As a child, mountains were foreign to me. I grew up in a tiny Northern Wisconsin community; a region known to geologists as The Lost Mountains for about seven hundred millions years ago the area was covered with mountains that are thought to have resembled the Alps of today. Perhaps it was growing up on land that was once a mountain, perhaps it was the overwhelming insignificance I felt as a human; for when I first saw Alaska’s Coastal Mountains rise straight out of the ocean, I knew I was home.

I live in a valley surrounded by immeasurable glaciers and snowfields – places that may never see a human footprint. My new home is a land of relentless elegance carved by avalanches, earthquakes, violent winds, torrential rain, and heavy snow- all of which boast a country of raw, untouched beauty. I find peace in knowing that these glaciers could live on untouched, as they represent a chaotic beauty that I hope will survive for my children to call home.