In the summer of 1985, when I was a new transplant to the intermountain west, I thought it would be a good idea to learn some technical mountaineering skills. I had learned some things from being a Boy Scout on the east coast, but just the basics: You know, fun with white gas, drinking whiskey and smoking cigars.

A roommate suggested taking a NOLS mountaineering course so I signed up and went. After a three-day voluntary fast at the end of the course, one of the instructors mentioned that the school’s founder, Paul Petzoldt, would purposefully pack on a few pounds prior to his expeditions.

And I agree: Extra calories around the waist might help if you ran into trouble or were a few days late getting out of the back country.

When I took a Grand Canyon trip with my buddy Fat Vildy this past fall, I’m sure he was invoking that Petzoldt spirit. As a former ice climbing guide, he must have also heard the extra pounds advice and embraced it fully. Either that, or he didn’t realize that we’d be eating more than our fair shares of beer, booze and food.

So, enough of these training regimens designed to drop fat and gain muscles, enough of the cleanses, the pull-ups, the daily sprints up Teton Pass.

If the namesake of the Grand Teton’s Petzoldt Ridge recommends enlarging your waistline, it must be a good mountaineering technique.

Pack on the pounds, people! Paul says.

To the Editors: If it isn’t too late, could you please get this photo on the cover of the Cloudveil Spring ‘08 fishing catalogue? You could also just hire Fat Vildy as your first Cloudveil “plus size” Ambassador.

Tim O’Connor spends only as much time as necessary to make ends meet working as a surgical nurse in South Eastern Idaho. The rest of his time is spent tending to the daily outdoor recreation needs of his buddy Maynard the black lab, guiding rafting trips for Rocky Mountain River Tours on the Middle Fork of the Salmon and restoring his 1920s bungalow.