Table of contents for Fall 2016 in The Explorers Journal

I recently had the pleasure of attending the 2016 Salt Spring Symposium, hosted by our remarkable 2014 Sweeney Award recipients, Rosemarie and Pat Keough. This gathering has a deep and rich history of bringing together members of our organization to share knowledge and inspiring ideas along with fantastic homemade meals (that everyone helps prepare). All this, in the truly one-of-a-kind Keough home, overlooking the magnificent Strait of Georgia in British Columbia. What could be better than that? The range of lectures was staggering: Petra to Polynesia, mosquitoes to blue whales, the ridge of the Matterhorn to the Clam Gardens of the Pacific Northwest. While each presentation was remarkable in its own right, in combination they created a magnificent tapestry woven with great care by the explorers who presented. Each session…

FOR MORE THAN FOUR DECADES, NOTED MOUNTAINEER, AUTHOR, PHOTOGRAPHER, AND ENTREPRENEUR RICK RIDGEWAY HAS BEEN BREAKING NEW GROUND, BECOMING ONE OF THE FIRST AMERICANS TO SUMMIT K2 AND THE RAKEKNIVEN IN ANTARCTICA. IT WAS DURING HIS LONG FORAYS INTO THE REMOTE AND WILD PLACES ON EARTH THAT RIDGEWAY DEVELOPED A HEIGHTENED AWARENESS OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF HUMAN ENCROACHMENT ON UNTRAMMELED LANDSCAPES, LEADING HIM TO BECOME A PROMINENT VOICE IN ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION. SINCE 2005, HE HAS DRAWN ON HIS MANY SKILLS AS VICE PRESIDENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AT PATAGONIA. Daniel Dolan: What inspired you to become such an ardent advocate for the environment? Rick Ridgeway: My commitment to environmentalism, and more specifically to conservation, really started in Southern California where I grew up. We lived amid acres and acres of orange…

RETURN OF FLAG Nº160 SINCE IT WAS FIRST CARRIED INTO THE FIELD IN 1955, FLAG Nº160 HAS ACCOMPANIED EXPLORERS ON NEARLY TWO-DOZEN EXPEDITIONS, MOST NOTABLY TO TANZANIA, TIBET, BAFFIN ISLAND, SIERRA LEONE, AND TO EGYPT’S VALLEY OF THE KINGS. MOST RECENTLY, THE FLAG WAS TAKEN ACROSS THE RUB’ AL-KHALI. A FELLOW OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB SINCE 2009, MARK EVANS IS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF OUTWARD BOUND OMAN. HE IS THE FOUNDER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE DESERT, AND PATRON OF THE ANDREW CROFT MEMORIAL FUND (WWW.ACMF.ORG.UK). HE WAS AWARDED AN MBE IN 2012 FOR HIS INNOVATIVE WORK USING EXPEDITIONS TO PROMOTE INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE. FOR MORE ON HIS PROJECTS, VISIT WWW.MARKEVANS.GLOBAL. THE AUTHOR WILL BE PRESENTING A LECTURE ON HIS RUB’ AL-KHALI EXPEDITION AT THE EXPLORERS CLUB ON OCTOBER 31. The…

416 PP • NEW YORK: FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX, 2016 • ISBN-10: 0374280096 • ISBN-13: 978-0374280093 • $27 “Wind, water, light. These three things draw me into every national park I have visited. They are not qualities to be found but presences to be felt,” writes Terry Tempest Williams in her latest book, The Hour of Land, in which she meditates on the state of a dozen of the 59 national parks in the United States on the occasion of the centennial year of America’s open spaces. Her essays—complemented with photographs by such luminaries of the medium as Lee Friedlander, Sebastião Salgado, and Sally Mann—highlight not only the beauty of the parks but the threats posed by natural resource exploitation and climate change. The Gulf Islands National Seashore, for instance,…

AS ONE MIGHT EXPECT, THE HUMAN BODY ATROPHIES WITHOUT EXERCISE IN SPACE. ONE ALSO GETS LONELY, ISOLATED IN A LARGE METAL CONTAINER 200 MILES ABOVE EARTH MOVING AT 17,500 MPH. SCOTT KELLY RECENTLY SPENT 340 CONTINUOUS DAYS IN SPACE—FROM MARCH 2015 TO MARCH 2016. THE IDEA WAS TO COMPARE HIS PHYSIOLOGY WITH THAT OF HIS ASTRONAUT TWIN BROTHER, MARK, WHO REMAINED ON EARTH AS A CONTROL. WE SAT DOWN WITH KELLY, 52, TO DISCUSS KEEPING FIT AND MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS DURING LONG ISOLATION. JC: How do you work out in space? SK: On the American side of the International Space Station, we have a treadmill that you bungee down to. It has a vibration-isolation system so one’s pounding on the track doesn’t affect the microgravity research or the space station structurally.…

