By Isabell Macrina
Hometown Weekly Staff
The store of Powisset Farm turned into a hub of conversation and community to discuss the book written by chair of the Trustees board, conservationist, and adventurer Tom French. His novel The Gap Years: Climbing, Skiing, and the Journey Back follows him through the years after retirement and his journey to reconnect things that meant a lot to him in his youth. He did the usual thing, after high school and college took some time to travel the world.
“Those years after were some of the most influential in my life. So here I am, at sixty, thinking why don’t I do that again?”
With drinks and free popcorn in hand, people gathered to hear French talk about the process that went into writing this book. He broached his own question; how much he could experience and how he wanted to live his life going forward. His connection to these places, landscapes, and everything that made those experiences special was evident in how he lit up when talking about them. He got to experience them all over again. He read a few excerpts that highlighted his trek up Mount Everest. He did it thirty years ago, and he had the chance to reconnect with a landscape that meant so much to him.
French describes taking a remote trail from the other side of the mountain to base camp, where it was so remote there would not be people around for hundreds of square miles. “I was alone, but not lonely… It was as close to spiritual as anything I would ever experience.”
The book became his next mountain. It was a challenge to do, but incredibly rewarding. He has used it to continue his mission of conservation, with the proceeds he receives from sales going into the Himalayan Fund, which supports medical and educational projects for villages in the area.
With his passion for exploration and dedication to doing it his own way around here, through the hills that litter our towns and the people around us, it was a wonderful inspiration to remember the feeling of exploration and the connections with places and yourself. To experience these climbs for yourself, be sure to check out The Gap Years, and go explore the landscapes in our own back yard.
