The information got here earlier this week from a colleague at Outside Retailer Every day: “I’m undecided if you happen to’re within the loop—Doug has lymphoma. He’s present process chemo, and I believe it’s going nicely, but it surely’s undoubtedly taking a toll. Ugh.”
Doug Schnitzspahn’s mates Megan Odom and Erica Randall have began a GoFundMe, writing, “He shall be okay. However proper now, he wants us to take the lantern and maintain it up within the darkness. He wants us—his mates, his household, his communities (yoga, writing, all issues wild)—to convey the sunshine.”
I’ve been writing for Doug for almost 15 years, however he’s at all times been greater than my editor. We’ve shared Thanksgiving meals at his house in Boulder, Colorado, and I’m like an uncle to his youngsters, Kieran and Isa. After they have been infants, I’d assist babysit them; as they grew into teenagers, I coached them in climbing and guided them on the rock. I’ve watched their performs, picked them up from faculty when Doug’s spouse, Radha Marcum—a poet, author, editor, trainer, and creator of Bloodline and Pine Soot Tendon Bone—was slammed, and hung out with them on the climbing health club. Doug and I’ve climbed collectively, roping up within the Flatirons above Boulder along with his brother Greg “Max” and mountain climbing in Rocky Mountain Nationwide Park.
We’ve collaborated on some troublesome tales, too, ones that concerned the lack of climbers. I keep in mind spending hours with him, recounting recollections of the late Hayden Kennedy, serving to him piece collectively a tribute to Kennedy and Inge Perkins for Males’s Journal. We labored collectively once more after Hansjörg Auer, David Lama, and Jess Roskelley died on Howse Peak in Canada. Because of Doug’s unwavering dedication to getting each element proper, that piece resonated inside the climbing neighborhood. My inbox was flooded with heartfelt messages, and for every week, I learn every one with tears in my eyes, figuring out the story had touched so many individuals. I owe Doug an important deal for guiding me in sharing these climbers’ legacies authentically and honoring what they meant to so many.
However our work wasn’t solely throughout troublesome occasions; Doug additionally helped me spotlight uplifting tales, like when my longtime climbing accomplice Mike Schneiter and his good friend Mark Reiger ascended El Cap with Mike’s daughter, Selah, who, on the time, was the youngest individual to climb The Massive Stone. Doug introduced them to Outside Retailer, put them in entrance of the digicam, and had me interview the 2 stars about their household’s climb on El Cap. Doug additionally put Selah on the quilt of Elevation Outside.
Because of Doug, I’ve sat down with legends like Alex Honnold, David Lama, and numerous different distinguished names within the outside world, all with cameras rolling. For so long as I can keep in mind, Doug, the editor-in-chief of Outside Retailer, The Every day, and Elevation Outside, has assigned me to work at each the summer time and winter reveals, yr after yr.
What makes Doug actually particular is how he treats his workforce like household. Anybody who’s labored with him is aware of he retains us shut, regardless of how packed his schedule or how tight the deadlines are. He at all times made time for me, made me really feel like a part of one thing greater, and shared his contagious enthusiasm. Journey + Leisure describes him as “a number one voice in outside, journey, music, and conservation journalism in North America.”
Now, Doug wants our assist. As of this writing, his GoFundMe marketing campaign has raised just below $20,000, with a aim of reaching $44,000.
Raised in Little Silver, New Jersey, Doug studied English literature at Boston College earlier than incomes an MFA in Inventive Writing from the College of Washington, the place he was awarded the Mary Rouvelas Prize in Fiction. He additionally taught on the UW Rome Heart in Italy. Earlier than grad faculty, the place he met his spouse, Doug labored for the U.S. Forest Service, constructing trails and combating fires. He later collaborated with numerous environmental organizations advocating conservation, together with The Wilderness Society and Sierra Membership.
Doug’s writing has appeared in Outdoors, Males’s Journal, The Chicago Tribune, Backpacker, and Nationwide Geographic. He’s been the driving pressure as editor-in-chief of Elevation Outside since its inception, and he’s held editorial roles for Outside Retailer, The Every day, Blue Ridge Outside Journal, SIA SnowPress, and Exit 205 Journal, amongst others.
No matter publication he works for, he brings his crew alongside, and I’ve had the privilege of writing for him at most, if not all, of those publications.
Doug is thought for his dedication and management in journey writing. His tales and deep involvement within the outside neighborhood encourage numerous people. And he doesn’t simply speak the speak—Doug has skied in Japan, climbed in Chamonix, trekked throughout the Sahara, and even joined me on numerous street and mountain bike rides round Boulder.
