What do you want to be when you grow up? A mountain guide! Or at least that's what I thought when my biggest "expedition" had been two weeks of camping with my family in the luscious Olympic National Forest in Washington State! Fast forward a handful of years to my mid teens and again, my answer to this very question was the same...to be a mountain guide of some capacity. This had been my answer anytime anyone asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up without the limitations of skill or finances. Fast forward again, and again, and again (I'm getting older even as I write!) My dreams of becoming a mountain guide drifted but never left. I would spend countless hours searching around the internet feverishly trying to find a "quick fix", or a "fast track" to the glory that I thought was being a mountain guide. Many, many, MANY times lack of finances and sub par skills blew me off the mountain and I had to retreat back down from that elusive peak in the clouds, defeated.
One day I saw the peak, the clouds had parted and I got a glimpse of what could be! This was the first time I came across the Mountain Training School. I was in my late 20's. I saw the peak I had dreamed of summiting for most of my life and I started running towards it only to get knocked flat on my ass when I discovered I didn't qualify even to apply...the clouds quickly rolled in and it seemed that my dreams of reaching the summit would never be.
At this point in my life I had had many trials and tribulations and even knew what it felt like to succeed, to be good at something, to advance. But I didn't want to advance as a personal trainer or wildland firefighter. I wanted to be a mountain guide! Always had and always will! But, at this point my dreams of such grandeur were only a picture on my wall, an idea in my head, a dream of a young boy in love with the mountains, rivers, the wild...
3 years passed and I hadn't given guiding another thought other than, oh if only I had had the foresight to do this when I was younger. I began to gain more skills, I began to get in arguably in some of the best shape my body has come to know! And then one day in early 2012 I came stumbling, crawling, and skeptically back to the Mountain Training School website to see what I was missing out on, to see what I could have had, to see what I would have done had I only been a decade or more younger, more of a badass climber and skier...That day I read through the requirements for admission probably a dozen times, quite the feat for someone who doesn't read much! I called, emailed, called, and emailed with Ben and Jaya for the next several months to get a grasp on their program, their philosophy, and vision. I applied to the Mountain Guide School in May of 2012 and got accepted! My dreams were finally going to come true!
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- Seth