Colby Coombs, the lone survivor of an avalanche that took the life of Ritt Kellogg ’85
and another 
climber in 1992 on Alaska’s Mt. Foraker, recently told a
hushed Berkshire community about his friendship with the namesake of
Berkshire’s Ritt Kellogg Mountain Program (RKMP).
Click here to listen to Colby's address to the Berkshire community.
Colby, a true mountain man who employs 40 guides at his Alaska
Mountaineering School in Talkeetna, Alaska, and who disdains being
called mister, also visited classes in U.S. history, English,
journalism, and forest ecology.
The disastrous expedition, which was recounted in the book In the Zone: Epic Survival Stories from the Mountaineering World,
was also the cover story of the July 1998 Reader’s Digest. After
finding the bodies of his two fellow climbers, Colby made it back down
the mountain despite fractures to his neck, shoulder and leg. But rather
than dwell on the details of the disaster, the soft-spoken Colby chose
to tell of his relationship with Ritt, who was his classmate at Colorado
College and his best friend for seven years, which he called “the time
of our lives.” Colby spoke of Ritt’s love of practical jokes and
sailing, of their shared passion for climbing, of steady diets of Ramen
noodles and popcorn while planning their next climb, of long car trips
spent in the shared silence of friendship.
Colby Coombs, the lone survivor of an avalanche that took the life of Ritt Kellogg ’85
and another climber in 1992 on Alaska’s Mt. Foraker, recently told a
hushed Berkshire community about his friendship with the namesake of
Berkshire’s Ritt Kellogg Mountain Program (RKMP).
Colby, a true mountain man who employs 40 guides at his Alaska
Mountaineering School in Talkeetna, Alaska, and who disdains being
called mister, also visited classes in U.S. history, English,
journalism, and forest ecology.
The disastrous expedition, which was recounted in the book In the Zone: Epic Survival Stories from the Mountaineering World,
was also the cover story of the July 1998 Reader’s Digest. After
finding the bodies of his two fellow climbers, Colby made it back down
the mountain despite fractures to his neck, shoulder and leg. But rather
than dwell on the details of the disaster, the soft-spoken Colby chose
to tell of his relationship with Ritt, who was his classmate at Colorado
College and his best friend for seven years, which he called “the time
of our lives.” Colby spoke of Ritt’s love of practical jokes and
sailing, of their shared passion for climbing, of steady diets of Ramen
noodles and popcorn while planning their next climb, of long car trips
spent in the shared silence of friendship.
and all-boys prep school outside of Boston, for a 1-day mini-symposium on Student Biomedical Research. The goal was to foster collaboration, communication and community outreach with our students. AMSR students Liza Bernstein '13, Sissi Wang '13, Lars Robinson '13, Elsie Guevara '13, Ernest Yue '13, and Nate MacKenzie '14, gave short talks about their work in the new Bellas/Dixon Math and Science lecture hall. The talks were followed up by break-out sessions where Belmont Hill students described their research projects and students discussed commonalities between the projects and future goals.
245 North Undermountain Road 
