Hot Drinks - Stories From The Field

Today our guest is James "KG" Kagambi, Senior NOLS Instructor and the owner of KG Mountain Expeditions. He joined NOLS  as a field instructor in 1987. KG has worked many curses types over the years but regularly works in NOLS mountaineering programs in Patagonia, Alaska, East Africa, and India. KG is not only a senior NOLS instructor; he is the most senior, having more weeks in the field than any other instructor in the history of the school! He has over 870 weeks in the field working for NOLS, that is more than 6000 nights!!

He has also completed four of the Seven Summits and in 1992 represented Africa in the U.N Peace Climb for the world on the Eiger. In addition, KG has summited the Eiger three times, became the first black African to summit Denali in 1989 and was the first black African to summit Aconcagua in 1994.

KG has guided on Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro since the 1990s and Today trains search and rescue teams on Mount Kenya, Kilimanjaro, and Rwenzori. KG's long-lasting commitments to the field of rock climbing and mountaineering in Kenya have prompted acknowledgment and respect in his country. While he is away from the field, he enjoys spending time with his family and children.

In May, at 62 KG became the first Kenyan to submit Mt. Everest. Today he shares his story. https://www.fullcircleeverest.com/

Rachel James was born and raised in Palmer, Alaska. She started working at the NOLS Alaska branch at the age of 15, cleaning toilets and landscaping; this was also when she started ice climbing. Rachel took a NOLS Alaska Mountaineering course at 16 and started working as a mountaineering instructor after taking the first-ever NOLS Alaska Instructors Course in 2000 at 19.

During her time at NOLS from 2000 to 2013, she mainly worked mountaineering expeditions while leading a few horse packing and hiking courses in Alaska, Patagonia, Yukon, and Wyoming. Rachel has also worked as a program supervisor at NOLS Alaska. Currently, she lives in the Chugach Mountains just outside of Anchorage and is working hard to defend salmon habitat in Alaska.

Jeff Rose has worked as an outdoor educator for over two decades, including 19 seasons with Outward Bound. Besides Outward Bound, Jeff has worked for numerous colleges and universities, including the University of Utah, Davidson College, San Diego State University, UC San Diego, and Indiana University. He also worked for Adventures Cross Country and various summer camps. As an instructor, Jeff taught climbing, glacier mountaineering, backpacking, sea kayaking, and a few rafting and canyoneering courses. Most of his field time has been in Washington's North Cascades and Puget Sound, as well as Alaska's Chugach Mountains, Prince William Sound, and Kenai Fjords.

Jeff also goes by Dr. Jeff Rose and is currently a faculty member in the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism at the University of Utah, where he teaches courses in Outdoor Recreation Studies, with an emphasis on social and environmental justice. His research uses qualitative and spatial methods to examine systemic inequities expressed through class, race, political economy, and relationships to nature.

Steve Smith has worked in the outdoor industry for over thirty years, in the field, in the office, in the board room, and in national leadership roles, specializing in program leadership, risk management, and staff training. As a teen, he took a NOLS semester course in 1991 and for Outward Bound from 1998 through to today. Since 2008 he has run a risk management consulting company, Experiential Consulting, that uniquely serves outdoor education and experiential learning programs.  

Steve is a regular speaker at national conferences such as WRMC, AEE, and Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education, among others. In addition, he served two terms as a board member for the Northwest Outward Bound School, where he continues to serve on the school's Board of Directors Safety Committee.

He also has a varied background as a classroom teacher (English) and an HR administrator in outdoor and corporate settings. He supports wildlife conservation in his free time, of which he has none.   Experiential Consulting - https://www.outdoorrisk.com/

Travis Holmes was born in grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He lived most of his life in Alberta, B.C. and the Yukon; however, for the past 15 years, he has been living in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, with his wife, ten and 8-year-old kids.

Travis worked in outdoor education for much of the 1990s and 2000s. His work lifeguarding in swimming pools led me to the University of Alberta Paddling Society, where he really got into white water kayaking and began teaching kayaking and river rescue. Travis later became the canoe and river paddling coordinator for the University of Alberta Campus Outdoor Centre and director of education for the Alberta Whitewater Association before becoming a full-time NOLS instructor. Over the next ten years, he instructed hiking, canoeing, white water kayaking, rafting, sea kayaking, rock climbing and sailing courses for NOLS.

Travel led courses throughout Western Canada, Alaska & and the central west USA, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia for NOLS. While working in Western Australia, he met his wife and later settled in Tasmania, where his wife had some roots. He continued working in Tasmania as a commercial bushwalking and river guide for a while before returning to University to finish his Honours degree in geology.

Travis is still expeditioning for a living, but now he is doing it as an exploration geologist. Before COVID, he had been exploring remote parts of Tasmania, Western Australia and British Columbia, looking for much-needed battery metals such as Cobalt, Nickel and Tin. However, COVID has pinned him down to Tasmania for the past few years. Now that travel is open, he is planning a big family expedition sailing in the Arctic waters around Ellesmere Island and North-western Greenland this coming summer.  

