MELLOW IS A MOUNTAIN
Wayfinding in the Talkeetna Mountains
“Avalanche!” we yelled in unison as the first turn of the trip triggered a size D1 slab in a wind-loaded pocket of the southwest-facing couloir. Two more followed that day: one natural size D2 took out our skin track 20 minutes after our transition, and another human-triggered D1 that revealed the persistent avalanche problem that would haunt our trip.
It wasn’t supposed to start like this.
It was our first day stepping into the mountains after being pinned in camp by storms. We were deep in south-central Alaska’s Talkeetna Range—and this was the trip we’d meticulously planned for eight months. We’d envisioned a stable maritime snowpack, the kind that would allow us to ride the biggest, deepest spines of our lives. Instead, we were navigating a dangerous continental snowpack. Unpredictable and persistent, we were tiptoeing above a sleeping dragon. We had to come to terms with the fact that our visions might remain just that: visions.
We weren’t your typical media crew in Alaska—we were “The Underdogs.” Self-created, self-funded, passion-fueled, and we’d never done anything like this expedition before. Our team was home to an eclectic mix of languages and accents which melded to create opportunities for learning and connection.
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