A Mental Flight

Just ended a 40hr workweek…construction, driving to Wendover NV as I type, I almost wish it were to party, but no, more work, concert stuff. Could not be more psyched! It seems as though Denali was ages ago, how time flies, sometimes too fast for my speed, do you ever wish it would just slow down? I’m sitting in the back seat, watching the sun go down over the distant salt flats. Quite a different setting than a month ago, freezing cold and all fucked up from the altitude, oh how quickly you forget the suffering when its sooooo hot. 95+F these days! Zack passes me the cornhusk pipe and I loose myself in the tunes. My mind drifts…..

……summit day was amazing, completely unexpected, and fucking unreal! My lil’ sis wasn’t faring so well; a good three thousand feet higher than ever before, she awoke at 17,100 ft with debilitating nausea and terrible cold. I helped her into her harness and put her crampons on for her. So stoked she had even made it this high, what a bad ass! Erin and I looked at each other and both knew there was no way we were going to make it. We have to at least try. One foot in front of the other, one step at time, each taking us deeper into the purity and further from oxygen. 20,320 at –30F is a trip, feels kinda like doing some drug for the first time, in fact it was a first for all of us. How could it be any better, two weeks of clear and cold weather, ahead of the crowds, with great family, and deeply inhaling the cleanest air my lungs have ever absorbed. The cold didn’t matter, standing on nature’s outstretched finger pointing out of the clouds and toward the bright sunshine. If heaven does exist it can’t be this high, people wouldn’t make it. Never before had I felt such a sense of pride as when I hugged my sister, she spoke simply of the trek, having forgotten her condition 10hrs prior.


My body shuddered and my legs became weightless as Erin withdrew the zip lock bag from his backpack. For three years I had been curiously anticipating when this moment would come. It caught me off guard, the tears and snot started streaming down my face, it was the second time Alaska would make me weep. Mentally, the remembrance of my cousin Drew, his spirit, and his teachings have been and will continue to be thoughts that I carry with me and disperse about the world. But physically, the scattering of his ashes, his being, is an occasion I’ve always felt more appropriately initiated by his immediate family. Still it is an event not chosen by human desire, but selected by the universe, Drew, and the majesty of the mountains. The summit of Denali is natural perfection, Drew chose well. Erin knelt, his younger brother scattered below him on the immense south face of Denali, he screamed toward space, healing I suppose. My sister stood tall, a puffball of cloths. My tears and snot froze to my jacket and I smiled, in love with the sweetness.



Couldn't be better
Kyle