By Katie Tennis, of University of San Francisco
The Students:
Cameron looking majestic
Cameron is like sunshine. She is warm and friendly and brightens conversations with silly voices and excellent facial expressions. On top of that, her repertoire of fun songs is extensive. She can pull the perfect song out of a hat at any given moment. After an icy river crossing, she led the best rendition of the Hokey Pokey we had ever experienced. Another evening, while sitting around the campfire, she reworked some of the lyrics to “Everytime We Touch” so that the song is now about the plethora of wolverine sign we’ve found.
Taran brushing his teeth during a vansemberuu survey
Taran only brought one backpack for a whole semester here but he made sure to pack a second sleeping pad that turns into a chair. Clearly, he has his priorities in order. He is dang strong (carries massive trees by himself when we raid the forest for firewood) and works really hard (tirelessly traverses all the talus slopes) and doesn’t complain (not even when a cow speared a hole in his tent). Not to mention, he has darn good style.
Quote: “This mac’n’cheese is giving me a brain freeze.”
Jerm doing Jerm things
Jeremy really likes magpies. Really, really, really likes magpies. We’ve seen a million of them, but you wouldn’t know it from his over-the-top excitement about each one. In addition to magpies, Jeremy also really likes himself. He even told me to include his “fat ego” in this blog. So there’s that. It’s a good thing he doesn’t mind attention, since his antics endlessly amuse the park rangers and their families. Some of these antics have earned him nicknames ranging from herem (squirrel in Mongolian) to almas (the Mongolian yeti).
Joscie (left) and Rhia (right) making new friends
“Is that… vansemberuu?” Joscie is our resident plant guru, with skills ranging from analyzing pika haypile content to spearheading our research on the endangered vansemberuu. These projects have shown just how smart, hardworking, and driven to learn she is. She is also incredibly thoughtful and good at making people feel comfortable. She easily befriends the people we meet here through bonding over art and with her enthusiasm to communicate across a language barrier.
Rhia is very caring and does a lot of nice things to help people. She also keeps it real and is good at keeping everyone on track. A few other things she brings to the group are her extensive knowledge about animals and a heck of a great singing voice. Once while doing a pika survey in some particularly large talus, we temporarily lost Rhia. We found her with her head in a pika hole and just her feet sticking out of the talus. Now that’s dedication to research.
Signature style: green pom-pom kiddie hat
Eli scaling a cliff (just kidding, it wasn’t as steep as it looks)
So maybe you’re back from using the latrine. Or you just helped dissect a swan. Or you were playing with cow patties and now you want to stick your hand into the bag of communal trail mix. As our reliable hand sanitizer provider, Eli has your back. He’s generous with more than just hand sanitizer though and offers help whenever it’s needed. Eli is also full of surprises and can be sneakily sassy when it’s least expected.
Quote: “Here’s a fun question…”
Evan with his binoculars out because we spotted ibex!
During a talus pika survey, we saw a lammergeier fly over the ridge. A few minutes later, Evan pointed out a bird perched on a rock. “There’s the lammergeier again! It’s HUGE, it has a white belly and a long black tail.” He passed his binoculars to Rebecca. It was not the lammergeier. It was a magpie. Classic. Anyway, Evan is funny and easygoing and has a great sense of humor. Everything he owns is green and he likes peanut butter more than your average bird. Hit him up if you need a GoPro time lapse of a pika survey, the sky, or getting your head shaved.
This is me
One snowed-in morning someone suggested that we shave my head and four minutes later Joscie chopped off one of my braids and Jeremy chopped off the other. Four hours later, Nyamka rubbed a disposable razor back and forth over my scalp until my hair was completely gone. Don’t worry, the haircut suits me. Aside from having no hair, I tell a lot of stories, talk about myself a lot, and entertain everyone with a never ending list of Minnesota facts.
The Instructors:
Rebecca doesn’t want her photo on this blog. Here are some wolverine tracks instead.
Rebecca is not our mom. But she does a million things to make the semester happen, like translating for us and connecting with the park system. She is an excellent instructor and great at explaining concepts in an engaging way. The experience and insight she brings to the table during academics and on hikes really get us to think. A key thing to know about Rebecca: nothing can deter her from tracking a wolverine (“Reconvene with the group? What? No!”).
Quote: “I don’t know how to explain [whatever absurd dinner conversation we’re having] in Mongolian.”
Chris being epic
Once Bob (Chris) and the Backseat Boys (Jeremy, Evan, and me) went on a twelve-hour camera trap retrieval mission, with the sole purpose of retrieving cameras. Or so we thought. Bob surprised the Backseat Boys by digging out transect materials he’d hidden all morning so we could do a talus pika survey, a project that weeks ago we had finally sealed off, wrapped up, and tied with a bow. This was a Bob move. (Chris’s alter ego, Bob, is a whole meme). Memes aside, Chris is patient and good-natured 100% of the time, puts genuine effort into everything, doesn’t feel the cold, and gets really excited about cool nature things.
The Renaissance Woman:
Nyamka de-icing the solar panel with a wooden spatula
We have yet to learn of something Nyamka can’t do. She has several skills, including but not limited to winning card games, shaving heads, and splitting firewood in the dark. And of course, her cooking is out of this world. She can put together dishes she’s never heard of before when she only has the ingredients. She’s also a good sport about putting up with our shenanigans and all the ridiculous stories we share with her. It’s even been said that she’s the glue that holds our group together. In the end though, she’s our friend and we love her a lot.
The Cat:
Lucy (second from right) hanging out with his pals at base camp
Shiluus (Lucy) is a crazy cat. He lives in the kitchen ger with Nyamka so he can catch mice, but he mostly just runs around base camp and gets into things he’s not supposed to. His pastimes include poking his nose into tents, climbing on top of the ger, and chewing through the neck of a destined-for-taxidermy dead swan.
Favorite toy: horse poop