Speaker Calls for Nature Appreciation

Jennifer Pharr Davis has hiked over 12,000 miles on six different continents. This past Tuesday, she spoke to Exonians during assembly about the power of the outdoors and the message of the wilderness, urging students to go outside.  In 2011, after averaging 47 miles a day for 46 days, Davis set the record for the fastest hike through the Appalachian Trail (AT), which she held for four years before Scott Jurek beat her time by 3 hours and 11 minutes. This was her third hike through the approximately 2,200 mile trail stretching from Maine to Georgia.

After graduating from Samford University with a degree in classics, Davis didn’t feel like she had a connection with the outdoors. With little experience in the wild, she decided to hike the entirety of the AT before pursuing her career. After the hardest five months of her life, Davis came out on the other side a changed person. She was left longing to go back to the trail. Since then, Davis has made hiking her full time profession. Although she is partial to the AT, Davis has hiked through the Pacific Crest Trail, the Colorado Trail, the Long Trail in Vermont, the Bibbulman Track in Australia, the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and many more. Davis started Blue Ridge Hiking Company in 2008, which provides custom hiking trips for beginners to foster a positive introduction to the wilderness.

“Clearly Jennifer’s talk struck a chord with students. The speech seemed to speak to a craving in our students.”

Davis said that there is a greater hope that if she can create a connection for people to the outdoors, then she can ultimately encourage environmental sustainability and conservation.  But she lets people connect on their own terms. “We don’t try and emotionally regulate the wilderness,” Davis said.

Davis has shared her message in many speeches and presentations to companies, organizations, colleges, universities, K-12 schools and more. Davis reached out to Exeter to see if she could host an event on campus during her speaking tour in the northeast at several educational institutions, such as Colby and Williams College.  The assembly was funded by Robert and Gail Bates’ Jane Russell fund. Robert Bates graduated Exeter in 1929 and taught English at the Academy during the 40s and 50s and is an iconic mountaineer who is best remembered for his role in the first ascent of Mount Lucania and the American expeditions to K2 and is a well known author on the topic of mountaineering.

Although Bates has passed away, his 98-year-old wife Gail was present at the assembly and lunch on Tuesday. Davis is a big fan of Bates’ books, and she said she was honored to talk to her.  “She was telling my husband and me all these stories about K2, about men falling off mountains and being roped together. She’s been a climber and married a climber in the advent of modern mountaineering which is so fascinating,” Davis said. “She remembers the first descent of Everest.”

Davis also went to a prep school, and said that “the hardest year of my life was my junior year of high school.” She loves speaking at demanding schools like Exeter because she feels a deep sense of compassion for how hard it can be. She hopes that by speaking to students she can show how helpful the outside can be as a therapeutic exercise, especially when students have so many pressures and demands.  With students’ busy schedules, it is often hard to take time aside to be outside, but Davis explained how little time in nature it takes to get positive results. “It could be five minutes of just sitting outside on a rock. Every time I am in a natural setting and I’m surrounded by organic matter, I come back feeling refreshed and renewed,” Davis said. “It just makes you feel better.” She said that in a prep school environment, there is a tendency to get caught up in the numbers, and the wild’s message of self worth is easily lost.

“My hope for the talk is that it encourages people to get outdoors on their own terms. If they need to destress, if they need time by themselves, if they want to connect to something bigger than themselves, they can go outdoors. It is there for them,” Davis said.

Davis’ assembly speech communicated this idea through some stories of the wild and what Davis has learned from them. English instructor Jason BreMiller said that he thought that the lessons she conveyed were relevant to students. He hopes students took away an idea that they should give themselves the space and solitude in nature that is conducive to self-discovery and understanding.  “I loved her tone, this willingness to provide a window into some of her own self-exploration,” BreMiller said. “It was intimate without being cheesy or hyperbolic.”

Seniors Tom Appleton, Noa Siegel and Michaela Streep presented Davis because they had been greatly affected by the outdoors during Exeter’s facilitated National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) spring break trip to Utah. Exeter’s connection with NOLS, initiated by BreMiller, who is a NOLS instructor, provides an outlet for students intent in pursuing expeditions in the backcountry. Besides NOLS, there are many opportunities to get outside while on campus, with field based classes, clubs and more.

Students who were interested in learning more joined Davis in a question-and-answer style lunch, where she was able to share specific advice for students, such as how to get water, how she trains or what it is like to be a woman alone in the wild.  BreMiller said that he was impressed with how many students showed up. “Clearly Jennifer’s talk struck a chord with students. The speech seemed to speak to a craving in our students,” he said.

Students had differing but overall positive views on Davis’s assembly. Most, however, agreed that Davis’s story of hiking the Appalachians was inspiring. “It was a motivating tale of realizing who you are through nature,” lower Evan Stanton said.

New lower Silas Lane loved the interactive component of the assembly, with Davis frequently asking questions and even at one point letting the audience choose which story she would tell. Lane also agreed with her message of perseverance. “Her experiences weren’t something that would come up in normal conversation,” Lane said. “It was one of challenging yourself and stepping out of your comfort zone, and what better way to exemplify those traits than by hiking the Appalachian.”

Stanton agreed with Davis’ messages and thought it was highly relevant to the Exeter experience. “Focus on being the best version of yourself possible. Wean from the numbers,” Stanton said. “Exeter is filled with its own little trails that we can hike every day, and more of us need to grab those opportunities during our four short years here.”