• Yellowstone (7/16)
  • Wind River Range (8/17)
  • Gates of the Arctic (7/18)(current)
  • Wrangell-St. Elias (8/18)

Yellowstone 2016: 8 days / 100M


Yellowstone

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Hitchhiking to the trailhead, after leaving our car at Eagle Creek Campground

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Sulfurous, but drinkable water came from a stream emptying this hot spring.

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The Snake River, quite cold to cross in below-freezing weather the next morning

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Still some snow on the mountains in the south of YNP

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Quiet and cool on the continental divide

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Imagine this landscape in a thunderstorm, with falling trees echoing across the valley.

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The view up to the high point for our route, on the edge of YNP

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We camped next to this snow, after a 20-mile day. Looking down into Shoshone NF

Wind River Range 2017: 8 days, 95M, 1 eclipse


Wind River Range

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A long first day, with this reward

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We tried to avoid trails. Lots of bushes at this altitude

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Looking back down one of many divides. Imagine the cliffs at sunset.

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The grizzly was walking across the continental divide. About to scale the peak ahead

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The layout of the northern half of the route from Europe Peak

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A rock and some calculus will tell you how high you are.

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Where is the best route? Look where the talus meets the cliff.

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Could be any of a large number of rock fields! Not untrodden, though

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Iceberg lakes, if I remember correctly. It was cold enough to camp on the snow.

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. . . and then to walk across this snow, though we detoured around the steep part

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Color and light and vastness; nature overpowers the senses. I could stare forever.

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Squeeze around the left side, then climb two thousand feet.

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And then slide down the other side. A safe and quick descent

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(ice axe in hand, enroute)

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This is why I am there. To feel all of this around me. (And to see the solar eclipse with just the two of us, on an 11000' divide)

Gates of the Arctic 2018: 16 days, 0 humans, 5 grizzlies


Gates of the Arctic

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I left behind the last people I would see for over two weeks and headed cross-country . . .

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I tried to choose high, dry, grizzly-free campsites. Mostly worked

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The true size and pace of nature: Big. Slow. Unbelievable.

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. . . and filled with lichen of every color imaginable

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It usually takes me about 100 hours alone to really feel at home.

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Lots of orienteering and bearing-shooting on this trip (no bear-shooting)

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16 days of life fits in that pack: 72000 calories, all vegan!

Wrangell-St. Elias 2018: 8 days, ??M


Wrangell-St. Elias

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The Wrangells have even more dramatic topography. Lots of nice front-door views

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Greyling in the streams; grizzlies on the banks; elk here and there

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I found the descent I was looking for. So did that house-size boulder in the distance

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A view from halfway down. I camped in the green field to the left.

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The Wrangells and fellow mountain ranges are famous for their color, even in summer

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Notice the ducks swimming out of the frame to the right.

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Notice the grizzly hiding the bushes ahead with her cubs.

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Sunset after grizzly-inspired detour. An unforgettable show

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The Nabesna glacier, covered in debris and groaning its way down from the peaks

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Behind one such peak is a vast icefield, and some of highest peaks in North America.