Find more articles by Martin and other IFMGA Test Team guides here on VertiCulture. Martin is a Swiss Trained IFMGA guide living in the Pacific Northwest and is the owner of ProGuiding Service, North Bend, WA.

Declaration of Mountain Travel: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

I have been in the guiding business for just about 20 years now. I would be lying if I said that I became a mountain guide to interact with a large diversity of people. I simply wanted to go to the mountains and needed some type of job that would make this possible. Being from the Valais in the Swiss Alps made becoming a mountain guide seem like a logical conclusion. What I did not know then was that some of my best friendships would arise from people who were so-called “clients” of mine.

Not all of my clients became friends, but certainly a lot of them seem to live very interesting lives that have captured my attention in many a hut or tent. I have had the pleasure to roam the mountains with doctors, surgeons, dirt bags, lawyers, carpenters, accountants, nurses, teachers, scientists, physicists, CEO’s, CFO’s, (and SOB’s), house wives, cops, marketing managers, engineers, restaurant managers, slackers, industry reps, photographers, software developers, electricians, construction workers, movie producers, fighter pilots, marines, home builders, and many more. They come from a large diversity of socioeconomic backgrounds, though most of them make a decent living. I have been with these people on short trips, long trips, trips that were casual or where we all were scared, where the weather was on our side or where we were not invited into the mountains. I have been quietly observing these people for many years now and how they adapt to the unpredictable situations that the mountains will throw at them. Many of them get taxed to their maximum physical and emotional ability and very quickly their true colors start shining through.

Martin, in Norway, 2008

Once we make the commitment to go into the mountains, we all get reduced to pretty much the same class. What we want needs to be carried on our backs and [that reality is where] the first switch occurs. In the “civilized world” we generally acquire more goods and services to make our lives more comfortable and better. Of course, once you have to carry all your belongings on your back, the story changes almost instantly. We start paying attention to what we really need and what we could possibly leave behind. Once this switch has been made, I have seen many of my clients experience some sense of liberation. The mountains of the Pacific Northwest are extra special that way, since there are no huts, helicopters, gondolas or porters to help out. But even in a place like the Alps with its amazing infrastructure, the story does not change all that much. Once we leave the last gondola behind, we still have to carry our belongings from one hut to the next on our very own backs. We are all pretty much the same that way, no matter what our background may be.

We keep returning to the mountains because we have experienced a great sense of freedom and fairness out there and have created some of the happiest memories of our lives. And, as I was writing this short piece, I realized that this thought sounded curiously similar to the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” I wonder if Jefferson, Franklin, Chase and company would have liked ski touring?

Our well intended photo shoot for Outdoor Research, which was to take us around the Fitzsimmons and Spearhead Range in the Southern BC Coast Range, seemed ill-fated. Some of our athletes got injured a few days before the trip and now the forecast called for arctic temperatures that would render video and photo assignments a real chore.

It is easy to loose momentum when plans need to be changed for the third time. “Let’s just do it another time” seems like a very inviting option – and sometimes it is the best option.  In our case, it was not. We certainly did not seem invited to the Spearhead Traverse. We might have been tolerated out there, as long as we were willing to deal with the 20degrees below Fahrenheit temperatures that had been forecasted.  After another weather check, we concluded that we had made the 5 hour journey into BC to get into position for a trip that actually made most sense in our own backyard.

Snoqualmie Pass. Hmmm. Not very exotic… But after all it was our backyard and here we seemed invited. Cold, but acceptable temps, heaps of fresh powder, excellent stability, and a brilliant forecast. The crew was set to go at that moment and chances were good that we would not be able to coordinate everyone’s schedule again in the near future.

There was still that lingering hesitation about the actual destination. But I was confident. The immediate terrain west and north of Snoqualmie Pass is quite rugged and has surprised many. And so I met up with well known photographer Grant Gunderson, fellow Pro Guiding Service guide Erica Engle and Outdoor Research’s Keith Karlick at my gear shop in North Bend, WA.  Keith handed out the pertinent garments for the shoot, we went through a final gear check, and off we were to Snoqualmie Pass.

Cold temperatures awaited us in the parking lot and we were glad that it was not any colder. What followed is exactly what mountain memories are made of. I won’t bore you with stories of cold feet, insane views, beautiful touring, steep couloirs, relentless blower pow, sweating and freezing at the same time or the mediocre instant coffee that seemed pretty good in a frost covered tent.

I will say this though; Outdoor Research’s immediate backyard is amazing. Snoqualmie Pass’s terrain is rugged, transition-intensive, spectacular, and accessible. The reason why it has found a following over the years is that it demands respect. You can keep learning here. You won’t get bored.  Certain tours around here get done only once or twice a year because they are simply too committing and too big. Others are just hard enough and so spectacular that they have turned into classics. They add real value to the Seattle ski tourer’s life. You can summit over a dozen ski touring peaks here as day objectives, many more than that if you are willing to sleep a night outside.  I know very few people who have summited them all.

There are not a lot of places like this backyard where you can go and ski a wild couloir in the morning, go to work in the afternoon, then go out for a great dinner by the beach with your spouse in the evening before heading to the Opera (not that I have been in the Opera lately…)

So there we were on Snoqualmie Pass, touring and skiing around in perfect snow, perfect stability and visibility. We were invited – clearly. Not much thought was wasted on the Spearhead Traverse anymore. We spent a few days reconnecting with an old friend we thought we knew so well already. Similar to when you miss a flight and end up stopping over at a friend’s house because he is there, there’s the glaringly realization is that your old friend is actually a very cool person and, darned, you really should try to keep in touch.

The Spearhead Traverse is just another great place that we did not get to this time. Because the mountains are in charge, we ended up hanging out with our old buddy Snoqualmie Pass. What great get-together.