I hope you did not expect me to go about this business by myself!
Please meet Alaska Mountaineering School. AMS is the most prestigious guiding company for all climbs in the Alaska Range, Talkeetna Mountains, and Chugach Mountains. To understand AMS is to understand the history of guiding on Mt. Denali. The names of Colby Coombs (pictured to the right), Caitlin Palmer, Brian Okonek, and Diane Calamar Okonek are synonymous with this history. Each has played a major role in shaping the company’s approach to and philosophy of guiding. A single blog post would not do their roles justice, so please accept a brief introduction. I promise to lay out this history in part sequence throughout this blog.
My personal introduction to AMS, or AMS/ADG as it was known at the time, came through my participation in a six-day AMS mountaineering course in May of 2002. I signed up for the course as a way to prove to myself as well as to AMS that I could cut it on a Denali expedition. It was a thrilling experience. I learned more about mountaineering in that week than in any period of time before or since. AMS Director, Colby Coombs, told me that my acceptance into the 2008 Denali West Buttress Expedition was based upon my performance in this course.
Please meet Alaska Mountaineering School. AMS is the most prestigious guiding company for all climbs in the Alaska Range, Talkeetna Mountains, and Chugach Mountains. To understand AMS is to understand the history of guiding on Mt. Denali. The names of Colby Coombs (pictured to the right), Caitlin Palmer, Brian Okonek, and Diane Calamar Okonek are synonymous with this history. Each has played a major role in shaping the company’s approach to and philosophy of guiding. A single blog post would not do their roles justice, so please accept a brief introduction. I promise to lay out this history in part sequence throughout this blog.
My personal introduction to AMS, or AMS/ADG as it was known at the time, came through my participation in a six-day AMS mountaineering course in May of 2002. I signed up for the course as a way to prove to myself as well as to AMS that I could cut it on a Denali expedition. It was a thrilling experience. I learned more about mountaineering in that week than in any period of time before or since. AMS Director, Colby Coombs, told me that my acceptance into the 2008 Denali West Buttress Expedition was based upon my performance in this course.
No comments:
Post a Comment