Category: Alaska News

Tlingit master weaver Lily Hope will use a $50,000 national fellowship she was awarded this year to help organize the first Northwest Coast Textile Symposium in Juneau. 

“The perpetuation of Northwest Coast textiles is my life now and into the future,” Hope said. “My dream life is continuing to vision and fundraise and connect the humans and artists and changemakers to continue to lift Chilkat and Ravenstail weaving.”

The United States Artists awardees for 2026 is nomination based, and Hope said she was first nominated six years ago. She remained in the pool by reapplying every year. The fellowship money is unrestricted and can be used to support the artist however she wishes. 

Hope said she is using it to make history.

Eighty to 100 robes are expected altogether at the “Gathering of the Robes.” The textile symposium is scheduled for April 14-17, 2027, at Centennial Hall. A website launched in February and is accepting interest forms and donations. 

“The Gathering of the Robes will bring together the largest dancing collection of both curvilinear Chilkat weaving and geometric Ravenstail weaving in the history of the world,” Hope said. “Many, many students of my own and of my mother, students of my students. Multiple generations deep of the people that I have taught are now teaching also, so we’ve got that depth of mentorship.”

Hope held a small gathering of 22 Chilkat robes in the past, and a separate event for nearly 40 Ravenstail robes in 2024. Both events were celebrations of the revival of the traditional craft. But Hope said both styles of textiles haven’t danced together as they will at the 2027 symposium.

“I know what it’s like to have Chilkats dancing in one place, and we experienced the joy of having Ravenstail together,” she said. “But this has never happened where we have the ancestral memory of Chilkat work and the woken-up memory of Ravenstail in the same space. The spirit being, or the ancestral resonance that is present when these works are dancing, is deeply felt by any person present.”

Hope said the emotional resonance living in the robes is difficult to put into words. 

She said the most exciting thing about next year’s symposium is three days of dedicated time to gather and share knowledge in a large space. Tables will be set up for vendors and weavers can throw down robes that are works in progress. 

“Tricks of the trade” will also be discussed, and weavers will have the opportunity for mentorship. Hope herself has taught hundreds of traditional weavers. 

She said during the symposium, historic Ravenstail robes rewoven by 11 students and weaver colleagues will dance once again in a ceremony, titled the Ravenstail Symbolic Repatriation project. 

Other projects are closer to completion and at Hope’s fingertips.

She and Sydney Akagi, her weaving colleague, worked on a Chilkat dancing blanket for the de Young Museum in San Francisco for nearly two years. It was dropped off at the museum on Thursday.

The blanket is a close replica of a work in the American Museum of Natural History. Akagi is a former student of Hope’s and was recently chosen by Sealaska Heritage Institute to lead the weaving of a historic Chilkat robe made entirely of mountain goat wool for the first time in more than 150 years. 

The second “Weaving Our Pride” robe, a rainbow-colored Ravenstail, is also “inches away from completion.” Hope said it will be ready to dance at this year’s Celebration in June, SHI’s biennial cultural event.

The first, a Chilkat Pride robe, danced for the first time during Celebration in 2024. The project for both robes began in 2023. Wooden cases are also being built for both Pride robes to be stored at Zach Gordon Youth Center, the same place where they are being woven in the community. For the Ravenstail, five mentor weavers, and over 20 Alaska Native and non-Native youth have woven at the youth center for over two years.

After completion, the robes can be worn by youth during the biennial Celebration, graduations, new-name parties, coming-out parties, and other events.

“Witnessing the student who had put in the most hours on this work get to help us cut it off the loom and then drape it on their shoulders — it was one of the highlights of 2024,” Hope said. “Being able to witness this person experience the completion, but also the literal pride of participating in making something bigger than themselves, and the affirmation of identity and community, love and belonging.”

Hope said the same sense of belonging applies to a “Giving Strength” robe being woven for the AWARE shelter for domestic and sexual violence survivors. It was started in 2018.

