Chair: Stephen E. Smith The Explorers Club 925 934-1051 [email protected] Vice-Chair: Lee Langan 415 567-8089 [email protected] Northern California Chapter Treasurer: Anders Jepsen 925 254-3079 October 2004 [email protected] Webmaster: Mike Diggles Newsletter: Lee Langan Roster: Sue Estey Web site: http://www.diggles.com/ec/ — October 19, 2004 A Special Event: Peter Pyle, Exotic Foods & Redwood Creek Wine at the beautiful City Club of San Francisco Great Trans-Pacific Migrations Redwood Creek Wines From Albatross to Turtles and The Explorers Club and Sharks to Shorebirds. Partner for Dr. Peter Pyle “A Taste for Adventure” Peter Pyle works at the Institute for Bird Populations Redwood Creek Wines of California and The Explorers (IPB) and has spent a lot of time on the Farallon Islands. Club are inviting local Explorers Club members, some Most people never see these ocean lands on the Pacific’s public and the media to journey through a series of A Taste horizon; they are the home of myriad birds and sea lions of Adventure events in select cities nationwide. During and migrations of large fish pass annually. Peter will these events, attendees will have a rare opportunity to share his experiences with our chapter at the first meeting discover North America’s most adventurous foods paired of the 2004-05 season. with the wines of Redwood Creek, followed by a lecture by The Pacific Ocean covers over 69 million square miles one of America’s leading explorers. The Taste of Adventure of, for the most part, hostile territory for migrant animals. events are an extension of the weekly public lecture series No place to land and little to eat! Yet, many species need at Club headquarters in New York, of which Redwood to navigate these waters to take advantage of seasonal Creek recently became the sponsor. food resources or protected areas to raise their young. The first of the regional Taste of Adventure events will Through the advent of state-of-the art satellite-tag tech- be held in San Francisco on October 19th and is being nology, we are discovering some amazing things about hosted by the Northern California chapter. Members of the how far these animals travel and the methods they use to Northern California chapter, members of the public and the get where they are going. Whereas north-to-south migra- local press are invited to attend this special evening. Club tions are considered the norm, there is a strong, heretofore President Richard C. Wiese will be on-hand, along with unrecognized east-to-west component to Pacific migra- Redwood Creek’s winemaker, Cal Dennison, and Gene tions. Peter’s talk will travel from Siberia to Baja Califor- Rurka, the Club’s expert on exotic foods. This is the first nia, the Gulf of the Farallons to Hawaii, and Indonesia to time the ‘exotic’ hors d’oeuvres made famous at our Annual Point Reyes, in quest of some of these great trans-Pacific Dinner will be served under Club auspices outside of New Langan

NEW LOCATION Date Tuesday, October 19, 2004 Place: The City Club, 155 Sansome San Francisco Time: 6:30 pm, wine & food 8:00pm, speaker Cost: free, however, limited to 70 members

Reach Lee at [email protected] or 415 567-8089

Reservation Form on page 5 Please reserve promptly!

both articles continued on page 2 page© 2004 1 The Explorers Club Continued from page 1, PYLE Continued from page 1, WINE migratory pathways. Peter will also discuss the Faral- lon sea lions and their hunter, the Great White Shark. Peter has been working for IBP since 1996. He attended Swarthmore College during the 1970’s while work- ing seasonally on the Hawaii and other Pacific Island Forest Bird Surveys. In 1980, he did an internship for the Point York. And the Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) Land- first time that bird Program. In 1985, Peter became intrepid diners a biologist on the Farallon Islands, a will be assisted in post he held until 2003. During this the proper wines period, while splitting time between to drink with the PRBO & IBP from 1996 through 2003, exotics! Peter authored or co-authored over 100 Following peer-reviewed papers and three books. LANGAN a reception and Among banders he is best known for his Identification Guide to brief presentation featuring exotics and wine, Peter North American Birds, Part 1*, which includes detailed criteria Pyle will deliver his lecture. for aging and sexing land birds in the hand. (He is currently work- The Taste of Adventure event will be held from ing on Part 2, to cover water birds, raptors, and game birds. ) 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm at The City Club, a beautiful * Pyle P. 1997. Identification Guide to North American Birds - Part 1. Slate Creek Press, venue in downtown San Francisco located at 155 PO Box 219, Bolinas, CA 94924-0219, USA. 732 pp. ISBN 0-9618940-2-4. Sansome Street, between Bush and Pine, on the 10th floor of the tower next to the Pacific Coast Stock Peter Pyle, banding Exchange Building. The event is free, but reserva- tions for chapter members and their lady or gentle- man are limited to a total of seventy. Other guests above: alligator treat at 100th ECAD will be wait-listed. Members will be notified if space for their guests becomes available. This event is by below: migrating bird reservation only; see the reservation form on page 5 solo at sunset of the newsletter for details on responding.

