LISTENING TO THE MOUNTAIN FILM PROJECT aka Tap Tapley Film Project

LTTM TTFP

2008-06-23T22:17:00.000-04:00

Baja clips

2008-06-17T19:29:00.000-04:00

2008-06-14T15:43:00.000-04:00

Check out this video: Listening to the Mountain

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Tap Martin Day 1 Pecos Wilderness

2008-05-22T10:51:00.000-04:00

Listening to the Mountain trailer

2008-05-21T10:26:00.001-04:00

TAP TAPLEY FILM PROJECT

2008-05-19T12:05:00.000-04:00

2008-05-09T17:27:00.000-04:00

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Blue Funnel Line WWII and Outward Bound Origins

2008-01-15T11:10:00.000-05:00

Children and Nature

2008-01-15T11:02:00.000-05:00

Aberdovi Wales OB/ Arthur Sulzberger Publisher/Chairman NYTimes

2007-05-08T22:28:00.001-04:00

NPR's Morning Addition "Video Games are replacing Outdoor Recreation" click link to listen

2006-07-19T12:15:00.000-04:00

Excerpt from Prof. Stephen Kellert's Interview @Yale University, New Haven 2006

2006-07-12T11:09:00.000-04:00

S. Kellert: Late adolescents are beginning, to explore a much larger world and challenge that much larger world. They’re very peer-oriented. So doing something in that context can be very very powerful. And I think it was for most of the participants – in part I think because children of that age have always felt that sort of, challenge and exploration of the unknown – especially if they can do it in the company of others. They’re starved for that kind of experience , in our modern urban world. So for many of them it’s a real kind of epiphany – you know it just kind of, one of the most – many of them … , attested to how this was one of the most meaningful experiences in their life and how it really changed them. In a very fundamental way. And, and it did stay with many of them long after, particularly if their experience was, a fairly deep immersion in kind of relatively undisturbed areas. Again, over, at least let’s say a five day week or more, period. A younger age group for them I’m not sure, although there isn’t much data on it, that kind of outdoor challenge experience would be particularly appropriate. And the studies that have been done on middle childhood, and their play outdoors, and how important it is to them – it’s usually fairly mundane outdoors. You know, it’s the “fort” or the little make-believe home they might make in a, in a neighborhood or a backyard place – something that doesn’t look particularly spectacular to an adult but for a kid it might be a world of make-believe and incredible creativity – still within the protective shadow of a home. But venturing out and exploring and sort of creating a sort of a semi-autonomous world. Now for that kid, it’s a different kind of environment

Q: There’s a difference. But our age group,that was what we were told to do. “Go out, get out of the house….”

S. Kellert: Right. Exactly. Or you’d say, “You know, I’ll see you at dinner time.” You know, and it wasn’t much, concern about …..Yeah.

Q: So that, issue is interesting because…. Not my generation but a couple of generations it skipped – these are the parents of the children that are not allowing their kids to do this type of thing.

Q: Are there any signs, other factors, that’s indicate why this happened, besides the use of technology in the home ?

S. Kellert: I think there’s been a lot of things. Just all sort of mutually feeding on this phenomenon you know,…. Certainly we’re a much more urban society than we’ve ever been before. And just urbanization – the traditional, the, the prevailing paradigm of urbanization in our culture has been one of fundamentally transforming, degrading and suppressing nature. That’s just the way in which we’ve gone about it. It doesn’t have to be that way but that’s what we’ve done in our prevailing, sort of approach to urbanization. So the fact that seventy percent of Americans now live in a city, in an urban area, or a standard metropolitan area as they call it, represents that we’ve become increasingly a car culture. There’s, less habitat than there ever was before. Uh, you know, either it’s degraded or less available. Kids time is much more structured than it ever was before. Parents, you know…. Most kids now, play is getting to be a rarer, rather than a normal phenomenon. You know, spontaneous play – that used to be very common. Parents are fearful of letting their kids out alone, especially in the urban areas and that’s a big change. Parents, the extended family network which used to provide a lot of opportunities for kids where they would go with not just parents but with uncles and cousins and so forth – and, in an outdoor, in an outdoor context – and be kind of introduced into and sort of, into various kinds of activities – whether it be fishing or hunting or birding – whatever it might be. That’s uh, diminished uh, as I mentioned before, the role models are just not there the way they used to be and then obviously, the vicarious experience of reality, people want to call it that, the experience of reality second-hand through some sort of representational form, some media uh… most particularly visual media but also books, but, is a much larger part of children’s lives, than the direct experience of reality. And uh… you know, most kids spend an enormous amount of time, I don’t know what the exact figures are, either in front of a television or a computer screen. And … so they’re experiencing reality in a kind of vicarious or representational way, and uh, to a much much greater extent. So you put all those things together and it adds up to a , kind of a, a profound sea change in the way in which children today experience the world compared to just a generation, a very short while ago. A profound change in , a blink of the eye in human evolution. And it seems to be going more and more in that direction.

