The First Ascent

Chad watches attentively from the belay atop the first pitch, with a massive elongated splinter of rock looming over him.

Tracy Borland glances up at the camera from the last moves of the third pitch on the first ascent of "Rise" 5.9 in Reed Valley, Alaska.

Dane Ketner follows up the third pitch of this route in the summer of 2009.

Kelsey Gray drops through open space with his eyes scouring the gigantic granite overhang in front of him and the climbing potential thereon.

Lower Reed Lake rests peacefully in the arms of the Talkeetna Mountains as the last rays of the sun slip from the peaks.

Tracy Borland stands at a newly installed anchor which will allow future climbers to avoid trusting their lives to the leaning column atop the first pitch, with Lower Reed Lake beautifying the scenery below.

Moss grows on the faded and weathered knot that my own hands tied five years before.