Andy Politz bio

At 50, I have spent 36 years with much of my time focused on adventure, wilderness and the beauty of the natural environment. I have been lucky to have the experience feed my soul.

Since 1999, I have been working in the oil and gas industry, as a corrosion technician.

I have seen glimpses why we need to take great efforts to protect habitat and wildlife.

And, at the same time, I have seen the efforts taken to protect the environment from industrial spills in recent years. Clean-ups are very costly and have an air of a catastrophe for all time.

For over 20 years, I have been facilitating adventures at the Linworth Alternative Program, a campus of Worthinton High School, on Ohio. The trips are significant, where students are encouraged to develop their own dreams, learn the lessons within and finally return to their community to inspire, teach, mentor and take on challenges.

Finally, I have maintained a mountain guiding career that has allowed many blessings:

1991 ascent of Mount Everest (a total of 7 attempts on all sides, since 1985)
1986 attempt on the unclimbed 'Magic Line', on K2
1984 First ascent of the 15,000' south face of Mount Saint Elias (18,008', Alaska)
12 years of guiding on Mount Rainier, for Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. with (exactly) 150 ascents of the mountain
1999/2001 a member of the Mallory and Irvine Mount Everest Research Expeditions. We discovered George Mallory at 27,000' who was last seen climbing strongly for the top, in a break in the clouds, in 1924. Our mission was to establish if they had made the summit 29 years before it was a reasonable thing to do. The trip was followed by a media blitz, uncountable articles, plenty of books and worldwide documentary coverage by NOVA and the BBC, and a couple of years of presentations.

If you think of every effort towards your dreams as the thickness of a sheet of paper; after a week- you have a report, a month- a chapter, a year- a book, and a career- a vast filing cabinet of experiences, insights and skills. As warm as they are to me, they all don't justify printing here. Start your own report today.
Andy

similarities to the Serengeti

I am taking a day in town between trips for International Mountain Guides, facilitating two of their Kilimanjaro/safari trips. We climb Kibo in 7 days and finish up with 3 days of safari on the Serengeti.
As I was bouncing along, looking out over the square miles of the plains, forests and sparse wetlands (we are here in the dry season), I was struck by the similarity of the Tanzanian parks and their vision, with America and ANWR.
The Serengeti, it appears was established to protect the migration of the wildebeast. My first response was, "Why just one animal?" This migration is like a convention coming into town. A year's business is done then. Often, every animal is benefiting from it.
It appears there are several layers of protection, from allowing herding, to residence, to hunting. However, let me tell you, these protected areas are a BIG place.
In ANWR, the coastal plains are the calving place for the cross continent Caribou migration. If we wanted to set up some form of preserve.... that would be one.
I do another safari after one more Kilimanjaro climb. I will focus my attention on the development and layout of the preserves.
Sorry no pictures, my camera did not make it into the luggage, but it was spectacular to watch two of the last remaining 20 some black rhinos feeding off in the distance. I felt it was fitting, somehow, to only see them from afar.