We’re always impressed when we run into people who’ve managed to build a career around their passion. On a recent ski trip to Mammoth, we tried out Black Tie Ski Rental Delivery, a concierge ski rental service. Black Tie takes reservations for outfitting their customers with ski equipment at the time and place of the customer’s choosing. In our case, it was during breakfast at our condo.
Drop off
The employees that showed up to set up our rentals were enthusiastic about their job and were more than willing to talk about how much they loved the customer service side of what they do.
Intrigued by the business model, we were able to meet up with Jeremy Goico, who along with Colin Fernie, owns the Mammoth Mountain Black Tie business. Jeremy is from West Hartford, CT and Colin is from Columbus, OH and both are only 28, a young age for ski industry entrepreneurs. They met while playing soccer at The University of Rochester and ended up heading to Steamboat Springs, CO after graduation. Rather than pursue 9-5 jobs, they followed their passion for skiing by seeking employment at the original Black Tie business.
By being excellent at their work for three ski seasons, easier when following a passion, they were asked by Black Tie’s CEO’s, Joe Sternberg and Ian Pritchard, if they would open their own franchise-type operation at another resort. They wrote up a business plan and sought investment from friends and family. From a short list, they chose Mammoth and are now in their third season.
Meeting Jeremy
In Jeremy’s words, “We offer a premium service with premium equipment that we call ‘Excellence Delivered’. We took the most difficult part of a ski vacation and made it a lot easier, smoother and more enjoyable.” Being the closest major resort to Los Angeles, you can imagine that they attract their fair share of celebrities, but also the rest of us who appreciate ‘breakfast ski rental service’. No one enjoys the rental experience and Black Tie made ours easy and convenient.
They have five vans and eleven employees now and Jeremy even sits on the Mammoth Lakes Chamber of Commerce, demonstrating their acceptance in their adopted community.
Not willing to stand still, they are increasing their inventory, which is now over 700 pieces of ski equipment and are looking at ways to perform financial transactions ‘on the road’. We really enjoyed the experience and the chance to see young, passionate skiers doing what they love for a living.
A business trip to Orlando gave us an excellent opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Less than an hour from the Orlando Airport, the Center is an easy day trip into scientific reality so close to a city full of theme parks selling a world of fantasy. Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong instead of Mickey Mouse and Goofy. We stayed at one of the many hotels in nearby Cocoa Beach and planned to spend a full Sunday at the Space Center.
Exploration
For a government facility, it doesn’t come cheaply; adult tickets are $43 apiece. What you get, on the other hand, is to stand in the place where the greatest explorers of our time launched into Space. This is our modern equivalent of where Columbus departed the Old World, Shackleton stepped off for the South Pole, and Hillary departed for the summit of Mt Everest. Going into the unknown is something only a select few humans have ever done, and not all have returned to talk about it. It is the sort of adventure that is quite different from anything we do on our typical trails and peaks. We needed a visit to the Kennedy Space Center to get an idea of how these things are attempted.
Kennedy Space Center
The first thing to learn at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC, locally) is the enormity of the property itself. It takes a few miles of driving through Florida scrubland to reach the Visitors Center, which is still a few miles from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), one of the largest buildings in the world. It is large enough that there are coach buses as part of the tour.
We started with the IMAX Theatre and a surprisingly good film about the history of the Space Shuttle and International Space Station. From there we walked the Rocket Garden with its outdoor display of the various rockets used for space missions from the program’s start in the 50′s.
Launch Center – 39
Leaving the Visitor’s Center on NASA’s white buses, we made our way to LC-
39, home of the Observation Gantry, where 30 years of Shuttle launches were watched from a safe distance. It was a brief stop with a movie about the dedicated ground crews that made the Space Program so successful despite the difficulty and setbacks.
From there we boarded a different tour bus with a talkative and distracted driver who crossed the center line and nearly went off the shoulder as we careened toward our next stop. He managed to avoid an oncoming bus on the narrow road, and we were relieved to make it to the Apollo/Saturn V Center.
