Dennis Averin: a Student of the World
Swampscott High senior Dennis Averin embarked on a trip of a lifetime right before the school year started, and the trip taught him sustaining lessons.
For 20 minutes Dennis Averin stared at his sleeping bag. Disoriented from fever, he wondered why the bag did not pack itself. For a brief time he thought he was a monkey. This from a climber who, unlike most others in the group, had hauled his own pack up the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain in the world — Mt. Kiliminjaro at 19,341 feet. Soon the Swampscott youth regained his bearings, joined the descent and resumed the trip of a lifetime with his father, Alex Averin. That trip, in August, offered the Swampscott student lessons and challenges as multidimensional as the terrain he traveled. Between Aug. 6-24, he explored rain forests, barrier reefs and tundra, and roamed among lions, giraffe and zebra. He …