This robe is also nearing completion, with just its bottom borders needing to be finished. Heidi Vantrease inspired the “Giving Strength” robe after posting a small teal and purple weaving on the Ravenstail and Chilkat Facebook group, captioning it “I am weaving this for someone who has been deeply affected by sexual and domestic violence, and I am being intentional about putting in my strength and prayers for healing.”

Hope said, “If it’s not us personally, it is someone close to us who has been affected.” She noted the statistics for Alaska Natives experiencing domestic and sexual violence in particular are “staggering.” 

She reached out to Vantrease and asked if volunteers could weave a community robe inspired by her work for the AWARE shelter. More than 60 volunteers are creating 5-by-5-inch weavings to stitch together in a larger teal and purple robe, the colors representing sexual and domestic violence awareness. 

Hope said the “Giving Strength” robe’s collaborative style echoes a community robe her late mother, Clarissa Rizal, envisioned and executed in 2016 called “Weaving Across the Waters.” It is on display at the Longhouse Weaver Studio at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Once the “Giving Strength” robe is finished, it will remain at the AWARE shelter.

“When else do you get to experience the strength of 60 artists on your shoulders? Imagine coming in from whatever you’ve just experienced over however long the abuse was happening, and you come into the AWARE shelter, and the first thing they do is set your bags down — ‘put this robe on,’” she said. “That’s why we do the work. Set down the grief and fear and rage and feel the strength of 60 people who say, ‘You can do really hard things.’”

Hope said the $50,000 fellowship she received is also “affording me this beautiful space of looking at my last 15 years of work and being able to contemplate what is next.” Most importantly, she said, it is allowing her to exhale while pondering future steps.

She closed her public studio last fall to recenter her artistic intentions after a conversation with weaver Shdendootaan “Shgen” George. It still serves as a working studio. Hope said she is thinking about creating a Chilkat blanket for her clan, the T’akdeintaan.

“What is the most sensible thing that helps to not just elevate Northwest Coast textiles, but continue my particular body of work?” she asked. “What happens if I get to make work for my own homeland? What if it isn’t about the monetization of ceremonial artwork? What do I make when I get to think about keeping something in my clan or family?”

This story was originally published by the Juneau Independent.

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The head of the Alaska Division of Elections will not share legal advice that led to the state’s decision to send an extended voter list to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Director Carol Beecher told state senators Wednesday that she will not waive attorney-client privilege as state lawmakers examine last year’s decision to give the Trump administration a detailed list of Alaska voters.

Alaska is one of 12 states that have either turned over their voter lists or have said they plan to comply with a nationwide request, according to records kept by the Brennan Center, a critic of the administration’s request.

Alaska and Texas are also the only states to have signed a memorandum of understanding that would allow the Department of Justice to pick individual voters for eventual removal from state lists of eligible voters.

Neither elections officials nor the Alaska Department of Law have explained why the state voluntarily complied with the request and signed the memo, or how compliance fits within the Alaska Constitution’s right to privacy.

Last week, Idaho became the latest state to reject the Department of Justice’s request for voter information, joining dozens of others.

That state’s Secretary of State said in a letter to federal officials that filings in a lawsuit showed that the department had shared sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, with “unauthorized persons,” and as a result, he could not guarantee that Idahoans’ identities would be safe.

In a pair of legislative hearings this week, Alaska lawmakers were unable to learn why Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, Beecher, and the Alaska Department of Law reached a different conclusion.

Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, grilled Beecher during a Wednesday hearing, pressing her to release the legal advice she received before the Division of Elections turned over its voter list.

“This is an issue of grave concern for hundreds of thousands of Alaskans, and you have the ability to provide us with those documents. You have the ability to waive any potential privilege. Would you be willing to do that?” he asked.

“At this point, I am not willing to waive that privilege,” she said. 

Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, D-Anchorage, asked Beecher whether the department made a mistake by sharing the voter data and signing the memo that would allow the federal government to single out individual Alaskans.

“I do not, at this juncture, believe that the division made a mistake in signing the MOU,” she said.

