Hot Drinks - Stories From The Field

This week on the show, I speak with Chris Agnew. Chris has dedicated his career in education to combining immersive learning with more traditional learning models. He grew up on Bainbridge Island near Seattle and spent 25 years in various outdoor educational institutions, 15 of which were with NOLS. Chris began his career at NOLS, leading expeditions backpacking and mountaineering, teaching wilderness medicine, eventually becoming the NOLS Pacific Northwest Branch Director. Chris left NOLS in 2015 to lead Teton Science Schools, which provides on-site learning for all ages, including more comprehensive learning for PreK-12 students. Chris currently lives at ID Victor with his wife Lara (former NOLS Instructor) and their 11 and 8-year-old sons.

In this episode:

•   [5:21] Chris Agnew talked about his first Waddington range course where he and Jared Spaulding were newbies. The glaciers in this mountain range are similar to those in Alaska.  To get to the glacier, you had to endure days of bushwhacking. There were crevasse falls and rockfall, near misses, and Jared got hit in the head with an ice ball the size of a basketball. But everyone got out of there safely.

•   [11:42] Chris Agnew talked about his 2nd trip leading a Waddington mountaineering course where they had the same route and had to do all the bushwhacking. But this time there was 3 weeks straight of rain, and on their first resupply, they had so much fuel that they burned so that they could carry less. But on their 2nd resupply, the story was vice versa they were low on food and had less fuel due to delay. On the final and 3rd resupply, there was a miscalculation in the amount of cheese when someone mixed up kilograms and pounds. So everyone had to carry a  five pounds log of cheese. On their last day on the course, a truck drove to them and told them that their plane was not coming tomorrow. Listen to the podcast to get to know what happened after their plane didn’t come.

•   [27:00] Chris talked about an incident in his third Waddington Range Course. This year, he started the course on the other side of the mountain range and had to take a  floatplane to begin the reverse direction from past years. On the first day hiking, one of the students had difficulty breathing from his pollen allergy. He started to use his inhaler, but that didn’t help him. So Nadine began to care for the student, and at one point, she said that he had lost his airway. SO they called for help on the satellite phone. Luckily they were in British Columbia, where there is a robust search and rescue system and the cavalry can come fast. A large military plane came in less than 30 minutes, and two people jumped off with parachutes and immediately started to help Nadine. The student with asthma turned out the be having a panic attack brought on by his asthma. They made the student comfortable until a helicopter came near enough to lift him off the mountain. 

Since the early 90s, Shari Leach has been involved in outdoor and adventure education. Since then, she has worked in OB, NOLS, United World College, Prescott College, and NOLS Wilderness Medicine. Shari currently teaches first aid, rock climbing, and mountaineering and is a Prescott master’s program lecturer. She is fluent in English and Spanish, having lived in Honduras while serving in the Peace Corps.

Shari holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental protection, a master’s degree in humanities, and an interdisciplinary doctorate in culture and identity. Most recently, Shari has started her own podcast called What’s Up with Karen. In addition, Shari Leach oversaw NOLS online summer camp partnership in 2020 and 2021 for the Fresh Air Fund.

Originally from Southern California, John Abel has worked in outdoor education from 1984 to 2019. He has worked in many different roles such as administrative, instructional, consultative – but the bulk of and the best of his work was as a field instructor for NOLS. John has been a NOLS instructor since 1991, mainly working hiking, climbing, and mountaineering courses. He has a Master's in Leadership and Organizational Development from the Leadership Institute of Seattle. Since 2010, he has worked primarily for NOLS Professional Training,  facilitating various leadership training programs for NOLS organizational clients. 

Presently, he's changing careers, moving from outdoor ed into financial planning. His goal is to provide financial planning in an empowering and client-centric way.

In this episode:

• (02:23) John starts the interview by telling us the story behind "I can't see." As bizarre as it sounds, the story is stated back to NOLS fall semester in 1994, where his group faced a drastic turn in the weather that left everyone in three to four feet of snow. The story gets interesting when John shares how a group of students informed him that one of the students couldn't see, which led to more mysterious and thrilling events moving on. 

