INTERLUDE I: POOR JUDGEMENTWhen Neil had died, I’d just finished my freshman year at the University of New Hampshire, UNH, the alma mater for all three of us kids. Our family didn’t have a lot of money, and the state school was the best financial choice for us, a benefit we could take advantage of because we lived in Concord. It had served Neil especially well, because of the environmental program. He was a mountain man, through and through, and wildlife management was where he was headed.
The summer after he died, I stepped into his hiking boots, in a manner of speaking.
I’d never hiked with Neil, though he’d invited me a few times. My first climb—still not with Neil—had been a profoundly ill-advised hike up Mount Chocorua in March of my freshman year. In a snowstorm. Without proper equ