Q: So what is the power of the natural world, to a child?

S. Kellert: Well ,each age is different. And it’s different, in different kinds of ways, Because it has a lot of different expressions there are emotional development, there’s intellectual development. There’s physical development. And they all have different dimensions to it. But you know, there’s, all sorts of ways in which children engage the world around them and in doing so, facilitate their, their development. Again, physically, emotionally and intellectually.

CA Alumni

2006-05-17T12:24:00.000-04:00

Thank you for letting me know about the reunion and the film project. I went to CA in '62 and '63 and then worked with Tap at Outward Bound the summer of 1964, along with Matt Wells, another CA grad. Tap was, for me, one of those individuals that you meet in life that profoundly influence your whole later life. The Outward Bound experience was also a message to me about human dignity and self confidence that has affected my life and my attitudes about what makes people do or not do some of the significant things they do (or not do).

CA Alumni Reunion Shoot Friday June 2, 2006

2006-04-23T18:51:00.000-04:00

We will be at the CA reunion shooting interviews with former students of Taps. Hope to see all CA grads there .

Recent email from CA Alumni:
Best of luck with the Tap project. I had only peripheral contact with him while at CA. Too bad, my loss. Nonetheless you could not attend CA in those days and be unaware of the large shadow he cast over the place. Interesting that the guy who never set foot in a classroom had the single biggest influence on the school and its students.

Blue Peter Flag indicates a ship sailing out of port "outward bound"

2006-04-23T09:09:00.000-04:00

The Tap Tapley film project begs the question about our freedom and inheritance of the natural world where we not only behold divine beauty but we locate it within ourselves. Tap Tapley is an original American folk hero whose life represents the ability to explore freely around the globe and in doing so share life's secrets with those who desire deep truths.

Scheduled Location Shoots:

Pasadena CA - 5/2/2006 Subject: Glen Dawson world renowned mountain climber who made the trooper traverse with Tap the first of its kind across the rocky mountain alpine ridge share how war has changed. Dawson shares his current correspondence with soldiers of the 10 the most highly deployed unit today.

Baja 5/3-10/2006 Subject: Shoot in and around the community that has embraced Tap since 1971,the Diaz family now integrated in the NOLS network, former NOLS Baja instructors, sailing, pearl diving, spear fishing with Tap and Manuel ,hiking the desert of Baja with Tap a day in the life end with camp fire on the beach with music and stories.

New Haven CT 5/18/2006 Subject: Yale Professor Stephen Kellert along with Harvard Professor Emeritus Edward O Wilson Subject Biophilla

Denver Colorado 5/31-6/2/2006 Subject: Interview Chuck Frolicher former head master CA and former students of Tap's attend school reunion and return to base camp in Marble Colorado Camp Hale CO WWII vets from the 10th celebrate their final reunion in Denver Co.

Santa Fe 7/26-8/2/2006 Subject: A week in the Santa Fe Mountains with Tap, Martin(next generation), Anita Taps wife, Family gathering including

Maine 9/2006 Subject: Taps sister Betty interviews at Hurricane Island School
TBD:
South Bronx St Anne's Church Subject: "Rebels with a Cause" founders three young women of Latino heritage who created their own OB school in the South Bronx community after experiencing first hand the life changes associated within themselves through the OB program in NYC . Now adults and college graduates they share how OB formed their lives and the importance of community service in the core program of OB.

Shoot Washington DC Subject: Interview Chris Gergen former NOLS grad and director of LEAD a program he developed at the Gonzaga school in Washington DC that teaches students the fundamentals of leadership
Crew:
Dp's :Ed George, Dyanna Taylor, Kevin Cloutier, KC Smith

Email from former student of Tap's

2006-04-23T09:03:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm aware of Outside magazine's recognition of Tap as one of this country's top 25 leaders. The screeners of candidates for that article know of what Tap is made. And your Tap Tapley Film project is huge from my brief read in the recent Colorado Academy alumni magazine & needs to be evolved into the real thing.