• (18:11) John gives his side of the story on the best Halloween ever. If you guys haven't listened to Andy Blair's side of the story, go ahead and listen to that first. In the beginning, Abel tells us how an instructor's robbed wallet turned the instructors being suspicious towards the whole group and all the students being resentful and upset over having a ruined experience. The course instructors planned a fun and memorable Halloween that involved witches, ziplines, and fire to cheer them up.

• (27:50) He further shares one of his best days in outdoor education. John tells us how he was working in a climbing course in the late summers in the Wind River mountain range when he was tagged with a young student who wasn't too comfortable in outside activities. He talks about how a disagreement between the two lets them feel the breath of death on the back of their necks.

• (41:10) Later on, John shares one of the worse days of his life that he titled "Groover explosion."  He tells us about groovers, as they are attached to the toilet seats where all the human wastage is stored, but once they were full – he was left with no choice but to carry the box to an area where all the waste was supposed to be dumped. The story gets hilarious when John tells us how a hectic yet straightforward task left him covered in poop and made it the worse memory of his life.
• (53:55) Johns tells us yet another funny story about the toilet seat prank. He talks about how one of the instructors keeps bragging about the fact that no one ever gets away with a prank on him, which made John come up with a brilliant idea to slip a broken toilet seak into his bag pack for his next trip. He soon introduced the idea with his colleagues that later turn into a 42 vs 1, the person who had no clue that he would get the prank of his life.
• (01:02:29) We throw quick, intriguing rapid-fire questions at John to dig deeper into his favourite locations to lead trips and his go-to gear to take along. He entertains us more with his hilarious talk at the end of the show.

Like many outdoor educators’ travel has been a constant theme in the life of our guests today. I'm thrilled to have Heather Hamilton join us on the show. Heather has always had a hard time answering, “where are you from?” – as she has lots of places that feel like home but was born in Wichita, Kansas, and has travelled a fair amount for a Kansas kid. But after finishing University at CU-Boulder, she bounced around the west a fair bit, did some international travels to Costa Rica, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Mexico, etc., and eventually ended up living in New Zealand for a bunch of years. 

While living in New Zealand, she travelled extensively throughout Australia and Indonesia, as well. And now her base is in Hawaii. She worked in outdoor education roughly 2000-2013. After her time as the Operations Manager for the NOLS NZ Branch, she shifted to Hawaii and chased after more judging work with professional surfing events. Heather was doing that as well in NZ while still working for NOLS but decided to mix things up a bit and go after some surfing dreams. 

When she first started with NOLS, she was a river instructor - primarily white water kayaking and then migrated into canoeing, hiking, sea-kayaking, etc as most of us do.

In this episode:

• Heather shares her experience following the devastating earthquake in New Zealand in 2011, while she was an Operation Manager of the NOLS branch outside of Christchurch. and had been residing near a 30-minute drive through town to Sumner Beach. She explains how shaking turned water-saturated layers of sand and silt beneath the surface into sludge that squirted upwards through cracks. Thick layers of silt covered properties and streets and water and sewage from broken pipes flooded streets. House foundations cracked and buckled, wrecking many homes.
• She tells us how once the mobile coverage was back on; students and instructors were bombarded with calls from parents and loved ones all around the world. She further states the tragic aftershocks that lasted for months playing a game of catch it before it hits the floor, as she assisted the neighborhood with laundry and filling water jugs, which resulted in taking an emotional toll on her health and pushed her to the breaking point.
• Hamilton talks about another dreadful incident in Mexico City, and how she was hot to trot beforehand knowing all the ins and outs – that surfaced all the memories and struggled of the past.
• Moving forward, Heather shares some memorable trips on the Drysdale River in Northwest Australia, and how it still is the most special place to her. She gave us a deeper insight into how they went to the Malcolm Douglas crocodile farm and learn about saltwater crocodile country, and get educated on 10 different snakes.
• She entertains us more with hilarious funny stories with her pals, Warren, Travis, and Lelia, and shares some great tips to stay dry in Mozzie domes.
• We throw a quick intriguing rapid-fire questions at her, which she answers as gracefully as only she can.
• Lastly, she tells us her favourite hot drink after a long hard day at camps, and one particular place she wishes to share this drink in the field with - after all, what's more, soothing than wrapping your frozen fingers around a piping hot mug of something refreshing. 

