Hot Drinks - Stories From The Field

Brady Robinson Brady began working in outdoor education in the mid-'90s at a boy's camp in the Poconos of Pennsylvania. He went on to work with Outward Bound for over a decade, spent some time guiding, and instructed with NOLS for a few years. After leaving fieldwork, he has primarily worked in conservation as the Executive Director of the Access Fund for ten years and has positions with Tompkins Conservation and the Conservation Alliance. Brady is a gifted climber. Before having a family, he spent many years chasing bold rock and alpine first ascents in Patagonia,  Pakistan and other far-flung mountain ranges. Many of his partners were some of the most elite professional climbers, including Conrad Anker, Steph Davis, and Oscar-winning filmmaker Jimmy Chin. These days Brady is taking a few months off to focus on being a dad, working through life transitions, reading, taking online courses, and reflecting on what he wants to give to his kids, himself, and the world in the next chapter of his career.Ed RobersonEd currently serves as Conservation Director at Palmer Land Conservancy, regional land and water conservation organization in Colorado. He is also the founder of Mountain & Prairie, a podcast/blog that has been recognized by groups including the Aspen Institute, High Country News, Montana Governor's Office, and more.  Ed was a student with NOLS during a 1999 Semester in the Pacific Northwest, in which Brady was one of his instructors for the backpacking and mountaineering section. He has stayed in touch with Brady over the years. Ed currently lives in Colorado Springs with his wife and two daughters.

 

Brendan Madden is from Dublin, Ireland and has lived in Canada since I was 12. He is currently the head of Programs and Interim Director of a new Training Academy for Outdoor Professionals at Outward Bound Canada.

He has been active in the expedition-based adventure education field for over 25 years, mainly as a program director and senior instructor at Outward Bound Canada and NOLS. Brendan has also been a risk management trainer and consultant at NOLS. Over the years, he has led expedition courses in white water canoe, backpacking, backcountry skiing, mountaineering, dog sledding, and international high altitude trekking. Brandan has also been an active presenter at the Wilderness Risk Management Conference for many years, working to increase the outdoor sector's capacity to manage work-related psychological trauma and stress injuries amongst our staff.

He currently lives in Canmore, Alberta, in the Canadian Rockies.

Henry Wood grew up in Atlanta but has lived in Boulder, CO, since 2005. He studied Philosophy and English literature at Georgia State University before embarking on a  10-year career in outdoor education, most notable with Outward Bound and the NOLS. While working in outdoor education, Henry led backpacking, mountaineering, canyoneering, and climbing courses while working in outdoor education. In 2008, Henry joined Matt Cutter and Dany Page to start Upslope Brewing Company as Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

Over the past 12 years, Henry has built and developed his sales team in order to successfully operate in 9 Western States. Henry is also a veteran of the United States Army and a volunteer for Trout Unlimited. You can often find Henry on his rare time off skiing, climbing or Backpacking with his wife and three children.

In this short "in-between" episode, Shawn shares a few stories from former Outward Bound and NOLS Instructor and, most recently, stroke survivor Geoff Kooy, who had emailed to the show.

Paul's career in outdoor leadership began in 1995 when he began working with adjudicated youth in the desert of southern  Utah.  He started working with Outward Bound in 1998 and moved up to work with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in 2000.  With  NOLS, he ultimately worked 265 field weeks as a mountaineering, rock climbing and sailing Course Leader in India, Mexico, Patagonia, and the  Pacific Northwest - with expeditions to the Northern Icefield of  Patagonia and the Waddington Range in British Columbia, among other locations.  Paul also served NOLS as mountaineering Program Supervisor in the Pacific Northwest and Patagonia and was an editor for the 3rd Edition of the textbook "NOLS Wilderness Mountaineering.”  

In  2007 he started working as a professional mountain guide and leading high altitude climbs in South America, Alaska, and Tanzania, hut-to-hut ski tours, Matterhorn climbs in the Alps and climbs in the Sierra Nevada (including El Capitan and Mt. Whitney).

Originally from Maine, Paul is based in Wawona, California, a small village in Yosemite National Park.  

Paul became a certified guide by the prestigious IFMGA in 2017 and is currently an examiner. In addition, he serves as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the American Mountain Guide's Association.   After college, he was a Fulbright Scholar in (Germany from 1996 - to 1997) and speaks German and Spanish.

Tim Felt grew up in the suburban wilds of Northern California. His career in outdoor education started with him working in boarding schools 1991-94 running outdoor programs and teaching biology in New Hampshire and Arizona. He took a NOLS Instructors Course in 1993 and started work in the field immediately. For the next decade, Tim went on lead backpacking, rock climbing, and mountaineering course types in Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Alaska, and Chile for NOLS. 

During his transition away from the school, he spent two summers as the mountaineering program coordinator at the NOLS Alaska branch. At the time, Tim was also attending veterinary school in madison WI where I still reside with my wife Pam Foster Felt ( also ex NOLS instructor) and their two teenage daughters. Ultimately he decided veterinary medicine wasn’t for him, and he transitioned into a career as a residential remodelling contractor.

