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Monday, October 22, 2007
743 The day Superman died
Live your life
like a thrown knife. – Todd Skinner
One of the largest circulated magazines in the world is National Geographic and it devoted almost a full page of a recent issue as a tribute to a Wyoming man who died a year ago this week.
Todd Skinner, 47, died in a climbing accident on October 23, 2006. And National Geographic reported, “It had lost a great friend” when Mr. Skinner died when his climbing harness failed during a climb in Yosemite National Park.
I sort of preferred what his friend Steve Bechtel said he felt like, when hearing of the deadly accident. “It was like Superman died,” he recalled. “There was no safer climber than Todd Skinner. For him to die in a fluke like this, well, it was unheard of and unbelievable for us in the climbing community.”
National Geographic had devoted over 10 pages in one of its issues some years ago when Mr. Skinner and his compatriots climbed what was believed to be the most difficult climb in the world the ascent by free climbing of 20,000-foot Trango Tower in the Himalayas. The magazine, which has over 8.5 million circulation, had often featured Mr. Skinner and his exploits.
He was considered the best free climber in the world and was often featured in other magazines, too, like Outside and Climbing.
He grew up in Pinedale and climbed the Wind Rivers and the Tetons in Jackson Hole. He honed his mountaineering in the Laramie area before moving on to bigger accomplishments.
The last time I saw Todd was when he was cheering his six-year old son during a soccer game in his hometown of Lander. He was grieving for the recent death of his mother.
Who could have thought that he would soon be dead in what would be not so nearly a dramatic climb as most of the climbs he had been doing in his professional life?
But Mr. Skinner was much more than a professional rock climber. He had evolved into one of the most in-demand motivational speakers in the world.
Companies like Microsoft, Apple, Silicon Graphics and General Electric had utilized his services. His theme was easy to grasp. It was called “Beyond the Summit.”
In his keynote presentation, stunning expedition photography featured in National Geographic would light up the stage with fantastic views of the Karakoram Himalayas as Todd recounted the story of his heart-stopping first free ascent of the east face of Trango Tower.
That 60-day climb up the mile-high sheer rock face to the 20,500-foot summit represents one of mountaineering`s most spectacular accomplishments. It remains the most technically difficult ascent ever in the Himalayas. High altitude, extreme weather, unknown terrain and living 24 hours a day suspended thousands of feet up combined to form a striking parallel to the challenges encountered everyday in the business world.
When a company brought Todd Skinner in to speak they heard what it`s like to break new ground, challenge traditional thought and maintain tenacity for the summit. He explored unique strategies for goal setting, leadership, and decision-making. By giving his audience a different way to look at challenges he helped them gain insight into their own personal mountains to climb.
Todd would journey from isolated Wyoming to talk to employees of these huge companies, who were mesmerized by his stories about overcoming obstacles and moving beyond your goals.
An Apple Computer spokesman described his talk: "Todd honed in on the similarities between ascending an unscalable piece of stone and maneuvering through the computer industry mine field. The audience was spellbound. He received a standing ovation."
My daughter, Shelli, who wrote a feature article about Todd Skinner 10 years ago called "Go Hard or Go Home" that won a blue ribbon from Wyoming Press, knew Todd well. She said that whenever she ran into Todd on the trail or at a kid’s soccer game, she always felt she owed him money because even in a few short minutes, Todd`s words inspired. She called these "drive-by motivational speeches."
After she attended the memorial for Todd Skinner, which was more of a huge celebration of Todd`s life than a memorial, she said: "If anyone could die and come back to life, it was Todd Skinner." He continues to live thanks to his inspiring words and through the lives he touched. He certainly seemed alive and well at that gathering.
His book Beyond the Summit, and also his "Beyond the Summit" DVD that shares his winning presentation can be found by visiting http://store.beyondthesummit.com/ for more information and to order online. At checkout enter discount code 102306 and the discount will be applied. A share of the proceeds benefits the Skinner Memorial Fund.