This week’s toughest questions came from Democratic lawmakers. Beecher and Dahlstrom are both Republicans, and Dahlstrom is also a candidate for governor in this fall’s elections.

Republican lawmakers were generally silent in this week’s hearings. 

Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage and chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said he was “in an awkward position” and reached out to a variety of experts in an attempt to avoid bias in a hearing he held on Monday.

During that hearing, Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, said he sees the state’s compliance as something like following the speed limit.

“When the federal government makes a law, we’re expected to follow it … it’s the federal government’s job, through whomever, to ensure that law is followed, and from what I understand, the federal government was merely attempting to make sure that Alaska followed the National Voter Registration Act,” he said.

The information transmitted to the Department of Justice goes beyond the publicly available voter information purchasable from the Division of Elections for $20. 

It contains personally identifying information, such as birthdates, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

In a legal analysis performed last month, legislative attorneys called the DOJ’s request “unprecedented” and said the division’s handover would be legal only if the federal government requested the information “in compliance with federal law” and used “the information only for governmental purposes authorized under law.”

As of Wednesday, three separate federal judges — in Oregon, California and Michigan — have ruled that the federal government’s request is not in compliance with federal law. 

Of the 48 states and the District of Columbia that have been asked for their voter lists, 29 and DC are fighting the federal government in court. The federal government has won none of those cases to date.

Legislative attorney Andrew Dunmire said he is also unaware of any federal law that allows the federal government to single out individual voters for removal from voter lists, as the MOU states.

On Wednesday, Beecher said the Department of Justice has not yet requested that any voters be removed from Alaska’s list. In addition, Dahlstrom said in December that the state would comply with the MOU only if the federal government’s actions are legal.

But with the Alaska Department of Law and the Division of Elections stonewalling legislators, it isn’t clear what the state considers a legal request. 

In September, the Justice Department told Stateline that it is sharing the voter data with the Department of Homeland Security, and the Trump administration has previously said it intends to input the voter lists into a nationwide registry to look for noncitizens.

The DHS tool for that effort has repeatedly flagged citizens in error, ProPublica reported last month.

Speaking to legislators this week, former Alaska attorney general Bruce Botelho advised lawmakers to continue searching for the legal advice given to elections officials by the Alaska Department of Law.

He also suggested that legislators consider filing a lawsuit to have the agreement with the Department of Justice declared illegal.

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Correction: The initial version of this article incorrectly listed the number of states that have provided voter lists to the federal government. Alaska is one of 12 states that has either turned over voter data or is planning to do so.

Less than two weeks before they’re set to come to Haines, the Freeride World Tour has canceled events in Europe and Asia — a reminder of the borough’s financial risk. 

The Freeride World Tour, a company owned by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation, is scheduled to hold six events this year, with Haines as the tour’s lone U.S. stop. 

One event was scheduled for Kühtai, Georgia. But on Feb. 20, the company announced it was postponing the Kühtai stop because of “unstable snowpack conditions.” The event was rescheduled for the following week and relocated to Innsbruck, Austria. But that event, too, was canceled because of avalanche danger. 

A similar cancellation in Haines would be costly to local taxpayers. To bring Freeride to town, the Haines Borough is paying the company a $75,000 lump sum. 

According to the official event contract, if the competition is cancelled, the borough would still have to pay the full sum of money. If the event is rescheduled elsewhere, the borough would be on the hook for half its payment. 

The borough was originally responsible for an additional $25,000 worth of in-kind donations to Freeride, but it seems outside entities have now covered those costs. Palmer Project owner Viszla Copper has donated $25,000 to the event, First National Bank Alaska has donated $5,000, and Delta Western has donated $2,000. 

Alaska Seaplanes, The Aspen Hotel, AP&T, Haines Packing, Community Waste Solutions, Alaska Mountain Guides and Discover Deishú are also making in-kind donations, borough tourism director Reba Hylton said. Alaska Mountain Guides and Discover Deishú will also be compensated for providing busing. 

