Mission Project

Eventually we'll figure it out. We're the Santa Clara County Hasty Team, a volunteer rescue team whose job is to respond to an emergency anywhere in California, operate in any weather and any season, and stay out there without external support for as long as it takes. So our training takes us to some fun places in not exactly the balmiest weather - Dana Couloir, Donner Pass in just about the only blizzard of last winter, and, this trip, Tenaya Canyon. What we need to figure out is how often a practice run turns into the real thing: at Donner we ended up extracting a Boy Scout with AMS, and this year we brought out a group of three people who weren't ready for everything Tenaya Canyon can dish out.

Friday, July 14 went as planned. Start a three-day trip, more than normal for a Tenaya descent, because we wanted to work on placing anchors, passing knots, doing assisted rappels and pick-offs and similar stuff. We had eight team members with various skills, from big range mountaineering to big walls to ultramarathoners to a wilderness paramedic to our volunteer victim, Jeff: "whoa, I've never done THIS before." We planned on about ten hours of travel, with plenty of time for rescue practice and enjoying Tenaya Creek (there are six rappels, some of them into or through the water, and numerous swimming holes.) We drove to Tenaya Lake at around four in the afternoon, got saddled up, and headed off down the creek, our first goal the famous sign at the head of the Canyon. It's the only place in Yosemite where a Park Service sign says "Danger! Do not Enter!" Naturally, we wanted a picture.

By Mel Gray

During the week of July 16th 2007 I spent a week climbing in the Front Range west of Denver. It was my first high altitude climbing experience. Descending from Mount Bierstadt after ominous clouds aborted our climb, I bumped into a Mountain Hardwear employee (whose name eludes me at the moment) who complimented me on my choice of the Scrambler as a good light weight pack. I mentioned that it offered me the same volume as my previous other brand pack, while giving me a more rucksack-like fit for day scrambles. He invited me to submit this report.

So, what do I conclude after the best week of my life? Of four climbing days, I summited once, burned out once, and got chased off a peak twice by inclement weather. No matter, there were other things at work here. Learning to make good judgement calls comes at the top of the list. It's been a weird summer in the Rockies. Four climbers have died so far this year, including one of my aquaintance. Another first timer was struck by lightning, after summiting late in the afternoon. This is serious stuff, folks, even if it is the greatest high I know.

My name is Adam Hawes, founder and event planner for the small non-profit organization, Climb For The Cure. We are a group of dedicated climbers, outdoors enthusiasts and social activists who have made it our lives' purpose to help end the pain and suffering of the nation's and the world's hungry. Climbing was the spark that helped opened my eyes to the problems of poverty and hunger, from travelling worldwide and climbing in places where food is scarce or non-existent, to living on very little on my own travels, experiencing a very small fraction of the pain and despair that food insecurity and hunger cause. The climbing community is a very passionate and motivated group of social thinkers, but for the most part, they are ignored by large-scale aid and volunteer ventures. All of this passion, all of this goodwill, Climb For The Cure has managed to harness it and help it grow, giving the local outdoors people here in New Hampshire and the northeast an immediate and motivating way to become involved in helping end one of the largest problems faced by the people of this planet. We work locally by holding free climbing schools and info sessions for young people, sponsor and plan climbing and social events, run food and donation drives, and do whatever we can to help educate the youth on how they can become involved. One of the best relationships our group has developed is with the New Hampshire Food Bank, who will match our funds with state funds, resulting in four full meals from every dollar we can collect and give. Our global work is based on aid to large-scale funds such as OxFam and the One Campaign, as well as direct funding to oppressed people's initiatives and farms.

By Tony Farley

My project is to create the Beautiful Places Podcast. My latest podcast is of a trip to North Dome in Yosemite. I get caught in a thunderstorm (nor problem with my Mountain Hardwear Manticore rain jacket and Mountain Hardwear Rain Pants. I was able to take beautiful timelapse movies of the sunrise and sunset. The Beautiful Places is now the #1 downloaded "Travel and Places" Podcast on iTunes with over 70,000 downloads since I started the Mountain Hardwear project.