Apollo/Saturn V Center
The best film of all was the one we saw upon entering the Apollo/Saturn V Center, our third stop. It was a short but a very inspirational film about the Space Race and Kennedy’s commitment to land a man on the moon (and get him back safely–the part many forget). It covered the triumphs and the terrible tragedies the program experienced on the way to the Moon. There were several clips of rockets blowing up on launch, turning toward the earth just after lift off, and rockets off course needing to be remotely destroyed. They covered Apollo 1‘s tragic fire during a test and Apollo 13‘s “successful failure” when the crew was able to figure out how to survive multiple system failures and make their way back to Earth safely after Lovell’s famous, “Houston, I think we have a problem.” By film’s end, the viewer had a very good idea of just how heroic the engineer’s, mission planners, controllers and the astronauts really were.
Leaving the small theater gave us a big surprise as we looked up and realized we were at the bottom end of an enormous Saturn V rocket lying on it side…all 111 m (363 ft). Each of its 5 engine nozzles were 6 m (19 ft) across and the nose cone of the rocket was far, far across the building. Walking the length of the rocket and reading the information about each stage and how it fit together as a single spacecraft took around an hour. This was truly the most fascinating part of the day and also the most crowded with tourists.
Besides the rocket, there were also examples of the Moon Buggy, the Lunar Landing Module, Apollo 14′s command module and various versions of spacesuits, including early models looking like they came from Buck Rodgers’ wardrobe. There were moon rocks in glass cases around the facility, including one that visitors could actually touch. These displays, unlike the Space Shuttle, were a part of a glorious past that seemed more from another time than the more recent Space Shuttle missions.
Far more than a touristy place, the Kennedy Space Center is a very well-documented display of the greatest achievement in exploration. The best time to visit is Sunday morning when the whole story can be digested without distraction and fully appreciated. Save plenty of time for the Apollo/Saturn V Center, too, as it has the most to take in. This is an inspiring place and you will leave with a different perspective on what was truly achieved. Don’t be surprised, however, when you are asked to exit through the gift shop.
A couple of years back, we met Lee Farmer through a friend when we were visiting the UK. He seemed an unassuming fellow and we were surprised when our mutual friend brought up after a beer or two that Lee had just climbed Mt Everest. We don’t know if we’ll ever make it to Mt Everest, but we’ve watched every documentary we could find and think that it may happen for us someday. We asked what was probably too many questions, and Lee was more than happy to share his adventures with us.
Seven Summits
Since that evening at the pub, he has become one of only 272 people in history to complete the Seven Summits; climbing the highest point on all seven continents. When you consider that that includes the infamous Mt Everest, the deadly McKinley and Antarctica’s Vinson, you realize what an amazing achievement this really is.We had a chance to interview Lee recently about his remarkable achievements. If you want the numbers and dates, check his website…we were most interested in how and why he did it:
JRT: How did you end up as a mountaineer? Did you just fall into it or was it something you planned?
Lee: It really happened by accident. I was into hill walking and general outdoors and I suppose you look up and see things that are high and snowcapped, and wonder, “What’s up there?” For me, it all started on Mont Blanc in 1999. I was looking for camaraderie, beautiful scenery…short term objectives. I didn’t start as a small boy saying this but I can’t sing, can’t act but I can put one foot in front of the other and do it for a very long time. I have great stamina and I’m happiest when it is a 15-20 hour day. I realized it was something I was just good at, but don’t ask me to do a 100 meter dash. I’m not a sprint guy.
JRT: Did you plan to climb the seven highest peaks before you climbed the first, or was it an idea that came after?
Lee: Around 2000 I went into a very old-world second hand bookshop in my hometown. It was one of those Indiana Jones/Harry Potter moments. I found Steve Bell’s book, “The Seven Summits” and said “Here’s something an ordinary guy could do.” It was before I did any of the summits and it started something. I had left an international company because it wasn’t working out for me so I started my own business. When the money came in we made plans for Kilimanjaro. I was a real estate broker and still am, and it has given me the finances and freedom of time to go do the Summits. About 272 have completed the task according to Harry Kikstra‘s site.I expect I’ll be about 275th around January or February 2012. My climbs happened in this order:
2003 – Kilamanjaro, Tanzania, and Mt Elberus, Russia
2004 – Vinson Massif, Antactica, by flying in from Chile to Patriot Hills (most expensive of all of my climbs)
2005 – Koskiuscko, Australia
2006 – Aconcagua failed attempt
2007 – Aconcagua failed attempt
2008 – Mt Everest – Southeast Ridge as an unguided expedition, as the youngest member of the team and the only one to summit with just one Sherpa. I met Hillary when I was 15 and never expected to walk in his footsteps
2009 - Aconcagua, Polish Traverse, on third attempt after weather and my wife’s AMS stopped the first two attempts
2010 – Delayed to join friends the following year
2011 – Mt McKinley, Alaska by the West Buttress leading for 8-13 hours
JRT: What is the hardest part of the profession of mountaineering? What would you say in warning to someone considering this as a career?
