Chris grew up in a suburban town in Westchester County, NY, often exploring local forests and trails throughout the region with his dad. Chris first attended HMI as a student in Semester 35 in the autumn of 2015 and fell in love with the Sawatch mountain range and the greater landscape of the Southwest. After taking a gap year before college to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia (and temporarily bid farewell to the east), Chris returned to the West for college, ultimately studying traditional and environmental education at Colorado College. Chris just returned to HMI from a small independent school in Durango, CO, and he couldn’t be more delighted to be back here in Leadville. When he’s not out rambling in nature, you can often find Chris picking bluegrass music on the guitar or talking friends’ ears off about various tales rich with lore and existentialism!