Merle Green Robertson Merle & Michael Coe Fêted at the Legion of Honor On September 4, Merle was honored by a gathering of Maya scholars from around the world. The occasion was the opening of the impressive Courtly Art of the Ancient Maya exhibition which had just moved from it’s time at the National Gallery in Washington, DC. It will be in The City through January 2, 2005, but do not dawdle; it is an insight that demonstrates the visual magnificence of ancient Maya art with over 130 masterworks drawn from some 30 public and private lenders. (See the museum web site for details: www.thinker.org.) Merle was acknowledged for her extensive contributions to our understand- ing of these arts; Museum Director Harry Parker hosted the evening dinner. page 2 Enduring Patagonia! Carlton Skinner Greg Crouch Chapter Chair Emeritus San Francisco is dead There is a great deal of fear involved lands of south Chile, from the sea to Carlton Skinner, Chairman of our in climbing a mountain the hard way. the peaks, to an enthusiastic remem- Chapter from 1985-89, died on June It helps you think clearly about the brance of his winter achievement with 22, at the age of 91. Gov. Skinner ever-present dangers. Reaching the three then-acquaintances, now friends. was appointed by President Harry peaks of Patagonia is hard, and fear- Climbing is a labor of love. His Truman to be the first civilian gover- ful. Greg Crouch sheds this fear with vivid reflections of those daunting nor of , in 1949, establishing the humor shared with his team. For the places, confronted while ascending to island’s first university and writing the winter assault he described this night, the 10,000’ summit, made your muscles constitution that it still uses today. the four-man team spoke different lan- twitch. The brilliance of the Patagonian The guages– and his jokes did not gener- Ice Cap, the largest block of ice outside appoint- ate the guffaws that relieved his fright. of the contiguous polar regions, and the ment Nevertheless, the quartet found a way, solitude reflected in his and his fellow followed and fear was overcome with suc- climber’s photos, offered a clear insight his com- cess and self confidence. After weeks into what drives anyone to such a chal- mand of of traversing snow and ice, and the lenge. Patagonia is just wonderous. the first occasional rock face, they reached the There are long periods of tedium racially summit and returned safely. Looking in the long winter nights and wait- inte- at the glorious photos, I vowed to learn ing-out the storms. Greg considers Solange & Carlton Skinner grated the other guy’s language before such a himself a champion at this patient task warships in the U.S. military. From climb! (It won’t be necessary....) for he knows what awaits when the 1943 to 1944, he was a Coast Guard From the view of a non-climber, sun allows access. The evening was lieutenant commanding the weather Greg Crouch’s fascinating talk on a delight listening to a consummate ship in the North Atlantic. a winter ascent of Patagonia’s lofty mountain climber. Dismayed by the military’s practice of spiral, Cerro Torres, sent chills through Crouch serves on the Patagonia keeping ship crews segregated, when me. His summertime first conquest of Land Trust. His pictures of the beauti- he got command of the Sea Cloud, the same daunting peak had the same ful foothill estancias that they have he was given his chance to prove his effect. In a well-crafted slide presen- managed to obtain for conservation, point. The Sea Cloud shipped out of tation, some with music to lead the offer a place, for those unable to reach with a fully integrated crew of rapt audience into the majesty of these the heights, to enjoy this undamaged 173 men. He parlayed the Sea Cloud’s southern mountains, he moved from an land so reminiscent of the early times achievement into successfully com- overview of his affection for the vast in the western USA. Contact the Trust, manding a second integrated crew if you are interested in their Cap’n Crunch (Rick Saber) & our speaker, Greg Crouch aboard the patrol frigate Hoquiam. The L