Good News Tap will be attending the CA reunion June 2, 2006

2006-04-22T23:26:00.000-04:00

This is very good news indeed to have Tap at CA for the 40th reunion of the class of 66' .

Big Mountain Montana/recent email from former Colorado Academy student of Taps

2006-04-18T13:00:00.000-04:00

I am graduate of CA 1975. While going to school at Montana State University, my roommate 's dad was part of the 10th Mountain Division. He and a couple other guys started Big Mountain Ski Area in Whitefish Montana, after WW II. Anyway to make a long story short I was at their house in Whitefish in about 1978, his father had just passed away. We were going through picture's and wouldn't you know it there was a several pictures of Tap. I found out he was instrumental in the development of Big Mountain in the 50's. I was amazed. He was instrumental in me making my first bow and arrow and taking me on a rabbit hunting trip when I was in about 9or10. I don't expect Tap to remember me but he also helped save me when a terrible accident at CA befell me and Tap helped out. He also helped me build my first cutting board in shop. It got stolen and he helped me build another in a matter of a couple of days. I gave it to my parents for x-mas and we still have it today 40 years later. I always thought he was a great teacher and I always remember him being one of my favorite people.

Glen Dawson World Renowned Mountain Climber

2006-04-07T20:05:00.000-04:00

May 2, 2006 Pasadena Ca. I will be interviewing Glen Dawson former WWII 10th Mountaineer. Born into a family of Mountaineers Glen is in his ninties we have been communicating by email. I really look forward to meeting him in person and his sharing memories of the 10th and current coorespondence he receives from soliders of the 10th Mountain division the most highly deployed divison in the US Military.

Tap Leads The Colorado Academy Mountain Rescue Team on a mission to locate a missing plane on route from Aspen to Albuquerque, NM

2006-04-06T16:47:00.000-04:00

It was monday Dec 13,1966 when a plane carrying Dr. Randy Lovelace, the nations top aerospace physician, his wife and the pilot were reported missing on a flight from Aspen, Colo., to Albuquerque, NM. Tap offered the services of his team of 16 and 17 year old students from Colorado Academy who gladly jumped from their seats and were excused by the head master Chuck Frolicher to join the rescue mission. Within an hour the team was on it way to Gunnison, Colo traveling in a surplus army rig carrying gear for rock climbing and field rations. The boys remembered the 200 mile ride to Gunnison "This was a big one for us-the thing for which we had trained, yet we were all a little afraid."
excerpts from the Denver Post March 27, 1966

KC Smith has joined the crew and will shoot in May 2006 Baja

2006-04-03T18:24:00.000-04:00

KC has agreed to work for half his daily rate on this shoot he epitomizes what the film project is about, following ones passion and trusting where and when it leads you to follow. Dave Lee currently a NOLS director is helping facilitate the shoot. We are planning on a cruise supplied by NOLS along with as many former NOLS Mexico instructors as we can corral. I look forward to meeting the Diaz family who have grown with Tap and NOLS and looking into how an American School became rooted into another culture and has thrived since 1971 when Tap first opened the school with Anne Cannon who we hope to have join us for the shoot.

Phil Powers / The Practice of Slowing Down /today on All Things Considered NPR 04/03/06

2006-04-03T17:04:00.000-04:00

Phil Powers has offered to write narration for the Tap Tapley Film Project. Here is an excerpt from the program. "In 1987, I was in Pakistan to climb Gasherbrum II, one of the world's highest peaks. We were a small group and it was a very big mountain. Our expedition faced more than its share of difficulty: A long storm wiped out most of our food rations and an avalanche devastated our camp, obliterating our tents. One of our party developed altitude sickness; blood poisoning threatened another. In the face of each disaster, we carefully developed a new plan. Snow caves replaced lost tents. Soups replaced full meals. Eventually we climbed slowly to the top, then made our way safely down.
Concentrating on how I move through the world is important. It's why I reach mountain summits and life goals with energy to spare.
There is magic in any faith. Every once in a while, rushing about, my belief in pace rises up, slows me down and grants me a view of a sunset, a smile from a stranger or a conversation with a child. I owe these moments to what I learned from an old mountain climber and have practiced ever since."

Excerpts from Arthur Sulzberger Interview @ The New York Times

2006-03-29T17:40:00.000-05:00

"You learn leadership, followership, you learn that when you are going up a hill and somebody is falling back, yelling at them makes them go slower, reaching into their pack and taking something out and carrying it yourself that helps them go faster." By the end of 2003-04, NYC Outward Bound programs in character- and community-building, literacy and leadership development were in more than 250 City public schools—during class hours, after school, in the summer—and had touched the lives of 30,000+ students.

