Spring 2023 The Explorers Journal

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T HE OF F IC I A L QU A R T E R LY OF T HE E X P L OR E RS CL UB S INCE 1921

THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL transcendence

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n THE E XPLORERS JOURNAL

contents SPRING 2023

features VA N U A T U

TR AILBL AZING ON THE TOP OF THE WORLD

into the land of other

Lhakpa Sherpa talks with Brent Bishop about getting schooled in the mountains, breaking gender barriers on Everest, and the changing character of the Sherpa climbing community

by JONATHAN POZNIAK 14

A WINDOW ON AN ANCIENT L AND

50

LOOK DOWN, NOT UP

finding friendship on the steppes of Central Asia by ROBERT MCCRACKEN PECK

a mycological foray into the Khumbu

26

text by RICHARD F. SILBER, images by ALOK TULADHAR 58

WOMEN ON A MISSION

M E TA M O R P H O S I S

“Her Deepness,” Sylvia A. Earle, chats with “Her Highness,” Meg Lowman, this year’s recipient of The Explorers Club Medal, about groundbreaking science and their mutual quest to save Earth’s most pristine environments

exploring delectable delights of the insect world with Brooklyn-based chef Joseph Yoon interview by ANGELA M.H. SCHUSTER, images by JOSEPH YOON 70

40

regulars PRESIDENT’S LE T TER

EDITOR’S NOTE

E XPLOR ATION NE WS

4

6

10

HARVESTING THE WILD

E X TREME MEDICINE

78

80

RE VIE WS

WHAT WERE THE Y THINKING?

82

88

ON THE ISLAND OF PENTECOST, IN VANUATU, LOCAL MEN TAKE PART IN AN ANCIENT LAND-DIVING RITUAL CALLED NAGOL AS A RITE OF PASSAGE TO PROVE ONE’S MANHOOD AND ENSURE A BOUNTIFUL YAM HARVEST. PHOTOGRAPH BY JONATHAN POZNIAK.

Adventure calls. Re-imagine adventure with The Explorers Club Collection from Kensington Tours. Embrace the road less traveled through a private-guided expedition that’s curated to reflect your unique travel passions. Traverse the paths first explored by renowned scientists, adventurers, and academics as you immerse yourself in unforgettable experiences, such as exploring the emerald heart of the Congo Basin. • Come face to face with rare western lowland gorillas and forest elephants. • Explore the primal wilderness of Odzala National Park on a series of guided forest walks. • Hear the jungle come to life with a symphony of sound as you cruise the winding Lekoli River at sunset. • Immerse yourself in the legends of the ancient rainforest as you interact with hunter-gatherer communities of the Congo. As an official travel partner of The Explorers Club, we’re honored to celebrate the centennial of The Explorers Journal. Re-ignite your spirit of adventure as we make our mark on the next 100 years, together. Connect with a Destination Expert today 1 888 903 2001 | kensingtontours.com [email protected]

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president’s letter

power of fellowship RICHARD GARRIOTT DE CAYEUX President

Whenever I am giving tours of our headquarters building in New York City, I bring visitors into the bar where I explain the unique value of Explorers Club fellowship—the capacity of our members to support not only science and conservation, but also the work of other members. I often describe the three main types of people I see within our ranks—the ones who tend to gather at our events and socialize here in our bar. The first type, perhaps the most important type so far as I am concerned, is the younger, newer member, often a recent graduate, who has a great research idea but little experience in bringing it to fruition. They may have an idea for a scientific expedition to a particular region of the world, for instance, but have neither the expertise in organizing such a venture nor the funds to pay for it, despite its potential merits. The second type, which makes up most of our membership, is the one who has literally “been there, done that”—an experienced explorer who delights in helping newer members design and organize their expeditionary plans for optimal success in the field. Such members tend to know which outfitters to use

and those best to avoid and where problems or dangerous situations are likely to be encountered. Often, they have key contacts with experts in a given field, which younger members may wish to consult. All this invaluable assistance and advice, however, rarely gets a potentially great expedition paid for. This brings me to that third, important group of members— our patrons. These beneficent sorts have devoted their time and resources to supporting the great work of their fellows in areas of the world and in disciplines they happen to be passionate about. Fortunately, many of these patrons have also given generously to our grant programs. Between direct member-to-member assistance and our grant programs, The Explorers Club has been able to channel many millions of dollars into exploration each year. The importance and value of this network effect should not be underestimated. It not only lifts the careers of newer members, but also supports the great work of all our members! And this support is ushering in a new golden age of exploration. Ad Astra!

PRESIDENT RICHARD GARRIOTT DE CAYEUX SPEAKS WITH TALES FROM THE EXPLORERS CLUB HOST JOSH GATES IN THE MEMBER’S LOUNGE BAR. PHOTO: COURTESY WARNER BROS./DISCOVERY.

THE EXPLORERS CLUB

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editor’s note

transcendence ANGELA M.H. SCHUSTER Editor-in-Chief

For explorers, who are loath to take “no” for an answer, breaking barriers is part of the game when it comes to pushing the proverbial dragons off the map, as well as the boundaries of knowledge and human endurance. This edition, we check in on several of our members who are doing just that— transcending expectations to accomplish great things in science and exploration. Our esteemed honorary director Sylvia Earle, aka “Her Deepness,” caught up with pioneering tree canopy researcher Meg Lowman, who was recently deemed “Her Highness” by none other than the late, great Harvard sociobiologist, E.O. Wilson. Lowman is this year’s recipient of The Explorers Club Medal, the highest award bestowed by our august organization. They talked about their respective passions for saving Earth’s pristine wild places—Hope Spots and Green Spots—and recent discoveries in the tree canopy, what Lowman refers to in the collective as our planet’s “eighth continent.”

Earle herself sat down with contributing editor Jim Clash, to talk about breaking her own barriers in the realm of marine research. Her advice to those following in her footsteps: “Do not let anyone steal your dreams. Find a way to go around, or over, or under, or through the obstacles. And don’t ever give up.” Sharing Earle’s persistence is Lhakpa Sherpa, a Makaluborn Sherpani who notched her tenth summit of Everest this past May. The recipient of this year’s Tenzing Norgay Award, she shared her thoughts on the changing climate— environmental and cultural—on the world’s highest peak with Brent Bishop, one of our 2003 Lowell Thomas Awardees. He literally “grew up” on Everest, being the son of Barry Bishop, one of the first Americans to stand atop “E” in 1963. In addition to topping out three times, Bishop has spearheaded the cleanup of Everest, and worked to train local guides in best practices when it comes to leave-no-trace expedition ethics.

ANGELA M.H. SCHUSTER TAKES IN THE ORGANIC EARTHINESS OF THE FRANCIACORTA WINE REGION OF ITALY.

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PRESIDENT

Richard Garriott de Cayeux

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

OFFICERS

PATRONS & SPONSORS

HONOR ARY CHAIRMAN

Jeff Bezos HONORARY PRESIDENT

Buzz Aldrin HONORARY DIRECTORS

HRH Albert II, of Monaco Robert D. Ballard, PhD Sylvia A. Earle, PhD Dan Goldin Gilbert M. Grosvenor Donald C. Johanson, PhD Frederik D.A. Paulsen, PhD Bertrand Piccard, MD Roland R. Puton Johan Reinhard, PhD Edward P. Roski Jr. George B. Schaller, PhD Kathryn D. Sullivan, PhD Don Walsh, PhD HRH Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck, of Bhutan

CL ASS OF 2023

V P, C H A P T E R S

L E A D E R O F E X P L O R AT I O N

Constance Difede Barbara Doran Kellie Gerardi David Isserman Brianna Rowe

Nancy McGee

($500,000+) Mabel Dorn Reeder*

C L A S S O F 2 0 24

Devon Chivvis J. Robert “J.R.” Harris Martin Kraus Timothy A. Radke, MD L. Mead Treadwell CL ASS OF 2025

John All Marc Bryan-Brown Joe Grabowski Leon “Lee” V. Langan Milbry C. Polk Janet L. Walsh, PhD APPOINTED DIRECTORS

Darlene Anderson Jamie Robinson Mikkel Vestergaard Maria Wilhelm

V P, M E M B E R S H I P

Jeremy Hirschhorn VP, RESE ARCH & EDUCATION

Trevor Wallace V P, F L A G & H O N O R S

Martin T. Nweeia, DDS V P, M I S S I O N P R O G R A M I N G

Lynn Danaher VP, CONSERVATION, WILDLIFE, & SUSTAINABILIT Y

Mark J. Fowler TREASURER

Barbara Doran

PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Jeff Blumenfeld James M. Clash Wade Davis David A. Dolan Michael J. Manyak Milbry C. Polk David Rothenberg Carl G. Schuster Nick Smith Les Stroud

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Angela M.H. Schuster C R E AT I V E D I R E C T O R

Jesse Alexander COPY CHIEF

Danielle Whalen

P AT R O N S O F E X P L O R AT I O N

($100,000+) Daniel A. Bennett Daniel and Lois Kobal OceanX Foundation Frederik D.A. Paulsen Donald L. Segur* Margaret Segur* CORPORATE PATRONS OF EXPLORATION

Discovery Communications Rolex Watch U.S.A., Inc.

A S S I S TA N T S E C R E TA R Y

CORPORATE SUPPORTER OF EXPLORATION

Brian P. Hanson

National Geographic Society

OMBUDSMAN

PARTNERS IN EXPLORATION

Milbry C. Polk

Covac Global Fjällräven Ponant

Idee Montijo William J. Liss Daniel A. Kobal, PhD

Richard Garriott de Cayeux

($250,000+) Richard H. Olsen* Robert H. Rose* Michael W. Thoresen

Arnella Trent

S E C R E TA R Y

DIRECTORS EMERITI

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B E N E F A C T O R S O F E X P L O R AT I O N

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EXPLORATION NEWS EDITED BY JEFF BLUMENFELD

EXPLORERS CLUB × PONANT RESEARCH EXPEDITION GRANTS ANNOUNCED The Explorers Club, in collaboration with its new travel partner, Marseille, Francebased Ponant, is offering its member scientists and adventurers an opportunity to conduct research aboard Le  Commandant Charcot, during a suite of five voyages, the first of which is a multi-week expedition to Antarctica, January 7–February 5, 2024. Le Commandant Charcot is the world’s only luxury icebreaker to host onboard scientists, providing them

with dedicated research laboratories, science coordination, and equipment. Collectively, the grantmakers are seeking changemakers from around the world, who are working to document and preserve endangered landscapes, cultures, and wildlife through science and education. Applications may be for one or a team of two scientists. The deadline for the January 2024 departure is April  7; September 15, for the subsequent 2024

departures. These include: Inuit Spring of Ammassalik (April 16–26); Inuit Spring at the Edge of Scoresby Sund (May 16–28); Into the Ice of the Arctic, From Greenland to Svalbard (June 25–July 11); and the Northwest Passage (August 12–September 5). Applicants must be affiliated with a research institution and be at least 18 years of age. Finalists will need to discuss logistics and permits with Ponant’s science coordinator. For more information, visit: grants.explorers.org.

PONANT'S LUXURY ICEBREAKER LE COMMANDANT CHARCOT WAS LAUNCHED BY THE MARSEILLE, FRANCE-BASED COMPANY IN MARCH 2020. IMAGE COURTESY PONANT.

© K. Bogner, S. Forsyth, A. Stewart, and D. Minty

Unleash Your Inner Explorer: Journey to One of Earth’s Least Visited Regions Embark on an epic journey to uncover the wild, untouched beauty of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic – a location steeped in history having been traversed by legendary explorers Roald Amundsen and Sir John Franklin. Feel your heart race and let your spirit run free as you explore these majestic places that few have ever seen. Learn from experts while enjoying breathtaking natural beauty in JUHDWFRPSDQ\DV\RXVHWR΍IRUDQXQIRUJHWWDEOHH[SHGLWLRQZLWK$GYHQWXUH&DQDGD

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1.800.363.7566 This photo was taken with a telephoto (zoom) lens and may appear closer to ice than we really were. We always keep a safe distance and follow mandated regulations.

