Mike Barry has been an active participant on Boston Chapter trips since 1994 and a bike and ski leader since 1998. Prior to his AMC days, Mike's love of travel and skiing were whetted by living in Norway for three years in the 1980's. During this time he started leading groups on ski tours and some biking excursions. Mike helped lead a biking tour in Tuscany, led a bike tour to the Southern Czech Republic and Prague, and completed a backcountry ski tour of Norway. He thinks that the Adventure Travel program is a great way to go on some excursions with a bit of built in "local color" at as modest a cost as possible. During the week, Mike works for the EPA's emergency spill response branch in the Boston regional office. He is also a Regional Director.
Bob Bentley is a long time member of the AMC and has been actively involved at the chapter level as well as numerous committees including the AMC Adventure Travel committee
(Chair, Treasurer, Member).
His vast outdoors experience and breadth of historical context is a rare combination.
He has led more than 35 major excursions, including backpacking, biking, hiking, and skiing, on six continents.
Bob's most notable being his most recent trip, because each is unique and special.
Most recently, Bob has been focusing on winter backcountry ski tours due to his other hobby as an apiarist and cranberry grower, which occupies most of his spring, summer, and fall free time.
Bob has been a member of the National Ski Patrol for more than 30 years and has served as Patrol Director for the EMARI Nordic Patrol for more than 15 years.
During the week, Bob owns and operates an environmental testing laboratory and consulting firm in southeastern Massachusetts.
Bob is always looking for new and different places to share with fellow AMC'ers and rarely returns to the same place twice.
Wyatt Biel holds membership with the Boston Chapter of AMC and leads locally and with AMC Adventure Travel. Wyatt has led his AMC Chapter and Adventure Travel participants throughout New England, the American Southwest, the Canadian Rockies and Istanbul and coastal Turkey. He and AMC Adventure Travel Vice Chair, Stacia Biel, backpacked with AMC members on the islands of Hawaii over the 2007-08 New Year holiday. They led a bike trip through the viticulture of Northern California followed by a visit to Yellowstone National Park, in July 2008. Wyatt is a family nurse practitioner, working at Harvard University.
Erika Bloom grew up in Montana, right in the Beartooth mountains, but sadly didn't discover her love of hiking until she moved to Massachusetts and joined AMC in 1998! AMC was a great find for her – there was always a group hike for her to join on free days. She started leading for Southeastern Massachusetts chapter around 1999, first with local hikes, then mountain hiking in New Hampshire, and eventually for AMC Adventure Travel. Leading Adventure Travel trips allows her to combine her love of travel (the actual travel as well as researching trips and fun destinations) with her hike leading experience. She's co-led a trip to the Canadian Rockies (dayhiking and backpacking), she's led three trips to Glacier National Park in Montana (dayhiking with naturalists alongside), and she has led three AMC trips to Tanzania (two were Kilimanjaro climbs). Erika loves exploring the Earth's natural environments with other AMCers, who are generally great travel companions and active folks. One of her favorite memories from an AMC Adventure Travel trip was interacting with the children in Tanzania. They loved seeing their photo on her digital camera screen! Those special moments were even more precious than being at the summit of Africa's tallest mountain. Erika's day job is a PA (Physician Assistant) in a family medicine practice. She also volunteers in a no-kill cat rescue/shelter organization. Her wonderful husband Ross isn't a hiker but loves to fly fish. The two of them have an assortment of geriatric rescued mutts at home.
Jenni Blumenthal and her husband Ralph have decades of experience in traveling and hiking in areas as diverse as the Grand Canyon, North and South Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii, New Jersey, Norway, Slovenia, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, New Zealand, and Japan as well as annual trips to St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. After participating in many AMC Adventure Travel trips, Jenni became a Co-Leader. Jenni and Ralph are members of the New England 4000'ers Club, have hiked most of the Appalachian Trail, and have been to 32 of the state highpoints. A few years ago Jenni retired as a pharmaceutical librarian. She is Chairman of the Holmdel Shade Tree Committee, Vice-President of Citizens for Informed Land Use, a local land use education and lobbying organization, and a member of the Monmouth Civic Chorus.
