Tonight's presentation focuses largely on Alaska’s Katmai National Park, Lake Clark and Denali, with some photos from the Bella Coola Valley in Coastal British Columbia.

Eric is a leading travel and nature photographer who discovered his passion for photography early in life. At the age of sixteen he purchased his first camera and began to explore the natural world. While studying wildlife biology at the University of Alaska, he used that passion to expand his skills while working as an assignment photographer and teaching assistant in the School of Journalism.

Eric began his guiding career as the head naturalist at Kantishna Roadhouse in Alaska’s Denali National Park—a perfect location to explore nature with a camera. From there, his travels have taken him around the globe while utilizing his knowledge of nature and photography to enhance his clients’ experiences through focused and personalized instruction. 

Eric’s expertise as a photographer and his insights as a naturalist are invaluable for revealing precise moments for the ultimate image captures. He is also recognized the world over for his laugh! Eric lives in Bozeman, Montana.

Tony has been honored with numerous awards, including a Defense Superior Service Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, two NASA Space Flight medals, a Navy Meritorious Service Medal, NASA Exceptional Service Medal, and the NASA Return-to-Flight Award.
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He is currently the Artemis 2 Mission Director for the Orion Program within the Commercial Civil Space line of business for Lockheed Martin Space. In this role, he is responsible for helping expedite human exploration strategy through the development and integration of both science objectives and human exploration goals. His efforts contribute to shaping a definitive path for sustainable human missions to Mars.

In December 2016, the Bears Ears National Monument was created, setting aside 1.3 million acres of semi-wilderness in southeast Utah, including the richest region in the contiguous United States for prehistoric archaeological sites.
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The monument was unique in American history in having been first proposed and championed by a coalition of Native American groups ranging from Navajo to Ute to Hopi and Zuni. 

The book David is currently writing is about the Bears Ears, particularly the human history of this extraordinary region. During the last 25 years, he has made scores of trips to the Bears Ears and its crown jewel, the 1,200-square-mile plateau of Cedar Mesa, which has replaced the mountains of Alaska as his favorite place on earth.

​He has hiked, camped, and backpacked all through the region—not only on Cedar Mesa, but on Elk Ridge, in Beef Basin, across the Dark Canyon wilderness, and along Comb Ridge, the first complete traverse of which he accomplished with two buddies during eighteen days in 2004.

The focus of his trips has always been to discover little-known ruins and rock art panels in the canyons and basins—the legacy of the Anasazi, geniuses of the vertical. Even during the last three years, after cancer severely curtailed what he could do in the outdoors, he has returned to Cedar Mesa every fall and spring. David will recount his best adventures there complemented by a gallery of images of this unique cultural landscape. This is a meeting not to be missed.

Formerly a correspondent for the Guardian and CBS News, Wallace has written several stories for National Geographic magazine about the Amazon rain forest. 

​He is author of the New York Times best-selling book, The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes, based on a National Geographic assignment into the deepest redoubts of the rainforest to track and protect a mysterious, seldom-glimpsed tribe: “at once fantastic and horrifying, an untouched Garden of Eden and an unmitigated Green Hell.”

He is a recipient of the Explorers Club's prestigious Lowell Thomas Award and an expert for National Geographic Expeditions.
 
Scott’s work on the Last Tribes of the Amazon appears on the cover of the October 2018 National Geographic.  In it, he tackles threats to conservation and culture and the protection of the few remaining isolated tribes. Read more about Scott's adventures at
www.scottwallace.com.
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Journalist of the Year Award, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Travel Writers Society and a George Eastman Power of the Image Award, cited as one of “20 of the World's Most Influential Photographers”.
 
A visual storyteller, Guttman has sought out the world's hidden corners through decades-long explorations.  His body of work often investigates indigenous peoples and exotic wildlife, is supplemented by substantial elements of writing and research while employing innovative shooting techniques. Long before the GoPro, drones and selfie sticks, he created surrealistic mid-air suspension shots, either utilizing his tripod as a fishing rod or attaching his camera to the wings of Allagash Wilderness floatplanes or the sails of Mojave Desert land yachts.  Guttman’s annual travel ‘slide show’ hosted in New York City apartment has been dubbed by NPR’s All Things Considered as one of the ‘hottest tickets around’.
 
Guttman will lead the club on a journey to places far away and close to home. ​

Wilson is the 2018 winner of the Cruising Club of America’s Special Recognition Award.  The award honored the highly meritorious and extraordinary nautical accomplishments of Wilson in two Vendée Globe Races. The solo, non-stop race around the world is the toughest sailboat race of all, and Wilson is the only American to have finished two of them.  In 1990, Wilson created sitesALIVE.com to use ocean sailing, as an exciting and engaging educational tool for teaching children about science, geography, math, and history.

FEBRUARY 13, 2018
 
Members' Night: Three reports from afield
 
Dan Senecal
 LIVING AMONG THE DEAD
The Philippines
 
Visit the 135 acre North Cemetery of Manila in the Philippines where 6000 people live, eat, and work among the tombstones of nearly a million.  The residents have their own school and jeepney transport system. Considered squatters by the City of Manila efforts to evict over the years have gone to naught. Dan will take you on a ‘tour’ to observe unique living arrangements where mausoleums double as houses, small shops and living pets sleep on tombs.
 
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Jack Deary
TRAVEL GRANT REPORT: NAM OU RIVER TRIP
Laos
 
Jack Deary’s son, Tony, is a recent recipient of a Harvard Traveller’s Club Permanent Fund Grant.  As Tony remains abroad, Jack reports on Tony’s production of a photo documentary of an expedition through a significant tributary river of the Mekong called the Nam Ou. The Nam Ou is a navigable river that runs from the Chinese border to its entry into the Mekong just north of Luang Prabang. Tourism on the lower parts of the river (near the Mekong confluence) is possible, particularly where there is road access. But reports from Western foreigners who have traveled upstream are scarce. Tony traveled to some of the most remote parts of the South East Asian peninsula and felt as if he had slipped into ‘a time machine back to the pre- industrial period’. The rugged and inaccessible landscape has kept the indigenous tribes here isolated from most of the world, but that is changing rapidly now.
 
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Peter Lou
WORLD WAR I BATTLEFIELDS
France and Belgium
 
The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, of which Dr Lou is a member, visited France and Belgium in October 2017 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of US participation in WWI in Europe. This presentation highlights the battlefields in which US and Canadians troops fought as part of “the war to end all wars”.