Recreation Embiggens the Mind

My Resume of Recreation picks up with a mountain climbing excursion to the highest point in Canada, the summit of 5,959 m (19,550 ft) Mt. Logan with my friends Brian Heikenen and Joe Ehman. It was a glorious climb; great weather such as this range had hardly ever seen before.

Another big trip was to Kyrgyzstan’s Khan Tengri with Eric McGlinchey, the only other political scientist who I have met who climbs. In a miraculous event, this mountain grew the last five meters needed to bring it up to the 7,000 meter mark upon Kyrgyzstan’s declaration of independence in 1991. It grew up with the newly independent country, I guess.

Trips to Greenland, the Canadian Arctic and Argentina have occupied leisure time over the years.

Then in 2004 I climbed Alaska’s Denali (Mt McKinley), the highest peak in North America at 6,194 m / 20,320 ft. That was a grand climb with my friends Dave Schuman, Eric Darcy and John Grunsfeld. Dave, formerly my college roommate, now does the people’s work at NASA. Eric designs batteries for NASA and John flies for NASA; several trips to Hubble and hopefully another one too!

Dave got the seven summits bug, so he lobbied to climb Kilimanjaro (5,963 m / 19,563 ft) in 2005. We and our staff of nine—guide, a cook, porters & porters for the porters—did that, with me arriving at the summit at 3am. How could it be so cold at the equator?

We will tackle some other peaks in the future with this great group of climbers. We’re planning a trip to Aconcagua in Argentina to climb that 6,962 m / 22.841 ft peak. We would prefer to climb earlier in the season, as the multitudes that swarm the place as the snows melt can turn it into a real Aconcon-kaka. Other climbs that we are eyeing include Pik Lenin on the Kyrgyz / Tajik border. Pik Karl Marx is attractive too. So is Pik Limeni Ismael Samani (a.k.a. Pik Kommunizma, a.k.a. Pik Stalin). Some of the climbers will come along on my usual spring break trip in Alaska. The routine involves back country skiing & mountaineering. It is an excellent counterbalance to the introduction to comparative politics. No emote icon can express how strongly I feel about that☺