 The first time I ever came to Haynes, I was a young 20-year-old. I'd been on filming trips to the interior British Columbia and other locations, but this felt pretty real in comparison. I'm Michelle Parker, 21 years old. I live in Squaw Valley. I was born in Truckee. I'm here in Haynes. In a way, I was in over my head, but I think that might be kind of the feeling that most people get when they come to Alaska for the first time. I was looking to ride bigger lines and longer lines and all that, and then come to Alaska and it's pretty intense. I didn't get one ski shot that I'm proud of to this day. I just said yes to the opportunities that came my way and took them and showed up and did my best, and that wasn't always amazing. I didn't come here every single year, but I learned every time I came. Now that we're here again, it's like, yeah, it's kind of surreal. You just remember yourself when you were 20 years old and had wide eyes, but to come back with a totally different mindset is really, really special. Day one here in Haynes, it's pretty serendipitous. The last time I was here was 2015 with Lexi, so probably my last runs in Haynes were with her, and I couldn't think of a better person to be back here with. Shred, buddy. Alaska is like this heightened environment for what we do. It's the big wave of surfing. Not until you lift up in the helicopter and fly over that first ridge do you really get to see how powerful this place is. There's a lot of cornices and there's a lot of cracks and there's glaciers and there's so many things out here that you have to be in tune with and pay attention to. You also see the snow quality down low is changing and you've got a bunch of stuff that's not only split out, but I see good snow up high there. I remember 10 years ago looking up these mountains and being super scared and feeling like I was almost out of my element. 12 years deep, you finally come back with that feeling of experience and it feels really good and it's really cool to reflect on the journey for me to get here. 10 years ago when I came up here the concept of having an all-women's group was far from my train of thought. Then all of a sudden that totally changed. I was in the mountains with Tatum and Lex. It was really the first time that I felt like a huge growth in my self-confidence in the mountains. That trip alone really elevated my career and the way that I viewed female partners in the mountains. Helly takes off after towing you in or landing you on top of your line. I always try to take a moment to appreciate that moment in between the chaos. You're in this incredibly remarkable location and everywhere you look it is absolutely beautiful. That's when I really start trying to be hyper-present with what I'm about to do and then I just visualize and I close my eyes and I breathe deeply and I think about exactly what I'm gonna do and I focus and I visualize over and over and over again. And if I visualize myself crashing I like push that aside. You just focus on what you're doing in that moment. Yes, I'm good to go. Scratchy beneath it but still totally edgable in all time. I guess it was when I was 21 and I came up to Alaska afterwards. JP gave me a bunch of photos and he printed one out and it was of, I think it was like caffeine and triple shot. It was like somewhere right in this general area and I had that photo on my wall for a really, really long time. Years later I went back to revisit that area with matchstick. It's a huge face. It's actually kind of typically bigger than what you would normally seek out in Alaska. I chose a line that I thought I could manage but I was super nervous. And right before the exit I went a little bit too far right and my tails got taken out, lost a ski and I was swearing the whole time and I was totally fine but that's where I learned my lesson about slough management. That line on caffeine's been on my mind since that day. Three miles, two off Echo. I buy five, two off Echo. Yeah, moving the crew over to Caffeine Ridge. Reggie mentioned Caffeine Ridge which definitely rang a bell. I like it. It looks nice. It's just a question of getting me landed. This line is like one of the bigger, more complicated lines that I've ever dropped into and I studied it for a while. If you start over by the cornice and kind of just start working it across because you know there's going to be slough barreling there. Yeah. That would play. After talking about it for could be 30 minutes of back and forth banter, she looks at me and I look at her and we both kind of nod and go, yeah, that's the one. Let's do it. Drop in, stay on the right side. Cross over to the left side. Lose elevation. Don't get in your slough and there's an exit air. Go fast. You get the 10 second count and like, all right. Here goes nothing. Michelle is ready as soon as camera guys give us 100%. There is a scheme here. The first thing that comes to mind is it feels different to be in that moment with 100% confidence. That feels really good. That feels like you're totally in control of what you're doing and that's like the ultimate moment of presence. There's nothing that beats that.