Students Write

Author: Regina Gee  (Study abroad student from the University of Pittsburgh)  Where I come from, the rocks making the mountains are over one billion years old. The  mountains run roughly north to south and determine which rivers flow to the Atlantic Ocean and which go to the Pacific. They form the continental divide and were formative in the creation of the person I became, in helping to make me a mountain person.    To borrow the words of Victoria Erickson,  When you’re a mountain person, you understand the brilliance & beauty of contradiction. The way the land can be your greatest teacher. How something can be both grounding yet elevating, intoxicating yet soothing, wild yet serene, intensely primal yet patient, and cycling yet predictable within shifts & rhythms. Mountains keep us on edge yet wrap us in the sensation of safety all at once. Growing up in the Rockies helped to show me the majesty and ‘home’ I found in the Himalayas. And my time in the Him

Author: Dhruv Vishwasrao (Outdoor Leadership Course April 2019) In the warm month of June, I walked a route which took me deeper into the vibrant valleys of Kashmir and a step further away from civilization. With signals of contentment being sent to my brain from what my eyes could grasp all around and a slight huff in my breath, I carried my rucksack, my home for the next few days, at a steady pace along the Aru valley with a goal to view the Tarsar-Marsar lakes at the other end. The warm day had a nice breeze which added a bounce in my step as I made headway into this trip with no companion alongside except dozens of thoughts which present themselves to you at the start of a journey. My first solo trek, and so the jitters were a tad bit more. The training done under protective custody was now going to be tested.  As the season was still to begin in this beautiful valley for 2019, the trek route was sparse of people, with the occasional local residents making way for th