Risk Factors

The likelihood of the event being canceled is hard to pin down, and there are multiple factors at play.

In Haines, avalanche risk was elevated earlier this winter after a long, windy, dry spell in December followed by heavy precipitation and warming temperatures, said Jeff Moskowitz of the Alaska Avalanche Center. However, time and more snowfall have covered some of those issues. 

“Right now there’s pretty decent stability,” Moskowitz said Monday. “The stuff that had caused a lot of the avalanches back in January is pretty deep down in the snowpack.”

Now, forecasters are more focused on avalanche risk brought about by recent wind.

But broadly, it’s impossible to say exactly what snowpack conditions might look like in two weeks, Moskowitz said. Avalanche risk factors like heavy precipitation, rapid warming or high winds could yet change the outlook.

Moskowitz and the Alaska Avalanche Center will continue to issue forecasts for the Chilkat Valley, but will not specifically work with Freeride. 

Conditions in the air will also be a major factor, with helicopters flying skiers to the start of their runs. 

Freeride has scheduled a nine-day weather window for their single-day competition. Back in November, Alaska Heliskiing owner Sean Brownell told the CVN that Haines heliskiing operators generally have a 50% fly rate, meaning helicopters can get off the ground on roughly half the days of the season. Brownell’s company is the permitted operator for the event, but he did not respond to questions this week about what services Alaska Heliskiing will provide during the event. 

Staff at the Freeride World Tour have not responded to any questions from the CVN for the past year, including phone calls and emails last spring and fall, and questions this week. 

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After three years as a finalist, the Haines Borough Public Library has won the 2026 National Medal for Museum and Library Services, the nation’s highest honor for libraries. 

The Institute of Museum and Library Services awards the medal each year to five libraries and five museums nationwide. The Haines library is the only Alaska institution recognized this year. 

And that recognition is rare for Alaska organizations. Between 2000 and 2026, just six organizations in the state have gotten it, including the Alaska Resource Library and Information Service in Anchorage, Homer’s Pratt Museum, Craig Public Library, the Alaska State Museum in Juneau, the Kuskokwim Consortium Library in Bethel and now the Haines Borough Public Library, according to IMLS data. 

Library director Reba Heaton said the award recognizes years of programming and partnerships aimed at serving the entire community. 

Among the initiatives cited in the library’s application were programs developed with the Chilkoot Indian Association, including the International Cultural Exchange, which brought speakers from the Yukon, British Columbia and Juneau, and the Chilkoot-Chilkat Storyboard project, which teaches Lingít language, place names and history in the Chilkat Valley. That partnership has seen hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding for library programs. 

Heaton said the IMLS also cited the library’s youth programming, including trail walks, and a healthy snacks program. 

The library is one of the community’s most heavily used public spaces. In 2024, patrons checked out more than 15,000 books, including more than 8,000 children’s titles, according to library statistics. 

As her office has done in the past, Sen. Lisa Murkowski nominated the library for the honor. The Haines library was a finalist for the award in 2021, 2017, and 2016. 

Heaton said the process was “a little weird” this year as the IMLS did not announce finalists. 

“IMLS was sort of discombobulated with the funding, not funding,” Heaton said. 

In March of 2025, President Trump targeted the agency for elimination with an executive order. The proposal created uncertainty for museums and libraries across the country that rely on IMLS funding, including in the Chilkat Valley where they reduced hours and staff.  But that federal funding was returned in December after 21 states sued. 

“I just got a phone call. Oh, congratulations you won. OK, there was no finalist warning. I have no idea who the finalists were,” Heaton said. 

In the past, winners of the award have traveled to Washington, D.C, and been presented it by the First Lady. But Heaton said she was not sure it would happen that way again this year, she was still waiting on travel and ceremony details. 

For now, she said, staff are basking in the glow of the announcement. 

“I got a flooded email inbox, congratulating Haines,” she said. 

Now, they have to figure out how to celebrate. 

