Critically acclaimed author and internationally recognized journalist Mark Jenkins returns to Eastern Wyoming College on September 23 with his latest “World to Wyoming” presentation. He will present A Journey into the Ancient Namib Desert: Rock Paintings, a Vanished People, and Water Scarcity, the free talk takes place in the Fine Arts Auditorium Monday, September 23, at 7 p.m.

The presentation grew from Jenkins’s 2015 trip—while on assignment for National Geographic—to Namibia, where he climbed Brandberg, the country’s highest mountain, which conceals the greatest collection of rock paintings on earth. Jenkins says he undertook the journey in 120 degree heat “to explore this alfresco art museum and reflect on the challenges of water scarcity then and now.” His talk shares insights into the 4,000-year-old paintings and the now-extinct tribe that created them.

Jenkins will also present Mount Everest, The Myths, The Madness and the Macabre in CTEC room 101 at 12:00 noon on Monday, September 23.

Mount Everest, the most iconic mountain on earth, has been the scene of triumph and tragedy for almost a century. From the first attempt to climb it in 1922, to the first ascent in 1953, to the first oxygenless ascent in 1978, the world’s highest peak has represented chance and challenge, controversy and contradiction. Mark Jenkins climbed Everest in the spring of 2012 and explains Everest’s past and present and how the meaning of climbing the mountain evolved.

Jenkins, an international alpinist, is a critically acclaimed author, a field staff writer for National Geographic and the writer-in-residence at the University of Wyoming.

These presentations are free and open to all who are interested in attending.

For more information or questions, please contact Julie Sherbeyn, at 307.532.8378 or e-mail at julie.sherbeyn@ewc.wy.edu