We become the things we do.
This is a case study of my successful summit attempt of Mt. Rainier via the Ingraham Glacier Direct route in June of 2018. I made the climb with two friends I met while completing the Alpine Institute's "Alpine Mountaineering and Technical Leadership course" in April of 2017.
After I earned my Open Water and Advanced diving certs, I set a goal of visiting two of the world's top diving locations within the next year. First up was the Galápagos. I contacted one of my buddies from film school and planned a two week trip over the 2017-18 New Year's holiday. With film and photography backgrounds, we both desired to visually document our dives. This meant I needed to learn underwater photography and purchase or rent the necessary equipment.
Diving in the Galápagos quickly became one of my top goals after completing PADI Open Water and Advanced certifications over Labor Day weekend in 2017. Just before the New Year's holiday, my friend Joe and I headed south to explore the islands and document the marine life. Based on our experiences, I prepared a guide to help make the trip logistics a little less daunting for others.
The Pennsylvania spring water was as cold as you might expect in September, and the visibility during my nav dive was about six feet. As my buddy and I left the submerged platform at 40 feet, we took turns navigating by compass. The buddy without the compass kept watch on the depth and signaled if we needed to ascend or descend to maintain position.
Following my Everest and Kilimanjaro treks, I had a strong desire to summit more technical peaks. Living in Washington, D.C., I had access to the Appalachian range – good for trail running, camping and a little rock climbing – but not mountaineering. For that training, I turned west and headed to the Cascades.
This is a case study of my successful Kilimanjaro summit ascent via the Machame route in January 2017. When I landed at Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania, I had neither booked the climb nor a room for my first night. This was what I wanted – an unstructured, off-the-grid experience that would sharpen my ability to improvise and allow me to more meaningfully engage with the people I encountered.
This is a case study of my 12-day trek, roundtrip from Kathmandu, to Everest Base Camp (EBC) in October 2016. A childhood friend, who was living and working in Nepal, invited me to join her for the trek and celebrate Diwali in Kathmandu.
With the help of a flight simulator developed by Cambridge University students, a rented GPS device and a homemade gimbal, I launched, tracked and recovered a high-altitude balloon system that took photos of the earth from the stratosphere.
Using easily obtainable materials, I built a high-altitude balloon payload and lift system to take photos of earth from the stratosphere.
In the fall of 2014, I started thinking about sites around the world that were rapidly changing due to the upward march of global temperatures. Forefront in my mind were the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. I felt I should visit them sooner, rather than later. Although Mendenhall had been in retreat since the end of the Little Ice Age, I knew the rate was rapidly increasing. I had also heard stories about unbelievable glacial caves created by the ice melt.