ANGAN work– of if you want to U.S. Navy then, with his consultation, go South. integrated its destroyer escort Mason, His next project is a and in the ensuing decades the Navy new book on seeking out and Coast Guard dropped all racial those planes lost while barriers. The Sea Cloud was retired as the private pilots helped a naval vessel, but today, rigged with in WWII by flying the three masts and sails, it is a commer- Burma ‘Hump’. He heads cial luxury yacht . for China this Fall. While After leaving the governor’s post we await his findings, in 1953, he went on to live all over the check out Enduring Pata- world, as a chief financial officer for gonia*, from which this several companies including Ameri- evening’s talk was drawn. can President Lines, Colt Industries and Fairbanks Morse. In the late 1960s, * Enduring Patagonia: The Winter he settled in San Francisco and estab- West Face is available in hardcover, paperback or digital format on lished Skinner & Co., a management Amazon (and elsewhere.) and financial consulting firm. In 1967, C ROUCH Gov. Skinner met French anthropolo- gist Solange Petit while both were on the South Pacific Commission, and the two married in 1970. Gov. Skinner is survived by his wife. (These details were exerpted from the SF Chronicle.) page 3 Will Siri Expedition News Ocean Film Festival helped define the meaning Published for 10 Years Second Annual! of science as adventure; The Northern California Chapter sub- he died August 24 at 85. scribes to Expedition News and makes Chapter member Will Siri, was co- it available to members on our web site. leader of the first American expedition Ten years ago this month, Expedi- to summit Mount Everest (he did so tion News started as a simple idea: three times), helped rescue Sir Edmund create a forum for explorers to post Hillary’s climbing team from an icy their projects so that sponsors, the crevice (on Mt. Makalu) and hiked media, and other explorers could par- the Sierra with Ansel Adams. He was ticipate. At the time, e-mail was still a leading in its infancy; most copies of EN were researcher either mailed or sent by fax. Today, in bio- between the web site*, e-mail and physics at snail mail subscriptions, and quarterly Lawrence excerpts in the Explorers Club Explor- The second annual San Francisco Berkeley ers Journal, approximately 10,000 Ocean Film Festival, celebrating the National people each month read about projects sea with inspirational films and lively Labora- that “stimulate, motivate and educate.” discussions on oceanography, saltwater tory, a job www.Expeditionnews.com sports, and coastal cultures, is only Jean & Will Siri that began four months away . after he helped create the atomic bomb Mark your calendars and plan to as a member of the Manhattan Project spend time at the San Francisco water- from 1943 to 1945. He was a president Membership Drive front venues the weekend of Janu- and director of the national Sierra Club Eagle Scout Association ary 28-30, 2005. The three thematic during the dynamic period of the 1960s Dr. Michael Manyak, one of our most venues– Ft. Mason’s Cowell Theater, and 1970s, as it grew from a mostly active and effective Club Board mem- the San Francisco Maritime National hiking-oriented club to an environmen- bers, has proposed that The Explorers Historical Park, and the Visitor Center tal policy powerhouse. After he retired Club communicate with the Eagle – will remain the same as last year. from LBNL in 1982, he helped lead Scout Association in an initiative to Chapter member Krist Jake is the a host of other ecological protection seek out qualified potential members founder of this successful event. You groups, from the Bay Institute to the for our esteemed Club. Our Board of can check their web site for details: Save the Bay Association. Directors agreed that this organiza- www.oceanfilmfest.org Born in Philadelphia, Siri earned tion, which boasts 120,000 exceptional a bachelor’s degree in science at the gentlemen, would be an excellent University of Chicago in 1942. After source of potential members. Dr. Los Alamos, he joined UC Berkeley Manyak has volunteered to contact the Art Ford as a researcher in 1945; he teamed up Eagle Scout Association by way of that From Antarctic to the Arctic with John Lawrence– ‘the father of organization’s newsletter, but he would Chapter member Dr. Arthur Ford made nuclear medicine’– to research technol- first like to secure a commitment from his first transit of the historic North ogies to help the human body. Around the chapters to assist in this initiative. West Passage, following Amundsen’s this time, he also decided to take his The New York Headquarters is 1903 route via Lancaster Sound, in July mountain climbing ambitions to new requesting that each chapter provide and August 2004 on the Russian ice- heights. Throughout his climbs,Siri two names of individuals who could breaker Capt. Khlebnikov. Art reports, conducted tests on how altitude and assist in coordinating Eagle Scout “Fantastic trip, including seeing the thin air affected dizziness, appetite and Association membership applications graves on the beach from the lost red blood cell counts. Most of the tests that might come in from the Chapter Franklin expedition.” He asks, “Has were on himself. region. Contact Steve Smith if you are the club Flag ever been carried through Will Siri was rendered inactive interested. We have no way of know- NWP, at least in the opposite direction over the past decade as Alzheimer’s ing how many applications this initia- that Amundsen took? If not, I may be robbed him of his robustness, but the tive might bring forth, but it would be be going again next summer! mark he left in the previous years best to prepare for an avalanche! The Art has spent long periods in the elicits awe from those who knew him. Club is also seeking out the Girl Scout Antarctic and acted as lecturer on sev- Will’s wife, East Bay Regional Parks equivalent organization. eral tours to the South. board director and former El Cerrito Members will note the announce- Mayor Jean Siri, views their 54 years ment in the Log that the Boy Scouts of marriage as every bit the adventure will recognize twenty Club members that his many climbing forays were. at the 2005 National Scout Jamboree to (These details were exerpted from the SF Chronicle.) be held at Camp A. P. Hill in Virginia. page 4 you who share an interest in the ecol- The Chapter Chair ogy of our world’s reef systems are Evolution Dear Northern California Explorers: undoubtedly aware of the stress they @ The Explorers Club are experiencing. We are hopeful that Summer is past and our new season is Greetings and welcome to a new we are observing a limited event. Next upon us, none too soon! The opening season of Northern California Explor- year’s monitoring session will help event will be exciting for, among other ers Club meetings. To those of you determine whether this is a transi- things, we have a great speaker, and who have felt the void of the traditional tory or chronic condition. By way of this is the first time the ‘exotics’ are be- September opening– my apologies. shameless advertising, we are always ing featured outside New York. Some Not atypically, your officers have been looking for volunteer divers to help us folks get a bit queasy at the thought traveling extensively during August in this endeavor. Let me know of your of consuming these morsels; don’t be. and September and we judged that our interest, we will even supply the air! They are prepared so well, you can October event would make a stellar I want to extend a warm welcome eat any and go away boasting how way to reconvene. to some new members of the North- good they are and how brave you are. Although we are starting a little ern California Chapter. The following It’s an ‘explorer’ thing. Besides, un- late this year we are starting with a individuals have had their member- like the crowds surrounding the tables bang! Thanks to the great efforts of ships approved by the Board so far in at ECAD in New York, we are being member Morton Beebe and the above- 2004: Amos Nachoum, Duane Silver- served an appropriate wine for each and-beyond-the-call coordination of stein, Mary Stoll, Thierry Thys, David exotic. How splendid. Vice Chair Lee Langan we have a most Moorer, Tierney Thys, Lynn Roth- I note that there is a push to in- elegant and unique event planned for schild, Sean Savoy, Andrew Jameson, crease membership by appealing to our October 19th opening. Fair warn- and student members Rebecca Dell and Boy Scouts that have achieved who ing: this gathering will be strictly lim- Kyle Rothschild-Mancinelli. Welcome would qualify. This is a good source. ited to individual EC members and one to one and all, we’ll look forward to I feel we have excellent sources in significant other. In attendance will be seeing you at the next meeting. the Bay Area, and we should be alert representatives of the New York chap- —Stephen E. Smith, FN’96 and encourage locally. There are a ter as well as members of the press and large number of explorers at our uni- specially invited guests. So, make sure versities and local laboratories. Seek to read the details, and get your RSVP them out; encourage them; build our in as soon as possible. You definitely ranks. We all benefit! The Explor- won’t want to be left out; especially The City Club is on the 10th floor ers Club is a bargain at any level and if you are partial to North American of 155 Sansome Street; well worth it for the camaraderie and crickets in pepper jelly or rosemary street parking is available after 6:00; knowledge gained. rattlesnake. My mouth is watering BART and cable car access. You may note that there are sev- already. eral ‘open’ slots for speakers later in to On a personal note, this has been year; we do have several discussions a full summer for me, encompassing underway but they are not concluded. multiple trips to the east coast, and Meanwhile, if you have suggestions, my annual expedition to Micronesia. give me a call; the meetings will fill Our work in Kosrae, FSM contin- quickly. —Lee Langan, FN’99 ues. Unfortunately, for the first time since we began our studies in 1996, we have observed bleaching on the reef. Although its significance is unknown, City Club of San Francisco the observation is troubling. Those of