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WALKING THE WALK

ANTARCTICA IN THE FRAME The National Archives of Australia (NAA) has announced that it is making a trove of historic images from early twentieth-century Australian and British expeditions to Antarctica available to the public. The collection includes hundreds of photographs, glass-plate negatives, and lantern slides, among them original photographs taken by renowned photographer Frank Hurley, who was on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s famed British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. The majority of the images were created during the first half of the twentieth century by Captain John King Davis. Davis made the journey to Antarctica on several missions and most notably was the captain of the Aurora during the Australasian Antarctic Expedition between 1911 to 1914. Images

depict the harsh conditions and realities of life on the White Continent. The collection has been held, until now, by the Australian Antarctic Division based in Hobart. Simon Froude, directorgeneral of the NAA, welcomed the transfer of the collection. “The images provide a unique glimpse of the difficult conditions the explorers faced,” he says. Of particular note are portraits of Antarctic personalities such as Joseph Kinsey, Ernest Shackleton, Douglas Mawson, and Frank Stilwell, as well as images highlighting the ingenuity of expedition members as they navigated life both on the ice and aboard the ship. “There are fabulous photos of the unique wildlife, as well as images depicting the science and technology of the time.” Now, anyone can view them online at: naa.gov.au.

In 2022, Craig Cohon, 59, reportedly became the first person to calculate and commit to reversing his entire lifetime’s emissions, investing his $1 million pension in removal projects. In January, the former Coca-Cola executive and Canadian businessman began his landmark journey from Europe to Asia to walk his carbon footprint back by traveling 4,000 kilometers—from London to Istanbul—over the course of six months. He plans to remove all 8,147 tons of carbon he has emitted since his birth in 1963—the result of decades of fast living: highrolling holidays, lots of flights, and innumerable hamburgers. Through Walk It Back he plans to set in motion spin-off campaigns to remove some 100,000 tons. To follow him, visit: walkitback.org.

ON THE HORIZON: W O R L D  O C E A N S W E E K The seventh annual World Oceans Week will once again take over The Explorers Club June 5–9. Since 2017, World Oceans Week has hosted more than 300 speakers, artists, and musicians, alongside a 5,000-plus audience of attendees at Explorers Club headquarters and more than 100,000 online viewers. The weeklong event is presented by Rolex.

AN UNIDENTIFIED MAN PHOTOGRAPHED NEAR LARGE ICEBERGS IN ANTARCTICA. IMAGE COURTESY NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF AUSTRALIA.

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membership in

THE EXPLORERS CLUB

FOUNDED IN 1904 BY A GROUP OF AMERICA’S LEADING EXPLORERS, THE EXPLORERS CLUB IS A MULTIDISCIPLINARY PROFESSIONAL SOCIET Y DEDICATED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF FIELD RESEARCH, SCIENTIFIC EXPLOR ATION, AND THE IDEAL THAT IT IS VITAL TO PRESERVE THE INSTINCT TO EXPLORE. THE CLUB’S STEADFAST MISSION HAS BEEN TO ENCOUR AGE AND

PROMOTE SCIENTIFIC EXPLOR ATION OF L AND, SEA, AIR, AND SPACE, WITH AN EMPHASIS ON THE PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES. AS A PRIMARY AND PRESTIGIOUS CENTER FOR EXPLOR ATION AND EXPEDITION PL ANNING, THE CLUB IS A FOCAL POINT AND UNIF YING FORCE FOR EXPLORERS AND SCIENTISTS WORLDWIDE, WITH 34 CHAPTERS SPANNING THE GLOBE.

For information regarding categories of membership— Fellow, Member, Friend, Term, and Student—and the process of election to The Explorers  Club, visit us at www.explorers.org. The downloadable application sets

forth qualifications for all levels of membership. Additionally, inquiries pertaining to sponsorship and local chapters may be made directly through the Club’s Membership Office, 212-628-8383, ext. 23.

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VANUATU into the land of other text and images by JONATHAN POZNIAK

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JONATHAN POZNIAK IS A NEW YORK-BASED PHOTOGR APHER WHO FOCUSES ON CONSERVATION IN THE POL AR REGIONS AND NATURE AROUND THE GLOBE. HIS WORK HAS APPEARED IN SUITCASE MAGA ZINE, TRAVEL+LEISURE ASIA, AFAR, SIDETRACKED, AND ADVENTURE JOURNAL. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT: JONATHANPOZNIAK.COM, @JONATHANPOZNIAK ON INSTAGR AM, AND JONATHANPOZNIAK.SUBSTACK.COM.

As news broke of Prince Philip’s death in 2021, the Yakel tribe on the island of Tanna went into mourning, its members being part of a cult that believes Prince Philip was descended from a local mountain god. Years ago, when Her Majesty’s consort learned of his enthusiastic island following, he sent them an autographed photo, receiving in return a hand-carved pig-killing club called a nal-nal. In 2007, five villagers from the tribe were invited to England to meet the prince. Today, Chief Albi proudly shows visitors photos from that trip. Undoubtedly, his people trust that the prince’s soul will one day return to his spiritual home on Tanna. On the other side of the island, another cult pays fealty to a one John Frum—pidgin English for John “from” America—a WWII serviceman who promised to bring wealth and prosperity to the village. Every year, a Stars-and-Stripes procession is held in his honor; the village has even erected a wooden control tower to welcome him home when his plane comes in for a landing. Further north, on the island of Pentecost, a different kind of wooden tower, one rising some 30 meters, has been erected. There, local men take part in an ancient land-diving ritual called Nagol as a rite of passage

There are places we fictionalize in our daydreams, Edens devoid of materialist trappings, lands where nature is king, and shamanism carries more weight than Western medicine. Vanuatu is just such a place. A small group of islands in Melanesia, floating between Australia and Fiji, Vanuatu is the most linguistically diverse place on Earth, with 138 languages spoken by some 300,000 people. It was settled by both the British and French a century ago, yet in the years since, the archipelago has maintained its soul. It is a proverbial land of contrasts, with sparkling turquoise waters and active volcanoes, and of cargo cults and, as has been endlessly written about, a history of cannibalism, which, according to village elders, died out decades ago. Here, villages still live in communion with nature as they have since time immemorial, their peoples abiding by laws unseen.

OPENING SPREAD: THE WOMEN OF PENTECOST ISLAND SING AND CHANT TO SUMMON THE COURAGE OF THE MEN WHO SCALE THE TOWER. PREVIOUS SPREAD: PENTECOST IS THE ONLY ISLAND IN THE WORLD WHERE MEN PRACTICE NAGOL, THE ANCIENT ART OF LAND DIVING. THIS BRAVE SOUL IS PREPARING TO JUMP. FACING PAGE: THE YAKEL VILLAGE ON TANNA LIES DEEP IN THE JUNGLE; EVERY NEW GENERATION LIVES JUST AS THEIR ANCESTORS DID.

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finely tuned balance between environmental progress and sustainable tourism. Alongside his wife Silvana, he has worked to restore the local coral reef; fought for the preservation of coconut crabs, a culinary delicacy that is endangered across the Pacific; and continued to forge agritourism networks between local farmers and village chiefs alike. New businesses that have been launched to bolster the economy have put environmentalism first. The Alternative Communities Trade in Vanuatu (ACTIV) Association, for instance, has built a small chocolate industry, which is empowering local cocoa growers who engage in hand-farming practices. Bean-to-bar Aelan Chocolate is produced in rich volcanic soil on four islands. Over the past 15 years, the enterprise has rehabilitated a number of plantations and was recently offered solar power from Fonds Pacifique to lower its manufacturing carbon footprint. As I walked through the Yakel village with Chief Albi and a small crowd of curious of kids, he plucked ripe mandarins off a tree and dug up a yam from the garden. He told me about a little tree house he helped to build, where, on moonlit nights, he climbs up with the village elders, and pours some strong kava. A thick, fortified drink made from the roots of a local pepper plant that imparts a spectacular lip-tingling sedative, kava is consumed throughout the South Pacific. Those who imbibe enter a mild trance-like state and commune with their ancestors, receiving guidance and reaffirming their connection to the tribe. As I learned in Vanuatu, to enjoy the benefits of nature is not to deny its ongoing destruction. To embrace health is not to dismiss the existence of disease. It’s about the choices we have in what we connect to. Whether a connection comes through shamanic tradition or some other means, we must take every opportunity to cross that threshold into a world that’s not our own, for it is a path that begs to be followed.

to prove one’s manhood and ensure a bountiful yam harvest. Men and boys of all ages tie vines to their ankles and swan dive, bungee-style, headfirst to the ground below. Miraculously, they touch down on the soft earth completely unscathed. To witness this act, fueled by adrenaline and anxiety, is nothing short of breathtaking. In Vanuatu, there’s no GPSing yourself to the nearest Starbucks. You’re opening yourself up to the care of locals, who, for better or worse, will take you out of robotic existence and into a far more bewildering place—the present. Ni-Vans, as locals are called, allow us to reflect on the invisible weight we carry on our shoulders and tap into the simplicity of real values, where worth isn’t measured through performative self-promotion. Their lives are based on roots, and an enviable “groundedness,” where social, cultural, and geographical isolation has not only worked in their favor but allowed them to thrive in the modern world. Like any slice of paradise, Vanuatu is not without its problems. Outdated hierarchies in both villages and government present few opportunities for women, and, like many an island nation, Vanuatu has seen its share of environmental degradation over the years— not to mention the ever-looming threat of rising seas. Thankfully, people here are rising to the challenge, not in the form of well-funded NGOs, but rather locals on the ground. A disposable plastic ban enacted a few years ago has been a huge step in the right direction, says John Nicholls, owner of Tanna’s eco-friendly Rockwater Resort. He has spent years building a business that evinces a

PREVIOUS SPREAD: THE IMPENETRABLE BOND BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE IS A STRONG PART OF THE YAKEL TRIBE. FACING PAGE: CHIEF ALBI LOUDLY SHOWS OFF HIS PHOTO WITH PRINCE PHILIP, THE LATE DUKE OF EDINBURGH. FOLLOWING SPREAD: EVERY VILLAGE HAS A NAKAMAL, A SACRED PLACE WHERE PEOPLE GATHER AND DANCE.

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WINDOW ANCIENT LAND ON A N

finding friendship on the steppes of Central Asia by ROBERT MCCR ACKEN PECK

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PROUDLY WEARING MEDALS AWARDED FOR HIS SERVICE TO THE COUNTRY, THIS VILLAGE ELDER JOINS FELLOW JUDGES ON A VIEWING STAND OVERLOOKING AN OUTDOOR WRESTLING FIELD IN NORTH-CENTRAL MONGOLIA. FOR A FOUR- TO FIVE-DAY PERIOD EACH JULY, NOMADIC HERDSMEN GATHER TO COMPETE IN THREE NATIONAL SPORTS: WRESTLING, ARCHERY, AND HORSEBACK RIDING.

AT ELEVATIONS OF 1,500 METERS OR MORE, YAKS AND YAK-COW HYBRIDS ARE MORE COMMONLY FOUND THAN CATTLE IN NORTHERN MONGOLIA. DESPITE THEIR SIZE, YAKS ARE DOCILE ENOUGH TO BE HANDLED BY A YOUNG BOY.

WHERE THE STEPPE GRASSLAND IS INTERSPERSED WITH FOREST, PINE NUTS PROVIDE A WELCOME ADDITION TO THE TRADITIONAL DIET OF MEAT AND DAIRY PRODUCTS. THOUGH DIFFICULT TO FIND AND HARVEST, THIS NUTRITIOUS SEED IS GENEROUSLY SHARED WITH GUESTS BY FAMILIES LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE THEM.

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A FELLOW OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB SINCE 1983, ROBERT MCCRACKEN PECK IS A SENIOR FELLOW AT THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF DREXEL UNIVERSITY. HE HAS CARRIED THE EXPLORERS CLUB FLAG ON EXPEDITIONS TO NEPAL, VENEZUELA, AND MONGOLIA. IN 2017, HE WAS RECOGNIZED FOR HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO EXPLORATION, DISCOVERY, AND SCIENCE EDUCATION WITH A MEDAL PRESENTED JOINTLY BY THE CLUB’S ST. LOUIS AND PHILADELPHIA CHAPTERS.

cheese to mutton dumplings and, when available, the ever-popular koumiss, or fermented mare’s milk. Everything was served up with good cheer and lots of spirited conversation. At the time of my visits, more than twothirds of Mongolia’s population was still quasi-nomadic, living with their large herds of livestock—sheep, goats, yaks, horses, and camels—in the open, unfenced grassland that covers the central part of the country. The rest of its people lived in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, and one or two smaller urban centers. Today, however, devastating winter storms called zuds, which cause livestock die-offs and other changes in living conditions, exacerbated by climate change, have made rural life more challenging, while increased forms of communication have given younger Mongolians a taste of the outside world, prompting many to venture out on their own and seek employment in now-bustling cities. The photographs reproduced here represent but a sampling of the thousands of images I was able to make during my 17 years in Mongolia. While they seem timeless, in many ways they represent a snapshot of a very particular time. Today, Western-style clothing is in much wider use, cars are more commonly seen, most households have solar-power and televisions. Cell phones, unknown in the early 1990s, are now ubiquitous. What remains constant, however, is the generous nature and good cheer of Mongolia’s people. The friendship and feeling of mutual respect, so rare in many countries, including our own, is the lasting legacy of a people who once dominated much of the Western world. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to be in their company and to record their remarkable lives.