An inherent aspect of exploration, venturing into uncharted territory tends to elicit a dichotomy of emotions—exhilaration, brought by the prospect of being the first to lay eyes on places unknown, and apprehension, wrought by contemplation of unforeseen risks. This issue, our contributors venture into uncharted territory not only in the geographical sense but also in the political, sociological, and spiritual sense, and in the process, challenge our notions of firsts and risks. Speleologist Bill Steele has spent more than five decades pushing the limits in cave exploration, from enduring weeks of isolation in labyrinthine chambers, far from the nearest entrance, to pioneering new technologies to negotiate long, narrow, water-filled passages. Yet his greatest challenge to date has been to find common ground on a spiritual level with a Mazatec community…

RETURN OF FLAG Nº73 FIRST CARRIED INTO THE FIELD IN 1937, WHEN THE POLAR EXPLORER ARNOLD H. HAVERLEE TOOK IT TO LAPLAND, FLAG Nº73 HAS BEEN ALONG ON 17 EXPEDITIONS AND HAS LOGGED THOUSANDS OF KILOMETERS IN ITS TRAVELS AROUND THE GLOBE, ACCOMPANYING THE CURIOUS TO ANTARCTICA, BHUTAN, AND THE DARIÉN GAP. MOST RECENTLY, THE FLAG WAS A KEY PART OF THE FIELD KIT ON THE 2016 EXPEDITION INTO SISTEMA HUAUTLA, A MASSIVE CAVE SYSTEM IN THE MEXICAN STATE OF OAXACA. SISTEMA HUAUTLA A FELLOW OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB SINCE 1979, C. WILLIAM STEELE IS A SPELEOLOGIST WHO HAS EXPLORED MANY OF THE LONGEST AND DEEPEST CAVES IN THE UNITED STATES, MEXICO, AND CHINA. HE IS THE AUTHOR OF TWO BOOKS CHRONICLING HIS EXPEDITIONS: YOCHIB: THE RIVER CAVE AND HUAUTLA:…

FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES, LALY LICHTENFELD HAS BEEN PIONEERING A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO RESOLVING HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICTS IN EAST AFRICA. IN 2005, THE YALE-EDUCATED, TANZANIA-BASED CONSERVATIONIST CO-FOUNDED—WITH HUSBAND CHARLES TROUT—THE AFRICAN PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE FUND (APW), WHICH IS DEDICATED TO HELPING RURAL AFRICANS MANAGE THEIR LAND AND WILDLIFE POPULATIONS WHILE ALSO ACHIEVING SIGNIFICANT SOCIETAL BENEFITS. Alan Feldstein: How did you get into wildlife conservation? Laly Lichtenfeld: I have had a passion for wild places and wild animals ever since I was a little girl. My mother and I would often play hooky from school to go to the Bronx Zoo. Not only did I love that experience and learn a lot from it, it is what drove me to want to see animals in the wild. For some reason, I…

ALASKA L. Michelle Ridgway Tel: 907-957-2277 mishridgway@gmail.com ATLANTA Steve Pigott Tel: 770-337-5450 jagter@msn.com AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND Todd Tai todd@mivision.com.au CANADA Ray Hyland chapterchair@explorersclub.ca CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA Prof. Claudio Cristino Tel: 562-458-3736 cristino@uchile.cl CHICAGO/GREAT LAKES Robert A. Shuchman, Ph.D. Tel: 734-649-0937 shuchman@mtu.edu EAST AND SOUTH ASIA Steven R. Schwankert Tel: 86-1350-116-3629 steven@sinoscuba.com FLORIDA Aida “Idee” Belau Tel: 321-243-8448 chair@floridaexplorersclub.org GEORGE ROGERS CLARK Leonard A. Weakley, Jr. Tel: 513-702-0725 lweakley@rendigs.com GREAT BRITAIN AND WESTERN EUROPE Seb Coulthard Tel: 44-7960-479485 sebcoulthard@hotmail.com GREATER PIEDMONT David N. Brinkman dobrink@bellsouth.net HONG KONG Michael E. Barth mebarth@explorershk.org Sharon Kwok Pong sharonkwokpong@gmail.com NEW ENGLAND Gregory Deyermenjian Tel: 781-968-5174 paititi@alumni.clarku.edu NORTH PACIFIC ALASKA Mead Treadwell Tel: 907-258-7764 Fax: 907-258-7768 meadwell@alaska.net NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Joan Boothe Tel: 415-233-1697 hoodooskr@aol.com NORWAY Synnøve Marie Kvam Strømsvåg Tel: 47-926-31-761 explorers.norge@gmail.com PACIFIC NORTHWEST…

