Adventure Resumes
This page shows Chase and Charla's "Adventure Resumes," detailing past experiences in many different realms of activities. If you have any questions or would like any clarification, please don't hesitate to contact us!
Chase Berenson
[email protected]
P.O. Box 402
Talkeetna, Alaska 99676
Education
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York May 2007
Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies with concentrations in Geography and Sociology
Senior Thesis: Coastal Development: The Economic and Environmental Implications of Developing the Coasts of the United States
University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Aug – Nov 2005
Semester of Study Abroad
Atlanta International School, Atlanta, Georgia May 2003
International Baccalaureate
Adventure Experience
Aug 2012 – Present Exploring north Florida; highlights including paddling the Wakulla and Wacissa Rivers and kayak camping on uninhabited Little Tybee Island, Georgia.
Jul – Aug 2012 Drove 23 days from Talkeetna, Alaska, to Tallahassee, Florida; highlights included descending 500 feet underground beneath a dam in British Columbia, camping atop a mesa in the eastern Oregon desert, and returning to the Grand Canyon.
July 2012 Flew in a ski-plane to the Ruth Glacier to celebrate July 4th weekend at 5,500 feet elevation on Denali, practicing glacier travel and very backcountry snowboarding.
May 2012 Sea-kayaked 17 miles to Pigot Bay, Alaska, to spend Memorial Day weekend beach camping and recreationally shrimping.
May 2012 Traveled around Southeast Asia; highlights included the beach on Kah Samet, Thailand, tubing the Nam Song River in Laos, and kayaking the Naam Ngum River in Laos.
April 2012 Snowshoed eight miles to the Mint Glacier in the Hatcher Pass area of Alaska for four days of backcountry snowboarding.
Dec 2011 – May 2012 Worked at Alaska’s premier ski resort, and snowboarded 250,000 vertical feet during an epic season of 960 inches of snow and multiple 30+ inch powder days.
Sep – Nov 2011 Drove 76 days solo around North America, avoiding Interstates as much as possible and camping nearly every night; highlights included crabbing in Oregon, beach camping in Baja California, waterfall climbing in Tennessee, seeing my parents for the first time in years, driving the Alaska Highway in the winter, and swimming in a hot spring with a 100o air-water temperature difference in northern British Columbia.
May – Sep 2011 Worked at K2 Aviation in Talkeetna, Alaska, an airline with a fleet of ski- and float-planes that fly mountain climber and expedition support on Denali and throughout the Alaska Range.
August 2011 Organized a trip to High Lake, a 45-minute floatplane flight northeast of Talkeetna, for camping and fishing; highlights included not seeing any other humans and eating trout for breakfast, lunch and dinner for four days.
April 2011 Volunteered with the National Park Service to build Base Camp at Denali National Park; spent five days camped at 7,200 feet on Denali in below-zero temperatures. Highlights including shoveling lots of snow and stamping out a heli-pad wearing snowshoes.
Oct 2010 – May 2011 Worked at Alyeska Resort, in Girdwood, Alaska, and snowboarded frequently, in addition to viewing the Aurora Borealis, traveling to far northern Alaskan hot springs, and beginning the Berenson Brewing Company homebrewing operation.
May – Sep 2010 Worked for K2 Aviation and spent the summer playing in Alaska, including hiking Crow Pass along the Iditarod Trail from Eagle River to Girdwood and solo-hiking the Kesugi Ridge in Denali State Park.
Apr – May 2010 Traveled around Ecuador, including the Pacific beaches, urban Guayaquil and Quito, the Andes, and the Amazon; highlights included oppressive heat and humidity after an Alaskan winter, the same amount of sunlight ever day, swimming to waterfalls in Mindo, bungee jumping in Banos, paragliding in Crucita, and mountain biking in Canoa.
Sep 2009 – Apr 2010 Lived in Cold Bay, Alaska, the last town on the Alaskan Peninsula before the Aleutian Islands; a village of 64 people separating the North Pacific Ocean from the Bering Sea. Highlights included volunteering for the Fish and Wildlife Service in the Izembek National Refuge, the unique lifestyle of the isolated Alaskan Bush, working for an Alaskan regional airline in absurd weather conditions, regularly flying the Alaskan Peninsula and Aleutian Islands in small bush planes, witnessing the end of the Iditarod dogsled race in Nome, and multiple visits to Dutch Harbor.
