posted by Treas Manning

Aaron Martin found his passion at an early age. At 16 Aaron had already accomplished his first major ascent on 19,850 ft. Mount Logan. He lived and worked in the mountain communities of Lake Tahoe’s north shore. He played in the mountains of Alaska, Canada, the Sierra Nevada and more.

Recently a friend of mine, Becky Moore, and a dear and close friend to Aaron, gave me a short, poetic writing that Aaron had written back in 1996. His writing was ahead of its time. Aaron wrote of preserving mountain communities and protecting them from large real estate development companies. Aaron loved Lake Tahoe and especially Squaw Valley. I could not help but ask myself, is Aaron watching our struggles from his final resting place high up on Mt. Saint Elias? Aaron lost his life in an attempt to ski from the mountain’s summit to sea level in April 2002.

Here are Aaron Martin, the mountain man’s, words written 18 years ago.

“Breathe
… As the solitude of the falling blanket drowned out the rest of the world, I realized that, now more than ever, perhaps it is time to look at what is important to us. Why we ski. Time to continue to carve out an existence for ourselves. Time for resort owners to acknowledge and preserve the communities that have existed long before the glossy developments went super nova. The concept is a perfect balance between real community and an atmosphere conducive to the winter business that helps our towns survive. Struggling to maintain the tourism balance, the environment, and the real character of a community in the end can only result in a more successful economy because the air breathes, and people can taste the truth.”

Aaron Martin
1996