Dennis Schmitt
Dennis Schmitt | |
|---|---|
 Dennis Schmitt on Warming Island, 2006 | |
| Born | |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation(s) | Explorer, adventurer, composer |
Dennis Schmitt is an American veteran explorer, adventurer and composer.
Early life
[edit]Schmitt grew up in Berkeley, California, the son of mixed German and American parentage. His father was a plumber. Displaying early aptitude with languages, music and mathematics, Schmitt graduated from Berkeley High School in 1963,[1] and went on to study linguistics at UC Berkeley with Noam Chomsky in his late teens.[2] Chomsky recruited Schmitt, aged 19, to travel to Alaska's Brooks Range and attempt to learn the Nunamiut dialect.
Career
[edit]Schmitt lived for four years at an Alaskan Inuit village named Anaktuvuk Pass before leading expeditions, including the Sierra Club. In 2003, Schmitt discovered one of the candidates for the title of "northernmost land in the world". Deciding that Greenland should name its own islands, he simply called it "83-42" after its latitude, a name that has remained.[3]
Two years later, in 2005, Schmitt discovered a new island revealed by the retreat of an ice shelf in East Greenland. Uunartoq Qeqertaq, Inuit for "The Warming Island", lies 400 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The Sierra Club reported on a Schmitt quote to The New York Times:
We felt the exhilaration of discovery. We were exploring something new. But of course, there was also something scary about what we did there. We were looking in the face of these changes, and all of us were thinking of the dire consequences.[4]
Expeditions
[edit]Schmitt is also credited with the July 2007 discovery of another candidate for the "northernmost" title, named Stray Dog West by expedition member Holly Wenger. Stray Dog West, at 83º40'30", belongs to a shifting, semi-permanent archipelago locked in the sea ice north of Peary Land in northeast Greenland, named the Stray Dog Islands. The first island of the archipelago was discovered on July 10, 1996, by Steve Gardiner and Jim Schaefer and is commonly known as the 1996 ATOW Island after the 1996 American – Top Of The World Expedition.
Schmitt was the first person to climb the highest point of the Daly Range, part of the northernmost mountain chain on Earth,[5] as well as Alaska's Brooks Range from Point Hope to the Mackenzie River,[citation needed] and made the first traverse of Axel Heiberg Island, northern Canada.[citation needed] He also crossed the sea ice of the Bering Straits to the Soviet Union, and travelled through Eskimo villages of eastern Siberia. Upon his return, the FBI detained Schmitt but released him without charge.[6]
Musical works
[edit]- Song Cycle I (Mental trash from warm bodies (plus extras))[7]
- Prologue and Aurora (1977)[8]
- The Alaska Wilderness Adventure (1978)[9]
Personal life
[edit]Schmitt speaks multiple languages, including Russian, Norwegian, Danish, and French. He lives in Berkeley and composes classical music, being credited for the soundtrack to the 1978 movie, The Alaska Wilderness Adventure. Schmitt also writes sonnets under the pen name D O'Farrell.[2]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ "13 Win Berkeley High Scholarships". The Oakland Tribune. January 24, 1963. p. 17. Retrieved June 6, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Richardson, John H. (October 2007). "The New Top of The World: Journey to the End of the Earth". Esquire. p. 206. ProQuest 210374617.
- ^ Jennings, Ken (February 16, 2012). "The World's Northernmost Point Is Called 83-42. Maybe". Condé Nast Traveller. Archived from the original on 2024-11-30.
- ^ "Geography in Action". Sierra Club. 2007-06-05. Archived from the original on 2008-02-14. Retrieved 2007-09-23.
- ^ Schmitt, Dennis (2004). "North America, Greenland, The Far North, Jensenland, Explorations of Most Northerly Land". American Alpine Club. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
- ^ Hansen, Kathryn (2007-09-18). "Trends & Innovations: Ice Voted off Warming Island". Geotimes. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
- ^ Copyright Office (1971). Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series. Vol. 24. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. Part 5, Number 2, Section 1: Music, Current and Renewal Registrations, July–December 1970, p. 3086.
- ^ Copyright Office (1977). Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series. Vol. 31. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. Part 5, Number 1, Section 2: Music, Current and Renewal Registrations, January–June 1977, p. 2597.
- ^ Meader, Fred; Meader, Elaine; Schmitt, Dennis W.; Meader-McCausland, Heather (2009). The Alaska Wilderness Adventure (DVD). Rockport, Massachusetts: Synergy Entertainment. OCLC 746583316.
Further reading
[edit]- The Wizard. 1960. p. 28
- "Vista Volunteers Go North of Nome". The Daily Illini. May 12, 1966. p. 12
- Severson, Ed (January 7, 1993). "A Spacious Mind". Arizona Daily Star. pp. 1c, 3C
- Russo, John; Schmitt, Dennis (1998; rev. 2019). Dutch Ovens for Backpacking, 28 pp.
- Revkin, Andrew C. (June 8, 2004). "The Thrill of Finding the World's Edge". The New York Times. p. F4. ProQuest 92800347.
- Burress, Charles (June 19, 2004). "Explorers finally reach Earth's northernmost land". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. A-16
- Rudolph, John Collins (January 16, 2007). "The Warming of Greenland". The New York Times. p. F1. ProQuest 848166551.
- "Soundbites". New Scientist. January 20–26, 2007. p. 9. ProQuest 200378198.
- Todras-Whitehill, Ethan (December 9, 2007). "Interest Surges". The New York Times. p. D3. ProQuest 848113833.
- Bennike, Ole; Shea, Jeff (January 2019). "Oodaaq Ø and other short-lived islets north of Greenland". The Polar Record. pp. 14–24. ProQuest 2253063858.