May – Sep 2009 Returned to Alaska for good, by driving 21 days from Puerto Penasco, Sonora, to Talkeetna. Highlights included beach camping in Sonora, hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, hiking in Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho, and spending five days stranded in Dawson City, Yukon, because the U.S. closed the Poker Creek, Alaska, border crossing.
Feb 2008 – May 2009 Lived and worked in Grand Canyon National Park; highlights included an eleven minute walk from my front door to Mather Point, a daily bike ride from my front door to Shoshone Point, and extensive hiking in the Canyon, as well as hiking and exploring slot canyons in southern Utah.
May – Nov 2008 First trip to Alaska with a high school buddy as naïve boys from the Lower 48. Highlights included my first round-trip drive of the Alaskan Highway, my first experience with Alaska’s midnight sun, extensive flying in the Alaska Range, hiking in Denali National Park, exploring Alaska, and returning to the Lower 48 as a man.
Feb – May 2008 Worked for Woodford Reserve, Kentucky’s premier craft bourbon, in Versailles, Kentucky.
Mar 2008 Organized a trip to Costa Rica for two other people; highlights included surfing in Dominical, ATVing in Quepos, and hiking in Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio.
Mar 2007 Organized a trip to Europe for three friends; highlights included Amsterdam, the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of the city of Oxford, Saint Patrick’s Day in Dublin, and Edinburgh.
Oct 2006 Executed my first solo trip abroad, flying into Guatemala City and traveling overland and water to Belize City.
Dec 2005 – Jan 2006 Explored Southeast Asia, traveling through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, because my Australian visa expired but I wasn’t yet ready to come home.
Jul 2005 – Dec 2005 Lived in Australia and, according to my visa, “attended university.” Highlights included complete immersion in Australian culture, SCUBA diving the Great Barrier Reef, surfing the Pacific Ocean, hiking in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the Australian Bush, sailing in the Whitsunday Islands, and bodysurfing with dolphins on the Gold Coast.
Sep 2005 Navigated two vehicles on a roadtrip through New Zealand; highlights included riding the ferry from the North Island to the South Island, glacier hiking the Franz Josef Glacier, bungee jumping in Christchurch, and penguin-spotting on Stewart Island.
Other Notable Accomplishments and Fun Facts
Came in second in the 2012 Outside Adventure Grant, a competition hosted by Outside Magazine; with Charla Hughes, submitted an essay and video to Outside describing a potential adventure traveling through Thailand north-to-south by tuk-tuk. Based on the originality, creativity, and feasibility of the adventure the magazine staff chose us as one of the four finalists, and placed the four finalists on Facebook for a public vote in which we earned the second-most votes of all the adventures.
Won third place in the individual standings of my snowboarding class in the 2012 Coors Light Alyeska Town League Race Series, a gate racing series at Alyeska Resort.
Sold for $250 in the 2011 Talkeetna Bachelor Auction, a fundraising event for the Talkeetna Bachelor Society’s Fund for Women and Children in Crisis.
Have published articles about life in the Alaskan Bush in the Talkeetna Daily Weekend.
Have stepped foot in all fifty U.S. states, though subjectively feel that I “should” revisit eight states to really count them.
Have visited twenty-four countries on five continents.
Have been as far north as 65oN (Livengood, Alaska), as far south as 47oS (Stewart Island, New Zealand), and as central as 0o0’0” (Mitad del Mundo, Quito, Ecuador). Have also been as far west as 166oW (Dutch Harbor, Alaska), as far east as 174oE (Wellington, New Zealand), and as central as 0O7’W (London, England).
Speak conversational Spanish and can get by in French when it’s required, though the French isn’t pretty.
Trained for medical and other emergencies and have been certified as a New York State Emergency Medical Technician and member of the Woodford County (Kentucky) Community Emergency Response Team, though both certifications have since lapsed.
Played three varsity sports in high school (soccer, basketball, and track & field).