Lee: Raising funds, keeping fit and keeping a focus. This doesn’t attract the same sponsorship or prestige as golf or Formula 1; There’s a constant striving to find something new. I’ve thought about doing the other peak of the nine that make the list (Karstenz Pyramid, Indonesia) because few have done that. I’d like to go back to the Himalayas and Africa and am planning to go back to Africa next year. I’d also like to pick things we can do together and find things that would be of interest to my wife. I’d like to see more of Namibia, Ethiopia, Cameroon and Sub-Saharan Africa in general. I sometimes think of the lyrics of an 80′s pop band song, “The Look of Love”, where they sing, “Raise your sights but lower your aim.” I’m looking a lot closer to home.
JRT: What is the stickiest situation you’ve found yourself in? How did you manage your way out of it? What did you learn from it?
My worst have involved people not even in my group. I was climbing Cho Oyu between Nepal and Tibet and saw refugees being shot by Chinese border guards. They could have arrested or shot all of us. This became an international incident and ended up in a documentary called, “Tibet: Murder in the Snow”.
Another time, I was leading a team on Mera Peak in Nepal in 2009 and we were met by roadblocks set up by the Maoists. My clients asked me to sort it out with 200 or so die-hard party members. I was so glad I had long pants on because my knees were shaking. I had to do a parent-child thing with him and try to take control. I told him we were British and in his country to climb his beautiful mountains.
There have been close calls physically but nothing serious. I’ve had porters get sick but we monitored them and everyone made it. Altitude hasn’t been a problem because I often climb something else beforehand. I believe I’m naturally good at altitude. I Have never had headaches or been sick.
JRT: What comes next after the Seven Summits?
Lee: I’m a Fellow at the National Geographic Society and I’m very interested in walking where people went before. I’m and adventurer and mountaineer but not an explorer. The lack of knowledge the explorers had in those first trips is like landing on the moon for us today. They went to the white spaces on the map. Shackleton, Lewis and Clark and the others…they were the space explorers of their time. The 100th anniversary of Captain Scott’s expedition to the South Pole is next year and I wouldn’t mind being part of it.
Our life revolves around getting outdoors and hiking, trekking, and climbing. All too often, I’m the only woman in sight and often draw comments from the men in our group or people we meet, amplifying the fact that so few…too few…women are out in the mountains. I’ll admit that it isn’t the same in every part of the planet, as we notice in Nepal when we mix with people from France or other parts of Europe. But most of the world over, it is the a fact that women make up a small part of the adventurers.
I’m drawn to women who get out there, and few are as noticeable as Melissa Arnot, world-class climber and mountain guide with First Ascent. As I stress to prepare our climb of Mera Peak, Nepal (6476 m) over the next three weeks, I find support from other women that help me to know I can do this. I had the chance to ask Melissa a few questions recently, and found her responses to be very inspirational.
The interview
JRT: How did you get started as a climber?
MA: I grew up in the mountains of Montana and Colorado and my parents were incredibly supportive of an outdoor lifestyle. So of course I rebelled and went to college in Iowa! After I graduated I came back to Montana to visit, and a friend of mine had started climbing. He slowly started teaching me and it began to shape everything that I did, from free time to the jobs I was taking. I became involved in medicine so that I could be more self-sufficient in remote areas and I literally spent all my free time either rock, ice or alpine climbing.
JRT: What were your early barriers that you had to break through?
MA: For any climber just starting out, a huge barrier is finding people who you trust who are also willing to teach you. I was lucky and had a great group of friends who were exceptionally patient. But climbing is hard and it takes a level of mental commitment. I had to make choices to train harder and put myself out there in situations that I knew I might not succeed with. That is incredibly challenging if you are used to staying inside of your comfort zone.
