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‘Parks And Recreation’ Star Nick Offerman Tackles Difficult Glacier Climb with Jeff Tweedy

Parks and Recreation star Nick Offerman just tackled a challenging glacier climb with Jeff Tweedy. Tweedy is an American musician known for his work as the guitarist of Wilco. Offerman told the story in his newly released book, Where the Deer and the Antelope Play.

According to a description of the book published by The Rolling Stone, the book serves as a sort of love letter to the great outdoors. The book is described as a “paean to outdoor experiences,” where Nick Offerman’s readers join him in “a rousing tour of America’s most beautiful places as well as a mission statement about loving, protecting, and experiencing the outdoors.”

The excerpt, newly released by The Rolling Stone, tells the story of the journey Offerman took with Wilco’s Jeff Tweety and a fellow adventurer/author, George Saunders as they hiked to the Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park.

A hike to Grinnell Glacier might not seem like much to a super seasoned outdoorsman. But, Nick Offerman described himself and Tweedy as “art boys.”

They had been gearing up for the 10.5-mile round trip, 1,600-foot incline hike for their whole trip.

For the first part of the Hike, Offerman, Tweedy, and the group enjoyed themselves. In the book, Nick Offerman describes the serenity of the nature around him.

Eventually, they made it to the top. The absolutely beautiful hike was a true treat for Nick Offerman. He described the views of Grinnell lake from down below as “truly exquisite.”

Nick Offerman’s Group Met Trouble on the Way Down

It wasn’t until the way down when things went awry. Jeff wound up falling hard when slipping on some snow. He took a huge slide, slipping down a hill about 40 feet down. Then, things got even worse for poor Jeff when he slipped while they were traversing some boulders. Jeff, who has a panic disorder, asked his friends to help him calm down before eventually getting up and continuing down the trail.

“I thought this was a very healthy example of a person suffering from anxiety using his knowledge and experience to reason himself away from panic. He named his fear out loud to us, his compatriots, and asked us to help him talk himself off the ledge,” Nick Offerman described.

Ultimately, the group got down. Offerman wrote how grateful he was for the experience with his friend as well as in the park. He was blown away by the beauty of Grinnell Glacier. But he wanted readers to know that you don’t have to see a sight like that to appreciate the nature around you.

“While I am extremely grateful,” Nick Offerman wrote, “I also wonder if there is a way for us Americans to better understand that this heavenly scenery is but a tiny part of the nature in which we live every day. Indeed, the nature of which we are an intrinsic, inseparable part.”