Bonding and risk on OA trips

The article on Outdoor Action (feature, Oct. 26) reminded me of my experience. Yes, I met fellow students and bonded with them (including one who became one of my best Princeton friends). But we also had other things in common with this year’s trips: We were lost (wandering into a Rutgers insect-research site, sleeping in the wrong place), disaster struck for which we were not prepared, and we were evacuated after a delay. Let us not forget that Austin Nahm ’93 was killed while, at the direction of OA, we crossed a busy road at dusk. One of my OA bonding moments came at a grief-counseling session. It seems that Outdoor Action remains a laudable idea, executed at a persistently under­estimated level of risk.