JRT: There aren’t many women who climb. Do you ever feel cultural pressure to explain why you’re one of the few?
MA: At any given mountain I travel to, women make up about 10% of the climbing community. That is pretty small. Often people ask me if I am going to stop climbing to have a family or when I am going to quit. It is hard for people to understand that climbing is my passion and I am a much better person when I am following my passions. I also find it interesting that people often expect the women on the team to be weaker, less knowledgable or need more help. That is just not true. It is one of the many reasons I love climbing big mountains- they don’t care what your gender is. It is equal work for everyone. Last spring I attempted to climb Makalu with my climbing partner and fellow guide David Morton. We went unsupported (meaning using no Sherpa or BC support). It was a significant amount of work for both of us, but an excellent example of how it doesn’t matter your gender, each person has to put in the work for success.
JRT: Would you like to inspire other women to become more involved in climbing?
MA: I find climbing to be incredibly grounding as well as confidence building. Every time I see women out climbing, I try to make strides towards creating a supportive environment for them. Being the minority is difficult at times but it can also lead to opportunities the majority would never have. If I put myself out there as a women in a very male dominated industry hopefully another women will know that she is not alone as she gets out there.
JRT: Have you had signs of success in getting more women involved?
MA: In the last 8 years of working as a professional guide I have seen the number of women participants rise. Interestingly the desire for ‘all women’ trips has decreased. That is success to me. Women wanting to get out there and play and not worry about being the only girl. I am often told by male clients and guides that having a female on the team offers a nice balance and they would prefer it.
JRT: What are your ultimate goals?
MA: You know, I never set out with a goal of climbing Everest or doing it multiple times. I have just tried to stay open to the opportunities that appear for me. With that approach, I would say I just have a goal of climbing honestly and honorably and respecting the mountains and the people in the places I travel. I would also love to help inspire people to try things and chase their dreams. I am just an average girl who had a tremendous desire to learn and commitment to work hard. Anything is possible that way.
JRT: What do you see as the biggest challenges standing in the way of your goals?
MA: It is difficult to keep your focus genuine as you gain more success and notoriety. I find myself asking the question of ‘why am I doing this?’. If I am doing it because I want to then that is climbing honestly. If I am doing it for someone else or what I think I will gain, then I think I begin to lose the solid foundation of being in the mountains. The greatest successes are the ones I feel and no one ever knows about. This is a dangerous sport with real risk and so I have to be sure I am doing it for the right reasons.
These are the words that self-describe Tony Yeary, our favorite resource at the Arcadia, California REI. His knowledge and stories were so extreme that the first few times we met him, we struggled to think he wasn’t making it up. As we knew more and realized it was all true, we knew we needed to find out more about his crazy, adventurous life.
We sat down in our favorite sushi restaurant a short time ago and this is what we found out. The arrogant punk is now gray-haired and mellow, but he told us that back in the day it was about being excellent and being able to brag about it. As he tells it, there was the Sierra Club school of thought to climb through the grades, be safe and don’t take risks. Then there was the group he fell into which was, “Climb everything you can until you fall off…it makes you learn fast.”
When asked what made him a mountaineer, Tony explains that he started by reading a book about Sir Edmund Hillary’s conquest of Mt Everest in 1953. He thought it looked like a “cool” thing. Shortly after, Mt Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountains became his Everest and he climbed it many times.
Tony’s first higher altitude climb was Mt Whitney by the main trail in 1973, but his first truly high venture was in 1983 when he climbed Mexican volcanoes over 5600 m (18,500 ft). Soon after he was in Costa Rica, Guatamala and Nicaraugua passing through checkpoints manned by government soldiers in World War II surplus uniforms and American weapons, and then 50-60 km down the road, another checkpoint manned by guerillas armed with AK-47′s and wearing Levis. He learned Spanish on the streets of places like Mexico City and Lima…much more useful than the German he had learned in high school.
