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1. In June 1965 an obscure family took home leave in Switzerland. He'd been Peace Corps director in Nepal. Now it gets good. Note Bill and Jolene's four children.
2. They returned to Nepal with Bill joining USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development). Bill's first assignment with USAID was to be in charge of family planning. Uh oh.
3. Previously as Peace Corps Director, their "kids had to cross over a small stream on their way to the bus for school. Every morning, they would check to see if there were any new dead babies drowned there since the day before."
4. "On a number of occasions, they did in fact find newborn infants discarded in the stream--the only form of birth control available to Nepali women at that time... this had a lasting impression on my children."
5. So, being in charge of family planning was actually a role of fundamental importance. Jolene tells the story...
6. "A funny story in our family is that at an American Embassy cocktail party a very well-dressed and rather haughty woman came up to Bill."
7. She queried, "So, Dr. Unsoeld, you are responsible for family planning. Just what are your credentials?"
8. Now, you and I know Dr. Unsoeld's credentials. He's not a medical doctor. But their children checked for dead babies every time they crossed the creek on the way to school. Do ya think that might provide some perspective on family planning?
9. Meanwhile, we have this cocktail party. Are you ready for it? Jolene tells it as only a wife can.
10. Jolene reports that Bill didn't miss a beat.
11. Bill stated, "I have four kids, boy-girl-boy-girl, two years apart, and all born in May. My wife and I planned it that way."
12. Bill then moved across the room leaving the questioner with her mouth open.
13. Jolene, in her book, explains exactly how they accomplished that, which of course you're welcome to read for yourself! Page 111, but the first 110 pages are delightful.
14. The above photo (prior tweet) is captioned "Bill and me on top of the North Face of the Grand Teton". Jolene casually tossed that caption out there without further comment on page 108. Once again, I must ask you to "wait for it." Here we go...!
15. The National Park Service hosts the book "A Place Called Jackson Hole: A Historic Resource Study of Grand Teton National Park". https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/grte2/hrs.htm
16. Chapter 16 talks about early climbs, recognized First Ascents, of Grand Teton itself. Bear with me; it's going to get good, and it's about Jolene. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/grte2/hrs16b.htm
17. During World War II, "Climbing in the Tetons ground to a halt during the war years. Many of the climbers were in the service, some enlisting in the Tenth Mountain Infantry Division that was formed in July 1943."
18. "The first element of the Division was formed at Fort Lewis, Washington, and the soldiers trained on the slopes of Mount Rainier." Aha! Okay. I too trained on the slopes of Mount Rainier. Let's continue.
19. Meanwhile, the Grand Teton has this North Wall, as yet unclimbed. The mountain guides and park rangers proceeded to climb it. Remember Jolene's caption, "Bill and me on top of the North Face of the Grand Teton." But it was unclimbed!
20. Now it gets technical. Stay with me as I quote the history from "A Place Called Jackson Hole." Remember that photo Jolene dropped on us from the top of the North Face.
21. "The direct finish on the North Face of the Grand represents the major achievement of the time period. Climbers have a peculiar fascination for cold, icy, and foreboding north faces."
22. "The great north faces of the Alps, best represented by that of the Eiger, were long considered the ultimate alpine objective, wrought with danger from falling rock and ice."
23. "Since the time of the ascent by the Petzoldt brothers and Jack Durrance, the North Face of the Grand had taken on this mystique. Pre-war climbers had avoided the uppermost section, or 'head-wall.'"
24. "It was the challenge of the headwall, the Direttissima north face, that now beckoned to the next generation."
25. "By the time climbing guides Dick Pownall and Art Gilkey teamed up with Ray Garner in August 1949 to attempt the climb, the North Face had become the stuff of legend."
26. "Pownall brilliantly led the now-famous "Pendulum Pitch," tensioning across a blank section and gaining access to the highest of the four upward-sweeping ledges that are found on the face. After 17 hours, the best climbers of the day found themselves on the summit."
