How many times have you been to Mount Everest, or even Nepal?
Neither have we.
But Jake St. Pierre has been there four times, and he’ll be the featured guest at next Tuesday’s installment of Wings of Knowledge at NHTI (April 25), where he’ll tell you all about it.
St. Pierre, a former Bow police officer, was part of the American Climber Science Program’s 2014 expedition to the world’s highest peak. Before he made it to the top, a massive avalanche wiped out everything in its path, claiming the lives of 16 Sherpas, including one with St. Pierre’s team.
This is the epic journey he will focus on at the Wings of Knowledge talk, which will be held in NHTI’s Sweeney Auditorium due to anticipated high attendance.
We caught up with St. Pierre, who lives in Loudon, to get a little background information so we could fill you in a little bit before the event. This way you can go in with some working knowledge of what will be discussed, and you can be extra excited about it, too.
“The goal was to study climate change at the top of the world,” St. Pierre said. “So I was chosen for the climbing team to go and assist the scientists. 2014 also happened to be when the avalanche hit.”
This is when everything got turned around and plans – even for this experienced climber and adventurer – had to be changed.
That was his fourth trip to Nepal, the first coming in 2010. He had never made it to the summit before, and he still hasn’t – “that was supposed to be it,” he said.
That’s not to say his life has been (and continues to be) without excitement. When he’s not working as a guide taking people to Everest base camp, he’s working for the NBC show Running Wild with Bear Grylls, doing location scouting and safety preparations. He also teaches survival at Bear Grylls Survival Academy in upstate New York. And when he’s not busy with any of those things, he’s running his business, Juggernaut Adventure Series, which entails taking people rock climbing, ice climbing, on ropes courses and other activities.
Frankly, we’re shocked he even has a couple hours to spare to share everything at NHTI, but somehow he’s going to fit it in.
This will be the last Wings of Knowledge event of the school year, so you won’t want to miss it.
The event, which is free and open to the public, starts at 6 p.m. next Tuesday in the Sweeney Auditorium at NHTI.
For more, go to nhti.edu/wings or visit St. Pierre’s site, JuggernautAdventureSeries.com.
