About me
Dave has put his MA in geography to use in 56 nations while glacier-trekking up to 20,000 ft. (Pakistan, Kazakh/Kyrgyz-stan, Nepal, Andes, Caucasus, Alps, Atlas, & in 2022 a 105 mile trek to Bhutan's northern-most tip)... all with Peggy Brosnan....plus sea kayaking weeks with her in the Amazon basin, & on the Alaska, New Zealand, Galapagos, Thai, Belize, & Baja coasts. From 2016 to 2019 they trekked to a bit above the base camps for the world's three highest mountains. They survived 2013's "tsunami" flood in Uttarakhand, 2016's Turkey coup, 2012's Tajikistan (Afghan border) clashes, & a couple even more adrenaline-pumping moments when their kayaks (in NW Iceland & Haida Gwai) were rocked/ bumped by humpback whales. Their several very close encounters with grizzlies were far more pleasant than a night camping on top of Kili!
Called the "Alex Trebek of Geography" (on "Overheard", the National Geographic Feb. 23, 2021 podcast, & featured in Nat Geo's March 2021 issue (p. 103-)), he found that to be a dubious tribute as Alex famously said people think he's smart but of course "the answers are on paper in front of me." Ditto with Dave who just uses old treaties & maps for his "world's most accurate international boundary data set" at the Office of the Geographer of the US State Dept. where he now works part-time on most of the non-European (plus of course Ukraine region) borders often used by Google Earth-Maps.Maryland's uppermost Patuxent River Native village/ fort's location sketched by John Smith 408 years earlier was unknown until Dave pinpointed it in 2016 with 300-year-old map data. Since 2020 he's done maps and research for a book on that river's history & environment. He's organized an annual event since his teens that's taught orienteering to over 21,000 scouts. And he's won a few national orienteering championships in his (advanced!) age category. He’s been on faculty for a record 46 of the 75 Summits held from 1983 through 2024.