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Wednesday, October 10, 2007
741- Colorado students invade UW
Back in 1982, I had the opportunity to learn a lot about South Dakota’s state college in Spearfish. We had just purchased the newspaper in that town and we were amused to hear even local folks there occasionally refer to it as “Black Hills State of Wyoming.”
The rationale was that it could be called that because of the large number of Wyoming high school seniors who journeyed to the college in a state next door. We sold that newspaper in 1985, by the way.
The same expression has been used for Chadron State College in Nebraska, which is often described as “Chadron State of Wyoming.” Again, because so many Wyoming students who headed there.
Some of the reasons for this are that our state has just one four-year public college at University of Wyoming and Laramie is a long ways from cities and towns in the northern parts of the state.
But now we see something similar to the above situations in the large numbers of Colorado freshmen enrolling at UW.
The headline in a recent Boulder, CO Camera newspaper (the hometown of Colorado University) read: “Students see attractive alternative in Wyoming.”
Fully one-fourth of the entering freshmen this year at UW hail from our neighboring state to the south, according to the news story.
The story by Brittanny Anas reports that over the past five years, the number of Colorado freshmen at the University of Wyoming has increased dramatically. This fall, one in four UW freshmen have crossed over the Colorado-Wyoming state line to attend school on the Laramie campus — where tuition is more affordable, and the state, rich with mineral lease revenue, is pouring money into higher education.
There are 360 Colorado freshmen at UW this year. This is 120 more than last year. Wyoming`s boom in Colorado students comes from increased recruiting efforts and scholarships that make out-of-state tuition more affordable than in-state rates they`d pay in Colorado.
This increase in out of state students to UW seemingly reverses the trend that has been seeing in-state students fleeing Wyoming as soon as they graduate. And probably their number-one destination has been Colorado.
Will having greenie state students getting their education here keep them here after they graduate? Time will tell on that one.
This past week a meeting was held to address the help wanted crisis that is plaguing the state. Reportedly over 1,000 jobs are being offered for workers in the Cheyenne area, alone. Who is going to fill these jobs?
And running hand-in-hand with the shortage of workers is perhaps one of the most critical problems associated with this crisis – the workers who want to move here and take jobs cannot find suitable housing.
It is a chicken and the egg. You can lure all the workers in the world to come here but if they have to live in motels or man camps, well, don’t expect them to consider Wyoming a permanent home.
Maybe importing college students here will help.
Here is one example of a Colorado student cited in the story: “Tyler Robison, an architectural engineering student from Fort Collins, said he chose UW after hearing a presentation from CU-Boulder and applying to Colorado State University as well as a few out-of-state schools. He says attending Wyoming`s sole public-research university means there aren`t tug-of-wars with other schools for higher education funding.
“Robison, like many other Colorado students attending UW, also said he felt like the university pursued him, following up with phone calls and offering an impressive scholarship package. Robison pays about $2,000 a semester in out-of-state tuition. In-state tuition in CU`s College of Engineering, after a $200 financial-aid buy-down guaranteed to all resident students, is $7,298 this year. ‘Wyoming kept in touch with me,’ Robison said. ‘I wasn`t just a number to them. It seemed like they really wanted me here.’"
The Laramie school targets Colorado seniors because there are thousands of qualified students there and a shrinking pool in Wyoming.
Wyoming had 7,000 high school graduates in 1999. Last year, the total dropped to 5,700. With the growth of energy employment more students are dropping out of high school to work where roughnecks can make $25 an hour.
UW’s scholarship system has been a big incentive for top Colorado students. Some 85 percent of Colorado freshmen are on scholarship this year and students with the highest ACT and SAT test scores and GPAs are paying less than $3,000 a year for their out-of-state tuition.
As Wyoming grinds its way into the future, the reality of having high-qualified students studying here can only be viewed as a good situation for employers. We want the best and brightest here, whether homegrown or not.
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