Broke my wrist when I was eight by falling off my bicycle, but got right back on the bike as soon as the cast came off.
[email protected]
P.O. Box 402
Talkeetna, Alaska 99676
Education
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York May 2007
Bachelor of Arts in Urban Studies with concentrations in Geography and Sociology
Senior Thesis: Coastal Development: The Economic and Environmental Implications of Developing the Coasts of the United States
University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Aug – Nov 2005
Semester of Study Abroad
Atlanta International School, Atlanta, Georgia May 2003
International Baccalaureate
Adventure Experience
Aug 2012 – Present Exploring north Florida; highlights including paddling the Wakulla and Wacissa Rivers and kayak camping on uninhabited Little Tybee Island, Georgia.
Jul – Aug 2012 Drove 23 days from Talkeetna, Alaska, to Tallahassee, Florida; highlights included descending 500 feet underground beneath a dam in British Columbia, camping atop a mesa in the eastern Oregon desert, and returning to the Grand Canyon.
July 2012 Flew in a ski-plane to the Ruth Glacier to celebrate July 4th weekend at 5,500 feet elevation on Denali, practicing glacier travel and very backcountry snowboarding.
May 2012 Sea-kayaked 17 miles to Pigot Bay, Alaska, to spend Memorial Day weekend beach camping and recreationally shrimping.
May 2012 Traveled around Southeast Asia; highlights included the beach on Kah Samet, Thailand, tubing the Nam Song River in Laos, and kayaking the Naam Ngum River in Laos.
April 2012 Snowshoed eight miles to the Mint Glacier in the Hatcher Pass area of Alaska for four days of backcountry snowboarding.
Dec 2011 – May 2012 Worked at Alaska’s premier ski resort, and snowboarded 250,000 vertical feet during an epic season of 960 inches of snow and multiple 30+ inch powder days.
Sep – Nov 2011 Drove 76 days solo around North America, avoiding Interstates as much as possible and camping nearly every night; highlights included crabbing in Oregon, beach camping in Baja California, waterfall climbing in Tennessee, seeing my parents for the first time in years, driving the Alaska Highway in the winter, and swimming in a hot spring with a 100o air-water temperature difference in northern British Columbia.
May – Sep 2011 Worked at K2 Aviation in Talkeetna, Alaska, an airline with a fleet of ski- and float-planes that fly mountain climber and expedition support on Denali and throughout the Alaska Range.
August 2011 Organized a trip to High Lake, a 45-minute floatplane flight northeast of Talkeetna, for camping and fishing; highlights included not seeing any other humans and eating trout for breakfast, lunch and dinner for four days.
April 2011 Volunteered with the National Park Service to build Base Camp at Denali National Park; spent five days camped at 7,200 feet on Denali in below-zero temperatures. Highlights including shoveling lots of snow and stamping out a heli-pad wearing snowshoes.
Oct 2010 – May 2011 Worked at Alyeska Resort, in Girdwood, Alaska, and snowboarded frequently, in addition to viewing the Aurora Borealis, traveling to far northern Alaskan hot springs, and beginning the Berenson Brewing Company homebrewing operation.
May – Sep 2010 Worked for K2 Aviation and spent the summer playing in Alaska, including hiking Crow Pass along the Iditarod Trail from Eagle River to Girdwood and solo-hiking the Kesugi Ridge in Denali State Park.
Apr – May 2010 Traveled around Ecuador, including the Pacific beaches, urban Guayaquil and Quito, the Andes, and the Amazon; highlights included oppressive heat and humidity after an Alaskan winter, the same amount of sunlight ever day, swimming to waterfalls in Mindo, bungee jumping in Banos, paragliding in Crucita, and mountain biking in Canoa.
Sep 2009 – Apr 2010 Lived in Cold Bay, Alaska, the last town on the Alaskan Peninsula before the Aleutian Islands; a village of 64 people separating the North Pacific Ocean from the Bering Sea. Highlights included volunteering for the Fish and Wildlife Service in the Izembek National Refuge, the unique lifestyle of the isolated Alaskan Bush, working for an Alaskan regional airline in absurd weather conditions, regularly flying the Alaskan Peninsula and Aleutian Islands in small bush planes, witnessing the end of the Iditarod dogsled race in Nome, and multiple visits to Dutch Harbor.