Ralph Blumenthal is the Chair of the AMC Adventure Travel Committee. Ralph and his wife Jenni live in Holmdel, NJ. They have been members of the Delaware Valley Chapter for four decades. Since retiring from a career in physics and telecommunications 10 years ago, Ralph does a lot of volunteering in his community and thoroughly enjoys traveling. He is a Founding Trustee of the Friends of Holmdel Open Space, a local land trust, and has been Chairman of the Holmdel Planning Board and a Member of the Holmdel Environmental Commission. He has led numerous hikes and excursions. Ralph's favorite annual trip is to St. John in the U. S. Virgin Islands, where he's able to enjoy the warm beach in February while it snows back home. Photography is one of his hobbies; pictures from many of his trips are posted on a web site he maintains.
Dick Cable is an active biking and hiking leader for the AMC. He has participated in Adventure Travel trips to Tuscany, Belize, and most recently China and Tibet. He has led trips to Puerto Rico, Turkey, and the White Mountains. He is an avid biker and hiker. Dick is a personal trainer and group fitness instructor in cycling and aerobics. He also enjoys downhill skiing.
Éva Borsody Das began leading AMC Adventure Travel trips as the co-leader of a hiking trip to the Carpathian mountains and medieval cities of Romania in June 2007. As a hike leader for AMC's August Camp since 1998, Éva has led hikes in many national parks and forests around the US, and also serves on the August Camp Committee. Éva currently lives in Hull, MA, overlooking a tidal estuary. She is an all-season mountain hike leader for the Southeastern Massachusetts Chapter of AMC. Previously she was a Delaware Valley Chapter hike leader while living in Philadelphia. She is a 2001 graduate of AMC's Mountain Leadership School, and is Wilderness First Aid certified. Éva's other trips include climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in January 2008, climbing Mt. Rainier, and day hiking in Alaska, Newfoundland, Ireland, Scotland, the Alps, Pyrenees, Dolomites, Tatra Mountains in Slovakia and Poland, Slovenia, New Zealand and Patagonia. Éva is originally from Hungary, and particularly likes travelling in Eastern Europe. When not in the mountains or traveling to foreign countries, Éva enjoys running, biking, swimming, kayaking, contra dancing, and playing with her granddaughter!
Andrea Deaton lives in Jackson, Wyoming. She has been an AMC member for 10 years and an AMC leader since 2001. She first got involved with AMC Adventure Travel in 2004 to expand her geographic boundaries and to lead longer, highly active trips. Longer trips help her to get to know people better and build strong friendships with new AMC friends from around the country. Leading extended backpacking trips also allows her to explore deeper into the backcountry. Andrea has led trips to Tuscany, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, Belize, Colorado, Kilimanjaro and Tanzania, Yosemite National Park, and New Zealand. She thoroughly enjoys multi-sport trips that allow her to experience a wide variety of areas within a country. Her favorite AMC Adventure Travel trip memory was kayaking in Belize in 2006 – it was a wonderful group, the weather was great, and their guide, Omar, left them with many fun phrases and great memories! When Andrea isn't outdoors, she works as the Director of Development for the Grand Teton National Park Foundation in Jackson, Wyoming. She moved to Wyoming in August 2007 after living in Philadelphia for eight years, where she was actively involved on the AMC Adventure Travel Committee and worked as a leader for the Delaware Valley Chapter. Even though she no longer lives within the boundaries of AMC's chapters, Andrea plans on continuing leadership within AMC Adventure Travel because it brings her such fulfillment.
