{"id":6919,"date":"2026-05-14T10:56:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/?page_id=6919"},"modified":"2026-05-14T10:56:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:56:38","slug":"brandon-cole-17","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/spring-2022\/alumni-profiles\/brandon-cole-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Cole \u201917"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"DEGREE<\/strong>: B.S. in economics<\/p>\n

JOB TITLE<\/strong>: Photographer, Tordrillo Mountain Lodge in Alaska<\/p>\n

FAVORITE TRINITY MEMORY<\/strong>: By a long shot, winning a national championship in ice hockey my sophomore year.<\/p>\n

What do you do in your position?\u00a0<\/strong>I have a wide range of job responsibilities at Tordrillo Mountain Lodge, a luxury helicopter skiing\/adventure lodge located 60 miles west of Anchorage on Judd Lake. When you work off the grid like I do, you have to be resourceful and a \u201cjack of all trades.\u201d One of my many\u00a0titles is photographer, and with that I oversee and provide content for the lodge\u2019s social media. I also keep the website updated with photos and videos and supply photos for publishers. In addition, I manage an off-the-grid power plant, which consists of two large generators and a cutting-edge battery storage\/inverter system.\u00a0In the summer, I guide helicopter excursions to our via ferrata<\/em> [a steel cable climbing route], photography trips, and hiking on glaciers.<\/p>\n

What path did you take to get there?\u00a0<\/strong>After college, I went home to Alaska, having no idea what I wanted to do but with little interest in working in an office. I grew up in the Alaskan outdoors, and I focused on finding employment where I could be outside enjoying its unique challenges. After working at miscellaneous jobs around Anchorage, I started at the\u00a0lodge shoveling snow. As I worked my way up, I hoped to have an opportunity to practice my other passion\u2014outdoor photography\u2014at this\u00a0world-renowned location. I ended up staying on by learning some electrical engineering after being put in charge of a new solar off-grid power system that supplies the lodge with electricity.\u00a0From there, I have moved to guiding in the summer and supplying photos and videos for the guests, the lodge, and its sponsors.<\/p>\n

What do you enjoy most about what you do?\u00a0<\/strong>I enjoy the challenge of living every day in one of the most hostile\u2014and yet most beautiful\u2014environments in the country. Most of my days start with either a short snowmobile ride in the winter or a paddleboard across the lake in the summer to our lodge. I am surrounded by wildlife, incredible mountains, and true wilderness, where I have the opportunity to go\u00a0skiing, fishing, hiking, and exploring.\u00a0I have access to thousands of acres of mountains and rivers that are lost in time and rarely visited by a person. Out our front door, we have everything from volcanoes\u00a0to\u00a0glaciers to world-class fishing and\u00a0bear viewing. It is really special to share these great adventures and to witness others\u00a0experience the beauty and awe of the area for themselves.<\/p>\n

What are the biggest challenges you face?\u00a0<\/strong>Making people feel comfortable and safe in places totally outside of their comfort zone. As an example,\u00a0I guide people who have never climbed on a via ferrata<\/em> and have to talk them through some of their biggest fears as they climb across a cliff face.<\/p>\n

How did Trinity prepare you for what you do now?\u00a0<\/strong>My time at Trinity was an introduction to the rest of the world outside of Alaska,\u00a0teaching me how to communicate with a wide range of people. That has become extremely valuable when guiding clients from around the world. I have\u00a0always been\u00a0passionate about the environment, and the courses I took at Trinity helped me develop my internal philosophy that guides me in many of the decisions I confront today. Ice hockey at Trinity taught me the importance of hard work, being a good teammate, and sacrifice.<\/p>\n

Your brother Ryan was a classmate and ice hockey teammate. What was that like to share the Trinity experience with him?\u00a0<\/strong>Being able to share four\u00a0years of college with my brother was and will always be a very special part of my college experience. We roomed together both on and off campus, we took a lot of the same classes, we were both econ majors, and we played hockey together.<\/p>\n

What was the most memorable course you took at Trinity?<\/strong> \u201cPolitical Ecology\u201d\u00a0was by far the coolest course I had at Trinity. Learning about the cause and effect of environmental decisions from an unbiased view is something I try to implement in my life. My own beliefs are centered upon the importance of our environment and how it should impact our political, social, and economic decision-making.<\/p>\n

Was there a professor at Trinity who was particularly influential? <\/strong>Shafqat Hussain. Although I did not meet him until my senior spring, I found his view on the world fascinating. He taught me to analyze problems from the viewpoint of others to better formulate and support my arguments. I learned\u00a0about parts of the world that I have always wanted to visit and fascinating topics like the studies of snow leopards. My interactions with him showed me a person who was\u00a0interested in the environment, studied the environment, and made it a focus of economic theory. Again, this is a philosophy that has guided me since I left Trinity.<\/p>\n

Check out Cole\u2019s photography<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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What do you do in your position?\u00a0I have a wide range of job responsibilities at Tordrillo Mountain Lodge, a luxury helicopter skiing\/adventure lodge located 60 miles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"parent":6891,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-6919","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBrandon Cole \u201917 - The Trinity Reporter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.trincoll.edu\/reporter\/spring-2022\/alumni-profiles\/brandon-cole-17\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brandon Cole \u201917\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"DEGREE: B.S. in economics JOB TITLE: Photographer, Tordrillo Mountain Lodge in Alaska FAVORITE TRINITY MEMORY: By a long shot, winning a national championship in ice hockey my sophomore year. 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