“We’ll do something. Obviously, it’s known. But I think we should brag about it a little bit ourselves,” she said. 

Heaton said the award is valuable because it comes with $10,000 and a lot of attention from outsiders which can be valuable for things like grant-writing. 

“Having the Best Small Library in America in 2005 and then the national medal in 2026 … puts us on the radar of people around the country,” she said. “They say, okay this is a city that supports a library that does that. It says what the people are like. The people support their library. We can’t do this with an unfunded library.”

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Great news for brewery patrons on a random Tuesday in February: Leslee Downer was cleaning out her fridge, which would not usually be of note. Downer shared some high quality garden leftovers including zucchini relish, pickled eggs, red peppers, cauliflower and hotdogs. Scott Rossman was thrilled.

Richard Cook escaped the winter weather in Haines for the winter weather in New York City. One red-eye flight and a pricey Uber ride landed him in the best hostel that he has ever stayed at. Cook met up with his cousin for brunch, enjoyed walking the city, ate a pretzel as he strolled across the Brooklyn Bridge, rode the Staten Island ferry with his daughter, Kara Cook,and they were off for warmer weather in Costa Rica. The two enjoyed horseback riding with friends. Richard Cook took surfing lessons, with excellent results, while Kara Cook — excited about the possibility of crocodiles — did some beachcoming instead. No crocodiles were encountered. They did a guided tour of Corcovado National Park and did see tapirs, anteaters, monkeys, stunning birds and the golden silk orb-weaving spider. They wrapped up the vacation with sushi and margaritas. 

The annual wild game feed at the New Hope Fellowship church featured a raffle for the kids that did not disappoint. Fishing poles, a handy machete, a hunting bow and other sporting equipment were just a few of the prizes  handed out by pastor Sage Thomas. Fishing and hunting stories were swapped and a slide show with proof of the adventures was the backdrop for an amazing buffet of potluck-style dishes shared. There was halibut, goat, moose enchiladas, and even a moose-poop dessert, not made of moose or by moose. Candace Hall’s rabbit with home-grown carrots was a stand-out. Kim Rosado’s ducks had their moment to shine, with duck eggs for everyone. Heather Rogers’ cornbread complemented the chili very nicely, especially when adding spicy kelp pickles on the side. 

February can be a difficult time to predict weather between Haines and Whitehorse. Debra Schnabel and her brother Roger Schnabel decided to roll the dice recently and spent an unplanned two-day hiatus in the Yukon. Due to challenging road conditions and  a series of unfortunate events, they ended up at a lackluster movie with perfectly buttered popcorn. Debra says that she loves a good “crime thriller,” and the movie “ Rip” would have been ideal, but her brother was intent on seeing the latest version of  Wuthering Heights. The two did manage to drop off a vehicle for a new windshield, so the trip was still a success. Doug Olerud had a different border experience recently. He learned that a single orange safety cone does not signify a pothole hidden beneath it, and he should not go around it. Olerud realized that it signifies a driver should pause, as Canadian Customs is not open. The Canadian border agent explained the situation. As of deadline, Katrina Zahnow and family are spending some unplanned time in the Yukon as well, she says they are off to the hot spring or swimming pool to regroup and make a plan and check 511 Yukon often to see when the road has reopened??…

The ice safety and rescue course offered at Chilkoot Lake last past weekend was a chilling experience for Peter Kohlstedt. Kohlstedt is one of the seven that attended the Friday presentation and Saturday hands-on training, which boasted temperatures around 10 degrees. He enjoyed being in a drysuit to practice his new ice-breaking skills, but also took the opportunity to go for a quick cold dip without the drysuit. Kohlstedt says that the day was made even better when Kate and Mark Finley smoked a brisket and shared it post cold dip.

Carol LaVerne Clifton, longtime Haines resident artist, cake decorator and mother of six died in Juneau on Feb. 27 at the age of 88. A full obituary will follow.

