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‘Awesome’ i’m a wMi instructor and Nols/wMi grad. i just wanted to tell you that the new Leader arrived in my mailbox this morning and it looks AwesoMe! the format is great and the quality of the read is really improved. Nice work! hope all is good in lander! Jo Rolls, via email
too small unfortunately, one of the things the new leader has is a teeNy-tiNy foNt that is impossible for old eyes like mine. there was plenty of leftover white space. please use it and a bigger font if you want the old alumni to read it. john church, via email
Thanks, Jo! We hope you like this one, too!
We heard this more than once, and we hope you find this issue easier on the eyes.
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We are investigating ways to cut paper use and implement tablet-based publications. We’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, you can unsubscribe from the hard copy and read the online version at nols.edu/alumni/leader.
Leader
kudos the new format was a pleasant surprise. Much more engaging. thank you. well done. perhaps lightning will strike for future content. Jeremy Stapleton, via email
mAtt cArter A peanut butter proof
mike pope find a secret rooftop, watch the sunset
Gear room
iConiC nols gear: the banks fry-bake
The pan ThaT STarTeD a revoluTion assistant
iT sTarTs wiTh a fLaT, 15-inch “perfect pan” together after he watched her circle of aluminum. With a lug around a giant cast iron skillet in her tool called a circle sheer, this backpack for the duration of the trip. Pam aluminum sheeting is cut into refused to carry Teflon pans because early shape before being spun over models were not durable and the coating ofa mold and formed into the ten flaked after hard use. Pam needed someshape of a pan. thing better. She needed a lightweight pan After the edge is cut and that would hold up to years of wear and tear smoothed out, in a process called “de-burrin the backcountry. ing,” the pan is sent to the factory, where In 1978, after perfecting the design and it will receive its Uniform Anodic Coating. experimenting with the manufacturing proThis process begins when small electrodes cess, Pam ordered 12 pans be sent to NOLS are attached to each pan. The rack of 200 Rocky Mountain. Before she could even lay electrode-equipped pans is then dipped in a eyes on them, though, the box had been pool of sulphuric acid and the pans are given opened and pans had been taken. The first a jolt of 45 volts. Upon receiving this charge, battery of tests were performed in some of the surface of the aluminum is attacked by the harshest conditions in all of the lower 48 the acid, which effectively eats away at and states. The feedback she received from the impregnates the aluminum with the hard- first models was great—so great, in fact, she coat treatment. An hour later, the pans are had 200 additional pans made the following ready to for cooking. year (150 of which were for NOLS.) This process has seen very few changes Since those early years of product testing, since the pan’s early days. The Banks FryNOLS students have carried Pam’s frying pan Bake frying pan has accompanied NOLS in and out of the backcountry, creating meals students on over 6,500 courses around the that most, even in their wildest of dreams, world since its creation in 1979. could not imagine possible. From pipingThe Banks Fry-Bake is the brainchild of hot pepperoni pizza to delectable delicacies NOLS instructor Pam Banks, who drew like cinnamon rolls and cherry pies, students up a blueprint in a coffee shop after a famhave been pushing the limits of what’s posily trip in 1977. Pam’s father, Pete owned sible in some of the most wild and remote a metal shop and suggested they create the areas on the planet. the fry-bake made possible backcountry meals
Jenn neAl find a mud puddle, or dress up in full rain gear and goggles, stand in a big puddle and convince drivers to splash you as they pass by
some students couldn’t create in the front-country. Courtesy of Tracy Baynes/STEP
1968-1970
the national outdoor leadership school is started by legendary mountaineer paul petzoldt
1976
at 19, pam banks enrolls in a nols instructors Course
billy cans are used to store and cook food. “spooza” (cooked glop stuck in cans) is widespread and is the leading cause of sickness
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1977
1978
1979
the idea for the frybake is born and the banks order 12
pam takes family trip carrying a 14” cast-iron skillet
1985
1988
the fry-bake lid is redesigned to prevent coals from slipping
pam orders first big shipment of 200 pans (50 for herself and 150 for nols)
off the top
2011
23 years after the fry-bake’s last innovation, pam is at it again “cooking” up a new design for her line of dependable backcountry cooking pans
the smaller, lighter “alpine model” is created
leader
What an obviously good point! There are several options in the Fry Bake: 10.5 inches in diameter by 2 inches deep at 29 ounces and 8 inches in diameter by 1.5 inches deep at 10 ounces.
Illusrations: Ashley Reeves
1965
shelli Johnson i wANt My spot to hAve A cAMerA. only makes sense. “life streaming” coordinates, even with the improved ability to add a text message, is missing something significant... photo of the location.
we asked, “how do you have an adventure when you are stuck in the middle of a city?”
key information i note that your recent article on the banks frybake, plus your ads for the same, never mention a key parameter about this item: its weight. you would have thought that weight would be a concern for those who carry their camping equipment on their back or ask others to do so. Fred Menger, via email by Jared steinman, Wmi eQuipment
we asked, “if you could invent or change a piece of gear, what would it be?”
pocket knife.
We hope you find the content on the following pages exciting and informative.
the
ditch the paper i always enjoy catching up with The Leader once a year when i go home to visit my parents (The Leader is still sent to my parents as i’ve yet to settle anywhere for more than a few years). but this year when i picked it up, it struck me as sort of ridiculous. why? Nols, the people who instilled with me such a strong respect for environmental awareness all those years ago, still sends out 60,000 of these a run? it’s a waste of resources (physical and financial). i guess it struck me as especially absurd this year because of the market penetration of ipads and other devices. there’s really no need for a hard copy anymore. it’s a nice publication, but is it so essential and important to warrant a 60,000 hard copy run several times a year? there are so many ways and means for getting this out there electronically. email, Apple Newsstand subscriptions, apps, etc. lead! it’s what you do best! cullen Mcgraw, via email
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colleen sinsky volunteer! there’s a lot to be learned and explored in urban poverty, and you don’t just have to wear a hairnet at a soup kitchen.