At a time when the world seems unable to stop Russia’s brutal aggression in Ukraine, the mistreatment of Indigenous people in Brazil and elsewhere, and military conflicts in dozens of other countries, it is good to be reminded that there are places where people not only get along with one another, but generously share their friendship with outsiders. Between 1994 and 2011, I was fortunate to travel throughout Mongolia on seven different expeditions. It was a pivotal time for that nation, as it was then just extracting itself from the domination of the former Soviet Union. Long isolated from other parts of the world, the country had seen little change during the six decades of Communist control. In many areas, I felt as though I was stepping centuries back in time. Throughout the Communist era (1921– 1992), and long before, internal travel had been unaffordable for most Mongolians. There were few roads or privately-owned cars, and petrol was expensive and nearly impossible to come by. Local populations required formal permission to travel, so they tended to stay where they had lived for generations. With neither demand nor infrastructure in place to support it, tourism was essentially nonexistent. This meant that I was often the first Westerner—or among the first—that many nomadic Mongolian families had ever met. Without exception, they were kind to me, and very hospitable, curious to know who I was and what had brought me into their part of the world. As I traveled from place to place in a Russian military jeep with a Mongolian colleague, nomadic families invited us to stay with them, sharing what meager resources they had—from salted Chinese tea and hard

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A YOUNG RIDER AND HIS STEED ARE RECOGNIZED AT THE END OF A RURAL NAADAM HORSE RACE IN RENCHINLHUMBE. THEY ARE SPRINKLED WITH MARE’S MILK, BEFORE BEING GIVEN A PRIZE.

A POSSESSION OF ENORMOUS PRIDE BUT OF LIMITED UTILITY, A RUSSIAN-MADE MOTORCYCLE SYMBOLIZES THE CHANGING ASPIRATIONS OF MONGOLIAN NOMADS IN THE 1990S. TO SAVE PRECIOUS GASOLINE, THIS FAMILY SHOWS OFF ITS MOST VALUABLE POSSESSION WITH A PUSH.

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MONKS PLAY HORNS AT AMARBAYASGALANT KHIID IN NORTH-CENTRAL MONGOLIA. BUILT BETWEEN 1727 AND 1736 TO SERVE AS A FINAL RESTING PLACE FOR ZANABAZAR (1635–1723), ITS FIRST SPIRITUAL HEAD OF TIBETAN BUDDHISM, AMARBAYASGALANT KHIID WAS ONE OF THE FEW MONASTERIES TO HAVE ESCAPED TOTAL DESTRUCTION DURING THE STALINIST PURGES OF THE 1930S.

FROM AN EARLY AGE, THE CHILDREN OF NOMADIC FAMILIES ARE GIVEN IMPORTANT DAILY RESPONSIBILITIES— CARING FOR YOUNGER SIBLINGS, COLLECTING FIREWOOD AND YAK DUNG FOR FUEL, AND ASSISTING WITH THE SUMMERTIME MILKING OF LIVESTOCK.

THE DARHAD BASIN SHAMANESS, BAYAR, IS SEEN JOURNEYING TO THE SPIRIT WORLD IN AN ALL-NIGHT CEREMONY AS HER FAMILY AND NEIGHBORS LOOK ON. HER SHAMAN’S ROBE, HEADDRESS, AND SACRED DRUM, HANDED DOWN THROUGH GENERATIONS, ARE USED ONLY DURING SUCH CEREMONIES.

WOMEN MISSION ON A

“Her Deepness,” Sylvia A. Earle, chats with “Her Highness,” Meg Lowman, this year’s recipient of The Explorers Club Medal, about groundbreaking science and their mutual quest to save Earth’s most pristine environments

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AN HONORARY DIRECTOR OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB, OCEANOGRAPHER AND MARINE BIOLOGIST SYLVIA A. EARLE, AK A “HER DEEPNESS,” IS THE FOUNDER OF MISSION BLUE, WHICH AIMS TO SET ASIDE AND PROTECT EARTH’S PRISTINE OCEAN REALMS. SHE WAS THE RECIPIENT OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB’S HIGHEST HONOR, THE EXPLORERS CLUB MEDAL, IN 1996. BOTANIST EXTRAORDINAIRE, MEG LOWMAN, AK A “HER HIGHNESS,” WILL RECEIVE THAT SAME DISTINCTION AT THIS YEAR’S EXPLORERS CLUB ANNUAL DINNER ON APRIL 22, IN RECOGNITION OF HER GROUNDBREAKING ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN FOREST CANOPY RESEARCH. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THEIR WORK, VISIT: MISSIONBLUE.ORG AND MISSION-GREEN.ORG, RESPECTIVELY.

Sylvia A. Earle: As a scientist and explorer, it is always satisfying to make new discoveries, to go where no woman (or man) has gone before, to see what others have not, and to find meaningful pieces of the great living puzzle of life that is unique to Earth. And I have been privileged to have ventured into the sea and to have pioneered new technologies to gain greater access to our oceans—80 percent of which remain unexplored. Because you have done that for forests, I will never look at a tree in the same way again, nor will the rest of the world, as it now seems obvious that most of what makes a tree a tree, as well as what constitutes a forest, is well above eye level—in the forest canopy. How did you find yourself in the treetops to begin with? Meg Lowman: I have always had a passion for green giants and a fondness for leaves, and so you can imagine my delight when, shortly after I finished my masters at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, I found myself in Australia on a fellowship to study tropical forests. Coming from the temperate zones, I can tell you that this neophyte knew almost

nothing about the tropics. During my first visit to a rainforest there, I stared up into the most dizzyingly tall trees I’d ever met, and thought, “Holy cow, I can’t see the top!” I had grown up with an enormous tree-love and had planned to devote a lifetime to demystifying their secrets. But gazing into those aerial heights, it was obvious that to understand trees, and the forest as a whole, I needed to get up there. It’s hard to believe, but it was not until the 1980s that scientists began in earnest to study the Earth-bound forest in its entirety. I was one of those first arboreal explorers— aka “arbornauts”—and arguably the only crazy climber to have conducted research on every continent, even Antarctica where the tops of moss and lichen foliage are only a few centimeters high. It is kind of astonishing to think that so much of what we now know of the forest has until recently been unknown. Imagine going to the doctor for a complete check-up and, during your entire visit, the only body part examined was your big toe. And the visit ended with a pronouncement you were perfectly healthy. But there was no test of your vital signs, heartbeat, vision, or any other part of you—just the big toe. You may have gone in with a broken arm or a headache from high blood pressure, but the singular assessment of your lowest bipedal

OPENING SPREAD: THE TROPICAL RAINFOREST CANOPY OF THE PERUVIAN AMAZON. PHOTOGRAPH BY ROB NELSON. FACING PAGE: MEG LOWMAN IN HER ELEMENT ON THE MYAKKA CANOPY WALKWAY IN FLORIDA. PHOTOGRAPH BY CARLTON WARD.

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extremity wouldn’t clue the doctor in to the real trouble. If this is how your health was assessed, you’d probably switch doctors. For me, as a botanist, it is equally incomprehensible that, for centuries, the health of trees, even those ancient giants stretching a hundred meters or more into the clouds, was assessed only at the forest floor. Viewing woody trunks at eye level, scientists essentially inspected the “big toes” of their patients and then made sweeping deductions about forest health. The only time foresters had the chance to evaluate a whole tree was when it was cut down. Ouch! This is like doctors assessing a person’s health only after doing an autopsy. When I began my work, almost no one paid attention to the treetops—foresters unimaginatively overlooking 95 percent of their subjects. We now know that the complex interactions between plants and their herbivores that occur in the uppermost crowns impact the health of forests in ways never before detected at ground level. Such an aerial shift in our approach to forest science has led to advancements in knowledge of global cycles ranging from freshwater circulation to carbon storage to climate change. SAE: Most humans tended to view trees from the bottom up not from the top down. You have not only climbed trees, but have taken tree-climbing to new heights, with ingenious lifting techniques, and pushing further, to develop sky-walking pathways among the trees’ leafy crowns. ML: When scientists decide to venture into unexplored frontiers, they often find themselves pioneering new techniques and technologies to go where no one has gone before. As you know, the invention of SCUBA in the 1940s,

MEG LOWMAN, AKA CANOPYMEG, HAS MENTORED MILLIONS OF YOUNG GIRLS, INCLUDING THESE STUDENTS IN HONEY VALLEY, INDIA. IMAGE COURTESY MEG LOWMAN.

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for instance, opened the extraordinary world of coral reef biodiversity to scientific research. In 1969, astronauts first landed on the Moon, thanks to the development of rocket combustion for space travel. The use of solid rocket fuel was to astronauts what my humble homemade slingshot is to us arbornauts, not necessarily a new invention, but an innovative new way to use an old one. It took a lot of thought and some trial and error, but eventually I found a way to hoist myself into the unexplored mayhem. Whereas cavers go down a rope, I go up. Whereas recreational mountaineers pound hardware into rock cliffs, I rig tall trees with greatest delicacy to avoid breaking any leaves or scaring off any creatures. It turned out to be a simple, inexpensive technique that enabled me to embark on the exploration of what I now call “the eighth continent,” a complex hot spot of biodiversity located not hundreds or thousands of kilometers away, like the ocean floor or outer space, but literally just above our heads. After a few of us perfected safe rope techniques, I next designed aerial trails so groups of people could study the tree crowns, which is much more efficient than just one person dangling from a rope. Walkways have offered an important conservation solution but also serve on the humanitarian front, providing income to Indigenous people from ecotourism instead of logging. After ropes and walkways, I went on to design, tinker, and utilize an extensive tool kit for canopy exploration, including cherry pickers, hot-air balloons, construction cranes, and drones. Each tool has not only allowed unique access to different levels of the forest, but has afforded us a means to answer different research questions.

SAE: What was it like the first time you found yourself in the treetops? ML: During that first ascent into the canopy, I was ecstatic to see myriad creatures previously unknown to me (and to the rest of the world). I witnessed a handsome black-snouted weevil suck leaf juices, elegant colorful pollinators flit between vine flowers, giant bird’s-nest ferns give sanctuary to ants, and literally thousands of my favorite thing: leaves. Climbing from bottom to top, I was dumbstruck by the changes observed. Foliage in the shaded understory was blackish-green, larger, thinner, and (it turned out) lived longer in a windless, protected, and dark environment near the forest floor. Leaves in bright sun at the top were small, leathery, yellowish green in color, and very tough. Everywhere I looked, the crowns shared secrets not visible from ground level—shiny beetles ate young (but not old) leaf tissue, caterpillars operated in gangs feeding on entire branches at once, birds plucked these unsuspecting larvae as if feasting at a sushi bar, and sudden downpours of rain sent all critters scrambling for shelter under the nearest foliage or bark crevice. Since then, treetop exploration has led to the discovery that upwards of half of terrestrial creatures (still highly debated as between 10 and 100 million species) live approximately 30 meters overhead. And in the upper crowns, the majority of species we have found are new to science. Hard to imagine, given that there are more than 60,000 species of trees, we are finding unique communities living in the tops of each one. This notion of climbing into the canopy has not only led to important scientific discoveries, but also to far-reaching actions to save forests.

INSECTS EAT LEAVES AND MILLIONS OF INSECTS REPRESENT THE GLUE OF ALL ECOSYSTEMS, ESPECIALLY FORESTS. IMAGE COURTESY MEG LOWMAN.

