Winter Comes To a Close @ NOLS Rocky Mountain

It’s 8:05 AM at NOLS Rocky Mountain Outfitting. Standing in the middle of the room is Assistant Outfitting Coordinator Andy Spilecki. The 5’10” brown eyed equipment guru scans the room. Skis. Skins. Sleds. Avalanche beacons. Probes. Shovels. Zero degree sleeping bags… he stops as the familiar aroma creeps over his shoulder and consumes him. Slowly, the outfitting wizard turns his head and zeroes in on the “jet fuel”, super strong coffee . In Spilecki’s universe, “jet fuel” keeps him wide awake and running on all cylinders to serve students better.

Spilecki’s agenda this week: properly store winter gear. With the end of Winter comes a lot of work. Skis need to be cleaned, repaired, and stored for the snowless summer months ahead. Sleeping bags, Dacron, and ski boots are laundered then stowed away. Sleds, probes, and snow shovels are examined and repaired. Any normal human would show the wear and tear of these arduous tasks, however, Andy is a NOLS Rocky Mountain superhero.

Thanks to the hard work of Kevin McGowan, Beth Gerace and Andy in the outfitting department, future NOLS Rocky Mountain students are assured to have top notch, clean and functional equipment. Bring on the warm spring weather…