“One hell of a good time.”
If I had to sum up Mountain Readiness in a single sentence, that’d be it. One of the constant challenges I’ve had over the years is finding time to get to events like this one – they’re always held in the busiest times of the year for the training calendar. When you stay in high demand you have to make hay when the sun shines. Mountain Readiness is one of the new kids on the block, with my good friends Rob Toombs and the bard of American survivalism, Chris Weatherman setting out to do things a little differently a few years back, mating the bushcraft, prepper, and tactical worlds into an encapsulating event. Those two damn sure know how to throw a party and as everyone knows, so do I. We sat down and coordinated schedules last year to facilitate this year and made it happen. Damn glad I did.
The event in short time has become a who’s who of their respective scenes. Guys like Joe Flowers, world renowned blade designer and the force behind Condor Knives, Karl Ericsson of Tactical Rifleman, Special Forces legend Sue Laroux, and a mountain of others teaching, presenting and breaking bread with hundreds of people across three days. It was truly impressive what has been put together in a short amount of time but that owes to the caliber of people encompassing it.
My lone regret was that we stayed so busy during our time there I didn’t have much time to get away. But, shockingly, I linked up with an old friend and mentor from LRS I hadn’t seen in 16 years who’s now also running classes. He told me he jumped into the mix after reading The Guerrilla’s Guide to the Baofeng and it inspired him to also write. Personally that was a giant honor and meant the absolute world to me. We shared stories from Afghanistan on mission profiles that few even know about outside our little community. You never know where life takes you but its absolutely worth the ride.
Personally I was surprised at how many people were immediately ready to jump into NODs and thermals – we sold out of what we had on hand, prompting me to send one of the crew back to the shop to scoop up more. Gross underestimation on my part but one that certainly won’t be repeated. Its always a nice thing to underestimate a response like that. Of course driving under NODs helps things too.
In all, it was a great experience and one you want to be a part of this coming October. Meet me there.