shittiest weather with classic midwestern stoicism.
This traverse offered up plenty of weather to test our personal grit, the waterproofing on our rain gear and the temperature ratings on our sleeping bags. We changed our plans three times to accommodate the arctic's fickle June weather. We spent our second day in the field tent-bound as wind spit snow and ice at our tents. We took a low route from Alapah Creek to Kayak Creek one evening after another 24-hour snow storm. And we rerouted back towards the Anaktuvuk River and away from glaciated Marshmallow Mountain during the complete whiteout accompanying a third snowstorm.
But when the sun shone, it glittered with that brilliance only seen in the arctic and the reroutes let to some incredible terrain and awesome wildlife sightings - Dall's Sheep, grizzlies and a wolverine. I am so grateful to have had another adventure with these awesome guests and to have the chance to explore a corner of Alaska that was new to me. Despite the inclement weather, my love affair with Alaska's Brooks Range remains intact. Its hard not to love a place that dynamic and raw. I'm already looking forward to going back.