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The sunlight is fading over the Haines Highway and it’s bitterly cold, but Robert Reid is moving methodically up a chunk of ice near the airport. 

Ten feet above the Haines Highway, he chips away at the face of a slab until he can find a steady hold, then tests his weight on it over and over again before he finally shifts fully onto his crampons to take the next step. 

There isn’t a rope or an ice anchor in sight; Reid is free-soloing, without climbing protection. And, while he’s only 10 to 12 feet up from the ground, the consequences are high. Ice climbing requires sharp-edged crampons and ice tools, so a fall can lead to deep lacerations, stab wounds or broken bones. 

There’s little margin for error and Reid likes it that way. 

“It’s the purest form of climbing. It’s just you and the ice or the mountain. It’s completely dependent on your competence and the conditions and your ability to judge them,” he said. 

And, while that sentiment is conveyed with the confidence of someone who has been climbing for decades, this is the 25-year-old’s first season climbing. Reid moved to Haines last year to work for SECON. 

He doesn’t really have anyone here yet, and said there’s no one in his family to ask about what he’s learning and how he’s doing.  “My parents aren’t around anymore,” he said. “My dad died when I was 23, of cancer, and my mom … passed away when I was young.” 

There are plenty of other climbers here, and, upon hearing of Reid, many seemed to reflexively offer help. 

“I’ve got some ice anchors he could use,” said John Svenson. Once a mountain guide and climber, Svenson is now widely known for his paintings of mountaineering. 

“Ice climbers come and go but there’s not like a group [in the Chilkat Valley]. There used to be, but we’ve all kind of grown up,” he said. 

Reid is right at the beginning of that journey. He was born in Fairbanks, grew up largely in Arizona with stints in Hawaii and California. But, he describes his time in California as an economic prison and once he graduated with a construction management degree he said he beelined back to Alaska. 

“I’ve had an interest in climbing since 2018 when Free Solo came out,” Reid said.  

That documentary follows Alex Honnold as he climbs the 3,000-foot El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, with no rope. 

It’s an alternative route to making it to the top of a mountain — one that doesn’t require chartering a plane and hauling a bunch of expensive gear around. While he was reading, he stumbled across the phrase “blue-collar alpinism.” 

“I couldn’t think of a better way to describe it because… there are places where you just have to suffer to get there. You have to cut through brush and alder and there’s moose and bears. It’s so inaccessible,” he said. “That’s what leaves some of those peaks unascended.” 

And it’s those peaks he’s aiming for. Reid is drawn to the range of steep, glaciated mountains within view of the Chilkat Valley where few routes are documented and, in some cases, may be unclimbed. 

He started up his first ice route on Dec. 21 on a low-angle piece of ice. “So if I fell I would slide down it and come straight down,” he said. 

Since that time he said he’s set five solo ice routes, three along Lutak and the rest up the Haines Highway. He’s reading books, including one by Canadian ice climber Will Gadd, the first person to ice climb Niagara Falls. Then he’s going out, practicing the fundamentals, and learning to read the ice. 

“The ice changes every season. The medium is always fluctuating,” he said. “If you’re not precise and accurate enough, you could very well fracture the medium that you’re climbing on.” 

There’s a route he called Nosebleeds near the one he was climbing at sunset on the Haines Highway. Part of that one flaked away and at the top the ice was hollow.

“I had to commit my front crampon to a mixed move because I was putting it on rock. Then commit a lot of weight onto that while I’m hooking underneath where the water had washed out underneath this little channel and you can’t swing at that or you’re going to fracture the edge of it,” he said. “So there’s a time and place to be precise and there’s a time where you… need to smash the ice out of the way and get to the good ice. So I’m just playing that game.” 

As Reid talks, he seems to vacillate between the why and the how of what he’s doing.“I don’t want to die. I like living. It’s alright,” he said. 

For Reid, one of the hardest parts of climbing in Haines so far hasn’t been the ice, it has been finding a partner. 

“Climbing is pretty cliquish,” he said. “You’re trusting someone with your life when you’re on belay.” 

