Mark Jenkins was born and raised in Laramie. A world-renowned explorer, acclaimed author and international journalist, Jenkins has covered the globe for a number of publications, including National Geographic. He’s also the host of the Wyoming Public Media podcast Going to Extremes: Stories of Adventure. WPM’s Program Director Grady Kirkpatrick spoke with Jenkins, starting with what led him into exploration and travel.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Mark Jenkins: First thing I have to say is my dad was a university professor. He got a sabbatical to go to Holland. I'm one of six kids. So we moved to Holland.
None of us spoke a word. [We were] put in Dutch schools right off the bat. Half a year later, you're speaking Dutch. So I got an early exposure to international travel.
In high school, here in Laramie High, I was a gymnast. Then I learned how to rock climb from a famous swimming coach, Layne Kopischka. After that, I went back to Europe, hitchhiked across Europe, Africa and Russia for half a year with my best friend Mike Moe, who was from Laramie.
We ran outta money three months into the trip, which wasn't that uncommon back then. This was in the ‘70s. So we slept in parks and we snuck into college cafeterias. A lot of people don't eat everything on their plate. So we just sneak in, and when it started to roll into the dishwasher, we would grab some buns or something like that.
And that's how we got along. Definitely the low life for a little while.
Then I came to UW. I had a great experience at the University of Wyoming. I ended up majoring in philosophy, particularly 20th-century existentialism.
Grady Kirkpatrick: Through your explorations over the years, you have an incredible amount of experiences and adventures, and now you're putting it together in this podcast called Going to Extremes. What was your inspiration for that?
MJ: When I got out of college, I realized that American society really didn't want or need a philosopher. So I became a writer, and I wrote my first story for the Casper Star Tribune in 1983. From there, I just kept working. Then I worked for larger newspapers, the Denver Post, and I started working for magazines, Time Magazine.
Then, eventually, I got a column for Outside Magazine, called The Hard Way, where I did an expedition almost every month for 10 years. Then, after that, National Geographic hired me.
But now we all know that reading has changed in America. People don't typically read long-form investigative journalism, which was my expertise.
So that world vanished. But I still had all these stories I'd written for all these magazines, from Atlantic Monthly, to the New York Times, to Esquire. So I thought, “All right, I think some people, maybe in Wyoming, might enjoy these stories,” and that's when I talked to you.
GK: We are glad of it. Tell me about the feedback you've received from Going to Extremes.
MJ: I have had really good feedback from across Wyoming. I worked for the University of Wyoming as a writer in residence for a decade, and I went around all the small towns and gave programs, National Geographic programs, so a lot of people out there in Powell and Cody and Jackson Hole, I already know a lot of them. I'm from here.
GK: It's Wyoming, small towns, long streets. Everybody knows everybody. So you've connected with people over many years.
MJ: Yeah, so I only have positive responses. I mispronounced a couple of words and somebody called me on that, but that's totally fair. I don't get it right all the time.
GK: We appreciate that too, when we hear from people.
MJ: Yeah, exactly.
GP: We want to get it right. What are some of those specific stories and adventures, if any come to mind, that people have responded to?
MJ: I did a story about – I'm one of four brothers, and the four of us went skydiving all in one day, and my parents were definitely not happy about that. I got a note from people saying, “That's just a little too wild. All four brothers jumping out of a plane.”
Oh, the story about Layne Kopischka, my coach who taught me how to climb. He died when he was like 47, 48. And I tried to take those skills and teach them to my daughters, not necessarily that successfully. But I took them up rock climbing in Vedauwoo, which most people in Wyoming know where that is. That got a lot of response.
My story about [Mount] Everest. I've been to Everest twice, almost summited the first time and summited the second time. [The] second time was on assignment for National Geographic, and Everest has become quite a mess. I understand it quite well and had written about how we could fix Everest for National Geographic. That got a lot of positive response.
GK: You recently added another notch in your mountaineering adventures. Tell us about that, it was summiting in South America?
MJ: Well, it's kind of a funny story. Because I went down there with two good buddies, one of whom I'd climbed in South America with before, and one who I climbed with in Tibet.
They're climbers. But on our first peak, one of them got pulmonary edema, which is a swelling water retention in your brain. It's very serious. He got a severe case of that while we're climbing. So he turned around. He ended up going down and flying home.
And then my buddy, we were caught in a very deep fog and he couldn't see well enough with his sunglasses, so he took 'em off. Fog doesn’t stop UV light. So it came straight through and he got severe snow blindness.
So day three, day four on my three-week expedition, both my partners have flown home. I thought, well, this is not the first time this has happened. I started asking questions and then just started soloing peaks, which I don't advise. I prefer to have a partner. I prefer to be on a rope, but this is not the first time things have happened in an expedition. I ended up soloing half a dozen peaks, one of which was the highest peak in Ecuador, Chimborazo. It's not particularly technical. You gotta use an ice ax and crampons, but it was all well within my ability.
GK: Well, we appreciate the stories people can hear on Saturdays at 8:35 a.m. and 9:35 a.m. and also online. Tell us about some of the upcoming stories.
MJ: I'm sitting here with a cast on my left foot. That story's coming up. I was climbing in the Snowy Range. Some of you will know that area, Lake Marie, Mirror Lake, and there's a big wall there called the Little Diamond.
I pulled up on a block that I thought was solid and it wasn't. It was about a refrigerator-sized block and it pulled out. I took a very substantial fall and landed one foot in the snow, which was wonderful, but the other foot hit, so it shattered my heel. I've got a plate and 10 screws. And just how that happened is a story coming up.
The story you asked me about in Ecuador is also coming up. The story about rafting the Nile River in Uganda is coming up. I've got some fun stories.
GK: [It] seems like the adventures never end, and I think the prognosis from what you've told me is pretty good.
MJ: Yeah, thanks. I'll be back. I just can't be back real soon.
Going to Extremes: Stories of Adventure with Mark Jenkins can be heard Saturday mornings at 8:35 and 9:35 on Wyoming Public Radio.
