Nick Roberts

If mountains have a vibe, Baker’s was “quiet stoner” compared to Rainier’s “Type-A caffeine addict drill sergeant.” It was a welcome relief. The crowds were massively thinned out by comparison, the vert-gain-per-day was about three or four thousand, and we had two nights in large, comfortable tents, rather than a noisy wood box covered in tar. My guide Henry said the key reason for the fast-paced Rainier regime is that the mountain aggressively tries to kill you when the sun comes out, especially later in the summer. The threat of Baker shedding rock or ice in the afternoon just isn’t as high, so the timetables are much more loose. For instance, were able to “sleep in” until 3:45am for our summit push. With the Easton Glacier route, you’re looking at about 7,000 feet of total gain from Park Butte Trailhead, a summit elevation of about 10,780 feet and a total distance of approximately 14 miles out and back.

My Gastro Gnome meal: https://www.gastrognomemeals.com/product/spicy-italian-sausage-rigatoni Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/philip-anderson/currents License code: GEAHAZ9XM9ORDPBZ

Our summit bid was in doubt until the moment we set foot on it. Leading up to and after our climb, foreboding cumulonimbus clouds sailed around Shasta, strafing the surrounding landscape with lightning. I also almost lost the mental battle against pain from my blisters and fatigue. My climbing partner was another Nick. He and I met at a wedding about a month ago in Santa Barbara. We were seated at the same table at the reception and hit it off after he mentioned he had climbed Denali. It felt a lot like Nick was a version of myself three years into the future, having worked his way from guided trips on Shasta during the pandemic to technical climbs in the Alaska Range. We made plans to try Shasta together shortly thereafter.

Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/revo/pathfinderLicense code: D3JHFFFZJ5JW4HJW

I set out from Bend, Oregon, this past Wednesday morning and began the five hour commute up to Ashford, Washington. The whole time I was driving, I fretted about the weather. Rainier, like most big peaks, is known for unpredictable and rapid changes in its atmospheric attitude. Looking back on my experience, I feel like I cheated a little: We summited with cloudless skies and mellow winds. For many climbers, the weather is an obstacle to surmount not unlike the glaciers and vert that make Rainier the challenge that it is. When I pulled into Ashford I was thinking about all of the climbing legends who’ve been through this place: Ed Viesturs, Mark Twight, Jim, Lou, and Pete Whittaker, among many more. Rainier is a test piece. It’s the place where countless climbing careers begin, and some tragically end. As Twight says “the mountains have teeth.” One of the worst accidents in US mountaineering history happened right here in 1981, where 11 people were killed when the Ingraham Icefall fractured and avalanched down the glacier. It was the very same route we’d be attempting. My friends and I went with the four-day climb through RMI (Rainier Mountaineering Inc.), which dates back to 1969 and was one of the first guide services operating in the vicinity. Music: https://uppbeat.io/t/zimpzon/calm License code: 9IVKCMGYJXZNZTCH Thumbnail photo by Lucas Davies on Unsplash

In January of this year I read Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air which documents the tragedy on Mount Everest in May, 1996. Krakauer happened to be part of a doomed expedition and recorded the disaster, wherein eight climbers died on the mountain over the span of 24 hours, in excruciating detail. I realize now that seeking out mountaineering challenges in the wake of that reading is probably a strange reaction, but most of the book is not about the tragedy itself, but the context and lead-up to it. A good chunk of Into Thin Air investigates why people become obsessed with mountain climbing. For many, including Krakauer, it’s about achievement in a very pure and physical sense. You either get the summit or you don’t. That stark line between success and failure, and the terrible beauty of big, deadly mountains has an allure that I cannot deny.  I’m not going to pretend that this expedition was anything akin to the rigor or peril of something like Everest, but it was my first, proper mountaineering expedition, and fraught with many of the same dangers one finds in any significant alpine endeavor. Nearly half of our party of twelve clients did not summit for one reason or another, though everyone returned to the trailhead safely.   

I set out on this adventure with my dad and my flight-instructor-turned-great-friend, Jason.   

https://uppbeat.io/t/richard-smithson/search-lightLicense code: J4UBGNVRDUPNZBK4  https://uppbeat.io/t/vens-adams/adventure-is-callingLicense code: ENDHVU1JXMEC9OZO

Photo Credits for Grand Teton stills (in videocast version): Fiona Foster David Herring (Unsplash) Toan Chu (Unsplash)

Rear Admiral Pete Pettigrew, callsign "Viper," served in the US Navy from 1964 to 1998, completing 325 combat missions, and 529 carrier landings along the way. In one of his bios he says “I am the only former Top Gun instructor with a confirmed kill”—a MiG-21 over Vietnam on May 6, 1972. He’s also highly decorated, having received the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, three air medals, and 30 strike flight air medals for his service. Pete was technical advisor on the first Top Gun movie and designed a number of the flying scenes, including the whole scenario leading to Goose’s death.