So, for now, he’s practicing alone, on short routes close to the road, working on fundamentals and slowly expanding what he attempts. 

Svenson said that kind of isolation is partly a function of the Chilkat Valley. Unlike places like Juneau, with easily accessible rock or large climbing scenes and a gym, Haines has always had a smaller, more scattered community of climbers. 

He said at times there have been groups climbing the frozen waterfalls along the highway or near the cannery, but those waves tend to pass as people move away or find other hobbies.  

And, Svenson said, in the Chilkat Valley, climbing has traditionally been more expedition-oriented – long approaches, remote terrain, and partners ready to spend days or weeks moving through mountains and glaciers. 

For beginners especially, Svenson said, the safest approach is to rope up and climb with a partner. Particularly along ice flows near town where top ropes can be anchored to trees and allow climbers to practice without committing to a fall. 

“You can protect each other.” There’s no reason to climb unprotected, he said. 

But not everyone who hears of Reid’s experiments sees them as recklessness. Ryan Irvin, a snowboarder and climber who has spent years in the mountains, said the sport’s history is rooted in people figuring things out for themselves. 

In his view, modern climbing culture – especially around rock gyms and mountaineering courses – has become structured. Cautious. 

“I think the generation we’re in, it has gotten sanitized a bit,” he said. 

Reid’s approach, Irvin said, echoes an older mentality: “It was all about taking risks and gumption.” 

Irvin knows firsthand how quickly small mistakes can cascade.  A few years ago, while ice climbing in Valdez, he was lowered off the end of a rope and fell about 45 feet, breaking his ankle and injuring his wrists. When he looks back on it now, Irvin said that the accident was the result of several small failures. A rope without a knot at the end, a partner distracted by falling ice and a climb he hadn’t reviewed beforehand. 

“A lot of little mistakes added up,” he said. The experience changed how he thinks about risk. 

But at the same time, when he hears about what Reid is doing it reminds him of his own journey into climbing. 

“I did have a good partner but he wasn’t any more skilled than me necessarily. We were both just reading … we kind of just went and figured it out,” he said. “Going back, I kind of feel like that’s the energy of climbing to some extent. Not everybody is going to get an amazing mentor. 

Longtime Haines climber Norm Hughes also recognizes the same impulse Reid has that drove Hughes into the sport a decade ago. He moved to Alaska in the mid-1980s and largely taught himself how to ice climb when there were few partners around. 

“You look back and think: that was really stupid, or I got really lucky,” he said. 

And, he warns about lifelong injuries. 

“I used to break dance. ****ed my knee up, got two surgeries in one year,” he said. “Now, my knee, it’s talking to me a little. Is it worth it? I don’t know. I love dancing.” 

Hughes thinks Reid will find a partner. 

“A buddy will find him. He’s climbing next to the highway, eventually someone’s going to stop,” he said. 

He spends hours studying the terrain on digital mapping tools, switching between satellite layers on CalTopo and older accounts of expeditions, trying to understand how other climbers have approached them. He sees possibility in the remote ridgelines. 

One peak in particular has caught his attention, though he’s asked that it remains unnamed. It’s near Mount Emmerich and doesn’t seem to have seen a lot of climbing activity since the mid-20th century. It has been hard to track down information about it. 

“There’s probably three or four photos that exist of that thing. But I haven’t seen any videos,” he said. 

He feels uniquely positioned to reach that objective, living here within sight of it. But the challenge is building the skills required to reach peaks safely, and for now that means getting as much experience as possible. The short ice routes he’s been climbing this winter are the beginning of that process. 

On a recent trip up Mount Ripinsky, Reid said he came within a few hundred feet of the summit before turning around as the sun was starting to set. Physically, he’s certain he could have reached the top. 

But reaching the summit is just one measure of success and he repeats an old adage like an incantation. Turning around was the right decision and he’s proud of himself for making it. 

“Going up is optional, descending is mandatory,” he said. 

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