This Fourth of July, a group of seven veterans and three guides from Montana Alpine Guides traded in fireworks, parades, and BBQ for a moonlit alpine sky, a heavy pack, and a steady diet of oatmeal packets and power bars. Heading into the Wind River Mountain Range for five days, we were all eager to summit Gannett Peak on Independence Day.
We left Jackson Hole early enough on July 2 to watch the sun rise over Wyoming as we drove to meet our guides in the town of Crowheart, population: 141. True to the cliché “blink and you’ll miss it,” we did just that. After turning around, we arrived at a gas station on the side of the highway where we were to meet Sam Margo and his team of guides, Peter and Aki. Ice tools and safety gear were handed out, and we divvied out food rations for the week.
Following a final layout of our gear, we loaded into two pickup trucks for the ride through the Wind River Reservation to the trailhead. Dan Shoemaker, the trip volunteer leader, and I breathed a collective sigh of relief. A short four weeks in the making, our first outing as co-leaders of Military Outdoors [MO] had begun.
The next five days were spent hiking 30 miles round trip through one of America’s most extraordinary and unspoiled environments. The Winds is an awe-inspiring place with vast stretches of untouched wilderness, sheer granite walls, alpine glaciers, and rugged mountain peaks. For most of us, this was our first MO outing and it was a remarkable opportunity to meet and connect with fellow veterans and to try to climb one of America's most challenging peaks. Although our group ultimately did not reach the summit, we all came together and shared an incredible experience that none of us will soon forget.
Over the course of the trip, I witnessed our team transform from a group of strangers to working closely as rope teams on Summit Day. By the final night, we felt like a family gathering for one last meal together before parting ways, until next time.
