About the Director

My name is Peter Bettmann-Kerson, my Flying Cloud name is Valley Zephyr, and I’m the director of Flying Cloud. I just wanted to give you all a quick introduction to who I am, and mention a few of the major formative experiences in my life.

Camp
Flying Cloud came into my life when I was twelve, the summer after my sister went to Indian Brook. The catalogue was lying around my house, and I couldn’t help but be drawn to the descriptions of Flying Cloud. The next year (1995) I was there. I spent four summers as a camper, the last of which was my first going full season, and the year that I was chosen to be Fire Keeper.

Schooling
Formal/ with degrees
In this category I have to mention Rumney Elementary School, where I remember going on hikes, working in the school garden, learning about local plants and animals and of course doing some of the more standard school type stuff. These days, the Principal of Rumney is Gentle Thunder, a Flying Clouder from the eighties.
From there I went on to U-32 High School, in East Montpelier, VT. While I was there, I spent part of my senior year studying Wilderness Survival with the director of a local park. During that time I really began to advance my wilderness skills, especially the “sacred four”: shelter, water, fire and food.

I knew from my background that I needed an alternative educational model where I could study the way I learn best, and Hampshire College was just the place for me. While there I studied Forest Ecology, eventually developing a new lab at the school for the study of land-use history through tree rings, also called dendrochronology.

Everything else
Throughout my life, there have also been major educational events which weren’t in school. FC was certainly one of those, but here are a few more.
I’ve taken a few classes at the Tracker School in New Jersey, where I worked on survival, tracking and some philosophy and nature awareness skills.
In the winters of 2007/2008/2009 I’ve been in Washington state to join the Wilderness Awareness School’s Residential Program. This is a nine month course centered around developing a greater understanding of your local ecosystem, while at the same time learning how to learn about it, and how to best pass on the knowledge. In my first winter I was a student and in my second I’m an apprentice instructor. The skills I’ve been learning here are being passed on to Flying Cloud .

As a Flying Cloud staff member I got certified in Wilderness First Aid, then went on to become a Wilderness First Responder. At Hampshire, I got certified as an Emergency Medical Technician, and I’ve been very thankful for those skills. Whether it was helping take care of the FC community, or working on an ambulance, the skills to provide emergency care in a sticky situation have been invaluable in my life.

Passions and Interests
Aside from nature, which is so clearly a guiding force in my life, I’m also very excited about testing and learning to use my body. Through college my time was split almost evenly between courses about nature and dance classes, mostly modern, though some jazz as well. I also developed a particular passion for Contact Improvistion.
Of course, I couldn’t have made it through college without some time to play, and the Hampshire College Red Scare Ultimate team filled that role nicely. Ultimate frisbee is a wonderful metaphor, but it’s also just a blast.

Recently, as I transition into a new phase of my life, I’ve begun doing triathlons. These are races of varying lengths starting with a swim, followed immediately by a bike ride, then a run. They range in length from less than an hour to ten hours, depending on the length. So far, I’m doing the mid- distance ones, but I hope to get better and start going further some day.