Russell Ellsworth ’79 (left) and David Cheney ’79 in Yosemite National Park.

You were roommates as freshmen but not really friends. Why not?

DAVE We didn’t have major friction that I can remember. I think we were both young, introverted, insecure, self-centered, and had poor social skills when we arrived at Brown. We were probably both jerks at times. I think we both felt like outsiders. We were both on financial aid. Russ was from a working-class background, and I was coming from a public high school in Texas. Russ ran track, and I was a swimmer (both sports for introverts), and we each had our friends from those teams. I wasn’t conscious of this at the time, but I tended to choose as friends upper-middle-class kids who fit in well.

RUSS I think it was a matter of us not having common interests. I was away most weekends for track and cross-country meets. I’m sure we parted on friendly terms at the end of the year. But we definitely lost track of each other, maybe waving to each other on campus in subsequent years. I agree that I was introverted, insecure, and had poor social skills. And I was a little out of place. I remember being stunned when I learned that only a small portion of us were financial aid students. Most of my classmates would talk about experiences like foreign travel that I had never experienced, so fitting in was tough. Being on the track team, majoring in computer science, and joining a fraternity helped me find my place.

Did either of you have misgivings about this trip? And was it awkward, at least at first, given that you weren’t coming off a long friendship since Brown?

DAVE It wasn’t too awkward, for me at least. We had seen each other’s Facebook posts for a while and we met monthly over Zoom for several months to plan the logistics. We figured that if we could survive freshman year, we could survive three weeks together. And the risk wasn’t too high, since we could hike and camp separately if needed. Moreover, Russ had hiked the Appalachian Trail, and I had done long bike trips and some backpacking. Such experiences tend to screen out people who are needy, demanding, whiny, or inflexible. People who take on such challenges often have characteristics that make them at least decent traveling companions.

Russell Ellsworth ’79 (left) and David Cheney ’79 atop Mount Whitney.

RUSS We were caught in a hail and graupel storm, and my rainsuit, which was supposed to repel water, absorbed it. I went on ahead and found a semi-sheltered rock face to wait out the storm. I was wet and miserable and didn’t consider that he would wonder what happened to me. He apparently went by me (I was hidden from view). Neither of us knew where the other was. After that we figured out how to link up our satellite trackers to text each other. I don’t think Dave quite realized how much his help that day, once we got to a dry place, meant to me.

From each of your perspectives, how had the other person changed since college? And did you become “real” friends this time, or did you more or less do this trip getting along functionally?

DAVE He was the same Russ, but better. We both had matured and spent years with spouses, kids, and work colleagues, and so our social skills were better. He has a capacity for sharing and helping others that I didn’t remember from freshman year. He helped other hikers along the trail with their equipment, for example. There were a couple of times I was annoyed with Russ, and I expect a few times he was annoyed with me, but we got through them all. It helped that we were in roughly similar shape—we saw other groups on the trail break up due to such differences—and, as Russ pointed out, had similar worldviews. I think we did become “real” friends; we are certainly closer than we were freshman year and are planning some future hikes, although they will be shorter. 

RUSS Dave is far less introverted than he was in college. I still tend to be shyer. He talked with other hikers, especially foreign nationals, much more than I did. That seemed an important part of the hike for him, so while I didn’t engage as much with other hikers, I thought it was really nice that he did.

I’m certain if I tried this alone, I wouldn’t have completed the hike. I would have bailed out at one of the few escape routes in the northern section. I had never hiked at altitudes like that before, but I had done long distances (up to 566 miles on a single trip). Dave had not hiked for such distances but had gone higher—Mount Kilimanjaro, for example. At one point, every step we took was a new distance accomplishment for Dave and a new altitude for me.

If anything, I realized that over those 50 years we missed what could have been a closer friendship.