Nonetheless, his latest most cancers analysis has launched important bodily and monetary challenges. Chemotherapy has impacted his potential to work, and the first supply of his earnings has diminished.
“I’m doing okay. Responding nicely to the chemo,” Doug wrote me this morning. He then despatched over a sequence of pictures—first, him rocking a mohawk within the spirit of his chemo remedies. Different pictures adopted: one along with his son by his aspect and one other along with his spouse. If his daughter weren’t nonetheless in school in New York, I think about he’d additionally ship a photograph together with her.
Doug has at all times prioritized his household. Numerous occasions, he’s packed everybody into his getting older SUV, loaded the roof rack, strapped bikes on the again, and set off on a household journey. He’s not simply shared his love for the outside along with his youngsters; he’s additionally taken them to reside concert events throughout Colorado. I keep in mind many Outside Retailer reveals the place he’d rush off to Pink Rocks along with his household after wrapping up his every day deadlines to catch Sigur Rós or Coldplay.
As soon as, we have been invited on a press journey with Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides, exploring Yosemite. For every week, we traveled via the Central Valley, backpacked via the Park, and stopped to boulder wherever we may. Doug, regardless of solely climbing sometimes (his prime sport is snowboarding), gripped the rock with fearless willpower. I keep in mind him getting excessive up on a boulder in Camp 4, at an ankle-breaking peak, pawing up an arete, and combating his approach to the highest. I used to be impressed by his perseverance!
I keep in mind Doug’s espresso orders nicely—at all times a big, and his affinity for a chilly IPA. After an extended day of writing, he’d collect with mates and colleagues over a brew, recharging with good firm. Overlaying tales at Outside Retailer, we’d work exhausting, organising our laptops alongside the huge home windows overlooking the Present ground. By evening, we’d hit the events, shut down the bars, then rise early to do it yet again the following day.
Doug is all about bringing folks collectively. Again within the day, he visited my small condominium after I lived in Loveland, Colorado, and stayed in contact as I moved across the nation, working for numerous magazines and ultimately settling within the Sierra foothills. And if I labored with somebody in his workforce, we’d keep in contact and join for a mountain run, an editorial challenge, or a memorable climb. Yearly, Doug would attain out, not simply to test in however to supply assist, asking if he may assist guiding my purchasers at Yosemite E-Biking. “Can I come out someday and enable you information a visit?” he’d write.
Since Doug’s son Kieran and I share the identical birthday, I’d get a message from him each April: “Hope you’re having an attractive birthday. And hope to see you someday quickly.” After I was recognized with alopecia and misplaced all my hair—after which misplaced my home in a fireplace—Doug reached out with a message: “Hey, we’re enthusiastic about you right here. Hope you’re nicely and have an important vacation. Greater than that, I hope to attach extra within the coming yr and see you quickly.”
Oh, Doug—what a sweetie.
To me—and dozens, possibly a whole bunch of others within the outside trade—Doug is a king. There’s nobody I’ve labored with extra, nobody who has introduced me in nearer. With out his mentorship, I wouldn’t have the expertise or confidence to pen the tales I do right this moment. When Doug wrote, he approached every story with meticulous analysis and real experience, whether or not tackling subjects like public lands, climbing tradition, snowboarding, or outside gear. As an editor, he labored tirelessly to make sure our tales got here out good.
Doug’s work has earned well-deserved recognition; he was featured in Finest American Essays (2005) and acquired a fellowship in nonfiction literature from the Colorado Council on the Arts.
His medical payments are stacking up as he undergoes remedy, and he’s nonetheless supporting a household of 4, carrying the burden of his tasks as a mum or dad and as a key member of a neighborhood that owes him a lot.
As his mates Megan Odom and Erica Randall wrote within the GoFundMe:
Dougie—the man who humbly bows to you when he rolls his mat out subsequent to yours in yoga; the man whose deep yawn towards the tip of sophistication reminds us to breathe and to chortle; the man who drives like he’s nonetheless on the East Coast however loves overtly just like the West. He’s the one who makes enchiladas and sends you house with leftovers, takes the very best footage at your marriage ceremony, texts you poems as a result of they remind him of the form of your coronary heart, and may out-swear us all, making you swear to do higher.
Doug has devoted his life to journey writing and constructing the outside neighborhood. Now, it’s our flip to assist him.
