Whether it’s road tripping through the American West in an ambulance/RV that runs on waste vegetable oil, bike touring around Cuba, mountain guiding in the Andes, Himalayas, or New Guinea, or helicopter ski guiding in Alaska, life-long Mount Shasta resident David Marchi has chosen a “road less traveled.” It is a journey that has him regularly crisscrossing the globe in what could be construed as a non-stop adventure. 
When he is not off in some far-flung corner of the world, Marchi spends his time working as a climbing guide for Shasta Mountain Guides and running his window washing business, which he often conducts from a bicycle converted to transport all of the necessary equipment. 
The ever-jovial adventurer and entrepreneur can often be seen pedaling his bike around Mt. Shasta or ski touring on the mountain he calls home.
‘Short list’ is long
Earlier this fall Marchi was passing through town before beginning a series of excursions that would keep him on the road through the end of the year. 
His “short list” of exploits would satisfy some for a lifetime. Among them (and perhaps the most significant of all) was his recent engagement to Petit Pinson, a fellow traveler, explorer and “bon vivant,” whose curricula vitae of adventure matches Marchi’s in every way. 
Travels with Ekawa
This dynamic duo recently embarked upon a journey in their ambulance/RV, dubbed “Ekawa” (when viewed in a rear view mirror, a motorist sees its as “Awake”), which Marchi had converted to run on waste vegetable oil. The two were headed off on a six-week road trip in this eco-friendly RV to promote their newly founded international guide business Global Lines.
The ambulance is equipped with comfortable living space for two that includes, among other things, a restaurant grade espresso maker, recycled hardwood flooring provided by Terramai of McCloud, and an LCD projector that will allow the couple to host slide shows on the side of the vehicle. The goal of their trip was to promote their newfound business and, more generally, the spirit of adventure, connection, and awareness that is close to their hearts.
If the two are able to locate the necessary waste cooking oil, which is typically available from most restaurants, the cost of running the vehicle is zero. If in a pinch, regular diesel fuel can be used.
Followed by way of their Internet blog, Marchi and Pinson went to Bend, Ore., Ketchum, Idaho, Moab, Utah, Jackson, Wyo., and Telluride, Colo., among other places. If memory stands correct, they had filled the tank once with regular diesel fuel. Not bad, especially considering the fact that the vehicle emits virtually no harmful emissions. 
Global lines
The couple expressed their excitement about their newly founded international guide business Global Lines. “The idea behind the word ‘Lines” in our company name is suggestive of a lot of things,” said Marchi.  “On a literal level it refers to the lines that the skier carves on a mountain slope or perhaps the lines we pencil in on the map as we travel from place to place. But the word  ‘lines’ is also about connection between people and cultures.” 
“It is about inspiring people and reminding them about the choices we make in life,” Pinson added.
The couple expressed, in so many words, their heartfelt belief that the world is at a “tipping point,” and Marchi noted, “Through our new business, we encourage our guests to awaken to the possibilities of their lives and how they treat the environment.”
Elaborating on their mission, Marchi said, “We are hoping to establish a guide business that allows us the opportunity to introduce clients to exciting foreign locales and have an adventure travel experience that can be rooted in more than just ‘conquering’ a mountain.”
Though mountain adventure will, no doubt, still be part of the core of the Global Lines experience, both Marchi and Pinson are wary of how “summit fever” (that driving force that pushes many mountaineers to the top of a mountain at all costs) often disconnects the individual from the total experience of just “being” on the mountain. The journey, implied Marchi and Pinson, is not about the destination.
On top of the world (almost)
For Pinson, this was a lesson well learned high on Mt. Everest, 1,635 feet short of the top to be exact. It was there that she chose to participate in the rescue of a dying British climber instead of walking by him on her way to the summit, as 40 other climbers chose to do.
“That definitely brought me back to the moment,” she told reporter Mark Patton of the Santa Barbara News-Press, who wrote a feature length article on Pinson’s 2006 experience. “Unfortunately, it didn’t surprise me that people would leave someone to die like that. It’s just the type of world that it is up there.”
Instead of “conquering” the mountain, she participated in the rescue of the stranded climber and four others in his party. “I remember looking out all around, 360 degrees, and feeling this incredible peace,” she said, speaking of her feelings shortly after the rescue. “I looked at where I was and I realized that this is my summit.” 
Locally international
Though an international guide company may seem the farthest thing from a “local” business that one could get, the couple hopes to establish a home base in Mt. Shasta and continue contributing to the community, which has, in a sense, nurtured their spirit of adventure. 
More recently Marchi was in Ushuaia, Argentina (the southernmost tip of South America), anxiously waiting to embark upon a ski mountaineering expedition to Antarctica, where he was scheduled to work as a guide for the international guide company Ice Axe expeditions.
As fate would have it, the boat that was to carry the group through the Drake Passage, which are some of the most treacherous seas in the world, was undergoing emergency repairs. In the end, the trip was cancelled.
Marchi’s disappointment has, no doubt, dissolved, as he is currently in Cuba, where he and Pinson are doing a bike tour that Marchi dubbed “purely recreational.” It will take the couple up to the holiday season, when they will return to visit family in Mount Shasta and Three Rivers, which is Pinson’s home, located just outside Sequoia National Park in the Southern Sierras.
After the holidays, it’s back on the road. For Marchi, that entails heading back to South America to guide on Aconcagua, the tallest peak in South America, and then up to Alaska, where he will spend the spring helicopter ski guiding for Chugach Powder Guides. 
Tucked in there somewhere will be a wedding.