Growing up I spent more time outside than I did in a classroom. I grew up in a small mountain town in North Idaho and began skiing at the age of two. At first, skiing was just a sport and it was something I did with my family every winter. However, as I grew older, the age of 14 to be exact, I began to become aware of negative changes in the natural world. I became an environmentalist at the age of 14 and because of skiing and the mountains my life is changed forever.

The Selkirk's run from Spokane, Washington and extend 200 miles into Canada. I spent almost my whole life in this range and learned a great deal over time. I was taught what true happiness was and how to be a good person. In theory, the mountains were my parents. However, the biggest lesson I was taught was how to love, love not only myself but to love the natural world. The Selkirk’s brought me up in my youth but it wasn't until I spent time in the Cascades where and I then truly found myself. Specifically, on top of a dormant volcano planted on the tallest point of all of Oregon, Mount Hood. I was caught in a blizzard in June of 2011. On that odd summer day, a top a glacier I became convinced that the mountains talk to one another.

The Selkirk's raised me like a mother would. They knew it was my time to move on to a different range and gently passed my physical body and spirt to the West. Due to perfect timing and the forces of nature this idea of the Cascades was planted in my impressionable, youthful brain. From the age of 8 to 14 I spent every summer on Mount Hood. In the Summer of 2011 I was changed for good.

Each seasonal visit Mount Hood was consistent. She was calm and welcoming to those who wanted to enjoy Her. She constantly set off this awful odor of sulfur, but after time it became welcoming and it was a scent that her visitors begin to miss. However, June 2011 was a different year. The air wasn't as crisp as prior seasons and the glacier didn't look the same. It looked tired, like a 40 year old man who works nine hours a day for $7.25. It looked like a poor soul, who slaved over a computer to barley put food on the table for their family. This was not the glacier I knew, and I knew from day one that the next two weeks of my life were going to be incredibly impactful.

I woke up at 5:30 in the morning, in a tent at the base of the glacier. I sat outside the cold ground, surrounded by a dark ominous sky and waited patiently. The sun began to rise behind the glacier, accentuating all of Her perfect traits. The oranges and yellow hues from the sun reflected off the snow capped glacier and lit the whole world up. I began the journey up the mountain, via a quick chairlift ride on the infamous Palmer lift. Standing on top of Mount Hood was like looking over the world. The sun beat down and would warm your heart and you would feel whole again. It is a feeling that can only be described when experienced. There was this overall calming atmosphere, like you belonged there. Unfortunately, all these emotions began to dissipate very quickly. There was cloud coverage that began to close in the summit of the mountain. Clouds began to engulf Mt. Hood from the very top, all the way to the bottom and in this moment I knew I was about to get my shit rocked. Within 20 minutes the temperature started to rise and then all of a sudden there was a rain/snow mix downpour. Quickly the rain dissipated and turned to snow and in that moment my whole world stopped.

I was 11,250 feet up in elevation and I have never felt closer to Earth and furthest away from Humans. I was brought to the Cascades to learn what I needed. My body was completely engulfed within the clouds that engulfed the mountain. I tried to speak but was at a loss of words. The beautiful glacier that I was with took me of my present form of life. In that second I left my body and became apart of Her. The Cascades taught me they need help. In that moment, after 14 years of living, it clicked. I understood what kept drawing me back to the Cascades and Mount Hood. I stood there in awe, absorbing every drop of precipitation until I couldn't take all the emotions anymore and dropped to my knees and felt only dirt. The fog continued to circle me and then eventually began circling my mind, until i drifted away from my physical being. My soul was taken by the wind and carried to the top of Mount Hood. She taught me to love passionately. No one can ever understand the relationship between a skier and the mountain until they've brought themselves to the beautiful, natural creation and surrendered. On June 20, 2011 I surrendered myself to the Cascades, to the Selkirk's, and to Mount Hood. I surrendered myself to a god that can’t be described in words. I surrendered myself to the last 14 years of my life and the rest of the life I had to live.

I slowly began this glorious dance of descent down Mount. Hood. The fog grew denser and began to circle me even more and I was forced to walk by faith with the glacier and together we descended. I couldn't see two feet in front of me, but that was okay because I was home. My human eyes were blind and I was forced to follow the glacier and the direction of the wind. Mount Hood was silent and still and for the very first time in my young life I was humbled by nature. The glacier could erupt at any time and I was completely okay with that. Luckily, She spared my life as She has done time and time again. On that day I realized that nature is the purest form of beauty and violence. Here I was on top of a glacier that could erupt at any time and send my body hurling down its face. But it doesn’t, and that is humbling. How lucky am I to be able to bask in the mountains glory. How lucky are any of us? To experience nature and its powerful forces every single day.

The relationship between Mt. Hood and I is similar to the bond of siblings. She is my older sister, teaching me the ways of her mother, Nature. We have spent months, years apart but Mt. Hood changed my life. I am forever bounded with Mt. Hood and the Cascades. Her structure is a stratovolcano. Her tall coned build towers over all basaltic volcanoes. She is an andesitic volcano; a volcano that has the power to destroy anything and everything. The most violent of all volcanoes. She is dormant, quiet but at anytime could explode and cause disaster. However, most importantly she is merciful and She is beautiful. On that day, I was taught to be more like Mount Hood. To be beautiful, powerful, and merciful. She taught me that the rest of my life needs to go towards protecting Her and the rest of the natural world. I became embedded in the roots of the mountain. I really can’t describe the mark that Mount Hood has left on my soul. It is a very special place where lost minds go to be found. It continues to hold me like a newborn child and I continue to hold it like a best friend. On June 20, 2011 I promised to Mount Hood and to myself to protect natural spaces and influence others to do the same.