The October 19th Meeting is a Special Event It is hosted by the Redwood Creek Winery as part of the Taste of Adventure Series in cooperation with the Explorers Club headquarters. Please mail this form to: Please reserve ____ spaces for October 19, 2004, Lee Langan at The City Club of San Francisco. There is no cost; however, the event is limited 2660 California Street to 70 members and their lady or gentleman. San Francisco, CA 94115 Contact Lee at [email protected] or 415 567-8089 to assure a reservation). Prospective members will be accepted if room allows; you will be notified. Name: ______NOTE! Address (if changed): ______Your name must be on the Lady or Gentleman: ______accepted list to attend. page 5 Northern California 2003-2004 Event Calendar

(Mark the dates! Venues will be identified at time of event.)

October 19, 2004 Peter Pyle “Birds on the Farrollons & Across the Pacific” The City Club, San Francisco

November 19, 2004 Çagan Sekercioglu “Exploring in Angola” Sinbad’s Restaurant, San Francisco

December 19, 2004 Explorers ‘Social’

January 28-30, 2005 Krist Jake “The Ocean Film Festival” San Francisco

February 2005 open

March 19, 2005 ECAD 101 Years of The Explorers Club Waldorf Astoria, New York

March 2005 open April 2005 open June 2005 open June 18, 2005 Chapter Picnic Contact Anders Jepsen to help:

Please note venues and dates with care. In full and lively color! October 19th is a TUESDAY meeting at To experience this newsletter in color, a new venue, The City Club of San Francisco see the ‘pdf’ version at our web site. (When copying the URL addresses be sure to keep them all on one line; most are also available as links on our Chapter web site.)

October 2004 Dr. Stephen E. Smith The Explorers Club Northern California Chapter 402 Via Royal Walnut Creek, CA 94596

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