Commitment to the Environment cannot be dismisssed

2006-03-28T19:25:00.001-05:00

The film project will encourage dialog about our commitment to the environment and the problems we are now facing that begins with the decline of compassion for one another and other living things. Eric Fromm (1900-1980) believed that freedom was the central characteristic of human nature. That all people are trying to cope as biophilious (life loving) vs necrophilious (lovers of death). Faith and trust in human nature was a lesson learned in the early days of Outward Bound and NOLS looking back one cannot fathom the risks that were taken especially in 1970 at Tap's school in Baja Mexico where phone lines and road access were limited. Today as we become more insulated and alienated from one another and our environment the more we need the world man didnt make to find our inner nature.

Yale University Professor Stephen R. Kellert has joined the project

2006-03-28T12:44:00.000-05:00

Stephen R. Kellert is the Tweedy Ordway Professor of Social Ecology at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Much of Professor Kellert’s work focuses on understanding the connection between human and natural systems with a particular interest in the value and conservation of nature and designing ways to harmonize the natural and human built environments. His awards include the National Conservation Achievement Award (1997, NWF); Distinguished Individual Achievement Award (Society for Conservation Biology, 1990); Best Publication of Year Award (International Foundation for Environmental Conservation, 1985); Special Achievement Award (NWF, 1983); Fulbright Research Fellow Award; as well as being included among 300 individuals listed in “American Environmental Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present.” He has authored more than 100 publications, including the following books: Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection (Island Press 2005); Kinship to Mastery: Biophilia in Human Evolution and Development (Island Press, 1997); The Value of Life: Biological Diversity and Human Society (Island Press, 1996); The Biophilia Hypothesis (edited with E.O. Wilson, Island Press, 1993); The Good in Nature and Humanity: Connecting Science, Religion, and Spirituality with the Natural World (edited with T. Farnham, Island Press, 2002); Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Foundations (with P. Kahn, Jr., MIT Press, 2002); and Ecology, Economics, Ethics: The Broken Circle (edited with F.H. Bormann, Yale University Press, 1991).

Santa Fe July 2006 Shoot

2006-03-26T17:40:00.000-05:00

I have just booked tickets to Sante Fe to shoot with Anita Tap and Martin camping in the wilds for a week. I am hoping Dyanna or Ed George are available for the trip. If any former NOLS grads that can ride horseback and shoot are interested please contact me.

Arthur Sulzberger Jr. Chairman of the NY Times Company & The New York Outward Bound Center

2006-03-21T11:09:00.000-05:00

The New York Outward Bound Center works with the New York City Public School system to help create and operate Outward Bound Schools. Mr. Sulzberger is a champion for the cause and a former graduate of Outward Bound. At an informative and impressional age his experience has carried him through the daring changes he has implemented at his families controlled paper for over a century bringing it into the 21st Century market place. I will interview Mr. Sulzberger as a leader of simply the best newspaper in the world.

The Biophilist (lover of nature)

2006-03-18T15:44:00.000-05:00

The need of all living things to connect with other species. Children today are no longer told to play outside, when was the last time you've seen a tree fort? The sight of a bee can send adults and children screaming for their lives. Growing up in the sixties coming from a large family of five brothers and an elder sister we were never alowed to melt into the sofa in front of the TV which my mother refered to as the boob tube but forced to hit the great outdoors. I remember buying my first backpack at sears and hitting route 87 which led to all the peaks of the adiorondacks.

This concept of Biophila will run throughout the film. Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies Professor Stephen Kellert has written his thesis “A National Study of Outdoor Wilderness Education” examining the values of physical impact, emotional effect, personal meaning and appreciation of the environment and commitment to conserve the wilderness for the indivdual.

New Hampshires Infamous Tuckermans Ravine

2006-03-14T15:18:00.000-05:00

At the age of 15 Tap was seen skiing down the face of New Hampshire's infamous Tuckerman’s Ravine, by noted newscaster and avid skier Lowell Thomas.Thomas convinced Tap’s parents to allow him to go to Averill Harriman’s first winter high altitude ski resort, Sun Valley,in Idaho to pursue his dream as a member of the US ski patrol.