27. No mention of Unsoeld. But Jolene dropped that photo on us, and she's in it.
28. "In 1953, the final portion of the North Face was unlocked by climbing guides Leigh Ortenburger and Willi Unsoeld and climbing ranger Richard Emerson."
29. "Because of the face's fearsome reputation, prospective climbers had to overcome an enormous amount of inner fear to even attempt the climb."
30. "During the ascent, Emerson, a master rock technician who had learned his craft in the Tenth Mountain Division, led the "Pendulum Pitch" free, as well as the delicate friction traverse into the "V". The classic direct North Face of the Grand Teton had been climbed."
31. So, in fact, the North Face of the Grand Teton is rather a big deal among mountain climbers. That's particularly true prior to the mid-1950s when equipment improved. And Jolene drops a photo of being kissed atop the North Face. Pretty cool!
32. Jolene explained that she only gets to climb every other year between pregnancies.
33. "We made several climbs together, including a beautiful moonlight ascent of the Grand Teton. The moon-washed granite and the inky shadows destroyed the familiarity of the climb,
34. "giving us the feeling that we had somehow been transported to a mountain on the moon itself." If you look carefully at this photo you can see a spot of red at center right. There's someone roped behind her. It's steep.
35. Is there a point to all this? Yup. Experiential Education. Would you be surprised to know Bill and Jolene don't mess around? Fast forward to the late 1960s.
36. Bill was going to run an Outward Bound course in the North Cascades of Washington State. A high percentage of the students were sent by juvenile justice systems as a form of behavior change.
37. On a regular course at a regular camp setup, it was very easy for them to walk away and hitch a ride back to the city.
38. A mobile course meant there was no permanent shelter, no turning back--you were dropped off at one place and the only way out was twenty days' march away.
39. One of the most important elements of the Outward Bound philosophy was risk taking. It was impossible to achieve optimum results without an element of risk in the endeavor.
40. "Can you guarantee the safety of our son Johnny?" Nope. We guarantee you the genuine chance of his death. And if we could guarantee his safety, the program wouldn't be worth running.
41. Willi continued, "No I have one more thing to say. We do make one guarantee as one parent to another. If you succeed in protecting your boy as you're doing now, and as it's your parental duty to do--
42. "and we applaud your watch-dog tenacity. But, if you succeed, we guarantee you the death of your child's soul."
43. So. Let's talk about Experiential Education, shall we? https://www.aee.org/
44. Let's begin with Mount Everest. We should start at the top, right? Besides, there was a time when no U.S. climbers had been to the top. So, as of 1961, a guy Norman Dyhrenfurth became American Expedition leader.
45. Norman made a "short list" of 20 climbers. But there's a problem. It's the American Alpine Club (I'm a member). You see, the short list was all West Coast climbers, and the Alpine Club's "old guard" was all East Coast. Willi Unsoeld topped the short list.
46. The problem was that the west-coast upstarts had not properly craved permission from the east-coast Old Guard of the AAC (American Alpine Club). Some things never change!
47. Bill (Willi), age 35, was the elder statesman of the west coasters and so the AAC designated Bob Bates from New Hampshire to go check him out. https://rockandice.com/people/bob-bates-96-takes-his-final-journey/
48. Meanwhile the Pacific Northwest had its own legend, Dee Molenaar. He wasn't part of the proposed Everest expedition. So he arranged to bring Bob Bates together with Willi Unsoeld. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/dee-molenaar-legendary-mountaineer-artist-and-author-dies-at-101/
49. Dee arranged a weekend jaunt up Glacier Peak in Washington State. Mind you, Glacier Peak is "a strenuous glacier climb." It's a 33-mile hike with 8,200-foot elevation gain. https://www.mountaineers.org/activities/routes-places/glacier-peak-disappointment-peak-cleaver
50. So Willi took the family with him up to the trailhead, the four kids aged 3-9 years. The 7-year-old was sick and vomiting. They were concerned the car was about to throw a rod; his lessons weren't prepared for Monday (as a professor). Jolene didn't think he should climb.
