By Roman Dial
Dick Griffith, the grandfather of recent Alaskan journey, died in his sleep final week. He was 98.
By his 50s, a thick shock of white hair topped Dick’s head. Many people in our 20s hoped someday to be like him: Clint Eastwood in tennis sneakers and a backpack. However by the point our personal heads had grayed, we knew we might by no means be what he was: the particular person we meet as soon as in a lifetime and even then, provided that we’re fortunate.
I met Dick in 1982, the night time earlier than the inaugural Alaska Mountain and Wilderness Basic, then a weeklong carry-all-your-own-food-and-gear-without-roads-or-outside-help race throughout the Kenai Peninsula. He was 55 and had made dozens of untamed journeys for private reflection, not fame, fortune, or being first. That night time across the campfire, Dick didn’t point out any of his accomplishments, leaving me to surprise, “What is that this previous man doing right here initially of a 150-mile race throughout the wilderness?”
Quickly sufficient, he’d present us a path that may change our lives, a path he’d been blazing for many years.
In 1949, at 22 years previous, Dick met his future spouse, Isabelle, whereas retracing John Wesley Powell’s 1,200 mile journey from Inexperienced River, Wyoming, to the top of the Grand Canyon. She provided to assist finance the journey if she might go alongside.
They didn’t full the journey that yr. However they did fall in love. They married a yr later and returned to Inexperienced River in 1951. Collectively, they then made the primary full inflatable rubber raft journey down the Grand Canyon.
The next yr he and Isabelle took a small Air Power survival raft via the sprawling depths of Mexico’s Copper Canyon, making the primary descent of the Rio Urique.
When requested the place he discovered that little raft, he replied, “They have been in every single place after the struggle. You can purchase ’em for a greenback.”
Dick and Isabelle moved to Alaska in 1954 the place their two kids, Barney and Kimmer, have been born. 5 years later he flew north to the Arctic Ocean to stroll 500 miles from Kaktovik to Anaktuvuk Cross, throughout the North Slope and thru the Brooks Vary, residing off the land as he went.
Dick favored to recount that 50-day epic in his spare, understated method. “I left Barter Island with three canine and a accomplice. The accomplice went lame the primary week and flew out. One of many canine died. I ate the second. And the third one obtained sensible and ran off.”
Regardless of starvation and hardships with mosquitoes and river crossings, Dick made it to Anaktuvuk, the place he struck up enduring friendships with the Nunamiut folks he met there. They have been solely then settling down from their nomadic life.
Dick’s Anchorage dwelling has lengthy been embellished with the masks his Anaktuvuk pals carved, an emblem of how Dick’s life straddled pre-statehood and the trendy period.
Whereas his youngsters grew and he labored as an engineer, Dick’s adventures caught nearer to dwelling via the Nineteen Sixties and 70s. He returned to Anaktuvuk at age 50 to finish his Brooks Vary traverse from Kaktovik to Kotzebue along with his good good friend Bruce Stafford in 1977. His is the primary full documented traverse of that Arctic mountain vary.
Two years later he suffered a horrible harm when he froze his legs and buttocks throughout a blizzard on a solo Arctic ski journey. He spent a month within the frostbite unit in Anchorage the place, he recounted humbly, “They amputated my butt.”
However that didn’t cease him from heading again to the Arctic to ski huge distances alone.
At 61, he started a 4,000-mile journey from Unalakleet to Hudson Bay, throughout northern Alaska and thru the Northwest Passage. Almost each March or April for a decade he’d head north for a month or two of solo snowboarding.
As soon as, a polar bear adopted him for days. Ultimately the bear screwed up its braveness sufficient to slice his tent’s wall with a claw whereas Dick slept.
Missing a gun, Dick realized he needed to take artistic motion. He wrapped dozens of Tylenol and Advil in smoked salmon and left it on the snow. He by no means noticed the bear once more.
At age 73, after eight annual journeys, he reached Hudson Bay.
My very own age gives renewed and knowledgeable respect for the journeys he made in his 60s and past. Final yr I instructed him so. “How previous are you?” he requested. “Sixty-four? You’re solely 64? Nicely, you’re within the prime of your life!”
When he was 64, he skied 450 miles from Level Barrow to Barter Island alone, dragging every little thing he wanted in his sled for the month-long journey.
Whereas all of us watched Dick get older and proceed at post-retirement age to do what we younger ‘uns would by no means do, he instructed us, “Life is sort of a bicycle. In the event you cease shifting, you fall over.”
All through his 50s, 60s, and 70s, he continued to finish the annual Wilderness Basic races all throughout Alaska and row rafts down the Grand Canyon. He did his final Basic at 81. He rowed his final Grand Canyon journey at 89.
Dick’s wit was as legendary as his adventures. In that early Hope to Homer race, Dick unrolled an inflatable vinyl raft on the first of three rivers the remainder of us rightfully feared having to swim in our rain gear and backpacks. As his intent dawned on us, he placed on a furry Viking hat with delicate horns and chided us. “You younger guys could also be quick, however you eat an excessive amount of and don’t know nothin’!” For good measure he added that “previous age and treachery beat youth and ability each time.”
He then inflated what would finally be known as a packraft,” rowed throughout the churning glacial river, and waited to ensure all of us crossed safely. Dick wasn’t simply useful within the wilderness. Raised on a mud farm through the Despair, he as soon as wrote, “I used to be not born with a silver spoon in my mouth however I definitely intend to die with one.”
By constructing and sustaining his modest home within the Anchorage Hillside woods, avoiding all debt, residing frugally, and investing correctly, he made good on that promise and shared his success with the neighborhood. Particularly the Eagle River Customer Middle—and his pals in-need.
Apart from his monetary giving, vacation and Sunday dinners along with his “orphans” as he known as us, and serving to his neighbors, he gave of his time, too. Dick spent hours, days, and weeks unfold over many years hand-working Chugach State Park Trails, normally with different volunteers and sometimes with Boy Scouts incomes their advantage badges.
Virtually singlehandedly, he stored the Basic alive for the final 43 years. He’d host the pre-race dinner at his dwelling every year with an exquisite salad served up in a large picket bowl. He would drive racers to and from the race for over 30 years.
Most significantly, he introduced up the rear and corralled the stragglers, who discovered extra in per week with Dick then they did in all their earlier years of backcountry and wilderness journey.
Dick would by no means have identified that his journeys and generosity helped form the Alaskan out of doors sports activities world as we all know it. However these info collectively make him the legend he’s.
Farewell Dick, we’ll miss you in your subsequent nice journey.