As a young adult, Mike lived in New York City from 1981 to 1991, working as a freelance illustrator. During that time, he spent one winter season as a ski bum in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in 1986 and couldn’t get it out of his system. So Mike moved west permanently in 1991, eventually settling in Driggs, Idaho, where he spent a quarter of a century. He worked for NOLS in the Rockies, The Pacific Northwest, Canada and Alaska for 17 years. Mike taught backpacking, mountaineering, backcountry skiing, and rock climbing courses for NOLS. He also spearheaded the lightweight courses at NOLS. In those years, he divided his time between outdoor work and illustration. Mike is now living on Puget Sound near Seattle, focusing on his writing.Mike has illustrated or written at least nine books.

All of Mike’s Book

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/570863.Mike_Clelland

Mike’s current website 

https://mikeclelland.com/

Steve grew up in Maine & New Hampshire and was an outdoor recreation major at Plymouth State College. He completed a NOLS student semester in 1993, and the rest is history. He has been an outdoor educator professionally since 1994 for many organizations, including Plymouth State College, Barnstead Elementary School, Tioga County Community Wilderness Project, Adventures Cross Country, NOLS, Alpine Ascents, Rendezvous River Sports, USFS Forest Technician, US Park Service, and he says he is probably missing a few more. 

 

Steve worked for NOLS from 1997 to 2016 and has instructed rock climbing camps, backcountry rock, mountaineering, kayak/canoe/rafting, caving, hiking, canyon, Winter, Avalanche, sea kayaking, alumni, Outdoor Educator, Instructor, and many custom NOLS Professional courses over this time. He’s pretty much done it all. He has also worked in administrative roles with NOLS as a program supervisor (3-4 years) and assistant branch director at NOLS Southwest (2 years).

 

Currently, Steve has a small handyman business in Teton Valley and works as a Pro Ski Patrol at JHMR. Occasionally he guides paddleboarding and kayaking on the Snake River in Jackson and will most likely work a course for NOLS in 2023.

 

He says, “It's in my blood, and I will always be an outdoor educator.”

Steve grew up in Maine & New Hampshire and was an outdoor recreation major at Plymouth State College. He completed a NOLS student semester in 1993, and the rest is history. He has been an outdoor educator professionally since 1994 for many organizations, including Plymouth State College, Barnstead Elementary School, Tioga County Community Wilderness Project, Adventures Cross Country, NOLS, Alpine Ascents, Rendezvous River Sports, USFS Forest Technician, US Park Service, and he says he is probably missing a few more. 

 

Steve worked for NOLS from 1997 to 2016 and has instructed rock climbing camps, backcountry rock, mountaineering, kayak/canoe/rafting, caving, hiking, canyon, Winter, Avalanche, sea kayaking, alumni, Outdoor Educator, Instructor, and many custom NOLS Professional courses over this time. He’s pretty much done it all. He has also worked in administrative roles with NOLS as a program supervisor (3-4 years) and assistant branch director at NOLS Southwest (2 years).

 

Currently, Steve has a small handyman business in Teton Valley and works as a Pro Ski Patrol at JHMR. Occasionally he guides paddleboarding and kayaking on the Snake River in Jackson and will most likely work a course for NOLS in 2023.

 

He says, “It's in my blood, and I will always be an outdoor educator.”

Andrew Cusack was born and raised in Sudbury, ON, and studied Outdoor Recreation and Natural Science at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, ON. He spent more than ten years working in outdoor education for organizations across Asia and North America, including NOLS Project DEAR, Asia Pacific Adventure, Hong Kong International School, Hong Kong University and Kingfisher Outdoor Education Centre. Upon leaving outdoor education, he worked the following ten years with the United Nations Refugee Agency, responding to humanitarian crises in multiple countries. In 2020 he left the agency and relocated to Victoria, BC, where he now works as a city planner for housing policy. In this episode, David Perry joins us, a former student on the course Andrew and I worked together in the Yukon's Ogilvie Mountains. As you will hear, David was a part of a significant medical evacuation on this course, and I thought it would be nice to bring him on and hear the story from a student's perspective. Currently, David has a unique business making 3D-printed violins, which we touched on in the conversation. 

OPENFAB PDWhttps://openfabpdx.com/fiddle/ Full Circle Everst 

https://www.fullcircleeverest.com/

Megan is currently living in Fairbanks, Alaska, on the lands of the Upper Tanana people, finishing up a Post Doctorate contract with the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Megan has had an extensive career working in outdoor education. In 1992 she began the first of her eight years working for the North Carolina Outward Bound and later the Pacific Crest Outward Bound School. She also instructed for a few years with NOLS and held various coordinator positions with the North Cascades Institute. 

She instructed backpacking, rock climbing, canoeing, mountaineering, and educator courses in North Carolina, the Everglades, Costa Rica, Oregon, Washington, and Chile. In 2016 Megan earned her Ph.D. in, Education, focusing on Learning Sciences and Human Development. She will soon be leaving Alaska to pursue other opportunities in Washington State, where she can also be much closer to family.