Oregon Native Returns from 75-day Alaska Expedition
After spending several days marooned in a whiteout atop a distant Alaskan mountain, 21-year-old Katiya Gombar ventured outside her tent and was immediately stunned by what she saw.
The sun illuminated the peaks surrounding the camp, a view all too elusive after enduring constant rain and snow for nearly a week.
“I took probably 100 pictures,” Gombar said with a laugh.
The 2013 Oregon High School graduate had returned home earlier this month from a “Summer Semester in Alaska” spent trekking across the wilderness by sea, trail and ice. Led by the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), the 75-day program is one of many courses offered by the organization that challenges students of all ages to hone their leadership and outdoor survival skills, all while navigating through some of the world’s most remote areas.
Gombar, a self-described outdoors enthusiast, was introduced to the program after a former boss and several of her peers at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where she’s studying environmental education, recommended she take a course.
Motivated by opportunity to put her passion for the environment into practice, Gombar boarded a plane to Alaska in mid-May before the ink was dry on her final grades from the spring semester. There, she met the instructors and nine fellow students she’d be spending every moment – and traveling a combined 400 miles – with over the next several months.
“We all came from different places and backgrounds, but your GPA or how much money you have and things like that, that doesn’t define you when you’re out there,” Gombar said. “And I think everyone should have the opportunity to experience that.”
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