Rachel James

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.

For the second podcast in a row, we have Curtis Tronolone on the show to share some more wild stories from the field. Before we review Curtis's bio we wanted to share a recent podcast review.  Podcast Review

Makes me homesick for my recent expedition life!

Just an incredible chance to get into the field from afar. I’m loving this podcast- it made me so excited for my drive every morning this past week as I took my NOLS Wilderness First Responder training. Certified now, and so inspired by the many voices on this pod who show me what is possible as I look forward, to beginning to build my own life in outdoor leadership. Hope to join many of you wonderful people out in the wild some day! Thank you for this absolute joy of a podcast.

-Tabita

------ Our guest today, Curtis Tronolone, grew up in rural upstate New York, along the Erie canal, nestled between the small towns of Churchville, Spencerport and Brockport. He began his love of outdoor pursuits started as a kid, boating and hiking with his family, and spending his summers riding horses at New York summer camps before undertaking a NOLS mountaineering course as a student in the Wind River Mountain of Wyoming. 

He started working in outdoor ed at a summer camp outside Attica New York in 2003/2004. Over the years he has gone on to work for several organizations, including Camp Wyomoco, Wilderness Ventures, Adventure Bus, NOLS, Bear Basin Adventures. When Curtis, completed his NOLS Instructor Course he become the first openly gay male NOLS Instructor. He specializes in leading horse packing, backpacking, and wilderness rock climbing courses. He currently lives in Lander, WY where he mixes time instructing with NOLS and renovating old homes.

Curtis Tronolone, grew up in rural upstate New York, along the Erie canal, nestled between the small towns of Churchville, Spencerport, and Brockport. He began his love of outdoor pursuits as a kid, boating and hiking with his family, and spending his summers riding horses at New York summer camps before undertaking a NOLS mountaineering course as a student in the Wind River Mountain of Wyoming. 

He started working in outdoor ed at a summer camp outside Attica, New York, in 2003/2004. Over the years, he has gone on to work for several organizations, including Camp Wyomoco, Wilderness Ventures, Adventure Bus, NOLS, Bear Basin Adventures. When Curtis completed his NOLS Instructor Course, he became the first openly gay male NOLS Instructor. He specializes in leading horse packing, backpacking, and wilderness rock climbing courses. He currently lives in Lander, WY, where he mixes time instructing with NOLS and renovating old homes. Curtis can be contacted at: [email protected] 

David Yacubian has been working in Outdoor Education for more than 20 years and has over 15 years of risk management and emergency preparedness experience. He has worked with NOLS as an instructor and advisor on four different continents around the globe. Dave has also run over 100 NOLS Wilderness Medicine courses in the San Francisco Bay Area through his company, Ready SF. Ready SF also offers risk management consulting and emergency preparedness training to schools and businesses in the Bay Area.

David is a member of The Crossroads School's, Environmental Traveling Companions risk committee and Outward-Bound California's safety committee. Dave enjoys spending time with his two lovely girls, when he is not teaching. He is often found on or in water, as well as participating in other sports on his bike, foot, or skis.

In this episode:

• (02:23) David shares the purest moment of joy he has ever experienced in his life, with the exception of the birth of his daughters. He tells the story of a young female student on his first summer working in Alaska, and how the concern of the little girl’s disappearance was more alarming than her eating disorder. Yacubian explains the details of Amy’s missing – and what leads them to find her in the end.

• (14:27) Yacubian talks about an executive leadership Ilama packing, NASA course in the mid of August, five or six years ago while working along with Lynn Petzold, Rick Rochelle, and many others. He tells us one of the funniest stories about a bear sighting when one of the students ran after the black bear to get his food bag – it is even hilarious in his narration.

• (20:13) Going along he tells us how they were missing a llama when they woke up the next day, after the bear chasing incident. David talks about the disappearance of the largest llama they had namely Summit, and since there was no trail or signs to track it down – they were left dejected for the rest of the trip.

• (28:44) David terrifies us with a near-death incident in spring 2015 while running the wilderness medicine course. He tells us a story about a panicking experience that took place in their 10 days CPR course, when a young woman had a cardiac arrest in front of the whole group – without proper treatment and a hospital nearby. 

• (42:00) Moving forward, he gives us great advice on how it's important to learn survival skills. He tells how you never know when you might find yourself in a real-life survival situation – Survival courses aren’t for everyone, that’s for sure, but you’d be surprised at just how much you can achieve by simply giving it a go.

• (48:03) In the end, we play a rapid-fire question with David that intrigues us to the core – telling us the importance of adventure in his life, and how the excitement and happiness we experience during the adventure take us away from a normal hectic life to a new happy life within a matter of seconds.

Please consider making a donation to help keep the lights on here at the Hot Drinks Podcast. Any amount is greatly appreciated but for all donations of $50 or more, I will send you the audio edition of my book Teams On The Edge. Donations can be made just by clicking the donate button on our website www.hotdrinks.com. There you can set up a monthly or one-time donation.