PALISADES PROFILE:
Mike Dolan: The Path to Patagonia

June, 2000 -- Discovery Channel's "Eco-Challenge" aired in April in two parts, two hours each, in prime time. The show covered the fourth in a series of adventure races sponsored by that station. Palisader Mike Dolan drew the credit as "Senior Writer."
How that came about is actually a neighborhood tale.
In an Eco-Challenge, teams of four, each with at least one woman member, race across extremely difficult terrain while trekking, rappelling, kayaking, swimming, biking and horseback (or, even, camel) riding.
Mike's two Eco-Challenge assignments took him to Morocco in 1998 and to the Patagonia region of South America in 1999.
Mike started with no specific assignment in the 300-plus mile Morocco race but received, he says, "a field promotion" to "field producer."
He was rewarded with five days in the Moroccan high Atlas Mountains, lifted in by helicopter with a camera crew - -one cameraman and one soundman.
Mike notes that you quickly bonded there in Ait al Nieto--or not.
After his Moroccan experience, Mike was hired as editorial director of the TV team filming the 197 mile Patagonia expeditionary race. This was his first experience in production planning, execution and post-production management--previously all his work had been with pre-shot footage.
One responsibility was to compose a "shot list" for the 19 camera crews. The shot list would include both action footage and interviews with the participants, which would tell a "story," as Mike would later write it.
Between 400-500 hours of videotape were shot using new, high definition cameras. In the field, crews sometimes used 16 or 17 small digital video cameras or four or five infrared "night shot" cameras, for takes in complete darkness.
The results were, Mike says, "mixed and matched."
Many of the individual cameramen, hand-picked by director Peter Henning, had specific skills--one with long lens or another with waterproof cameras for high-action water shots.
"Television," he notes, "is highly collaborative."
All this technical expertise was, of course, focused on the contestants--51 teams from all over the world.
The winning Australian team in the Patagonia race finished the course on the fifth day, the last team not until the tenth.
A new strategy for this race included going almost sleepless during the entire race.
First prize was $50,000. (The prize in the 1998 Morocco race had been $25,000, an amount characterized by the winning Vail, Colorado team as "just about enough to cover our expenses.")
One memorable moment from the Eco-Challenge show was the footage of the competitors' stunning view after the 11,453 foot climb up Mount Tronado and, another, the shot that caught the final two of the 34 completing teams crossing the finish line arm-in-arm, having decided days before to throw in their lots together.
Asked if he, himself, was tempted to compete, Mike remembers that it seemed possible--"the contestants are not superhuman."
He recalls Sir Ranulph Fiennes, in his sixties, who finished the last land kilometer (before a kayaking finish) on his hands and knees.
Most racers are involved in active lifestyles--mountain guides, ski instructors, fire fighters, with a few bankers or lawyers thrown in. The common denominator, to Mike, seemed to be a remarkably low body-fat index.
Hanging out with them can lead to a bit of hubris. While waiting to fly home, Mike accepted an invitation to go white water kayaking on the Rio Manso, a Class four rapids section of the official course.
Wearing only sandals and a too-small wet suit, he soon realized he was over his skill level and prematurely disembarked--onto a field of fallen, burned-out bamboo which felt like "walking on pool cues," when he could even remain upright.
Back at the camp he ran into the bruised, battered, and hypothermic long lens cameraman, also just returning from a farewell outing.
Mike Dolan's path as a writer progressed from working at the University of Maryland campus radio, to editing the college poetry magazine, to writing feature pieces for a campus publication.
This led to a $110 a week temporary job with the Northern Virginia Sun newspaper. In time, Mike became the editor of a medical newsletter that covered the Federal Drug Administration--with occasional sidetracks such as a factory job unloading all the 40 pound boxes of cheese destined for all the McDonalds in the Baltimore/Washington area.
His knowledge of music gained him a spot at the Washington Times where he first wrote music reviews, then book reviews and feature articles. This caught the attention of the editor of the City Paper where he became a staff writer from 1985-1995, writing increasingly long features.
Mike still writes a twice monthly Food and Drug newsletter aimed at high executives in the drug industry.
But the road to Patagonia really began in the Palisades.
The Dolans moved here in 1981. Mike became friends with Judy and Al Rosenfeld. Later, he met their son, Michael, who had relocated from New York to the Palisades to become the executive director of National Geographic's "Explorer" television show.
In 1995, Michael hired Mike to write an original script, Mike's first. After writing a number of Explorer shows, Mike was recruited by Angus Yates, the executive producer of the Morocco Eco-Challenge race--and another Palisades resident.
Mike now has the experience, credentials and network to be a full-time freelancer.
On his resume, he lists as his possible subjects: "natural/military history, travel, science, pop culture, sports, business, profiles."
Two notable items are missing from this official resume--that he and his brother once were a rock band known as "The Catholics" and that he was the lively editor of the Palisades News from late 1993 to late 1994.
Mike says his writing provides him with "a pleasant living, plus I get to go to places like Morocco."
--P.McGinn with Frances McFall