Steve and Heather DePaola started hiking together after they were married, when they began climbing the 48 peaks in New Hampshire over 4,000 feet in 1999. After their first few peaks, they joined the AMC to learn more about safety, gear, and hiking in general by taking the Spring Hiking and Backpacking introductory course. After they finished climbing 4,000-footers in NH, they then trained to become AMC leaders in the Boston Chapter. Next goal the pair hiked the 4,000-footers in Maine and Vermont in training for their first AMC Major Excursion (now known as Adventure Travel) to Tanzania in 2005 to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and safari in the Serengeti. They were quickly hooked on adventure travel and joined the AMC on a backpacking trip to Alaska’s North Slope and the Arctic Ocean in June 2006. Nine months later their daughter Mckinlee was born and she now joins them on all their fun adventures! In 2009, they co-led a group of 25 adventurers on an AMC trip to the Canadian Rockies, Banff National Park. Participants ranged in age from 2-81 years young. They also led another family adventure to the Colorado Rockies and Estes Park in 2010. Heather and Steve also lead local family hikes and camping weekends for toddlers and young children with their parents. As you can see in their photo, Mckinlee is following in their footsteps! They are both Advanced Wilderness First Aid and CPR certified. Heather owns her own company and Steve is a business consultant.
Betsy Fowler has been an AMC member since 1970. She and her husband ran the AMC Mountain Leadership Workshop in the 1970's, and Betsy is currently a NH Chapter trip leader, making her home in Madison, NH. Retired from teaching, she loves hiking year-round and cross-country skiing in winter. After guiding professionally in Norway, France, Switzerland and Italy, her first AMC Adventure Travel trip was co-leading a backpack to Banff, Yoho and Jasper National Parks in the Canadian Rockies. Subsequent trips include one to Ecuador and the Galapagos, a Canadian Rockies backcountry ski trip to Skokie Lodge.
Merri Fox is a software analyst in the IT dept. of a major aircraft engine company. Because she loves sharing her favorite outdoor destinations, over the past 12 years she has led hiking, snorkeling and cultural excursions in Belize, Paris, Hawaii, Arizona, the Tetons, Switzerland, California and the Virgin Islands. She has been an AMC member for over 20 years. She leads local hikes in CT and participates in training programs for new leaders. Merri lives with husband Rance in NW Connecticut, where she enjoys gardening, cooking and entertaining guests.
Peter Fraunholtz is a Boston Chapter Hiking/Backpacking, Ski and Intro leader who has been hiking in the White Mountains for over 20 years. Originally from Miami, Florida, he made his first hiking and backpacking trip in the Rocky Mountains in 1980, as part of a month-long college geology course. Two years later, he studied for a semester in Munich and got his first chance to hike in the Alps. His hiking experience includes trails and peaks in various parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, and Alberta. He has trekked in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco and along the Great Wall of China. Peter last co-led the hut-to-hut trip to the Bavarian Alps in June 2007.
Sam (Ruth) Jamke has been a member of the AMC since 1983 and has led numerous day and weekend hiking trips. She is a past Chair of the New Hampshire Chapter and is presently a hike leader and workshop instructor for the New Hampshire Chapter. She has completed AMC's Mountain Leadership School. She is an annual hike leader at the AMC's August Camp and led the 8-day NH Chapter Presidential Range Hike in 2007. Sam has hiked the 115 Northeast 4,000 footers and has hiked all of the New England Hundred Highest summits in both the three seasons and winter. Some of Sam's other hiking venues include Mount Rainier National Park, Washington's North Cascades, California's Sierra Nevada Mountains, Newfoundland, Colorado's Fourteeners, and long distance paths in Scotland, England and New Zealand.
Sue Lach is a hike leader for the CT Chapter and has led day hikes along with weekend backpacks in the White Mountains. She is an avid hiker and backpacker. In 2005 she reached the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro, backpacked the Grand Tetons, and the Torres Del Paine circuit in Chile. Recent trips she has led include a trip to Belize where they had many jungle and Mayan adventures, and a backpacking & kayaking trip to New Zealand. Sue currently holds Advanced Wilderness First Aid and CPR certifications. She lives in Manchester, CT and also enjoys skydiving, snorkeling, scuba diving, mountain biking, and photography. When she is not traversing the globe, Sue occupies her time as an IT Project Manager for The Hartford.