JOIN THE “EXPLORERS IMMORTALS” AND ENGRAVE YOUR NAME OR DEDICATION IN STONE ON NEW PAVERS FOR THE LEFRAK TERRACE AT EXPLORERS CLUB HEADQUARTERS. ADORN OUR LANDMARK OUTDOOR SPACE AND HELP PAY FOR URGENT WORK FOR PHASE II RENOVATIONS BY MAKING A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE DONATION OF $2,500 PER DEDICATED PAVER TO OUR LOWELL THOMAS BUILDING FUND. THE EXPLORERS CLUB WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING WHO HAVE PURCHASED A PAVER: Robert Ashton, James H. Alexander, John G. Alexander, Darlene T. Anderson, Jeanne D. Andlinger, Barbara Annan, Robert J. Aresty, Atlanta Chapter, Robert J. Atwater, Norman L. Baker, Andreas Bender, Josh Bernstein, John Bierley, Bruce Blanchard, John R. Bockstoce, Brian M. Boom, John R. Boreske Jr., Gary W. Bowersox, Lawson W. Brigham, Diane Britz-Lotti, Julianne M. Chase, James M. Clash, Allen S. Counter,…

WHEN KRIS MCDIVITT TOMPKINS IS NOT ATTENDING TO THE MYRIAD TASKS OF TRANSFORMING VAST PRIVATE LAND HOLDINGS INTO FULLY RESTORED AND PROTECTED ECOSYSTEMS, SHE PONDERS WHAT IT IS ABOUT THE HUMAN RACE THAT LEADS TO CULTURAL COLLAPSE. THOSE MENTAL MEANDERINGS ARE SUPPORTED BY A COLLEGE DEGREE IN HISTORY, BUT MORE PIQUANTLY BY BEARING WITNESS ON A DAILY BASIS TO SPECIES LOSS AND DEGRADATION OF SOME OF THE WORLD’S LAST WILD PLACES. BUT TOMPKINS—WHO PREFERS JUST “KRIS”—IS NO IDLE PHILOSOPHER. NEITHER DOES SHE PLAY THE ROLE OF AN ELITE LANDHOLDER, PASSING OUT AN ACRE HERE AND AN ACRE THERE. KRIS AND HER LATE HUSBAND DOUG HAVE DEDICATED MUCH OF THEIR LIVES TO SAFEGUARDING WHAT THEY CALL THE “MASTER LANDSCAPES” OF THE SOUTHERN CONE OF SOUTH AMERICA; EMPLOYING NOT ONLY THEIR SUBSTANTIAL…

One frequently worries about the local plumbing while in the field, but what if the plumbing of concern is yours? Urinary difficulties range from mildly irritating to exquisitely painful and potentially life-threatening processes. Some remain innocuous, others worsen, and some strike acutely with no warning. Urinary tract problems can occur in the kidney, ureter (tube between the kidney and bladder), bladder, urethra (tube from the bladder to the outside), and in the male genitalia. Blood in the urine (hematuria) is one of the most common complaints and is disturbing but rarely life-threatening unless massive or if significant trauma has occurred, in which case more than one organ system is usually involved. Many conditions can cause hematuria and a little bit of blood looks like a lot. Microscopic hematuria is not…

John G. Alexander Robert J. Atwater Capt. Norman L. Baker Barbara Ballard Robert D. Ballard, Ph.D. Samuel B. Ballen* Mark Gregory Bayuk Daniel A. Bennett Josh Bernstein Bruce Blanchard John R. Bockstoce, D.Phil. Jack Aaron Boggs Bjorn G. Bolstad* Capt. Bruce M. Bongar, Ph.D. Brian M. Boom, Ph.D. Garrett R. Bowden Capt. Lawson W. Brigham, Ph.D., USCG (ret.) Harry Davis Brooks Lt. Col. Jewell Richard Browder* August “Augie” Brown John C.D. Bruno Lee R. Bynum* Virginia Castagnola Hunter Julianne M. Chase, Ph.D. James M. Chester* Maj. Gen. Arthur W. Clark, USAF (Ret.) Capt. William Clark* Steven Cohen, Ph.D. (hon.) Leslie E. Colby* Jonathan M. Conrad Catherine Nixon Cooke S. Allen Counter, Ph.D., D.M.Sc. Lynn D. Danaher Constance Difede David A. Dolan Mr. & Mrs. James Donovan Col. William H. Dribben,…