Today, Dad and I chatted with him about his wild career and I sat back while they compared notes about the F-4 and life as fighter pilots.

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I finished reading Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer a couple days ago. I'm about to give away some of the story, so there's my warning if you want to read it first.

The book is Krakauer's account of the disaster on Mount Everest in May, 1996, where eight climbers died over the span of a day. The book is clearly and movingly written, but I was amazed while reading the postscript just how controversial it appeared to be (and probably still is) after its release. I expected a sober description of the tragedy and to get a sense of what it's like to go for the highest summit in the world, but the ending gives way to an acrimonious fight over the narrative. Like many arguments, the core of it is a disagreement on basic facts: Who was where when, who talked to whom, and whether conversations actually happened. The memories of each participant are made somewhat suspect by the pernicious effects of altitude, which does strange and terrible things to the human psyche. If there's a theme to Into Thin Air, it's delirium.

Scott Roberts is a previous guest of this show. He is a retired Lieutenant Colonel, a former F-15E fighter pilot, and my father. Today, we have a short chat about his reaction to the brand-new F-15EX, the most capable fourth generation fighter plane on the market. We talk about the controversy it has engendered, the new features it brings to the fight, and the what the next decades look like for the fighter business. I hope you enjoy today’s quick take.

Aviation Episode  

Lieutenant Colonel Jason Brightman is a former US Air Force pilot with one of the wildest careers I’ve heard of. He also happens to be my flight instructor, bringing me up to speed on the Cessna 172. Jason and I were put together by chance (and by COVID) at our flight school. Ordinarily, he flies for a major airline, but found himself with a whole lot of time on his hands during the summer when coronavirus almost completely shut down travel. So, he started teaching, as is his habit. His military pilot students nicknamed him Guru.

Jason initially served with the Army’s First Infantry Division combat engineers before transitioning into the Air Force, but he went through pilot training with the Navy. This guy’s spent time with essentially every branch except Space Force—although, we could have just not gotten to that story yet. He’s full of them.

While in Iraq, Jason and his team cleared the way for American and British tank battalions, who came rushing through Kuwait during the famous 100-hour ground war in 1991.

After pilot training, he flew the C-130 for a tour. But then he took an instructor pilot exchange with the Indian Air Force, where he trained a cohort of pilots that would go on to fly planes like the Sukhoi 30 - known by NATO as the Flanker C. One student would even be shot down in operations near Pakistan, yet end up in a Pakistani tea commercial. More on that later.

Jason then flew combat operations in a C-17 in the Iraq War, delivering Humvees, and ferrying racks of wounded US soldiers to safety.

As if this was not enough action, he then took an opportunity with the US Central Command’s intelligence unit and spent a lot of time in Kabul, Afghanistan, trying to patch together alliances against the Taliban. We talk about all of this and more.

Hogs in the Sand, Buck Wyndham: https://www.amazon.com/Hogs-Sand-10-Pilots-Journal/dp/1646631609

Ghost Wars, Steve Coll: https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Wars-Afghanistan-Invasion-September/dp/0143034669

Pakistani tea commercial featuring downed Indian Air Force pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman: https://twitter.com/VishnuNDTV/status/1102871131197980672?s=20

Aviation episode:

Laura McNerney is a pilot, engineer, skier, climber, mountaineerer, kite-surfer, van-lifer, mountain biker, and the textbook definition of a badass. She ranks among the youngest women ever to join Delta Airlines as a pilot. Today I speak with her about her experience going from building components for intercontinental ballistic missile systems, and having no piloting experience, to becoming a first officer with Delta in merely three years. We also talk about her love for the outdoors, along with the joys and perils of climbing mountains and glaciers.

I find her story of relentless, singular focus on her goals to be very inspiring and I think it needs to be heard. Laura is a model for folks who want to make a career pivot into something they love.

Music: “The Big Guns” by Silent Partner.

Aviation Episode: 

Today I bring you an interview with my dad, Lieutenant Colonel Scott Roberts. As I’ve mentioned before, this podcast is going to jump around a bit between focuses on technology, history, aviation, and travel, as I come across interesting topics and interesting people. I know, it’s somewhat low-hanging fruit to interview your own father, but he’s had a storied career and gotten a chance to fly some of the world’s premier fighter aircraft, including the F-4 Phantom II and the F-15E Strike Eagle, something only a tiny fraction of men and women get to do. With my eyesight there’s probably little chance I could have emulated my dad’s path. Not to mention the obstruction presented by my fear of death.

One apology in advance: We pick up quite a bit of background noise in the house during the interview. Somebody was putting dishes away and occasionally the drone of the laundry machine kicks in, so, sorry for that. But, overall, it’s clear and I think it’s a great rundown of what it’s like to be in the seat of a fighter jet.

Music: "Burnt" by the Jingle Punks