SAE: Throughout history, people have taken from nature whatever was needed or wanted from the world’s lands and waters. When our numbers were small and the natural

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and to insulate them from carnage wrought by humans. Just within my lifetime, Amazon rainforest degradation has exceeded a tipping point past which restoration is unlikely. Countries like Madagascar, Ethiopia, and the Philippines have almost no primary forests left to seed future stands. And remaining forest fragments around the world are at great risk from fires, drought, roads, and clearing. We must race ever faster to understand the mysteries of the treetops before they disappear. Perhaps more important, we must conserve those remaining Green Spots, “Noah’s arks” where biodiversity abounds, which is the goal of Mission Green.

world was largely intact, our impact was slight. But after 300,000 years of a moreor-less peaceful relationship with nature, the past 500, and especially the past 50, have marked a turning point that does not bode well for the future of life on Earth. Human capacity to consume and alter the nature of nature has reached perilous tipping points for climate, biodiversity, land and water use, compounded by pollution, all driving changes in planetary processes and the underpinnings of what makes Earth hospitable for life as we know it. Half a century ago, it was widely believed that Earth was too big to fail. Now we know, if Earth is to remain habitable for the likes of us, we must take care of what remains of the natural systems that took 4.5 billion years to make and a bit more than 4.5 decades to break, and to do our best to restore damaged areas to better health. But I do remain optimistic. As I have found through the launch of Mission Blue, there’s still time to hold on to the last safe havens in our planet’s oceans—places we had dubbed “Hope Spots.” We now have 150 Hope Spots, covering more than 57 million square kilometers of ocean. You have just launched Mission Green to do the same for our surviving forests, where populations of trees are still intact, hosting miraculous creatures who are as vital to our existence as we are to theirs. ML: When I was a youth studying backyard trees 50 years ago, “climate change” was not even part of the vocabulary, but today this term haunts our tireless efforts to conserve natural systems, especially our forests. It shouldn’t be a surprise (but it still is for some) that planetary health links directly to forests. Their canopies produce oxygen, filter fresh water, transfer sunlight into sugars, clean our air by absorbing carbon dioxide, and provide a home to a genetic library of creatures, among many other crucial functions. That is why it is so important to leave our forests alone,

SAE: As dire as the world might seem from an ecological and environmental point of view, I do feel there is hope and that hope comes in the form of knowledge. The next generation is in many ways more informed than ever. Children in the twenty-first century—adults, too—are armed with the superpower of knowing what Earth looks like from space, of seeing and hearing about events across the globe in real time while understanding the new perspectives of geological time, of seeing Earth’s place in the universe, of vicariously traveling into the inner workings of cells, to the depths of the deepest seas, and now to the tops of the highest trees. ML: I could not agree more. As I have often said, just as space travel launched a generation of astronauts, canopy access created a new career pathway for us arbornauts. Kids who love to climb trees, take note—there is a profession for you that has the potential of preserving our planet for future generations.

MEG LOWMAN WITH HER TEAM OF YOUNG ARBORNAUTS, LEARNING TO EXPLORE “THE EIGHTH CONTINENT.” IMAGE COURTESY MEG LOWMAN.

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TRAILBLAZING TOP WORLD ON THE

OF THE

Lhakpa Sherpa talks with Brent Bishop about getting schooled in the mountains, breaking gender barriers on Everest, and the changing character of the Sherpa climbing community

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LHAKPA SHERPA, FROM THE MAKALU REGION OF NEPAL, HAS SET THE WORLD RECORD FOR FEMALE SUMMITS OF EVEREST, WITH HER TENTH TOPOUT ACHIEVED ON MAY 12, SHORTLY AFTER 6:30 AM LOCAL TIME. SHE IS TO RECEIVE THIS YEAR’S TENZING NORGAY AWARD AT THE EXPLORERS CLUB ANNUAL DINNER ON APRIL 22. A 2003 RECIPIENT OF THE EXPLORERS CLUB’S LOWELL THOMAS AWARD, BRENT BISHOP PRACTICALLY GREW UP ON EVEREST, HIS FATHER, BARRY BISHOP, HAVING BEEN A MEMBER OF THE FIRST AMERICAN TEAM TO SUMMIT THE WORLD’S HIGHEST PEAK IN 1963. BISHOP HAS REACHED THE TOP OF EVEREST THREE TIMES, MOST RECENTLY IN 2016, AS A GUIDE AND CINEMATOGRAPHER WHO WAS THE FIRST TO FILM IN A VIRTUAL REALITY FORMAT FROM THE SUMMIT. IN 1994, BISHOP COFOUNDED THE SAGARMATHA ENVIRONMENTAL EXPEDITION (SEE), WHICH HAS BEEN COMMITTED TO CLEANING TRASH OFF THE SLOPES OF EVEREST. SINCE ITS INCEPTION, THE ORGANIZATION HAS REMOVED 11 METRIC TONS OF TRASH FROM THE MOUNTAIN AND HAS TRAINED MORE THAN 500 BALTI PORTERS ON “LEAVE NO TRACE” ETHICS.

has been my classroom. I have learned so much hiking in the hills, touching the rocks, and observing the seasonal movement of the ice. One of my first jobs as a child was to hike up into the mountains to collect baby yaks and bring them back to the village to protect them from the snow leopards, which preyed on them in late summer. So, I had quite an intimate knowledge of the mountains by the time I became a porter. At that time, I was 17 or so years of age, working under the watchful eye of my mentor, the legendary guide Babu Chiri Sherpa. (I confess I am not certain of my actual age [laughs] as the date of my birth was never recorded.) In 2000—nearly a decade after becoming a porter—I reached the top of Everest, becoming the first Nepali woman to summit and successfully return. I believe my success has come because I am a Makalu Sherpani and I have always worked hard to achieve my goals. I just never gave up.

There is no doubt that Lhakpa Sherpa has been breaking barriers, being a Sherpani who notched her tenth topout on Everest this past spring and has since set her sights on K2. The Explorers Journal recently caught up with her to talk about her long ascent to the top of her game on the eve of her receiving The Explorers Club’s Tenzing Norgay Award. Brent Bishop: We are so delighted to be able to chat with you about the upcoming award—in recognition of the fact that you have summitted Everest for a record ten times and are charting a course for the Sherpani who follow. Having been on Everest a number of times myself, I know just how hard it is to summit. What has made you so successful? Lhakpa Sherpa: First of all, it is such an honor to be receiving The Explorers Club’s Tenzing Norgay Award, named in honor of a Sherpa who, with Sir Edmund Hillary, stood atop Everest for the first time on May 29, 1953. As a Makalu Sherpani, I grew up in a village surrounded by majestic mountains—in the shadow of Makalu and Everest, which I gazed upon all the time. I did not have the luxury of going to elementary or secondary school for a formal education, but for me, the outdoors

BB: My first trip to Everest was in 1994, and since then I have seen so many changes in the style of climbing, the conditions on the mountain, and the climbers themselves. What changes have you observed over the years? LS: Since my first Everest expedition, I, too, have seen many changes on the mountain—in the physical environment as a result of climate change, in the climbing culture that has taken hold, and profound changes in the lives of my fellow Sherpas for whom Everest has been such an important part of our lives.

OPENING SPREAD: MOUNT EVEREST AS SEEN FROM GOKYO RI. IMAGE COURTESY WIKICOMMONS. FACING PAGE: LHAKPA SHERPA AND HER FELLOW CLIMBERS ON THE DESCENT FROM THE SUMMIT OF EVEREST ON MAY 12, 2022.

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Over the past 20 years, in particular, their status on Everest has shifted from unseen laborer to the ranks of recognized elite guides. We now see a fair number of Sherpa UIAGM (Union Internationale des Associations de Guides de Montagnes)-certified guides working on Everest without any Western counterparts. This trend will only continue with the Sherpas taking more ownership of the complete process. This is all a good thing, because it funnels more money into the community. That said, this has benefited the Sherpas of the Khumbu district—from Lukla to the region above Namche, more than other Sherpa communities. They have been able to accumulate a vast amount of wealth from trekking and climbing and put it to work buying real estate within and outside of Nepal, starting businesses, investing, etc. Rather than work on Everest, they’d rather own the companies that support such activities. LS: Brent, you are right to observe the disparities within the Sherpa communities on Everest. The strongest climbing Sherpas now come from my region of Makalu and from the Rolwaling Valley. Those from Lukla and Namche, for instance, all want to be business people. They speak excellent English—not to mention a host of other languages—and have little interest in working on the mountains. Oddly enough, most foreign climbers do not understand that. For them, Sherpas tend to look a lot alike and appear to be equally strong. But, I can say firsthand, that many of those in the industry are not up to the task because they were born in Kathmandu and don’t understand the mountains. When it comes to summiting Everest, or any of the other 8,000-meter-peaks, they are no more qualified than the tourists they cater to.

Two decades ago, the mountain was virtually covered in ice, which is now melting very quickly, with diminishing ice every year and far more exposed rock. Of course, this has made climbing far more difficult, and dangerous, especially in the area of the Khumbu Ice Fall. People—both Sherpas and climbers—have also been changing, as has the climbing ecosystem in which they operate. On the positive side, Sherpas are better equipped than they ever have been since the dawn of Himalayan climbing. Many are now fully in charge of their own climbing companies and the expeditions they lead, and are profiting from the business in ways never thought possible. But there is a negative side to this newfound prosperity. As recently as a decade ago, Sherpas and climbers alike were incredibly respectful of each other and, more important, respectful of the mountain—Sagarmatha. For us, the “Peak of Heaven” deserves our utmost respect. Unfortunately, with Sherpa prosperity has come a modicum of exploitation of what has, for centuries, been a spiritual anchor in our lives. Today, there seems to be more interest in turning a profit than espousing a work ethic that has been a hallmark of Sherpa culture. Of course, we Sherpas are happy to be setting our new records on self-supported expeditions, and to have our accomplishments recognized by the international mountaineering community. But I worry that a diminishing respect for Sagarmatha will come to haunt us. BB: The Sherpas have been one of the most successful Indigenous groups the world has seen over the past 50 years. There has been a diaspora of Sherpas throughout the Western world, with young Sherpas being educated and becoming pilots, dentists, doctors, investors, etc. This success is due to the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit of this group, but what has turbocharged the process is the trickle-down economics of the Everest region, with all the trekking and climbing.

A VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT OF MT. EVEREST, CAPTURED BY SPANISH MOUNTAINEER CARLOS PAUNER ON MAY 22, 2013. IMAGE COURTESY WIKICOMMONS.

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BB: We’ve seen a major change in Sherpa culture, of course, and Sherpa climbing culture, but I suspect there has been an even bigger change for Sherpani. When you first started climbing, few Sherpa women were climbing in the mountains. LS: These changes have been drastic indeed. When I started out as a porter—before summiting Everest for the first time—people assumed I was the girlfriend of a Sherpa, as women were not thought to be strong enough to climb. This was difficult for me at first, but I just ignored the detractors and never gave up. Had I listened to the skeptics, I would still be in my village, likely a mother with 20 children. Quite frightening, if you think about it [laughs].

want them to, given that the Himalayan peaks are becoming increasingly dangerous. LS: Both my daughters were born in the United States, and they go to school here. They tell me they want to climb with me, but we will see. They love the outdoors, but they have had little time to build the skill set needed for Himalayan climbing. BB: You recently started a trekking company, Cloudscape Climbing. LS: For all of my personal focus on the Himalaya and the Karakorum, the mountains in New England are beautiful and offer excellent hiking and trekking opportunities. It’s a great place to learn, and I absolutely love to teach. There are so many children that want to pursue an outdoor life, but don’t know where to start. That’s why I started the company, to open up that world of possibility.

BB: What advice would you give for women starting to climb now? LS: You have to be in it for the long haul. After I summited Everest the first time, few in the climbing world, even my local Sherpa world, noticed. After my tenth ascent, however, people now know who I am. But, clearly from my bank account, I have not done this for money but rather for the profound sense of self-satisfaction I have gained from my experience. (As you may know, I still supplement my income by working at a local Connecticut Whole Foods.) I hope that what I lack in formal education, I can share in terms of creating opportunities for other women and inspire the next generation. Anyone contemplating a career in mountaineering, however, must understand the commitment it takes.

BB: Your next big project is climbing K2? LS: Yes, I leave for Skardu, Pakistan, on June 15, and will travel to K2, which has been a huge dream of mine. I was on K2 in 2010, but the weather conditions at the high camp were quite bad. We spent two nights there, before descending on account of the high winds and avalanche risks. Since then, I have been determined to go back, and now I can as I have some sponsorship. I will be climbing with a Russian team and 30 Sherpas. I think our chances are quite good. K2 is a powerful and beautiful mountain, and I will push 100 percent. I already feel that I have reached the summit in my mind.

BB: You have two daughters. Do they aspire to follow in your footsteps? And, if so, do you actually want them to climb? I ask this because I happen to have two sons that climb. As my father and I both climbed Everest, people assume my sons will follow. I don’t know if I

BB: After K2, do you want to climb other 8,000-meter peaks? LS: After K2, I hope to climb the 50 high points in the United States. It is hard to believe that there are so many places I have not been, given that I have lived here for 15 years. I look forward to getting to know my newfound home with the intimacy with which I have long known the Himalaya.