51. The plan had been to meet them Saturday night up the trail, climb on Sunday, drive home Sunday night. But they were late arriving at the trailhead.
52. Jolene agreed he could stay with them Saturday night to chat - this was about Mount Everest remember - and come back in the morning. No climb. Jolene stripped him of his stuff so he couldn't cheat.
53. When Bill got to camp, Dee wondered, "Well, where's your gear, Willi?" Bill explained, "Jo won't let me climb..." Remember, this is the Jo from atop the Grand Teton's North Face.
54. Dee stated, "We'll climb it tonight, and you can be back in the morning, and she'll never know the difference." And that's exactly what they did!
55. They found an old tent pole with a nail on the end to use as an alpenstock. (It's a serious glacier climb, let's be clear about that!)
56. Dee offered one of his crampons--would he prefer left or right? So Bill and Dee went pole-vaulting up the mountain, each having one crampon to grip the ice, so hopping on one foot each.
57. Bob Bates was in absolute hysterics. That's not the way they climbed in New England.
58. Two years later Bates was Peace Corps director for Nepal. He brought in Unsoeld as Deputy Director. But let's get back to Experiential Education.
59. As of 1963, six people had been to the summit of Mount Everest, no more.
60. "And we were already getting bored. Just one team after another, thundering up the South Col route, you know. All two of them had been successful, so we knew where the campsites were, we knew what the problems were."
61. So Willi Unsoeld and Tom Hornbein took on the West Ridge of Mount Everest, still considered the greatest mountaineering feat by any North American mountaineer. Hornbein's book is full of amazing photos. They were originally for National Geographic.
62. But we're talking about Experiential Education. Does it apply to software development? Sure thing! Here's Jolene Unsoeld at back center of the photo, Dad standing at left. Note we're all looking toward the right side of the photo.
63. That's because we're listening to Willi Unsoeld, center, telling us about their crazy times in the Tetons. That's me seated in the chair, left side of the photo.
64. We had no idea Jolene had significant climbs herself--between babies, no less--and she didn't tell us. She simply sat back and watched the show.
65. Here's the thing. JOLENE shared the story. I, for one, am glad she did. She explains Experiential Education right on the front cover.
66. Seek ye the challenge of Life: to search beyond the horizon; to strive against all odds; to dare to risk at all costs; in order to improve life for the next generation.
67. That's how I learned Experiential Education applies to software development--without writing a line of code. I learned it in the mountains. That's me on the left; we're admiring the view in a cold strong wind.
68. To be sure, there's nary a line of JavaScript in sight. I was tutoring other students in Algol that year, and teaching FORTRAN college courses the following year. Do I have a rather different perspective to share? Perhaps so!
69. So I wrote a book on actually developing software. People have read it and said "it's good but not what I expected." If you've met me for real, you'd know that's not a surprise! https://www.amazon.com/Fizz-Buzz-Fix-Experienced-Developer/dp/1940111757
70. I've now written a second book. It's not yet released, but it exists. It's experiential. That's weird. I've shared stories behind how things work.
71. I share a lot of the history behind Army, Navy, and NSA cryptology (code making and code breaking). I was there, so of course we'll take special notice of the Minnesota connections and history.
72. Not to mention the time our county sheriff chased John Dillinger across the Spiral Bridge, up the road in Hastings. We cover various shoot-outs because why not!
73. How about the Facebook antitrust stuff hitting the news last week? I wrote about that (in the manuscript) last winter. I laid out the history behind what's happening so we can better appreciate what unfolds. Grab your popcorn!
74. Here we are in the summit crater of Mount Rainier in the winter. That's as rare a feat these days as it was back then. We'd spent our evening with the Unsoelds the day before our trip.
75. How to write code? Could be boring. How to experience? Could be fun! I hope you like the upcoming book! (h/t @phparch)
