We aim to be flexible and adaptable, even in the eleventh hour as they say, which is absolutely appropriate in the hiking world, mostly for safety reasons… but not always. Sometimes things just change and we try to be easy going about it. After all, as guides, the day doesn’t revolve around us but rather it revolves around our guests. Redline Guide Chase Hall knows this, especially since this oft-returning guest has also become a friend (which happens a lot in this industry). The guest in this case is working on his GRID — bagging every 4000-footer in every month of the year — and Chase, who has done this thing himself, has been there for a lot of this endeavor helping our guest with this massive journey. Photos to follow, but first Chase’s summary…
The original plan was to attempt Jefferson to Pierce with a car spot but at the last moment I got a late night text from my guest asking if we could pivot and attempt something else that was less windy and had some tree cover. I said ‘of course let’s hike the Bonds.’ We had multiple conversations leading up to this hike but at the last hour the winds just didn’t calm down so we chose a better hike for the day. It was fun and got three more summits knocked off his GRID list. We are versatile, well rounded, and smart guides here at Redline Guiding. We want our guests to have the best hike of their lives. The only big windy section of the hike was getting off Bondcliff and hiking up to Mt Bond, everything else was great. I would never ever put my guest in any danger when it comes to picking hikes if the weather was nasty. That saying in echoing in our heads ‘the Mountains will always be there tomorrow.’ I’ve hiked with this guest for more than twenty hikes and while we maintain a professional relationship, we’ve become very good friends. We respect each other’s ability to make each other laugh and to complete the hike. —Chase
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