Man & Best Backcountry Friend

Here is another image of and his faithful companion Freija, who is sporting her K-9 pack from Mountainsmith on our trek over the Crow Pass Trail last month. Recently, I've been catching up on editing photos in the lead-up to my Australian journey, which is barely one week away! In doing so, I am able to relive past moments and reminisce about what I was thinking and feeling at the time when an image was created. I took this just after we crossed Crow Pass and were passing by Raven Glacier. The sun had dipped behind the mountaintops and the temperature dropped sharply as we began our descent toward Eagle River Valley with a punishing headwind. The valley below was bathed in warm light, the last of which we would experience as the rain arrived the following morning and persisted throughout the rest of the trek. This was the turning point, when I realized we had truly left our creature comforts behind and were now at the mercy of the weather and the Alaskan backcountry. Stepping outside of one's comfort zone, this is when the best moments happen.