Bold Peak Backpack, June 14th-June 16th, 2020

Bold Peak, at the time of writing this in April 2024, remains the hardest and most technical mountain I've ever done. To be sure, only some class 3s are required with a handline present for those who want it, but this was the only mountain that I've ever practiced the skills of alpine routefinding in the summer, and that combined with the sheer elevation gain and scrambly scree made this quite the challenge! Luckily I had a close friend with me who was much more experienced than I, and after backpacking in 12 miles to one of the campsites on the south end of Lake Eklutna, we started up. I could do a blow-by-blow, and maybe I will later down the road when I have more time to work on these little details of my website, but suffice to say, it was an absolutely beautiful trip the entire way up, and no other time in my life so far have I felt afraid of heights climbing a mountain just because of how far up I am. The way down had some fantastic buttslides which were in retrospect fine to do given what I now know about AVII safety, but considering I didn't know shit back then, it was probably poorly-informed. Still, a 1900ft+ drop while buttsliding is a record I doubt I'll ever beat - since now I would just take my AT setup with me lol. The hike back the following day was gruelling, and we took several days to recover. Highly recommend this one, and maybe stay tuned for more details in the future(?)