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From: Sandy Hill [sandyhill@rlz-osv.com]

Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 4:19 PM

To: pmg@atrav.com

Subject: RE: YSI PARTY

 

Dear Jim;

 

Wow... some schedule!

 

Not only would I not mind if you read my comments, I would be happy to write a few more:

 

It was with Larry that I first learned to appreciate the value of "quality" of life and the joy of living life well. At a very young and impressionable age he introduced me to the sublime wonders of the outdoors, and showed me how spending the night under the stars could be more magical than an evening on the town in Paris. Food never tastes better than it does when prepared in camp after a long day hike. Remember when we carried the Smithfield ham and bottles of red wine and rum (for hot toddies) up to Ostrander Lake? And that we drank them from our Sierra Cups! I recall it like it was yesterday. Remember cutting a hole in the ice and daring each other to jump in naked?? Larry, I believe, led the way... It was with Larry that I first tried ANY foreign food -- Asian, French, Spanish -and all those smelly-delicious cheeses -- I first sampled on YSI trips.

 

Remember when we set up camp in the Tetons, and then had to move the whole thing a few hundred feet just because the view was better over there? Remember our trip to the Cascades and the summer snowstorm that kept us in sleeping bags under a tarp-tent for three days -- and how the time seemed to fly by anyway, as we sang songs and played word games and lived on gorp, because we couldn't get a fire to stay lit! Did you ever have better conversation in any drawing room than you have had around a campfire or in a tent? Remember when we slept in the grass median on the highway outside Teton National Park because we arrived in Jackson too late to get an official campsite, and what a hoot it was to wake up with commuter traffic passing by?

 

Larry gave me these incredible gifts -- not only were these my first experiences in the outdoors, but he taught me how to appreciate life and all it has to offer, to make real the experiences of my dreams, and, by his example, how to be a connoisseur in the woods. (Maybe I should be laying the blame squarely on the shoulders of Larry Moitozo for the now-infamous espresso-maker on Everest!!)

 

Every single day, whether I am on expedition, at home, or somewhere in-between, some aspect of my day is informed by the lessons Larry taught me.

 

xxoo

 

Sandy