Riley Ross, son of Brandy and Bob and younger brother of Jacksen, will miss the wilderness of Ouray. He enjoys the climbing, biking and exploring he has grown up with. He also enjoys tropical fruits, the book Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, rock music and 70s soul, and Iceland.
Riley is, said classmate Colin Sills, “a big goofy fella,” whose charismatic personality gets anyone to smile. He and his friends Rock, Hayden, and Charlie have been laughing and playing together from the pre-school days of dressing up in cowboy costumes to present day hikes up Corbett Peak.
The Ross family likes to go hiking and camping, and occasionally head for the beach, where Riley swims a little bit, but mostly likes to just sit and watch the ocean. A contemplative person by nature, memories of the deep green of a forest hike or the deep blue of an ocean view stick with him.
Riley has always charted his own path. He tries to stay away from media, “stuff that might give me views that aren’t my own,” he said. He canceled all his social media accounts years ago. He would rather play a game with friends, or go “do something outside, like go for a hike,” he insisted, than exist in virtual contact.
When school went online in the spring of 2019, he hated virtual classes, so he decided to spend his junior year in homeschool. He came back to Ouray High School when the mitigation measures seemed more sane to him, “School is pretty boring,” he said. “I don’t feel like I really need to be here.” But he sees the end quickly approaching.
He dreams of exploring the world, traveling off the beaten track to places that are “a little dangerous, I guess, unique.” He would want to “bond with the people there,” he said, “get to know different cultures.”
Riley is undecided on his plans for next year. He does want to move away from Ouray - Iceland is calling, after all. In the long term (after he has attained Icelandic citizenship!), perhaps he will become the first permanent inhabitant of Antarctica.