Category: Sports

“On Belay?”

On this day in 1908, legendary mountaineer and wilderness outdoor education pioneer Paul Petzoldt was born in Creston, Iowa. He developed several specialized climbing practices that are now considered standard. Examples include the ‘call and reply’ voice commands that are practiced all over the world (note the title of this article). And the ‘Sliding Middleman’ is a climbing practice that allows larger expedition teams to more safely traverse snow and ice fields.

Petzoldt, late 1920s

In 1930, he formed Exum Mountain Guides (later known as Exum School of American Mountaineering), and in 1934, Paul led the first single-day double traverse of the Matterhorn (on the Swiss/Italian border). He was also a member of the First American Karakoram Expedition (also known as K2) in 1938.

 

10th Mountain Division

By World War 2, most of the major combatants had specialized mountaineer units. The Americans were lagging behind in mountain warfare expertise, so in 1943, the US Army developed the elite 10th Mountain Division. Paul entered the unit as a sergeant (at age 36) bringing years of hard-earned mountaineering and survival skills. He was then deployed with the unit on the Italian Front in 1944.

 

He was Colorado Outward Bound’s first Chief Climbing Instructor in 1963. In 1965, Petzoldt founded NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School). His work in adventure education raised the training bar to new heights (yes, that was intentional). In the mid 1970s he (along with Dr. Frank Lupton, Robert Christie and Charles Gregory) formed the Wilderness Education Association.

I am very fortunate to have met Paul on 2 different occasions. He spoke as a guest lecturer in several of my classes in the Recreation and Park Administration department at Western Illinois University. The anecdotes were filled with wisdom and wit that will stay with me forever. I also got to buy him breakfast at my residence hall cafeteria in 1988. As a 1987 graduate of the Environmental Conservation and Outdoor Education Expedition (ECOEE), I was certified as an Outdoor Leader in Paul’s curriculum. I have read and re-read his New Wilderness Handbook and Teton Trails many times over.

In 1994, several prominent mountaineers organized a Grand Teton climb in honor of the 70th anniversary of Paul’s first ascent. Just short of the summit, inclement weather began to roll in. Paul then announced that being 86 years old, and nearly blind, he ought to exercise some of that judgment he’d been teaching all these years, and turn around now. As they say, “There are old mountaineers, and there are bold mountaineers. But there are no old, bold mountaineers.”

The INSIIDE cover of my copy of Teton Trails

Paul died on October 16, 1999 at the age of 91, leaving a legacy that continues to shape the experiences of climbers, adventurers, and experiential educators alike.

“On belay?” “Belay on, Paul!”

-Toph

A Thousand Words

“I remember exactly where I was when…” It starts conversation and provokes recollection. Some are personal situations – when my mom died, or when I learned I was going to be a father. Those are the first two I thought of, which refer to unique events in my life that can still be relatable universally. Not everyone experienced either of these moments when I did, but most people can empathize with the situation, because it either already did happen to them, or they can imagine their own version of it.

Now think of an event that had more wide-reaching historical significance; one that people often remember vividly and personally. In psychology, that moment is called a flashbulb moment. Earlier generations likely remember when the stock market crashed in October of 1929, plunging the country into the Great Depression. Older friends and relatives talk about remembering the John F. Kennedy assassination.

People closer to my age may remember things like the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding in January of 1986. (If anyone is curious, I was eating lunch between classes at the University Union, watching the event occur in real time. The friend sitting next to me quietly muttered an understated, “Oh, that’s not good.”) The 9/11 Attacks are one of the biggest ones for us Gen-Xers. In fact, that one goes for Boomers and Millennials, too, come to think of it. And seeing the Apollo 11 Moon Landing is my earliest childhood memory.

A flashbulb moment examines an aspect of such an event, but because it’s a personal connection, it only applies to situations that were experienced personally. I have no flashbulb moment of, say, the Cuban Missile Crisis. I wasn’t alive to remember it.

But there is a flip side to that coin. Certain iconic photographs capture an event or era. They instantly summon that situation. In some cases, the photo or video serves as the defining image. The image encapsulates the piece of history – especially for those who did not experience it personally.

It doesn’t even matter that some photos may have been staged, misattributed or edited from their original form. The impact doesn’t go away. They still serve as a kind of visual shorthand for those moments.

Anniversaries are triggers of their own. The 84th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack is later this week, and the final 2 survivors of the USS Arizona died in late April of 2024. Both were 102 years old. This instantly came to mind.

-Toph