Inspirations
When asked who were his inspirations, Tony cites John Bachar, one of the best solo climbers in the world in the 70′s and 80′s. He also lists Hermann Buehl, an Austrian who pushed the boundaries of alpinism by applying its techniques to high Himalaya peaks. The last inspiration Tony brings up is Tobin Sorenson, a climber who died in 1980, but not before earning consideration as the finest all-around climber in the US.
Funding passion
Financing his passion involved making money where he could, which included working for Patagonia’s Yvonn Chounard in Ventura, California in 1975 when the business was still the Great Pacific Iron Works and the products were equipment and not clothing.
In true climbing style, Tony spent 32 years and 1o months (his words) working for Ralphs Grocery in Southern California, where he could accrue a great deal of vacation time and also switch to part time when his vacation limitations held him back from his passions.
Best climb
Tony’s best climb was in 1973 on the French Route of Huascaran Norte in the Cordillera Blanca of Peru. He explains that it isn’t about success or failure in reaching the peak, but about the struggle. This climb was a failure measured against attaining the summit, but a great adventure of spending three days and two nights on a ledge at 21,000 ft waiting for a storm to blow through. While his favorite place was the Sierra Nevadas growing up, it is now the Cordillera Blanca. As he explains it, there isn’t a peak in the range more than two days from Huaraz, Peru, a place some call the “Chamonix of the Andes.” His favorite place to stay? Casa de Zarela, the climbers HQ when in the area.
Worst climb
Tony’s worse climb was in June 1974, at the Palisades, the most alpine-like peaks of the Sierras with jagged needles and a significant glacier. Tony and his climbing partner, Steve Evans, were camped on the glacier when they heard a noise and saw something come down Clyde’s Couloir very rapidly. It turned out to be a 16-year-old named Dale Snyder from Lancaster, California. He fell400 meters down the gully onto the ice and was killed instantly. Tony and Steve spet the next three days helping to carry the body out, including spending a night in the local sheriff’s station. Before that, Tony says that he never contemplated death even while he saw broken arm and other injuries, but never saw death. By the time they brought the dead teen down, the teen’s parents had already read about his death in the Lancaster paper. Tony sums it up with, “I’ve had friends die, but nothing like that.”
Future plans
What’s up next for Tony? The peak he’s dreamed about for at least 25 years, Alpamayo in the Cordillera Blanca of Northern Peru. At 5497 m (18,034 ft), it is not just a tall mountain, but its heavily glaciated peak is one of the most photographed in the world. Tony plans to tackle his dream mountain by the French Direct Route, one of many ways to the top. We’d love to join him if we can be ready.
His dream stems from a trip in 2002 when he was in Peru with six other climbers. The group was divided on whether to climb Alpamayo or Huascaran and it came down to the flip of a US quarter. A friend won the toss and left for Huascaran, while Tony’s group went to AlpaMayo. On the way back, he stopped to talk to American trekkers who let them know that three Americans were killed in an avalanche on Huascaran. It was his friends and they died in an avalanche based on the outcome of a coin toss. Such is life when it is lived to the fullest.
Adventurous life
Tony isn’t a wealthy man by American financial standards but he has spent a lifetime of ‘earning’ memories from fantastic experiences. He has more interesting stories from his life than can be adequately covered in this post. He has lived a life of maximum adventure that is still underway and adding new chapters. We draw inspiration for our adventures from people like Tony. If you want to meet him, he’s often found at REI Arcadia helping people with some of the best advice they can get on not just equipment, but on where to go and what to do. Thank you to Tony for all you’ve helped us with and for the awesome stories.
In a recent post, Why would a blind person climb a 10,000 ft. Mountain?, we wrote about a group of blind Braille Institute students who climbed Mt Baldy in Los Angeles. It was a maximum adventure for those involved, both the students and the sighted guides. Just before they climbed the upper section of the mountain, a laptop was produced and they were shown a video created just for them by a blind mountain climber, Erik Weihenmayer, who gave encouraging words to the group. They went on to achieve something they had never imagined before the adventure began.
Erik
As the story was being investigated and written, we learned a good deal more about the climber from the video. We found out Erik has climbed not only Mt Everest, but also the six other highest peaks of all of the continents in the World. That means places like Indonesia, Argentina, Alaska, Tanzania, Nepal, Russia and Antartica, where getting there and back is a significant part of the adventure. Sometime last year, we watched Erik’s movie, Blindsight, about taking six blind Tibetan teens to Lhakpa-Ri 7010 m (23,000 ft) in Tibet, very near Mt Everest. We were also aware that he was competing in a reality television show, Expedition Impossible.
