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Hot Drinks - Stories From The Field


Jun 24, 2021

Our guest, Erica Lorenzen Lengacher grew up in the Seattle area and has been a bit of a nomad since her high school years. Along with her husband, 8-year-old daughter, she is now happily settled in Whitefish, Montana. 

She took a NOLS semester in the Rockies in 1993 (during a year off from college) and was immediately smitten with all that NOLS had to offer. Erica took a Mountain Instructors Course the following year and started working for the School in Alaska in the summer of 1994. During her NOLS years, she mainly worked backpacking, canyon, winter, and mountaineering courses, with a few oddball horse packing, sea kayaking, and NOLS Pro courses. Since leaving NOLS, she received a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a Master’s in public health. Her post NOLS career has ranged from public health consulting, to teaching high school science, too, most recently working as a critical care ICU nurse. She’s also just finishing a stint with the CDC Foundation doing COVID infection prevention and containment in long-term care and other congregate settings.

All told, she worked in outdoor education for about 15 years, primarily with NOLS. Still, she had a few seasons with Alpine Ascents and continued taking high school students into the mountains when she worked as an educator at the Watershed School in Boulder and the Bush School in Seattle.

In this episode:

  •   (1:10) Erica talks about her 2002 Denali expedition, which seems to be a legendary alumni NOLS course. She tells us how she developed the necessary hard skills and excellent connections with the students despite being super young as an instructor. The trip was super smooth with beautiful weather, but as they moved up to 17,000 feet, things started going south ways as they are met with a deadly storm.
  •   (52:55) Moving forward, Erica shares the experience of coming back home after facing such a challenging incident. She tells us how she had taken some of the radio types of equipment from her partner at the time on the trip, and there are still some recorded memories lying for her somewhere.
  •   (55:18) Lorenzen tells us how she walks away from the terrible past, from the beginning by waking up on the right side of the bed to trusting her instinct when faced with uncertainty. She teaches us how releasing your negative energy through relaxing and moving forward can reinforce positive thinking.
  •   (57:02) Later in the podcast, she tells us about her summer trip to Alaska rivers and how she has been called to be the ultimate course leader. She tells us about a series of events following the journey that she overcame one after another like a true hero.
  •   (1:11:00) In the end, Erica shares her guiding experience apart from the NOLS course and how relaxing and fun it is to lay your hair down. She explains how she builds up more confidence and enhances her skills as a guide and how she got time to appreciate new places and explore the wilderness in the true sense.