ADVENTURE // S T ORY BY JEFF L ACEY P HO T OGR APH Y BY BIL L S ITZ MA NN DE SI GN BY MATT WIEC Z O RE K
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A R M O N M A H E R G R E W U P I N GA R R I S O N, N E W YO R K , A S M A L L T OW N A B O U T 5 0 M I L E S O U T S I D E O F N E W YO R K C I T Y N E S T L E D N E X T T O T H E H U D S O N R I V E R . A S A B O Y, MAHER SPENT MUCH OF HIS CHILDHOOD OUTDOORS. HE F O L L O W E D A N I M A L T R A C K S , B U I LT D A M S I N S T R E A M S , A N D E X P L O R E D B A C K R O A D S . T RU E T O T H E W O R D S W O RT H I A N S U G G E S T I O N T O “ L E T N AT U R E B E YO U R T E AC H E R , ” M A H E R H AU N T E D T H E W O O D S F O R H O U R S . “A S L O N G A S I C A M E H O M E F O R D I N N E R , M Y PA R E N T S W E R E H A P P Y W I T H T H I S A R R A N G E M E N T, ” H E E X P L A I N E D .
Part of those outdoor childhood adventures involved collecting gems, minerals, and fossils. At the time, Maher didn’t realize that this aspect of his youth would prepare him for his future career in geology, and, consequently, much larger adventures. The kind of adventures that require survival training. Maher is a professor of geology and geography at University of Nebraska at Omaha. His fields of research include the geology of the Great Plains, structural geology, geologic mapping—“sort of like reverse engineering the blueprints of a building,” he explained—geologic fracture development, and structural diagenesis. He has written books and articles on local landscapes, such as Roadside Geology of Nebraska. He spends much of his time in Spitsbergen, an island in northern Norway. Spitsbergen is a place of ice and snow—the largest island in the Svalbard archipelago. It is an area of a little over 15,000 square miles, about 280 miles long, and landscaped with glaciers, fjords, and fields of sea ice. It is untamed; home to polar bears, whales, and seals. The terrain juxtaposes vast beauty and epic danger. Maher visits this isolated, dangerous area of the arctic to read the great plates of the world from which he and his team can learn about natural history and the future of geologic time. This work sends Maher to different places, in different ways. He has crewed boats from 30 feet long to 100 feet long, spending weeks at a time conducting research afloat. Some days, watercraft is not his favorite way to travel, especially when boats forge through rough arctic waters. “I get seasick,” he explained. “I have a certain threshold.” Much of the time, however, Maher is required to use Zodiacs—rigid hull inflatables that come in all shapes and sizes. They are considered the workhorse of the arctic. // 34 //
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Incredibly durable and maneuverable, Zodiacs are the kind of craft Jason Statham might pilot at breakneck speed in the latest soldier-for-hire adventure. In order to be cleared to take a Zodiac, Maher underwent survival training at the Norwegian University of Polar Science. He trained in how to use a survival suit. This training required him to go out in a Zodiac, jump into the freezing water (which ranges from 28 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit), and then climb back in. “If you go into the water, you’ve got five minutes, 10 max, before you pass out,” Maher explained. “They want us to know what we are dealing with in case it actually happens.” Maher’s work also relies on helicopters. Maher loves this part of the work. “The helicopter flies us to an arctic ridge, sets us down, and we walk along the ridge. You do your work, and you leave when they tell you they are going to leave. You fly for an hour and a half over such beautiful country. There are sling loads underneath with tents. The helicopter drops you off for two or three weeks. You hope for good weather. Some people have bad luck, and have to wait longer than expected.” Once the team arrives, they are on their own. “I have even had to work in situations where everything’s on my back and we walk for a day. In those situations, oatmeal and bacon bits get you a long way.” Whether he arrives by sea or air, once Maher arrives in the Svalbards, he is in love. The landscape appears barren, but is geologically varied and has been shaped by glaciers grabbing rocks as though they are football players heading for an end zone, ice wedging apart chunks of mountain like lumberjacks planning for a long winter, gravity pulling pieces of topography further into the landscape, waves cutting cliffs like a watery Michelangelo, and more. Maher is specifically interested in the geology of that area that appeared in the Triassic period more than 200 million years ago.