Erik was popping up everywhere in our lives, and we weren’t looking for him. A quick google search produced more links than we could check about climbs in every part of the world. It became clear very quickly that Erik has done far more than the Seven Summits…he has done more than any sighted person we know. It is easy to spend hours just reading about about what he has done and it became clear that he lives a life that goes far beyond the publicity and beyond ‘good enough for a blind guy’. Erik truly lives it and his lack of sight is maybe a footnote to his accomplishments.
Because of our story about the Braille Institute students, we were able to interview Erik earlier this week. Just before we had the interview, Expedition Impossible came to a conclusion and Erik’s team, very appropriately called No Limits, finished in second place (but not by much) to an excellent team. They didn’t “almost win despite Erik being blind”…their greatest obstacle was the severely injured ankle of their teammate, “Ike”. There was nothing about Erik’s blindness that kept his team from beating most of the teams, most of the time.
The interview
MA: We read that you were the wrestling captain for your high school in Connecticut. You have a habit of doing things that people won’t understand at face value. Is this your plan or just the way it has worked out?
Erik: “Not a plan except for the fact that I want to live an adventurous life. I want to live an exciting life. I don’t want to be shoved to the sidelines, which requires me to suck it up and have a good approach to adversity. This means learning to problem solve your way through big walls that sometimes pop up in your path. I’m not trying to prove to the world anything.”
MA: For the Braille Institute students in Los Angeles, this was their first time hiking, much less climbing a mountain. Where would you like to see them go from there?
Erik: “I can only answer for my own projects, like where I volunteer and helped found an organization called No Barriers. We use all types of on-the-edge sports and activities to teach people how to shatter barriers and stretch themselves. We teach to build a team around you and trust people and be trusted in return. Whenever you go through the process of doing something exciting and being stretched and maybe doubting yourself, it helps you develop a particular kind of mindset. I mean whatever the process is…it doesn’t have to be hiking, climbing or anything.”
MA: Do you see yourself as an anomaly/outlier or as someone that many could emulate?
Erik: “I don’t think I have any qualities that are better, smarter or any more exceptional than anyone. In a way I’m an anomaly because I do things that other blind people or others with disabilities haven’t done, but I don’t think that leads me to think I’m different from anyone else. I’ve been lucky to be able to be tough, have discipline, be a pragmatist and not worry about things too much. I was on a radio show and a blind guy called in and said, ‘I have been blind for 25 years and it hasn’t gotten easier, but I’ve never found it easy and accepted it and just want my sight back.’ He’s a guy who will die unfulfilled because he’s going down a deadend street. It is a futile exercise to say, ‘what if’. The question you ask yourself is, ‘how do I do the best with what I have around me.’ I don’t think people do that enough. It’s why I’m a pragmatist.”
MA: Do you often provide encouraging words to groups like the Mt Baldy students or was this something different?
Erik: “I thought the idea was very cool project and I applaud the efforts of those who organized it. There’s only one of me, and I’m glad I could take part.”
MA: What do you see as your role in inspiring the blind? Do you hope to inspire the sighted as well?
Erik: “I for sure think that’s the case. On Expedition Impossible, I was racing with my team across Morocco against sighted teams, including NFL players and we were beating them. Most of the comments I got were from families saying, ‘Your show was really inspiring.’ ‘Your courage is inspiring and my kids have a new hero.’ It is more about families and kids and having someone to look up to. It is embarrassing and uncomfortable to be that person but we need that role model in life.”
MA: You just came in second in Expedition Impossible and didn’t end up having the biggest physical challenges on your team. At one point, Jeff Evans commented to you and to Ike, “I can make one complete person from the two of you.” How do you feel about that humor?
Erik: “I grew up with brothers who pounded me into the ground. Jeff is like a brother who doesn’t have to be politically correct with me. There is humor that is demeaning, like a blind comedian I once appeared with. There are always extremes but Jeff respects the hell out of me. There was one guy on the show who was about to be eliminated and said, ‘I should just follow Jeff’s pack like you.’ And I replied, ‘You wouldn’t last five minutes.’ Jeff, Ike and I bust each other all of the time.”
