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Case Study #2: Peter Potterfield
By Ted Stedman

peter potterfield
Photo © James Martin
Peter Potterfield is the quintessential adventure journalist. His book and magazine assignments have taken him from some of the most remote regions of the planet to the cockpit of supersonic jet fighters. He's probably best known for his seminal stories about Ray Jardine, the backpacking iconoclast-cum-guru responsible for launching the ultra-light backcountry movement. Literary musings aside, Potterfield is a multi-talented climber, skier, and backpacker who can swing an ax, place a cam, and grunt up a trail with the best of them.

potterfield taking notes
Potterfield working on his new book
in California’s Dusy Basin

Photo © James Martin

The Potterfield Résumé
Research:
  • Followed in the epic footsteps of Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, retracing his historic trek across South Georgia Island
  • Made several exploratory expeditions to the Tiedman Glacier region of British Columbia's Coast Range
  • Ventured across the steppes of Argentine Patagonia and traversed the tundra of Alaska's Brooks Range
  • Trekked across southern New Zealand's remote backcountry


  • Writing:
  • Author of two volumes of Selected Climbs in the Cascades
  • Author of In the Zone, which includes an account of his harrowing experience being stranded on a small ledge with compound bone fractures protruding from his body after a 150-foot leader fall
  • Numerous journeys to Everest's Khumbu region to file web dispatches on the discovery of famed climber George Mallory's body, and later the tragic death of climber Alex Lowe on Shishapangma
  • To complete his book Classic Hikes of the World (due December 2004 from W.W. Norton), journeyed solo for 62 miles across the tundra above the Arctic Circle in Swedish Lapland
  • Move on to * Case Study #2: The Potterfield Gear Portfolio
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