Mountaineer

I've stood roped to a partner on a glacier in a country I'd never set foot in before either of us, watching weather roll in that neither of us fully trusted. Mountaineering has taken me across borders chasing that exact feeling: small, humbled, and entirely dependent on good judgment and a partner who has yours.

Big mountains don't care how badly you want the summit. They care whether you can read what's actually happening around you and make the right call anyway, especially when the easy call is to keep pushing. I've turned back more times than I've summited, and every one of those decisions has made me better at the ones that matter.

Eventually that respect for the mountains turned into responsibility for other people on them. I've spent seasons working part-time as a guide on Mount Baker, roped up with climbers who were trusting me with their safety and their goals on the same slopes that once humbled me. Leading someone else up a mountain is a different kind of weight than climbing it yourself, and it's taught me more about responsibility than almost anything else I've done.