Dave joined DSC in June of 2018. He grew up in Woods Hole, MA and went to college in Vermont, where he majored in environmental science. After graduating in 2010, Dave began leading trips for outdoor education programs like NOLS and the High Mountain Institute and spent the last 8 years instructing backpacking and climbing trips in the American West. He joined DSC in hopes of learning a new craft and having a schedule that allows him to engage more with the Leadville community.
What’s your favorite hobby?
In his free time, Dave likes to rock climb, ride his mountain bike, and ski tour in the backcountry around Leadville. In that vein, he enjoys developing new climbing on the truly marginal granite of lake county as well as building new trails.
What’s your favorite quote and what does it mean to you?
One of my favorite quotes is from George Mallory,
“People ask me, ‘What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?’ and my answer must at once be, ‘It is of no use.’There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behaviour of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron… If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to live. That is what life means and what life is for.”
To me the quote speaks both to the indescribable joy of suffering in the mountains, as well as the importance of finding balance between work and play.
What’s your favorite book and why does it inspire you?
One of my favorite books of all time is The Brothers K, by David James Duncan. I love it because it is a beautifully written exploration of family, and also because I read it at a important part of my life.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Some of the best advice I’ve been given was by Alicia Danielson, a student on one of my trips, who told me, “Don’t sweat the petty stuff, and don’t pet the sweaty stuff.”