Final thoughts
It was great to talk with Erik because he had the best combination of modesty and strength. He didn’t have to search for answers and it was more difficult to keep up with his responses than to get him talking. Erik inspires us and we wish him the best in all he does (which we’re sure will continue to be remarkable).
On July 19, 2010, the message was posted on the Baldy for the Blind website, “Mt. Baldy was a success!!” The dream of reaching the summit of Mt Baldy, the 3248 m (10,068 ft) peak that dominates the the horizon to the southeast of the City of Los Angeles had been realized for a group of eight blind students, sixteen sight guides, and one leader, Chris Lynch, of the LA Meet-Up hiking group.
One member of the group, Melissa Hudson, is a friend of ours and an inspiration to us as she goes through life with what could be considered a significant disability, but for her is just another challenge to overcome. Not only does Melissa work through the challenges of not having sight, but she was diagnosed at 3 years old with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, the initial challenge that led to blindness and attacks the cartilage in her joints, even her feet and knees. Quite a lady.
Chris’ perspective
This dream started in the head of Chris Lynch, a writer based in Los Angeles. His own journey started when he joined the Meetup LA hiking group in Los Angeles four years ago as a way to prepare for a planned climb of Mt Kilimanjaro. As he saw some of the slower hikers getting discouraged by the fast pace of the younger and faster people, Chris decided to start a series of hikes he called “Slow-poke to the Summit” with the first climb to the summit of Mt Baldy. He’s now taken about 60 people to the summit…60 people who never thought they could get there.
Chris found helping people to push the envelope to be thrilling. This led him to the Braille Institute and the idea of taking blind students to the top of Mt Baldy. The first meeting gained twenty signups, which was pared down to two groups of seven, but finally became a core group of eight who achieved the summit. Starting four months before, they began a series of hikes with the blind students using his Meetup group members as the guides. First, there was a great deal of practice around how to lead the sight impaired, then gradually increasing distances and elevation changes…first 3 miles and 300 feet at Chantry Flats and then had hikes of increasing difficulty and length over the next four months. As Chris tells it, he realized that this was really likely to happen when the group successfully hiked Ice House Canyon to the Ice House Saddle (from 4,900 ft to 7,555 ft over 7 miles), then Mt Baden Powell (from 6,593 ft to 9,399 ft over 8 miles). Chris says, “On these hikes, even those who had a tough time made it, and keep in mind that some of the students were older and blindness was only one thing to overcome.”
Chris is very humble about his role in the climb and points out, “”I rarely led anyone or had anyone holding onto me because the sighted guides were doing it.” He adds, “I was the experienced person who knew the trails, knew first aid, etc…but the people who did the yeoman work were the sighted guides.”
The unexpected
When you ask Melissa or Chris what the biggest initial challenge was, they won’t say fitness or desire. It was transportation. The first time they met for practice was at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles and it was quickly apparent that getting so many people, including those reliant on others for transportation, to meet far from the day’s objective wasn’t going to work. Chris thought about the problem before pairing people up based on geography. It worked. Not only would the sight guides help on the trail, they would also make sure that everyone arrived in the first place. As Chris puts it, “There were days when there were people hanging onto your arm for ten hours and then had to be driven home.”
Melissa’s perspective
For Melissa, the hardest part was a section called, “The Devil’s Backbone.” This is a narrow section that follows a ridge top, with one side dropping toward Los Angeles, and the other toward the High Desert to the east. Just before this section, Chris Lynch stopped the group and let them know that he had done this part blindfolded with a sighted guide just to know how to help others through it. Those words were meant to be reassuring, but in Melissa’s case, caused her to be afraid and think seriously about heading back down. She didn’t, however, and to this day considers that one of the many things she overcame through this event.
Melissa credits Chris with starting small, with manageable distances and terrain so that people thinking, “I can’t do this,” would learn to press through their fears. He also gave advice on how to be prepared with the right shoes, trekking poles and backpacks for the trip.
