On June 6, members of Cambridge Alumni New York City packed into a Columbia Business School classroom with members of the Columbia Business School’s Outdoor Adventure Club to hear Jill Fredston (Darwin, ’82), author of Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic’s Edge, describe more than 20 years of rowing and paddling small boats around some of the most spectacular Arctic and sub-Arctic seacoasts in the world.

Following introductions by Jason Wall (Pembroke ’97) and Kathy Lord (of Cambridge in America, which jointly hosted the event), the quiet but rugged-looking Fredston took the group on a rousing photographic tour of tens of thousands of miles around Alaska, Labrador, and other northern regions—the record of intensely personal journeys, each lasting many months, that she has undertaken with her husband Doug Fesler. Mostly avoiding human habitation, Jill and Doug have ringed some of the last unspoiled regions of our planet, consorting with wildlife while carefully navigating majestic intersections of water, rock, and ice. And there were some surprises along the way—including the centuries-old remains of a whale embedded high on an icy cliff, exposed by the retreat of sea level. Following a spirited question and answer period, the company adjoined to a Broadway pub for book signings and more good cheer.

Photos by Dr. G. Scott Aikens (Darwin ’97).