LHAKPA SHERPA TAKES IN THE MOUNTAIN AIR AFTER NOTCHING HER TENTH SUCCESSFUL BID FOR THE SUMMIT OF EVEREST.

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LOOK DOWN, NOT UP a mycological foray into the Khumbu text by RICHARD F. SILBER, images by ALOK TUL ADHAR

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RICHARD F. SILBER IS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL MOUNTAIN TREKKING, INC., AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND COFOUNDER OF THE HIMALAYAN CLIMATE & SCIENCE INSTITUTE. HIS MANY CLIMBS INCLUDE KILIMANJARO IN TANZANIA, LOBUCHE AND MERA PEAKS IN NEPAL, AND WINTER ASCENTS OF MT. WASHINGTON AND MT. ADAMS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. SILBER IS A LITIGATION ATTORNEY IN WASHINGTON, DC.

University; and a crew of citizen scientists from the United States and Mexico—rose before dawn at the Kathmandu Guest House in Thamel and set off in Toyota Land Cruisers, each truck packed with a bright orange laundry tub filled with ice and Nepali beer for the long drive to the Solukhumbu. It was the rainy season, and that rain caused a landslide which, for a while, blocked our way across a road etched into the side of the rising hills of the lower Himalaya. Once the road was cleared, we forged ahead, lurching and bumping up the deeply rutted dirt roads to the village of Salleri, where we would begin our mushroom hunt. Upon our arrival, our sharp-eyed fungi foragers jumped out of the trucks and fanned out in search of mushrooms, taking note of the geolocation of each and every find. “No one told me about this,” Britt bemoaned the following day, as he looked out across the deep valley at the ominous gray and fast-moving waters of the Dudh Koshi (Milk River) to the turquoise roofs of Phakding village and the long, high suspension bridge we would need to cross to get to our teahouse for the night. A yak train, burdened with propane canisters, ambled toward us as we waited our turn to cross, the bells around the animals’ thick, hairy necks clanging with each step. I explained that the bells scare away Tibetan wolves, which didn’t seem to distract or ease Britt’s trepidation. “Don’t look down,” I suggested, as I watched him carefully step onto and progress down the narrow, metal footpath and

In November 2019, I was in Kathmandu with my daughter Carol for a meeting with Shiva Devkota, Nepal’s leading mycologist. Over cookies and cups of sweet milk tea, I pitched the idea of bringing people to the Himalayan nation to look for mushrooms in the Khumbu as part of an effort to understand the impact of climate change on this biodiverse part of the world. The Himalaya is warming three times faster than the rest of the planet. Climate change is impacting every aspect of the biome, including the people who have lived in this mountainous region for centuries. It was our contention that fungi could play a role as a sentinel species in assessing this rapidly changing environments. Before such future changes in metrics could be ascertained, however, we needed an inventory of what was growing in the region now. Carrying out a mycological census would combine a trek to Everest Base Camp, organized by International Mountain Trekking, with the aim of identifying every mushroom we could find. Unfortunately, as with so many adventure travelers, the covid pandemic wound up imposing a two-plus-year hold on our plans. On June 19, 2022, our team—which included Britt Bunyard, publisher and editor in chief of Fungi magazine; Thomas Roehl, a PhD candidate in mycology from Clark

OPENING SPREAD: A VIEW OF THE SOLUKHUMBU. FACING PAGE: AMANITA TULLOSSIANA, A POISONOUS MUSHROOM NEVER BEFORE REPORTED IN NEPAL AND FIRST DESCRIBED AS A NEW SPECIES IN 2018, AFTER HAVING BEEN IDENTIFIED IN INDIA.

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make his way across the bridge decorated with prayer flags, snapping in the wind. Later that afternoon, we set off into the mostly deciduous forest behind the village, where we discovered Amanita tullossiana (named in honor of Rodham E. Tulloss for his contribution to the study of Amanitaceae), an ash-gray mushroom, its pileus covered with dark gray universal veil remnants and stipe with rows of recurved scales. It is a beautiful poisonous mushroom never before reported in Nepal and only first described as a new species in 2018, after having been identified in Uttarakhand, India. We soon started to find lots of other interesting mushrooms and lichens—an unknown species of Psilocybe; a pretty yellow jelly Calocera cornea; the rapidly blue-staining mycorrhizal Boletus sensibilis; Hypomyces chrysospermus, the parasitic ascomycete bolete eater; and the wispy Usnea longissima, known almost universally as Old Man’s Beard and valued in Sherpa communities for its medicinal and spiritual qualities. Most people coming to the Khumbu look up at the world’s highest peaks. We came to look down and, to our great pleasure and surprise, found more than 150 different species of mushrooms along the way. Some had never been reported in Nepal. Some species we could not identify because they appear to be unknown to science. And some, like Suillus granulatus, growing in gregarious clusters in the pine forests on the way up to Namche Bazaar, we sauteed with shallots, fresh-picked Zanthoxylum simulans (Sichuan peppercorns), and small, blazing-hot green chilis for our homemade pizza, assembled in the kitchen of Namche’s historic Khumbu Lodge.

PREVIOUS SPREAD: AS WE TREKKED THROUGH THE COUNTRYSIDE, PUMORI LOOMS IN THE DISTANCE. FACING PAGE: A SELECTION OF MUSHROOMS COLLECTED IN THE KHUMBU.

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started snowing. Despite a midnight alpine start, the snow slowed them down, and after a long, hard day with the summit only a hundred or so meters above, they turned around. As Ed Viesturs famously said, “Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory.” They rejoined our group in Pheriche, and we greeted them with warm hugs and glasses of Khukri spiced rum. The storm clouds moved off during the night, and the following day was clear with a brilliant Himalayan bluebird sky. This was our last day of trekking. We were heading toward Phortse village, where the colorful Buddhist festival of Dumji, which celebrates the birth of Guru Rinpoche on a lotus flower, was just beginning. There, two members of our team, Sonam and Pushpa, decided to get married in a simple, beautiful, and traditional ceremony, the couple dressed in traditional Sherpa attire. Phu Chiri chanted Buddhist prayers; rice wine was poured into a bright ceramic goblet with dabs of yak butter on the rim. This goblet was passed to Sonam, whose smile spoke of the love he felt for Pushpa, as he dipped his fingers into the cup, pulling out and casting into the air droplets of golden wine. Sonam’s mother, Ang Serki, welcomed Pushpa into her home, where she became part of Sonam’s family. On the last day of our expedition, we boarded a pair of helicopters, which had come to take us from the landing pad on the edge of Phortse village back across the Khumbu to Nepal’s ancient capital city of Kathmandu. While we were delighted by our mycological finds, the information we gathered was just the beginning. This year we plan to explore the Annapurna region to continue our mushroom census in the Himalayas. For those who might be interested in joining our next expedition, please contact International Mountain Trekking: imt-nepal.com. We would love to share with you an extraordinary, yet rapidly changing place atop the Roof of the World.

The weather was at times rainy, cloudy, partly cloudy, and cool—perfect for trekking. I knew we were hiking in the shadow of some of the world’s highest peaks, but we would not see those peaks for a few more days as we steadily gained elevation. When they did occasionally reveal themselves, they did so in a tantalizing burlesque—the clouds opening for a few minutes only to close in again, leaving to our imaginations the soaring snowcapped mountains we knew were there. Happily, we kept finding more and more mushrooms, along with bright green leafy foliose lichens that were photographed in situ before being placed in plastic trays for later study and analysis. We explored and found mushrooms in dark birch forests, on rhododendron-covered hillsides, along the mossy fern banks of crystal streams that cut across our path, and in the rich dung patties left along the trail by Himalayan tahr, yaks, donkeys, and other beasts of burden. Each day of trekking was interrupted and slowed by new discoveries. We also consumed our fair share of mushrooms. On practically every menu where we stopped for lunch or stayed overnight, mushrooms were offered in soups, in momos, on pizzas, and in dishes of rice and vegetables. Upon our arrival at Everest Base Camp, several of our team split off, led by Phu Chiri Sherpa, who, with eight successful summits of Mt. Everest under his belt, guided our teammates Shiva “Dusty” Panthi, Sarah Watson, and Carla Gonzalez-Campos up the beautiful 6,119-meter Lobuche Peak. In Dingboche, we had rented all the equipment they would need—crampons, mountaineering boots, and ice axes. The team moved immediately to high camp. After sunset, it

PREVIOUS SPREAD: ON THE APPROACH TO DINGBOCHE. FACING PAGE: TENZING TASHI SHERPA HOLDING LECCINIUM AURANTIACUM.

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METAMORPHOSIS exploring delectable delights of the insect world with Brooklyn-based chef Joseph Yoon interview by ANGEL A M.H. SCHUSTER, images courtesy JOSEPH YOON

BROOKLYN HOPPER 3 1 1 1 1 2-3

oz bourbon, infused with dried crickets* oz sweet vermouth oz boricha (Korean barley tea)** tbsp blue agave or simple syrup tsp yuzu dashes of bitters

In advance of preparing this cocktail, infuse two cups of bourbon with one cup of dried crickets for at least a week. The longer you infuse the bourbon, the more intense the flavor. Over time, the protein in the crickets acts much like an egg white, creating a beautifully frothy top once the drink is

shaken. The toasty, slightly bitter flavor of the boricha provides a nice counterpoint to the bourbon and earthy infused crickets. Fill a shaker with ice, infused bourbon, sweet vermouth, boricha, blue agave, and yuzu. Shake vigorously, then strain your cocktail into a martini glass (preferably chilled). Add a few dashes of bitters. Garnish with a few infused crickets.

* available from edibleinsects.com, 3cricketeers.com, and entomofarms.com. ** available from Asian specialty shops or online.

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most chefs I met when I started cooking professionally, and particularly with my work around edible insects. But to answer your question more directly: I have always been curious about the role food plays in our daily lives, but I had never really considered insects until 2017, when an artist approached me to work on a project with edible insects. In preparation for the project, I discovered the UN’s FAO Report, Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security, which was published in Rome in 2013. And that really spoke to me. It informed me about why we should consider eating insects as an incredibly efficient, sustainable, and nutrient-dense food source that could help address food security and environmentalism. This motivated and inspired me to host the Brooklyn Bugs Festival over that Labor Day weekend in 2017. As a result, I started getting phone calls from the New York Times and Gizmodo and NPR, and I was like, “Oh wow, there’s a great deal of interest in what I’m doing.” Instead of cooking for the one-percenters as a private chef, I started working in food systems and thinking about how we might find solutions in terms of food security and food justice. And Brooklyn Bugs was born.

It is estimated that some two billion people around the globe—one quarter of the world’s population—eat insects of one sort or another as a staple of their diets, according to the most recent data from the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. Yet those of us in the West have resisted such delicacies—never mind the fact that our earliest ancestors were dependent upon them. The question is why, given that bugs are in many ways the ultimate superfood— extremely rich in protein—not to mention being abundant and sustainable. For a bit of insight, The Explorers Journal caught up with chef extraordinaire Joseph Yoon, founder of Brooklyn Bugs and a self-professed “edible insect ambassador” and thought leader in entomophagy, to talk gastronomy, sustainability, world food security, and the art of eating well. AMHS: What led you to become an edible insect ambassador? It is not the typical career path for a rising chef. JY: I grew up in my family’s kitchen, which, in itself, was a bit unusual, since I come from a traditional Korean family, where the kitchen was a woman’s domain. The only culinary role for men was tending the barbeque and slicing fresh fruit after dinner. But I loved cooking from a young age, and, over time, I was entrusted with a greater role in meal planning and preparation. One of the biggest things I think I learned from my family was the joy of service. While everyone else was eating, the women in my family would continue cooking in the kitchen, taking great pleasure ensuring that each dish was hot and perfectly prepared at the time it was plated. That profound sense of joy in serving others is something that was really ingrained in my DNA from the very beginning. I think my desire to not only share the food, but also to share knowledge about it, is something that separated me from

AMHS: Have you found people more receptive to the idea of eating insects? JY: Yes, I have found people incredibly receptive to the idea of eating insects, especially because I put a lot of effort in the outreach and education of how to change the perception from insects as pests or something that bites you, to edible insects—something that is sustainably farmed or harvested specifically for human consumption. One important aspect to consider is the vernacular of how we discuss the notion of eating insects, even in casually speaking about them as it affects the way that we think and relate to edible insects. As I began talking about the idea of edible insects for

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moving into less-charted territory. One thing I would like to stress is that we are not trying to take away your meat, but to diversify your diet with a nutrient-dense, sustainable, and delicious protein source.

food security, sustainability, and environmentalism, I went through my own metamorphosis as both a chef and a human. I realized there was this big missing component—and that was the gastronomy. So, I started applying my culinary acumen and gastronomical terms to the discussion of eating insects. There are more than 2,000 species of edible insects with incredibly different flavor profiles and textures that can take food to a whole new level. As a whole, they’re incredibly nutrient-dense. A lot of the insects that we’ve worked with, and study, are anywhere from 50 to 80 percent protein by weight. And the majority are in the 60 to 70 percent protein by weight range. Crickets, as one example, have all nine essential amino acids. There aren’t many foods that can be such a smart, sustainable, and delicious food source that also have different vitamins and minerals that are really essential for us as well. There are so many ways to incorporate edible insects into every meal or snack, and in any type of cuisine as well. The only thing that limits cooking with them is one’s own imagination.

