Going to Extremes with Mark Jenkins

We all have a place we dream about. We have visited it without ever having set foot there. For me that place was the Mountains of the Moon, the Rwenzoris, in western Uganda. I dreamed about it for years: the massive glaciers on the equator, the hypertrophic plants, the constant rain and impenetrable mist. But it was only after I’d learned that global warming was radically altering these mountains, that I bought a plane ticket I went there.

One man made me a rock climber: Layne Kopishka. He was my high school swim coach and a P.E. instructor who taught young athletes how to climb on the granite walls of Vedauwoo, in southeastern Wyoming. He pushed us to become more than we were, and in the process, made us what we are today.