Glen Dawson 10th Mountaineer and Tap were on the Trooper Traverse across the alpine highlands of the Rocky Mountains from Leadville to Aspen Colorado

2006-03-14T10:19:00.001-05:00

Former Sierra Club Director 1937-1951 Glen Dawson was an established mountaineer who made the famous “Trooper Traverse” with Tap over the alpine highland from Leadville to Aspen across the highest part of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. He tells stories of what was learned on the first traverse of this kind. Glen is 93 and author of “Letters to Emily”, his WWII correspondence with his niece. He continues to correspond with soldiers in the 10th Mountain division and will share some of those letters.I have scheduled an interview with Glen in Passedena CA in early May to discuss his life, family, the 10th, WWII, and Soldiers of the 10th today.

TAP & MARTIN

2006-03-12T15:45:00.001-05:00

We will shoot at Tap’s ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where you can still find Tap fly fishing; and throwing a bowie knife. We will film with Tap around a campfire and introduce Martin, a young man and resident of Santa Fe. As a young boy Martin asked Tap to teach him “all he could”. Martin learned how to make a bowie knife from a shock absorber; to pack a horse for the mountain trails, to play his harmonica in harmony with Tap’s viola. Martin has become the embodiment of his hero Tap Tapley – and is the next generation of wilderness leader. We will shoot a week in the Pecos Mountains with Tap and Martin as they pursue their individual peace in quite moments amongst the unpredictable elements of nature.

"Sun Valley Serenade" Hollywood hits the slopes

2006-03-12T13:46:00.000-05:00

There were many hollywood movies made in Sun Valley,including "Sun Valley Serenade" and top celebrities of the day visited,prompting Ernest Hemingway to nickname the Sun Valley Lodge "Glamour House."

C7 /Featured in LIFE Magazine August 7,1964

2006-03-11T10:15:00.000-05:00

Course C7 Colorado Outward Bound here featured in Life Magazine August 7,1964 James Dalglish front row on his side wearing tam.

TAP

2006-03-08T16:30:00.000-05:00

Part Passamaquoddy Indian, Tap left home in rural Massachusetts at the age of fifteen. He hitchhiked to Sun Valley, Idaho to join the ski patrol. In 1942 the Army’s 10th Mountain Division drafted Tap to teach high-angle rescue, avalanche forecasting and skiing. By 1961 Tap was found living in a teepee in the Rockies by the Headmaster of Colorado Academy, who asked Tap to start America’s first Outward Bound program. In these two disparate environments begins the story of Tap as that one unforgettable and beloved teacher working with Nature and showing his charges a new way to live.

Cinematographers Join the Project

2006-03-08T11:20:00.001-05:00

Ed George former NOLS instuctor in his over thirty years experience as a cameraman has strapped himself to the tops of trees, moving vehicles, sailboats, and, most recently, a steam locomotive in India to capture footage. George, who does work primarily for the Discovery Channel and National Geographic, began his career at about the same time he took a Wind River Wilderness course in 1970 at NOLS.

The marathon a six mile run from the town of Crystal to Marble ended in a cold dip

2006-03-08T11:15:00.000-05:00

The film project will examine the principals of The Outward Bound movement, where young people confront themselves, their weaknesses and strengths, and use their disabilities as opportunities? Explore the history from Kurt Hahn’s first school in 1920’s Baden, Germany - the Schule Schloss Salem (peace school) where community service work, rock climbing, and personal growth were used to nurture German youth following the devastation of WWI. Trace the evolution of Outward Bound as it crossed the ocean from Aberdovey, Wales to Colorado Academy in the 1950’s.

Phil Powers

2006-03-07T17:04:00.000-05:00

03/07/06 Phil Powers Executive Director of the American Alpine Club and owner of two guide services: Jackson Hole Mountain Guides and Mammoth Mountaineering School has joined the project offering to write narration for the film and is excited to pay tribute to Tap who he feels made OB and NOLS possible. Phil has participated in thirty personal expeditions to Alaska, South America, and Asia, including an ascent of K2 and new routes on Denali and in the Karakoram. At NOLS, he led over fifty expeditions, and later, as Chief Mountaineering Instructor, taught expedition planning. He is the author of Wilderness Mountaineering (Stackpole, 1993), as well as many technical articles on mountaineering.

Horace Quick /10th Mountaineer/Mentor to Tapley

2006-03-07T14:29:00.000-05:00

Correspondence from Dennis Hagen at the 10th Mountain Division Association:
There is an interesting story about the Mead Schaeffer painting he did a set of fourteen paintings for the Saturday Evening Post. Apparently they had gotten scattered, but word went round that they had been consolidated again into one collection, but no one knew exactly where told me that they were with a large insurance company in Texas. Well, as it turns out, The Auto Association in San Antonio does in fact have the complete set of Mead Schaeffer.