AMHS: I gather you have also done quite a bit of work with cicadas. JY: The metaphor of the Brood X cicada emerging after living underground for 17 years, and our own emergence from social isolation in 2021, made them part of the zeitgeist of the year. Naturally, I was drawn to incorporate them in many of my recipes. The one unfortunate thing with the cicada is that it’s not yet readily available to consumers. I have a vendor who is trying to responsibly source them for me, and the ones I have used thus far have all been harvested myself. Luckily, next year promises to be a big year for cicadas with two broods—Brood XIII and Brood XIX (the Great Southern Brood)— emerging in the United States. AMHS: Throughout our conversation you have brought up the notion of sustainability and food security. JY: The reason why edible insects are considered sustainable is because they require far fewer resources than traditional livestock. So, it takes far less water, feed, and land space, to create an equivalent weight in insect protein than traditional livestock, and they also create far less greenhouse gas emissions. There are more than two billion people in more than 80 percent of the world’s nations that regularly consume insects. And I would say that America is quickly becoming one of those countries. The industry is just exploding right now with so much incredible innovation in the realm of insect agriculture. Beyond human consumption, edible insects can also be used for animal feed and for pet food. And we recently passed legislation in both the United States and in the EU for

AMHS: For those who have yet to consider insects as a part of their culinary journey, how might you suggest that they start? JY: If you want to start working with insects, my advice is that, instead of thinking of an entirely new recipe with an entirely new ingredient base, start with your wheelhouse dish, your signature dish, and “bugify it.” Maybe it’s a fried rice, a salad, or even a mac and cheese. And, I would consider starting with crickets—regularly referred to as the “gateway bug.” If you’re making a fried rice, for instance, toss in dried crickets as you’re frying up your aromatics. If you like a spicy Gochujang sauce, try adding a bit of cricket powder, which will impart more depth and a ton of umami. Once you learn about the various textures and flavor profiles of various insects, you will become more comfortable

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CICADA NYMPH SPRING SALAD 2 8 1 6 4 1 2 ½ ½

oz cicada nymphs*** oz asparagus, chopped medium red onion, chopped oz spring peas cloves of garlic, minced oz chili peppers, minced tbsp olive oil oz mint, chopped fresh lemon, juiced salt and pepper

Preheat skillet on the stove to medium-high, add olive oil, red onions, half the garlic, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for a couple minutes, stirring occasionally. Add

the cicada nymphs, chopped asparagus, chili peppers, remaining garlic, and another pinch of salt and pepper. Combine. Cook for a few minutes, then add the peas with a pinch of salt and pepper, and cook for another minute (I like my peas to have some tooth, so don’t overcook and make them mushy). Add the chopped mint and lemon juice.

*** these were Brood X cicadas nymphs that I foraged, but you can replace them with crickets or grasshoppers. Since those typically already come roasted or dehydrated, add them toward the end with the peas so they don’t overcook.

BUGGY CARAMEL POPCORN 1 ½ ½ 1¼ ¼ 2 ¼

cup dry roasted crickets or grasshoppers, or both cup popcorn kernels, popped in olive oil stick unsalted butter, plus extra for drizzling cup brown sugar cup light corn syrup tsps vanilla extract tsp baking soda salt, to taste

Pop popcorn in olive oil, transfer to bowl, and drizzle with the melted butter and salt. In another pot, add the butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently. Turn the heat to high

when the mixture is fully incorporated and let it boil to 255ºF for a few minutes. Add vanilla and the baking soda—be careful as it can bubble and expand significantly during this step. Combine and remove from heat. Add crickets and grasshoppers. Carefully mix until all is evenly coated. Pour bug caramel mixture over the popcorn and gently stir to coat evenly. Spread mixture over a silpat or parchment on a baking sheet and place in a 250ºF oven for 60 to 90 minutes, until it is completely dried out. Remove mixture from oven, let cool. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

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And, so, it’s been an incredibly humbling journey and one of tremendous transformation and growth.

this, which will further help to mitigate our carbon emissions. We can decrease the deforestation of the Amazon to grow soy that feeds our livestock. Interestingly, we have found that when we feed edible insects to chickens, for example, the chickens are not only healthier, but their eggs are more nutrient-dense. And then, if we take a look at the frass, the excrement insects produce, it’s an incredibly efficient organic fertilizer that could mitigate the contamination of our water sources caused by traditional chemical fertilizers. Then there is the potential of using black soldier flies and other insects for organic waste management. They can eat a tremendous amount of organic waste—be it from restaurants, or by-products such as yeast from beer breweries and bakeries—and they do so without emitting methane gasses. So, they’re an incredibly efficient resource for organic waste management. There’s so much potential and innovation. It’s an incredibly exciting and dynamic time to be working in the burgeoning field of insect agriculture.

AMHS: Might you tell us a bit more about NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge? JY: If you’re on the International Space Station (ISS) there are regular resupply missions, but if we were to send a crew to Mars, it’s going to be a two- to three-year mission without resupply. So, NASA launched an open challenge in which entrants were asked to propose concepts for a regenerative circular food system for deep space travel. The modules were to be no more than two cubic meters in size and powered by an average draw of no more than 1,500 watts, about the same as a space heater. As you might imagine, there are a lot of challenges in creating a food system that can supplement the diets for astronauts on a deep space mission. AMHS: Some might ask, “Why are we spending all this money in space when there are hungry people here on Earth?” JY: One of the really important aspects of this challenge was in its terrestrial applications, and how this technology can help address food insecurity, as well as produce food quickly and efficiently in food deserts or in the wake of natural disasters.

AMHS: It’s clear that your career has taken you well beyond the traditional culinary arts. JY: Since launching Brooklyn Bugs in 2017, so many fascinating opportunities have presented themselves and I find that there’s such great purpose in my work now. As a private chef, I never thought that I’d be touring around the world as a featured speaker at universities, or working with such incredible institutions—the American Museum of Natural History, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, and the Smithsonian—or that I would be invited to speak at COP27 as a chef advocate for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and work as the culinary advisor to the Methuselah Foundation in support of NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge. This summer I’ve been invited to speak at the American Culinary Federation’s annual convention.

AMHS: How can people find out where to purchase culinary bugs? JY: My website, brooklynbugs.com, will be an excellent place to start. In the coming months, I will be expanding our online resources—specialty vendors, recipes, bug-related culinary happenings, and such. In the meantime, here are three places where one can easily purchase delicious edible insects online: edibleinsects.com, 3cricketeers.com, and entomofarms.com. I believe once you have gone down this road there is no turning back. And the planet will surely thank you for it.

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HARVESTING THE WILD

a wondrous wildflower by LES STROUD and CHEF PAUL ROGALSKI

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spring beauty and baby potato mimosa salad with spruce saline mist SERVES 4

IN FORAGING THERE ARE PROLIFIC PLANTS YOU SEE ALMOST EVERYWHERE AND THERE ARE ELUSIVE LITTLE GEMS YOU MUST BE CAREFUL NOT TO OVERHARVEST. BUT EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE, YOU COME ACROSS ONE OF THOSE RARE DELICACIES IN ABUNDANCE. SPRING BEAUTY (CLAYTONIA VIRGINICA), A DELICATE, PRETTY LITTLE HARBINGER OF SPRING, IS JUST SUCH A PLANT AND IT WAS A JOY TO SHARE THIS DELIGHTFUL MEMBER OF THE PURSLANE FAMILY WITH CHEF PAUL. HERE HE HAS INCORPORATED IT INTO HIS VERSION OF A MIMOSA SALAD. WHEN PRESENTING THIS DISH, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING, SAYS CHEF PAUL, IS TO “BUILD IT IN LAYERS, WHETHER IT’S FREEHAND ON A LARGE PLATE OR USING RING MOULDS ON INDIVIDUAL SERVING DISHES TO KEEP YOUR PRESENTATION TIGHT.”

INGREDIENTS For the spruce saline mist: 1 cup boiling water 1 tbsp sugar or honey 1 tbsp salt 1 small spruce bough 1 spruce cone

To make the mist, dissolve salt, sugar/honey in boiling water, add the spruce bough and cone, and set aside until cool. Once cool, strain and add to a food safe spray bottle and set aside until needed. Mix the mustard, vinegar, oil, and shallots in a bowl then add the potatoes, crushing them with the back of a fork or spoon while mixing. Fold in the snap peas, season with salt and pepper to taste, and set aside. Spoon the potato and pea mixture into the center of a serving plate, pressing it firmly in place. Sprinkle with the radish, egg whites, and egg yolks. Top with the spring beauty corms and a final layer of the spring beauty blossoms and stems. Mist the salad with the spruce saline at the table for the final touch. Serve and enjoy!

To finish: 2 hard-boiled eggs, minced 2 red radishes, shredded 1 cup spring beauty corms 2 cups spring beauty blossoms

For the potato base: 2 tbsp Dijon mustard 1 oz cider vinegar 2 oz vegetable oil 2 diced shallots 3 red potatoes, boiled and chilled ¼ cup snap peas, cleaned and diced salt & pepper to taste 79

EXTREME MEDICINE YOUR HEALTH AND SAFETY IN THE FIELD

malaria in the area taking a bite out of life by MICHAEL J. MANYAK, MD, FACS

Today, we still have about 2,000 annual cases of malaria diagnosed, but almost exclusively in foreign visitors and travelers returning from endemic areas. However, there are still a handful of cases that occur in people who have never left the country. Known colloquially as “airport malaria,” these cases occur when someone with malaria transmits the disease because the malaria vector mosquitoes are still prevalent. Several species of the Plasmodium parasite can infect humans through a complicated life cycle that requires that a mosquito infect a warm-blooded host. The organisms reside in red blood cells (RBCs) and their destruction of the cells release proteins that cause fever. It is a very “pleomorphic” organism in that it is highly adaptive and effective in developing resistance to treatment. Malaria causes episodic high fevers and was used in the pre-antibiotic era to treat neurosyphilis as the high fevers it produced would kill the syphilis parasite. Imagine having to get malaria to treat a sexually transmitted disease! Four species of the one-celled Plasmodium organism classically have caused malaria,

With the pandemic restrictions eased, travel and expeditions have returned with a renewed enthusiasm and risk. One organism that did not take a pandemic break remains a scourge in global tropical and subtropical areas—and that is malaria. Malaria has afflicted mankind for more than two million years and is spread through the bites of several species of Anopheles mosquitoes. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there were 247 million cases of malaria globally in 2021, the last year for which we have published data, with 619,000 deaths. Most of the 500,000 deaths in Africa were of children under the age of five. As recently as the late 1940s, there were nearly 15,000 annual cases in the United States. Not long after, however, the U.S. essentially eradicated cases of malaria with the introduction of DDT to kill mosquitoes and the completion of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s dam project, which allowed the utility to kill mosquito larvae by raising and lowering the water level in the Tennessee River—a locus of many of the malaria outbreaks. 80

government employees in tropical climates. The British promptly pivoted and doctored the bitter tasting quinine water with gin, threw in some lime, and thus the gin and tonic was born, its first mention in a report from India in 1857. It is unknown how effective this was but suffice it to say that one would need to drink 67 liters of tonic water to get enough quinine to treat malaria. That’s a lot of gin and tonic! Unfortunately, the malaria organism is quite adaptive and has developed resistance to such quinine derivatives as chloroquine. About a decade ago, a new compound, artemisinin, was found to have strong efficacy against malaria. Unfortunately, resistance has now developed to the artemisinin containing compounds, first discovered on the Thai border where patients had been undertreated, allowing resistance to develop. This has prompted another arms race to find an effective cure. Researchers have worked for years on developing a vaccine for malaria with rather mixed results. The only approved malaria vaccine is RTS,S known as Mosquirix. As of 2022, the vaccine has been given to one million children living in areas with moderate-to-high malaria transmission. It requires at least three doses in infants by age two, with a fourth dose extending the protection for another one to two years. The vaccine reduces hospital admissions from severe malaria by around 30 percent. This is a start though not ideal. The most effective malaria vaccine appears to be R21/Matrix-M with 77 percent efficacy shown in initial trials with antibody levels significantly higher than with the RTS,S vaccine. It is the first vaccine that meets the WHO’s goal of a malaria vaccine with at least 75 percent efficacy. The possibility of vaccine approval for wide use in the first half of this year is highly encouraging. In the meantime, however, I will be working my way through all those gin and tonics.

