Time for a rare forward-looking blog post.

EDIT: This post isn’t quite accurate anymore, as I’ve had to bail on this trip to be in a good friend’s wedding in NY. The river trip’s still on; this one, not so much. I’ll be back.
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I try to keep myself busy, and it’s been a good winter. At least for my ice tools and crampons, not so much for the skis. It’s pretty clear where my priorities lie these days, and between work/climbing/girlfriend I’ve been staying pretty busy.

A couple years ago I was hoping to get in the groove of an international trip a year. This was right when I got back from Nepal — bitten hard by the travel bug. I haven’t been out of the country since.

That’s about to change. Well, actually, technically it’s not, but I don’t consider where I’m going to be part of this country anyway.

That should narrow it down for you. If not, think cold, think mountains, think glaciers, think BIG. I’m Alaska-bound. May 14 I’ll be flying into Anchorage en route to the Ruth Gorge, Denali National Park. I’ll be camping less then ten miles from the tallest mountain on the continent.

Oh, you’re going to climb Denali! How exciting! No. My aspirations have graduated from merely standing atop peaks to standing atop peaks via the most fun way possible. The Cassin Ridge isn’t quite attainable at this point in time, so the Ruth will have to do. Since we will only have a week or so on the glacier we’re looking at a few “smaller” routes, like Ham n Eggs or Peak 11,300. Because of the fickle weather up there, though, itineraries are useless, so all you can do is come up with the most inspiring line up the most inspiring peak possible and hope for the best. That’s what we’ll be doing. If we don’t spend the week storm-bound in a tent.

Oh, and I’m going on a river trip the week before that. Five days down Cataract Canyon in magnificent Canyonlands National Park. Woohoo!