Pam Madigan's parents (Mary Jane & Fred Sawyer) were formerly very active AMC member and Major Excursions leaders. As a result, Pam was essentially brought up on AMC experiences at Cardigan Lodge, canoeing the Allagash, and hiking in the White Mountains. Pam began leading her own AMC Adventure Travel trips in the late 1970s. Pam has served as a co-leader or leader on trips to St. John USVI, Hawaii, Russia, and co-led the 2008 AMC walking tour in Paris. Pam's perennial favorite is the St. John trip, which she has participated in for over 30 years and plans to visit for many years to come. Pam appreciates the fact that many of the AMC programs appeal to multiple generations. She is pleased that her daughter shares her love of the outdoors and for the past 10 years has been a regular participant on the St. John trip.
Pam currently serves on the AMC Adventure Travel Committee and holds her Advanced Wilderness First Aid certification. Pam currently lives in Medfield, Massachusetts with her husband Steve and daughter Victoria. Her hobbies include snorkeling, tennis, skiing, and spinning. Pam serves as Manager of Corporate Marketing & Affinity for William Raveis Relocation.
Erik Madsen has been involved with passive recreational activities like hiking, canoeing, and cross country skiing from a young age. He was raised in an environmentally conscious household and gained significant knowledge about environmental stewardship. He achieved rank of Eagle Scout upon the completion of years of ongoing environmental education and leadership experience. As an adolescent, Erik volunteered thousands of hours with the Southern Tunxis Trail Crew, a youth based volunteer hiking trail maintenance organization. Erik became a hike leader in the Connecticut Chapter of the AMC in 1996. He continues to lead hikes with the Connecticut chapter Adult and Young Member groups to the present day and has lead beginner and intermediate backpacking trips along sections of the Appalachian Trail through AMC Interchapter Excursions since 1997. Erik has lead winter hikes summiting 4000 foot plus peaks in New Hampshire since 2004. He became an active leader with the AMC Adventure Travel in 2006. Some of Erik's completed Adventure Travel trips to date include: Hiking in Utah 2006, Hiking in the Canadian Rockies 2007, and Trekking in Bhutan 2007. AMC training includes: leadership, mountain leadership, major excursions, CPR, & advanced wilderness first aid. Erik backpacked via section hiking the Appalachian Trail from the NJ to ME state lines. He also backpacked in Maine, Alaska, California, Wyoming, Newfoundland, and Thailand. He has trail work experience in the areas of, rock work, erosion control, tree removal, bridge construction, and trail clearing. Erik attended Central Connecticut State University and received his Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and is currently working on receiving his Masters in Geography: Urban Planning. Erik works as a Quality Review Specialist with the Connecticut Department of Developmental Services. He is a life long resident of Bristol CT, living in wooded surroundings that are habitat for coyote, deer, turkey, mink, and wood ducks. Erik thoroughly enjoys hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, canoeing, tennis, geology, geography, urban planning, art, theater, and creative endeavors. He wishes to travel the world and work in the urban planning field.
Lynn Matt is an AMC Boston Chapter Leader for the INTRO committee with many years experience leading hiking, skiing and road bike trips. She has a passion for traveling and has ventured around the world. She is certified in wilderness first aid and CPR. Some of her AMC Adventure Travel trips include hiking Sedona, AZ., the Andes of Peru, Mexico, Thailand, China and Greece.
Art Paradice is an AMC Adventure Travel Committee member and has been leading/co-leading trips since 2004 to such places as Durango, Utah, Grand Tetons, Lake Tahoe, Alaska, and the Canadian Rockies and he is constantly searching for his next best place to ski. He is also a ski leader for the Southeastern Mass Chapter and leads weekend trips throughout New England, particularly along the Catamount Trail and in the White Mountains. When not leading backcountry ski tours with the AMC, Art has been a Nordic Patroller with National Ski Patrol since 1986. He is a dedicated mountain biker and he is also a Patroller with the New England and National Mountain Bike Patrols, covering kids rides, adventure rides and sanctioned races; is an American Red Cross (ARC) first aid volunteer for such events as the Boston Marathon, the Corporate Challenge, and the Tufts 10K race; and is an ARC Instructor for community and wilderness first aid and community and professional rescuer CPR. His most enjoyable trip was his most recent only because each adventure is so special and different. The participants always make trips wonderful. In his "free" time, he works for a mid-sized pharmaceutical company.