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 more than 6000 nights!!

He has also completed three 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 his beloved duty, he enjoys spending time with his family and children.

•   [3:50] KG talked about two jogging students and how one of them was chased by some Maasai. They were hiking in Kenya, and 2 of the female students wanted to go for a jog. KG allowed them to go but under some rules. They agreed to all of the rules and started their jog. When they reached the point which they promised not to go any further, one of the girls didn't stop and kept jogging even after the other girl told her that they should not go any further. While she was jogging, some Maasai saw her and tried to help her get back to her camp. They ran toward her to help her, but she thought they were trying to chase her. 

•   [18:42] KG talked about his bizarre experience in Patagonia in 1994. It was KG'S second mountain course. After a very long bushwhacking on a rainy day, they got to treeline on a sunny and clear day. So they set up their tents on snow and got some rest. In the morning, everyone was ready to climb the peak, so they started their journey, and by ten, they reached the top of the peak. After hanging out for a while, KG and two of his fellow instructor made a group of 2 students head back down. As they were going down, KG and one of the instructors saw a small dark cloud, and just in minutes, a major wind storm descended upon them. So they started running while yelling to head back down fast and dig the tent's cord even deeper. As they got down, everyone began to dig into securing their tents, and KG was digging a deeper hole when suddenly the wind changed its direction, which made the tent flew up in the sky like a kite and kept going up. As the tent was in the sky, his stuff started to fall out, and his sleeping bag fell into a waterfall that made KG sleep in a wet sleeping bag for days. But eventually, everyone got out of that trip safe.
• Later in the show, KG answers the rapid-fire questions that reflect his jolly personality.

David Pool grew up in Ottawa and currently lives in North Vancouver with his wife Katey and his two kids. He worked for Outward Bound Canada from 2001-2007 and with Class Afloat. When David moved to the west coast of Canada, he started working in the outdoor education Explore Program at Collingwood School before moving into student services as a counsellor, a position he currently holds.  

During his time working in outdoor education, he has led canoeing, sea kayaking, hiking and winter expeditions and twice crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He loves providing opportunities for youth to learn, grow, and succeed. He believes that students learn in all environments and through all experiences. As an educator, his role is to challenge youth to see every opportunity as a learning experience and provide guidance and moments for reflection.

In this episode:

•   [3:20] David Pool talks about him and his friend Jonathan Carroll building a sauna for his students so that when they came back from the two days of solo hiking, they could enjoy and have fun in the sauna. But things didn’t go the way they wanted them to be. After completing and making sure there were no leaks for the steam, also they were on a pebble beach instead of a sandy beach. Which made the beach suck steam and made the sauna pretty cold.

•   [9:43] David Pool shares his experience working for Class Afloat, where he taught senior English and History. While they were on their tall ship, some of the people got GI-BUGS. A few days later, the weather started to roll in, and the waves were about 9 to 10 meters, as well as the pounding wind hitting the deck. Their decks were consistently going in the water, so they had to bring the sails in. David, alongside another person, goes to square sails, which is about 100 feet off the deck, and clipped the sails while hanging over the dark ocean as well as rolling and pitching.

•   [35:42] David talked about his personal trip where he got stuck alongside one of his friends. They started their trip at Lytton, BC. On their way, they saw a rescue landing pad, and they joked about it that if they got into any sort of problem, they could go up there. What they didn’t know was later on, on their way back to their home, they would get stuck due to snowpack, and they didn’t have any snow gear. So after few days of being stuck, they got to the rescue landing pad, and a  couple of days later, they saw a chopper which David’s dad sent to rescue them. The story is much more when you hear it yourself, so hop onto the podcast and get the best of it.