with Plasmodium falciparum being the most dreaded as it can cause blackwater fever, where the sufferer’s urine turns dark due to RBC destruction with the pigment spilling into urine. The proteins from these destroyed RBCs deposit in the kidneys, leading to renal failure, which is a major source of mortality. Recently, there has been a fifth species, Plasmodium knowlesi, arising in primates that has evolved in Southeast Asia. Since its discovery in 1932, it now has become the most common cause of malaria in Malaysia. Another entrant onto the African malarial battlefield is an invasive Anopheles species of mosquito native to Asia. Malaria is common during the rainy season or in rural regions, but this mosquito can survive through the dry season and thrives in densely populated residential areas. Most African mosquitoes lay eggs in rainy-season puddles, but this invasive species breeds in water storage containers typically found in urban areas. This brings the mosquito vectors into close contact with city residents. Epidemiologists found that households with wet habitats nearby were more than three times as likely to have a resident test positive for malaria than households without a nearby water source. What is more ominous is that the invasive mosquitoes are also capable of evading successful control tactics such as bed nets and indoor spraying because they typically bite people outdoors. Furthermore, these invasive insects have largely been resistant to the most common insecticides used in Africa. This composite picture is an alarming development. Since the late 1600s, when Jesuit priests learned that the Indigenous Quechua people of the Andes used the ground bark of the cinchona tree mixed with sweetened water to treat the symptoms of malaria, treatment has consisted of ingesting the quinine the bark produces in various forms. At the time of its “discovery,” quinine was hailed as a miracle treatment and brought back to Spain for the queen. It became a staple for British 81

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BOOK REVIEWS EDITED BY MILBRY C. POLK

WANDERLUST BY REID MITENBULER

512 PP • NEW YORK: MARINER BOOKS, 2023 • ISBN-10: 0358468329 • ISBN-13: 978-0358468325 • $45

Reid Mitenbuler’s latest book, Wanderlust, chronicles the long and adventurous life of Danish polar explorer and ethnographer, Peter Freuchen, whose Arctic career took off not long after he met the legendary Greenlandic-Danish explorer and anthropologist, Knud Rasmussen—the so-called “father of Eskimology.” In 1910, Freuchen and Rasmussen established the northernmost trading

center in the world in Thule, Greenland, using it as a base of operations for their expeditions between 1912 and 1933. The first was their crossing of the vast and dangerous Greenland ice sheet by dogsled. Freuchen, living closely with the Inuit in Thule, formed many close attachments to the local people, which would last his lifetime. His first wife, Navarana Mequpaluk, an Inuit woman with whom he had two children, would play an important role in his expeditions and contributed significantly to his research of local customs. Shortly before they were to set off on another major expedition, she tragically died of Spanish flu. Freuchen pressed on and it was on this subsequent expedition that he found himself buried under snow, barely making it out alive and suffering severe frostbite, which famously cost him his left foot, curtailing his more dramatic explorations but not his “irrepressible restlessness.” Upon his return to Denmark, Freuchen remarried and began focusing on writing. He also got involved

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in the growing film business, eventually moving to Hollywood where he would win an Oscar for his 1933 film Eskimo (or Mala the Magnificent). During the Second World War, Freuchen returned to Denmark, joining the resistance against Nazi occupation. Although he was caught, sent to a detention camp, and sentenced to death, he managed to escape to Sweden. After the war, he embarked on the third phase of his life, taking up residence in New York with his third wife, Danish-Jewish fashion illustrator Dagmar Cohn, with whom he is pictured in that famous Irving Penn image, which graces the cover of Mitenbuler’s book. Making use of an abundance of Freuchen’s books, letters, and diaries, Mitenbuler ably resurrects the incredible story of a larger-than-life explorer who built on his daring exploits in the Arctic to become a prolific writer, lecturer, film producer, resistance organizer, and friend of movie stars and world leaders, who never forgot his Arctic home.

BOOK RE VIE WS

BR AVE THE WILD RIVER BY MELISSA L. SEVIGNY

304 PP • NEW YORK: W.W. NORTON, 2023 • ISBN-10: 0393868230 • ISBN-13: 978-0393868234 • $30

Journalist Melissa Sevigny’s latest book, Brave the Wild River, tells the story of the exploits of Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter during the summer of 1938, when they became the first people to map the flora of the Grand Canyon. Sevigny opens with a good overview of the development of the science of botany from the 1800s up to the 1930s, with a particular emphasis on the role of women and what they could and could not do. Clover, who was born in rural Nebraska and used to living rough, went on to obtain a PhD in botany at the University of Michigan, and subsequently joined its faculty. Her dream was to catalogue all the cacti of the

American Southwest, which she began to undertake over the course of several seasons based out of Mexican Hat, Utah, where she “drove like the devil,” exploring as much as she could. Jotter, a graduate student at the University of Michigan, was enthralled by Clover’s cacti-collecting plan, which included a running of the Colorado River, then considered one of the wildest and most dangerous in America, in order to gather specimens. (By the 1930s, fewer than 50 men had managed to survive the harrowing whitewater journey, since the first documented descent of the river by John Wesley Powell in 1869.) The two women could not have been more different in temperament and age, with nearly two decades separating them. What drove them both, however, was the love of botany. Clover’s desire to raft the Colorado took on new momentum when she met the young Norm Nevills who, with his wife Doris, ran the Mexican Hat Lodge. He had begun a lucrative business taking tourists on the San Juan River in boats of his own design. His own dream was to run the Colorado. Clover and the Nevills put together an expedition consisting of three river men and three scientists, including Clover and Jotter. The members of the expedition departed in a

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hail of sensational publicity, driven largely by the presence of the two women on the team, who would go on to become the first to run the Colorado River. In the process, they amassed an important collection of botanicals that is now in the Smithsonian Institution. Sevigny makes use of both women’s diaries, which are full of the tribulations of river travel—avalanches, wild rapids, runaway boats, log jams, desertions, storms, lost gear, rising waters—but through it all runs the story of the collection of plants.

THE SLOTH LEMUR’S SONG BY ALISON RICHARD

352 PP • CHICAGO: THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, 2022 • ISBN-10: 0226817563 • ISBN-13: 978-0226817569 • REVIEWED BY NANCY NENOW • $27

You need not be enchanted with lemurs or octopus trees to be fascinated by

BOOK RE VIE WS

Alison Richard’s new book, The Sloth Lemur’s Song: Madagascar from the Deep Past to the Uncertain Present, a beautifully illustrated volume covering the island’s zoology, botany, geology, climatology, history, and conservation. Written by an anthropologist with five decades of research experience on the island, Richard knows and loves her subject and will give you an in-depth understanding of this remarkable island, the fourth largest on our planet and a place that is full of surprises. Richard chronicles Madagascar’s extraordinary transformation over millions of years and delves into what has been lost, what remains, and the threats this biodiversity hot spot now faces in the form of serious environmental problems wrought by human activity. Through her eloquent prose, one of the most interesting and amazing places on Earth, the reader is presented with an intelligent narrative, bolstered by excellent scientific and historical research. Richard, who is currently a senior research scientist at Yale University, previously served as vicechancellor of the University of Cambridge. In 2010, Her Majesty, the late Queen Elizabeth II, bestowed upon Richard a DBE for her services to higher education.

A GIFT OF GEOLOGY BY COLIN D. READER

240 PP • CAIRO: AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO PRESS, 2023 • ISBN-10: 1649032188 • ISBN-13: 978-1649032188 • $29.95

In his latest book, A Gift of Geology: Ancient Egyptian Landscapes and Monuments, Colin Reader merges his passion for Egyptology with his geological expertise to give a fascinating overview of the Egyptian landscape and the long geological processes that gave rise to one of the world’s most unique civilizations. The author devotes a good part of the volume to explaining the geology of Egypt, a country of mostly desert where, unlike many other parts of the world, it is possible to see the eons laid bare. It is a place where the ancient “civilization of pharaonic Egypt benefited from the landscape,” and especially from the abundance

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of gold, minerals, and gems that “formed the basis for much of ancient Egypt’s famed wealth.” And then, of course, there is the Nile, without which there would be no Egyptian civilization. Reader explains many of the unique qualities of this lifegiving river. In the first section of his book, Reader explains the geological forces that created the Egypt we know today, from the Precambrian two-billion-year-old rocks to the Mesozoic era when northern Egypt lay under the Tethys Sea. That body of water created the bands of Nubian sandstone that holds one of the world’s largest aquifers, which nourishes the many desert oases. The ancient seabeds, which now make up the desert floor, are strewn with fossils that represent an “abundance of sea life,” including rare limbed whales. Reader explains how the Great Sand Sea dunes of the Western Desert formed as a result of erosion from now vanished rivers. He also discusses the birth of the Nile out of a series of earlier rivers fed by seasonal rains, that issued forth from the Ethiopian Highlands and deposited rich silt that allowed the blossoming of agriculture. Reader rounds out his narrative with a survey of some of Egypt’s most famous monuments and types of stone used to build them.

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RIVERMAN BY BEN MCGRATH

272 PP • NEW YORK: KNOPF, 2022 • ISBN-10: 0451494008 • ISBN-13: 978-0451494009 • $29

One day in 2014, a fisherman in the Outer Banks of North Carolina saw an overturned canoe stuck in the mangrove stumps. Turning it over, he discovered dozens of plastic bags, containing maps, camping gear, and other assorted personal items. Presuming their owner had gone missing, he contacted the police. At the site, investigators found the phone number of New Yorker staff writer Ben McGrath, scribbled on a piece of paper. A phone call later and McGrath plunged into solving the mystery of what happened to the canoe’s owner, 63-yearold paddler Dick Conant. Riverman: An American Odyssey chronicles both Conant and McGrath’s journeys off the grid.

McGrath had met Conant by chance near his home on the Hudson River. During their conversation, Conant told the writer that he had spent the past two decades paddling America’s rivers, canals, and waterways, which crisscrossed the country. Naturally, McGrath was disturbed to learn Conant had disappeared so shortly after their meeting. Relying on a trove of journals, which Conant had left in a storage container, McGrath ably pieces together the threads of an extraordinary life lived in the rough on the edges of urbanized settings. Tracking down people Conant had interacted with during his decades paddling across America, McGrath unearths fascinating stories of a man he describes as the “unheralded bard of American Rivers.” Conant, he discovers, was a great fan of American history and literature who embraced adventure and exuded a friendliness and generosity that was tinged with wariness. McGrath is a poetic detective, ferreting out surprisingly rich stories of a vagabond who coursed America’s waterways, touching the lives of all he met. This book brings to mind the writings of John McPhee, with Conant as “the Studs Terkel of the riverbank.” This is a fine read indeed.

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THE GRE ATEST POL AR EXPEDITION OF ALL TIME BY MARKUS REX

296 PP • VANCOUVER: GREYSTONE BOOKS, 2022 • ISBN-13: 978-1771649483 • $28.95 • REVIEWED BY ANGELA M.H. SCHUSTER

In The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time, atmospheric scientist Markus Rex chronicles his year captaining the icebreaker Polarstern, which was frozen in the ice and carried across the Arctic by the Transpolar Drift during the MOSAiC Expedition. Its goal: to carry out research on the Arctic ecosystem under brutal conditions to understand the climate crisis. “On a venture such as this,” Rex writes, “we cannot make plans; we must react to events as they unfold.” And react they did. Researchers aboard the ship, and working at stations erected atop ice floes, carried out their work in the blackness of the polar night during violent storms as covid swept the globe.