When asked why she decided to do this, Melissa says, “I decided to go because of my husband, David. He started hiking as a fitness program and became friends with many other hikers. I decided to see what hiking was about so that I wouldn’t feel like an outsider.” She had difficulties in getting started, but soon realized that “everyone else is blind, too.” It became easier when she knew she wasn’t alone and blindness was no longer her challenge.
When asked the question, “What did you learn from this?” Melissa responds, “I learned that I can do more than I thought. Mentally, we put barriers on ourselves. Along the way, we possibly taught the sighted people more than they taught us by teaching them that we’re everyday people who have more things in common than they thought. Hiking is also more mental than people think, as it becomes, ‘one foot in front of the other’ on the way to the top.”
Melissa has a guide dog, Anya, but didn’t take her along for this adventure. Melissa explains, “While it isn’t impossible to bring a guide dog, it is hard for the guide dogs to decide how to find the safest path. It is confusing for the dogs that are trained to get around obstacles when the whole path is made up of obstacles.”
First Annual Mutt Strut
Anya will be guiding Melissa at the First Annual Mutt Strut in Los Angeles, CA on September 10, 2011. The Mutt Strut is sponsored by the California Council of the Blind and Melissa is the chairperson for the Los Angeles event. The Mutt Strut is being put on to raise awareness of the CCB, an advocacy group for blind and visually impaired. Melissa points out that it is “of” the blind and not “for” the blind, meaning CCB isn’t made up of sighted people helping blind or visually impaired people; it is CCB made up of blind people. Advocacy is their mission, and as an example, CCB was key in getting ‘talking ATMs’ started in California and then at a national level.
Beyond advocacy, CCB has scholarships for vocational or graduate schools, crisis intervention funds for people going through tough times, especially with all of the funding cuts happening due to overstretched budgets. They help people who are going blind and match people up with other groups that can help, such as Guide Dogs for the Blind.
The movie
A story this interesting needs to be told, and there is a movie in the works that was started before the climb. At the website for Baldy for the Blind, you can read the following:
“Baldy for the Blind is the story of 11 blind students attempting to summit the highest peak in Los Angeles County. Boasting a height of 10,068 feet, Mt. Baldy is the ultimate challenge for this extraordinary group. The film showcases their expedition into great heights, featuring their varying levels of visual impairment, diversity, and remarkable desire to realize their goals. Led by mountaineer Chris Lynch, the students experienced a series of seven training hikes over a total of four months, preparing them for one of the biggest achievements of their lives.”
Erik created a video message for the group that Chris Lynch played on his laptop at the Mt Baldy Lodge. Knowing that someone as inspirational as Erik was aware of their attempt was a significant morale booster for a group out to meet their own challenge. In the video, Erik told them that he was following the groups progress and urged them to reach the summit and conquer their own doubts and fears.
The best description of what Melissa and the others are doing is found in the description of the documentary, “a film about summiting your own mountains.” They are an inspiration for anyone who wants to accomplish the seemingly impossible.
We’re always impressed when we run into people who’ve managed to build a career around their passion. On a recent ski trip to Mammoth, we tried out Black Tie Ski Rental Delivery, a concierge ski rental service. Black Tie takes reservations for outfitting their customers with ski equipment at the time and place of the customer’s choosing. In our case, it was during breakfast at our condo.
The employees that showed up to set up our rentals were enthusiastic about their job and were more than willing to talk about how much they loved the customer service side of what they do.
In Jeremy’s words, “We offer a premium service with premium equipment that we call ‘Excellence Delivered’. We took the most difficult part of a ski vacation and made it a lot easier, smoother and more enjoyable.” Being the closest major resort to Los Angeles, you can imagine that they attract their fair share of celebrities, but also the rest of us who appreciate ‘breakfast ski rental service’. No one enjoys the rental experience and Black Tie made ours easy and convenient.
For Melissa, the hardest part was a section called, “The Devil’s Backbone.” This is a narrow section that follows a ridge top, with one side dropping toward Los Angeles, and the other toward the High Desert to the east. Just before this section, Chris Lynch stopped the group and let them know that he had done this part blindfolded with a sighted guide just to know how to help others through it. Those words were meant to be reassuring, but in Melissa’s case, caused her to be afraid and think seriously about heading back down. She didn’t, however, and to this day considers that one of the many things she overcame through this event.
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