David Berg began working in outdoor education in 1992 as a kayak guide in the San Juan Islands, just after graduating from college. He then spent several years in Southern California teaching open water kayaking, surf kayaking, and expeditions. David finished his NOLS Sea Kayak IC in British Columbia in 1999. His first course was in Baja the following winter. From there, David spent ten years leading Sea Kayaking and backpacking courses throughout Baja, the Pacific Northwest, Norway, and Patagonia. Still, he spent most of his time in Alaska, primarily in Prince William Sound and Southeast Alaska. David also worked for NOLS Alaska for two summers as the Sea Kayak Program Supervisor.

David was also a high school teacher and now works with a non-profit that assists high schools worldwide in developing good outside-of-the-classroom learning opportunities. In addition, he co-founded ImBlaze, a digital platform that helps schools expand their internship programmes.

David and his wife with their two children live on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound, where they go hiking, sea kayaking, and sailing on weekends, making more adventure memories along the way.

In this episode:

•   [3:35] David Berg talks about his experience with Chris Manchester and the students, where he and Chris woke the whole group in the middle of the night to lift their tents so that the tide wouldn’t make the tents wet. Along with the group, he stood with their tents for an hour or so, and he can’t help but still recalls that amazing cold night having to lift their tents as the water touches their feet and ankles. The experience sounds magical to us!

•   [14:45] David shares his horrifying incident in Prince William Sound, where he lost food bags because of the big wave. A few years later, he and his good friend Doug went back to Prince William Sound with another group. Because of the past incident, he was paying extra attention to the waves since he was terrified that what happened last time couldn’t happen again and doesn’t end up hurting or losing someone in brutal waves. Around midnight David heard the glacier calving; he got up and started yelling for everyone to leave for their tent before the wave hit them. As the wave comes closer, it got smaller and smaller and barely hit the beach. For David, this counted as the most embarrassing moment of his life.

•   [26:25] David and her wife Suzanne white took two groups on two courses where the first group did a great job, while the second group was with adults and their kids. They paddled out to Cienega glacier when heavy rain started and kept going for a good 2-3 days, which made the kids cold, and ended up parents telling them to evacuate them. The story gets more intense by the end!

•   [31:06] David tells us about a party called cabin crawl. The party quickly turned into chaos when his fellow instructor and some other guys from another organization got into a fight. The other guy got drunk and was inappropriate with some of the women, leading him into a brawl.

In this summer rewind addition, of the Hot Drinks, we share one of our most popular episodes today with veteran NOLS Instructor Chris Machester. Chris shares a few hair-raising stories from Alaska to Baja and from bears to drugs! 

This week we speak with NOLS living legend Jim Chisholm. Jim has worked in the field with NOLS for over 35 years and has many outstanding stories to share. 

Shawn is an international leadership consultant, professional speaker, bestselling author, podcast host, Ironman and Ultramarathon competitor.

Shawn has a bachelor’s degree in Experiential Education and a Master’s in Leadership. He devoted 15 years to leading teams on wilderness expeditions around the world into some of the harshest environments, and, most recently, ten years consulting with corporations on leadership and team development. His first book, Teams on the Edge: Stories & Lessons from Wilderness Expeditions, was an instant bestseller and won a bronze medal in the Global E-Book Awards.

Shawn is also the founder and director of the International Vegan Film Festival and World Tour. He started the festival in 2018 to inspire, educate and entertain audiences with vegan-themed films from around the world.

Shawn lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada with my wife and 3 daughters.  In This Episode: 12:52 What Is A Missle Doing Here

16:00 Tents Were Ripped Apart

29:30 Changing Rivers To Touch The Arctic Circle  

40:40 Sand Blowing Through the Tent Zipper

55:50 He Shoots the Moose