From Suzanne (Zanne) Langlois. We will update a formal obituary when we have it.
It is a profound sorrow to share that we lost my dad, Dave Langlois on December 30th. His years working for the AMC, beginning in the late 1950s, were a seminal experience for him. He had many wild stories about his days there, from wrangling donks to carrying cases of beer up to Tuckerman Ravine and selling them at a large mark-up. His dog, Whiskey, gave birth to puppies at Hermit Lake shelter, and he carried them down in a cardboard box strapped to a packboard. For years, he held the record for the fastest time from Pinkham to the summit of Washington: 1 hour and 18 minutes. His was the first car over the Kancamagus Highway before it officially opened in 1959, with him at the wheel and his long time friend Jed Williamson riding shot gun. One of the photos is his entry at age 22 in the oldest Zealand hut log.
In the 70s, Dave founded a wilderness camp, the Killington Adventure, where, in the early days, each student made their own packboard. He was a early pioneer of the leave-no-trace ethic, and his backpacking program introduced the concept of “clean camping” to hundreds of students. They slept in hammocks and tarps to reduce impact, and were famous for erasing the scars left by others, dismantling campfire rings and rewilding illegal campsites. Both his daughters, Zanne and Sam, went on to work in the huts and at Pinkham.
We will plan a celebration of life for when the weather gets warmer, date TBD.