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chapter chairs THE E XPL ORERS CLUB 46 EAST 70TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10021 WWW.EXPLORERS.ORG | 212-628-8383

AFRICA Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka [email protected]

FLORIDA Joseph Dituri, PhD [email protected]

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Lesley Ewing, PhD [email protected]

SOUTHWEST Robert Louis DeMayo [email protected]

AL ASK A Mead Treadwell [email protected]

GEORGE ROGERS CL ARK Cindy Pennington [email protected]

NORWAY Synnøve Marie Kvam Strømsvåg [email protected]

ST. LOUIS Thomas F. Schlafly [email protected]

ATL ANTA Mark Hay [email protected]

GREAT BRITAIN & IREL AND Mark Wood [email protected] Rory Golden, Vice Chair [email protected]

PACIFIC NORTHWEST John All, PhD [email protected]

SWEDEN Lars E. Larsson [email protected]

PHIL ADELPHIA Matt Peoples [email protected]

SWITZERL AND Marcelo Garcia [email protected]

POL AND Mariusz Ziółkowski [email protected] www.explorersclubpoland.pl

TEX AS Nancy McGee [email protected]

AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEAL AND Todd Tai [email protected] BHUTAN Matthew DeSantis [email protected] CANADA Jeff Britnell [email protected] CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA Acting Chair: Synnøve Marie Kvam Strømsvåg [email protected] CHICAGO/GREAT L AKES Deana Weibel, PhD [email protected] EAST & SOUTH ASIA Steven R. Schwankert [email protected]

GREATER PIEDMONT James Borton [email protected] HAWAII Mark Blackburn [email protected] HONG KONG Angélica Anglés [email protected]

ROCK Y MOUNTAIN Jeff Blumenfeld [email protected] www.explorers-rm.org

MIDDLE EAST Hamish Harding [email protected]

SAN DIEGO David Dolan [email protected]

NEW ENGL AND Gregory Deyermenjian [email protected]

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Steve Elkins [email protected]

NORTH PACIFIC AL ASK A Joshua C. Lewis & Victoria M. Becwar-Lewis [email protected]

SOUTHERN FLORIDA Bruce C. Matheson [email protected]

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WASHINGTON, DC Arnella Trent www.explorersclubdc.org WESTERN EUROPE Ief Winckelmans [email protected]

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legacy society “THE EXPLORERS CLUB IS A MAJOR INTERNATIONAL FORCE PROMOTING EXPLORATION OF THE LAND, SEA, AIR, AND SPACE DOMAINS. OUR CLUB’S LEGACY SOCIETY IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF OUR CONTINUING SUPPORT OF THE SPIRIT OF EXPLORATION. AS A FELLOW OF OUR ORGANIZATION FOR MORE THAN SIX DECADES, I URGE YOU TO JOIN ME AS A MEMBER OF THE LEGACY SOCIETY. THIS WILL HELP INSURE A ROBUST FUTURE FOR THE CLUB’S MISSIONS.” —DON WALSH, PHD, USN (RET.), MED’61

Mark R. Allio • John G. Alexander • Alan B. Albright • Robert J. Atwater • Capt. Norman L. Baker* • Barbara Ballard • Robert D. Ballard, PhD • Samuel B. Ballen* • Mark Gregory Bayuk • Daniel A. Bennett • Josh Bernstein • Bruce Blanchard • John R. Bockstoce, DPhil • Jack Aaron Boggs* • Bjorn G. Bolstad* • Capt. Bruce M. Bongar, PhD • Brian M. Boom, PhD • Jill Botway • Garrett R. Bowden • Capt. Lawson W. Brigham,  PhD,  USCG (ret.) • Harry Davis Brooks • Lt.  Col.  Jewell Richard Browder* • August “Augie” Brown* • John  C.D. Bruno • Marc Bryan-Brown • Lee R. Bynum* • Virginia Castagnola-Hunter • Julianne M. Chase, PhD • James M. Chester* • James Thomas Chirurg • Maj. Gen. Arthur W. Clark, USAF (ret.) • Capt. William Clark* • Steven Cohen, PhD (hon.) • Leslie E. Colby* • Jonathan M. Conrad • Catherine Nixon Cooke • Sandra B. Cook, PhD • S. Allen Counter, PhD, D.M.Sc.* • John Craparo • Lynn D. Danaher • Constance Difede • David A. Dolan, MA, MPH, M.Div. • Mr. & Mrs. James Donovan • Col. William H. Dribben, USA (ret.)* • Amelia Earhart* • Sylvia A. Earle, PhD • Edwin L. Ecclestone Jr. • James M. Edwards, MD • Lee M. Elman • Alan Feldstein • Michael L. Finn • Robert L. Fisher, PhD • John W. Flint* • Capt. Joel Fogel • Kay Foster • James M. Fowler* • W. Roger Fry* • Max Gallimore • Richard Garriott de Cayeux • Char Glacy • Alfred C. Glassell Jr.* • George W. Gowen* • Randall A. Greene* • Susan Ross Grimaldi • Jean Charles Michel Guite • Les Guthman • Capt. Robert “Rio” Hahn • Penrose Hallowell • Rory Hallowell • Allan C. Hamilton • Scott W. Hamilton • O. Winston “Bud” Hampton, PhD* • Brian P. Hanson • James H. Hardy, MD • Ira Haupt, II • Judith Heath* • Robert A. Hemm • Gary “Doc” Hermalyn, PhD • Sir Edmund P. Hillary, KG, ONZ, KBE* • John A. Hodge • Carlota “Lotsie” Clark Hermann Holton • Christy Holton Hubbard • L. Ron Hubbard* • Charles B. Huestis* • Robert Edgar Hyman • J.P. Morgan Charitable Trust • Robert  M. Jackson,  MD • Theodore  P. Janulis • Linn  E. Johnson • Kenneth Kambis,  PhD • Kenneth  M. Kamler,  MD • Prince Joli Kansil • Lorie M.L. Karnath, MBA, PhD (hon.) • Anthony G. Kehle, III • Anne B. Keiser • Kathryn Kiplinger • Martin Klein • Thomas R. Kuhns, MD • Carl C. Landegger • Leon “Lee” V. Langan • John R. Lawrence • Robert M. Lee* • Michael S. Levin • Florence Lewisohn Trust • J. Roland Lieber • James E. Lockwood Jr.* • Jose Loeb • John H. Loret, PhD, DSc* • Margaret D. Lowman, PhD • Michael Luzich • Daniel J. Lyons • Robert H. Malott* • Leslie Mandel* • Robert E. Maroney • Michele Mass, MD • Robert E. McCarthy* • George E. McCown • Lorus T. Milne, PhD* • James M. Mitchelhill* • Arnold H. Neis • Nancy Nenow • Virginia E. Newell • Walter P. Noonan • Alan H. Nichols • Martin T. Nweeia, D.D.S. • Dr. John W. Olsen • Kathleen Parker • Alese* & Morton Pechter* • Cynthia S. Peters • William E. Phillips* • Ashley Pilipiszyn • David S. Press • Prof. Mabel L. Purkerson, MD • Roland R. Puton • Timothy A. Radke, MD • Dimitri Rebikoff* • Mabel Dorn Reeder* • John T. Reilly, PhD • Adrian Richards, PhD • Bruce E. Rippeteau, PhD • Merle Greene Robertson, PhD* • Otto E. Roethenmund • James Beeland Rogers Jr. • Faanya L. Rose • William J. Roseman • Rudy L. Ruggles Jr. • Gene Rurka • Wayne J. Safro • David J. Saul, PhD* • Willets H. Sawyer, III • A. Harvey Schreter* • Donald L. Segur* • Margaret Segur* • Walter Shropshire Jr., PhD, MDiv. • Richard T. Silver, MD • Robert H.I. Silver* • Theodore M. Siouris • William J. L. Sladen, MD, DPhil* • Susan Deborah Smilow • Capt. David D. Smith, PhD, USNR (ret.) • Mark A. Smith* • Ernest  R. Sohns* • Sally  A. Spencer* • Ronnie  & Allan Streichler • Arthur  O. Sulzberger* • Vernon  F. Taylor,  III • Mitchell Terk,  MD • Lowell Thomas Jr.* • C. Frederick “Rick” Thompson • James “Buddy” Thompson* • Edward B. Tucker, MBE* • Wendy Tucker • Edmund S. Twining, III • Marc Verstraete Van de Weyer • William F. Vartorella, PhD, C.B.C. • Robert C. Vaughn • Ann Marks Volkwein • Alexander Wallace • Julia M. Wallace • Don Walsh, PhD • Johnny Waters • Leonard A. Weakley Jr. • William G. Wellington, PhD* • James S. Westerman • Robert H. Whitby* • Julius Wile* • Holly Williams • Francis A. Wodal* • Lindley Kirksey Young • Eric Zember • Santo “Sandy” Zicaro * Deceased

THE LEGACY SOCIE T Y COMMIT TEE

THE E XPLORERS CLUB

David A. Dolan (Chair), Mark Allio, Robert J. Atwater, Brian M. Boom, Alan Feldstein, Kay Foster, Penrose “Pen” Hallowell, Scott W. Hamilton, Brian P. Hanson, Virginia Newell, Walter P. Noonan, Mabel L. Purkerson, Timothy A. Radke, Faanya L. Rose, David D. Smith, Lisa Sonne, and Eric Zember

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46 East 70th Street New York, NY 10021 212-628-8383 for additional info: [email protected]

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WHAT WERE THEY THINKING? GREAT MOMENTS IN EXPLORATION AS TOLD TO JIM CLASH

“Her Deepness,” Sylvia A. Earle SYLVIA EARLE’S NICKNAME, “HER DEEPNESS,” IS NOT FOR NOTHING. IN HER EARLY THIRTIES, SHE BEGAN TO BREAK DOWN BARRIERS TO WOMEN IN SCIENCE. INITIALLY, IT WAS TEKTITE II, THE FIRST ALL-FEMALE GROUP TO SPEND TIME ON THE OCEAN FLOOR, TESTING HUMAN DYNAMICS IN CLOSE QUARTERS. AN EXPLORERS CLUB MEDALIST (1996), SHE HAS GONE ON TO RECEIVE NUMEROUS OTHER BIGTIME KUDOS FOR HER WORK, INCLUDING THE TED PRIZE (2009) AND TIME MAGAZINE’S “HERO FOR THE PLANET” (1998). AT 87, EARLE IS NOT DONE. HER MISSION BLUE PROGRAM, WHICH IDENTIFIES AND PRESERVES DYNAMIC AREAS OF THE PLANET AFFECTED BY CLIMATE CHANGE AND POLLUTION, IS GROWING QUICKLY, WITH 150 INTERNATIONAL HOT SPOTS IDENTIFIED NOW. THE EXPLORERS JOURNAL RECENTLY CAUGHT UP WITH HER DEEPNESS. THE FOLLOWING ARE EDITED EXCERPTS FROM A LONGER PHONE CONVERSATION.

JC: In 1970, you and a team of women spent several days at the bottom of the ocean as part of Tektite II. Why? SAE: NASA was evaluating the suitability of groups living in isolation for a period of time in anticipation of SkyLab, [the] precursor to [the] ISS. Each of the [11] teams—ours being the only all-female group—was monitored day and night, a little creepy. We knew our every move was watched by psychologists and scientists on the surface. The result was that it really is okay to have people in space for long periods of time, including women. In fact, we surpassed the men in congeniality and other measures NASA had tracked!

JC: So, the next logical question: Why didn’t you become an astronaut instead of an aquanaut? SAE: Most people apply to become astronauts, but I got this invitation from NASA after Tektite. It was a crazy time for me with a family, and my ocean science, so I said no. I probably should have found a way to make it happen. I’m not sure I would have made it in the end as a mission specialist. It really takes an enormous commitment to become an astronaut. JC: What are you afraid of, and how do you handle fear? SAE: The thing I fear most is driving down a highway with cars speeding in my direction, having no idea whether they have the same desire to survive that I do. How do I deal with that? Drive defensively! JC: You’ve broken barriers all of your life. Your advice to young women entering traditionally male-dominated careers? SAE: My advice is the same for young men and young women, because gender is not the only barrier. Do not let anyone steal your dreams. Find a way to go around, or over, or under, or through the obstacles. And don’t ever give up. Find the thing that’s unique to you because everyone’s different, and then keep at it.

SYLVIA EARLE ABOARD THE AQUARIUS UNDERWATER HABITAT OFF THE FLORIDA KEYS. PHOTOGRAPH BY KIP EVANS.

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