Class Note 1974
Wonderful news came in the form of a wedding announcement from Christine Nicholson. Chris and Onno de Beaufort Wijnholds were married in Washington, D.C., in October. Onno is a Dutch citizen who now works as an international economics consultant after retiring from the International Monetary Fund. Chris is associate general counsel of the Smithsonian Institution. Dartmouth alums who attended the wedding reception included Chris’s daughter Alexandra Bowie ’07, Kyle Judge ’07, Nancy and Wade Judge ’73, Nancy and Jim Miller, Mary Lou Soller (exchange ’74) and Marsha Shaines (exchange ’74). Chris’s daughter Blair Bowie (Middlebury ’09) was also in attendance.
Last May Richard Cates realized a lifelong dream when he and his son Eric ’08 made the 100-mile trek to the Mount Everest base camp at 17,598 feet above sea level and beyond to the top of the small peak at Kala Patthar, their final destination at just over 18,500 feet. A close friend from Wisconsin, two Sherpa porters and a guide accompanied the two former members of Dartmouth’s alpine ski team from different generations on the two-week trek, during which Dick lost 20 pounds while feasting daily on dal baht, a rice and lentil dish, but shying away from yak butter tea. Dick sent along some incredible photos with Everest towering another 8,000 feet above their position in the background and the lads sporting Dartmouth ski team snowflakes in Big Green colors and displaying an orange Hovey Grill ski team T-shirt from nearly 40 years ago. Their path took them through immense rhododendron forests initially and then through endless scree and glacial drift, while they enjoyed the camaraderie of other mountain climbers from across the globe they encountered along the way.
Dick and Eric also took the opportunity to spend the night at Tengboche, the highest monastery in the world. They were humbled by small Sherpa boys wearing sandals, toting cell phones and carrying loads of up to nearly 200 pounds. Dick noted that by the end of the trip Eric was challenging the Sherpas’ pace and helping his dad along the Himalayan trails after Dick contracted an upper respiratory infection. Eric was a member of the Dartmouth 2007 NCAA national championship alpine ski team and is now a ski coach at Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Back home away from Nepal, Dick, a Ph.D. in soil science, teaches at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, serves on the state’s board of agriculture and, along with his wife, Kim, owns and operates the Cates family farm, a grass-fed beef business.
—Rick Sample, Retreat Farm, 1137 Manakin Road, Manakin Sabot, VA 23103; samplejr@msn.com