Don Parker is retired with two children and five grandchildren. He has been leading trips for the Maine Chapter of AMC since Fall 1999. He specializes in leading biking, hiking, and XC skiing trips. He thoroughly enjoys hiking, biking, backpacking, downhill and XC skiing, and he's recently been getting involved with telemark and backcountry skiing.
Rob Ricchi has been active with the AMC Boston Chapter for the past eight years. Besides leading trips for the Young Members committee in the White Mountains, he has been a participant on two Adventure Travel trips to the Canadian Rockies and Chilean Patagonia. Rob has been an avid hiker since college and has traveled extensively, combining many outdoor and urban adventures. To pay for his leisure time, Rob works as an urban planner for an engineering firm in downtown Boston.
Carl Rosenthal considers himself fortunate to be retired to Conway, NH, but was born and raised in Massachusetts and spent his working life in Connecticut. Since 2000, he has been leading AMC Adventure Travel trips, including to the Sierras, Glacier National Park, Big Bend National Park, the Colorado 14ers, New Mexico, Washington State, Alaska, Bryce, Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks and Death Valley National Park in this country and to Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, and Chile. Leading Adventure Travel trips has given him the opportunity to share his hiking knowledge and organizing and planning skills with other AMC members. AMC Adventure Travel has also allowed him to meet some wonderful people. When not on an AMC Adventure Travel trip or planning one, Carl most enjoys spending time with his wife, Jadwiga, their two six year old poodles, hiking in the White Mountains, especially in winter, and doing crossword puzzles.
George Schott is a Connecticut Chapter Hike leader currently certified in SOLO Wilderness First Aid, AED and CPR. He also completed AMC Mountain Leadership School in 2008. He has led hut hikes in the NH White Mountains over the past four years, and led day hikes on all sections of the AT in Connecticut and Massachusetts, including Bascom Lodge overnight on Mt. Greylock. Prior to leading, George was an avid hiker (since age 11) with family and friends in the Adirondacks, Colorado Rockies and Yosemite National Park. During the 10 years he lived with his family in Europe, he hiked the Lake District of England, Scottish Highlands, Wales and Switzerland.
Len Weiss is a long-time AMC member, and a Boston Chapter 40 Plus and Bicycling committee leader since 2005. He is an experienced multi-day backpacker, including trips to Wrangell-St. Elias NP in Alaska, Zion NP, Rocky Mountain NP, the Sierra Nevadas, and the Canadian Rockies. Also, Len is an experienced, intermediate downhill skier, preferring back-country Nordic telemark, using skins to gain elevation, but also enjoys lifts and groomed slopes. He has completed Level 1 avalanche hazard training. Besides backpacking and skiing, he pursues mountain and road biking, canoeing and kayaking, basketball and rugby, and most recently, SCUBA. He was a participant on the St. Moritz AMC Adventure Travel trip in 2005 and the Ski Skoki AMC Adventure Travel trip in 2006, and co-led the St. Moritz trip in February 2008.
Stacia Biel leads about 2-3 trips per year, some of which have included hiking and backpacking trips to the Canadian Rockies, Wyoming, and Patagonia, a backpacking and kayaking trip to New Zealand and Alaska, and trekking trips to Nepal and Tanzania (Mt. Kilimanjaro). Her most recent trips have been to Turkey (cultural touring), Glacier National Park (Montana), and hiking and backpacking in Hawaii. She is the Vice-Chair of the AMC Adventure Travel Committee and a member of the Boston Chapter. She is Advanced Wilderness First Aid certified. Stacia works with a study abroad program that sends students overseas.