May – Sep 2009 Returned to Alaska for good, by driving 21 days from Puerto Penasco, Sonora, to Talkeetna. Highlights included beach camping in Sonora, hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, hiking in Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho, and spending five days stranded in Dawson City, Yukon, because the U.S. closed the Poker Creek, Alaska, border crossing.
Feb 2008 – May 2009 Lived and worked in Grand Canyon National Park; highlights included an eleven minute walk from my front door to Mather Point, a daily bike ride from my front door to Shoshone Point, and extensive hiking in the Canyon, as well as hiking and exploring slot canyons in southern Utah.
May – Nov 2008 First trip to Alaska with a high school buddy as naïve boys from the Lower 48. Highlights included my first round-trip drive of the Alaskan Highway, my first experience with Alaska’s midnight sun, extensive flying in the Alaska Range, hiking in Denali National Park, exploring Alaska, and returning to the Lower 48 as a man.
Feb – May 2008 Worked for Woodford Reserve, Kentucky’s premier craft bourbon, in Versailles, Kentucky.
Mar 2008 Organized a trip to Costa Rica for two other people; highlights included surfing in Dominical, ATVing in Quepos, and hiking in Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio.
Mar 2007 Organized a trip to Europe for three friends; highlights included Amsterdam, the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of the city of Oxford, Saint Patrick’s Day in Dublin, and Edinburgh.
Oct 2006 Executed my first solo trip abroad, flying into Guatemala City and traveling overland and water to Belize City.
Dec 2005 – Jan 2006 Explored Southeast Asia, traveling through Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, because my Australian visa expired but I wasn’t yet ready to come home.
Jul 2005 – Dec 2005 Lived in Australia and, according to my visa, “attended university.” Highlights included complete immersion in Australian culture, SCUBA diving the Great Barrier Reef, surfing the Pacific Ocean, hiking in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the Australian Bush, sailing in the Whitsunday Islands, and bodysurfing with dolphins on the Gold Coast.
Sep 2005 Navigated two vehicles on a roadtrip through New Zealand; highlights included riding the ferry from the North Island to the South Island, glacier hiking the Franz Josef Glacier, bungee jumping in Christchurch, and penguin-spotting on Stewart Island.
Other Notable Accomplishments and Fun Facts
Came in second in the 2012 Outside Adventure Grant, a competition hosted by Outside Magazine; with Charla Hughes, submitted an essay and video to Outside describing a potential adventure traveling through Thailand north-to-south by tuk-tuk. Based on the originality, creativity, and feasibility of the adventure the magazine staff chose us as one of the four finalists, and placed the four finalists on Facebook for a public vote in which we earned the second-most votes of all the adventures.
Won third place in the individual standings of my snowboarding class in the 2012 Coors Light Alyeska Town League Race Series, a gate racing series at Alyeska Resort.
Sold for $250 in the 2011 Talkeetna Bachelor Auction, a fundraising event for the Talkeetna Bachelor Society’s Fund for Women and Children in Crisis.
Have published articles about life in the Alaskan Bush in the Talkeetna Daily Weekend.
Have stepped foot in all fifty U.S. states, though subjectively feel that I “should” revisit eight states to really count them.
Have visited twenty-four countries on five continents.
Have been as far north as 65oN (Livengood, Alaska), as far south as 47oS (Stewart Island, New Zealand), and as central as 0o0’0” (Mitad del Mundo, Quito, Ecuador). Have also been as far west as 166oW (Dutch Harbor, Alaska), as far east as 174oE (Wellington, New Zealand), and as central as 0O7’W (London, England).
Speak conversational Spanish and can get by in French when it’s required, though the French isn’t pretty.
Trained for medical and other emergencies and have been certified as a New York State Emergency Medical Technician and member of the Woodford County (Kentucky) Community Emergency Response Team, though both certifications have since lapsed.
Played three varsity sports in high school (soccer, basketball, and track & field).
Broke my wrist when I was eight by falling off my bicycle, but got right back on the bike as soon as the cast came off.