The Yin & The Yang

Before I made it out to Lone Pine for the trek to the ceiling I had to make a stop in two very distinct and different places. First off was the western side of Sequoia Kings-Canyon National Park. Here the largest living single organisms on earth have been quietly standing for over two millenium. The Giant Sequoia may not be the tallest but is certainly the largest in volume. Nestled in a large grove at nearly 9,000 feet lies the largest of them all- A Tree named General Sherman. Its hard to imagine when you first see it that it is the largest single living thing on the planet until you stand right next to it. I was equivalent to a mouse standing next to a six foot man. Things come into perspective.

The same can be said when I hopped over to Death Valley. Death Valley is the beauty that come from the death of the dessert and Sequoia Kings is the beauty that come from the life of the mountains. Its funny how the lower you go the hotter it is and the higher you go the colder it is. Lying only a mere 75 miles from each other its ironic that I should be able to visit both the lowest spot in the United States and the highest spot in a mere two days. Perhaps their proximity is not such a random act of nature. Having such extremes face off each other gives the other a reference for what they are. A tall man is simply a man if there are no short people around.

You are forced to stop and ponder about your place in the world when you stand in the shadow of 2,700 year old living giant. Think of all that has changed in the life of something that has lived that long? Now think of what little has happened in your short little life. Feeling small and insignificant? Perhaps not. Had I not known better I would have said that this giant seemed lonely. But I knew that our encounter gave each other purpose.

Raising money for kids by climbing a mountain may be one small rock, but if we all did something similar than we would create our own landscape. The power of collective positive action by many is more massive and powerful than any one can be.

We all may be just a small branch growing on different trees but together we create the forest-no matter how different we may seem to be.

Why Whitney?

There are other more high profile mountains to tackle. It may be the highest but it certainly is not the most well known or hardest. It is not frequented by many or talked about often yet there it stands, alone, and in a place that few visit. It is the pinnacle of a mountain range I have come to love. Something about that speaks to me. There will be nothing more pleasing to me at this moment to stand upon its east flank as the early morning Sierra light rises above its neighbors. It is my ambassador into the mountaineering world.

As Clarence King once wrote:

"Among the many serious losses man has suffered in passing from a life of nature to one artificial, is to be numbered the fatal blunting of his senses."

Its time to awaken those senses again. With that, I am off.

We have done it!

3,800 Dollars Raised....

....in 125 days. 59 individual donations. Bothering as many people as I could. With one talk at a gear store. One fundraising event AND as many email and Facebook posts one could muster.

A heart warming thank you to all my donors below! (thus far)

	De	Haddad
	Dory	Watkins
	Alan	Cascio
	Maureen	Fitzgerald
	Ann	Lee
	Sarah	Gippin
	Rachel	Shaftman
	Marcy	Patterson
	Annemieke	Farrow
	Melanie	Fazio
	Marissa	Marco
	Kathryn	Becker
	Paul	Cascio
	Brandy	Wargo
	Robin	Lynn
	Catherine	Darrott
	Kate	Silber
	Vincent	Giamalva
	Susan	Sondgeroth
	Mike-Tisa	Johnson
	Lisa	Jamhoury
	Kimberly	Pike
	Kris	Wagner
	Joseph	Roccasalvo
	Maureen	McCafferty
	Rebecca	Parrello
	Tedda	Finch
	Keri	Johnsrud
	Stacy	Weller
	Renee	Emery
	Holly	Feather
	Rachel	Darrow
	William	Wargo
	Carissa	Gehl
	Anthony	Napoli
	Amy	Clemons
	Rachelle	Hoffman
	Nikki	Hill
	Tai	Badziak
	Kathleen	Jamhoury
	Jessica	Roach
	Mary	Trotter
	Julie	Heath
	Lauren	McCarthy
	Becky	Brewer
	Jirina	Ribbens
	Tony	Di Sante
	Bruce	Roberts
	Mary	Dearborn
	Shane	blodgett
	Nina	Barreiro
	Adrienne	Friedlander
	Rachelle	Hoffman
	Stacey	Gunderman
	Jason	Nadziejko
	Jose	Gallardo
	Rocco	Papandrea
	Nanette	Norcia

Cosimo Bruzzese

A Big Thank you to both Holly Feather and Rachelle Hoffman for both donating TWICE!

Thank you Matt Wilson for motivating me.

And a big Thank you to the 24 of you that came to my Fundraiser and donated.
Not to mention Sheila Simmons & Stephanie Hatfield for helping me throw it.

Kathryn Becker for coming out to my talk and supporting me.

Both Eastern Mountain Sport and Tents & Trails in NYC for helping me promote the cause!

And last but not least Holly Feather (again) for helping me across the finish line...

I am completely humbled by your generosity.

Next stop. Mt. Whitney. If I could take all of you with me to the top I would... but I think my back would be sore from carrying you all.

My Quads Hurt...

I am a pretty naturally athletic person. I usually don't have to work too hard to be active. But then again I will be turning thirty-three the week after my climb. It's that time in my life I suppose where I need to start actually working at being active. I suppose the greatest birthday gifts are the ones you yourself work the hardest for.

Training your body to exceed its natural limits and tendencies is both motivational and exhausting. With my new job and hectic schedule I can fully admit that I could have probably done more but I did my best. Deep down I know that I will be fine either way. But it's good to feel you need to work a situation from every angle.

And worked it I have. I have worked in everything from Hot Yoga every week to attending a rock climbing gym in Brooklyn. Daily exercises on my living room floor while I watched the last season of Lost. I have gone rollerblading in Central Park so much over the past couple of months that the wheels on my blades have completely warn away. I have even run up and down the three flight of stairs in my apartment building about a billion times with my pack loaded. What was it loaded with? A bunch of old hardcover books, a Winnie -the -Pooh stuffed animal and an old 1940's telephone weighing about -40 lbs. From that I can gather you are thinking two things. 1). I hate gyms. 2). My neighbors think that I am nuts. Both of which would be correct.

Will it be enough? I don't know. I have never climbed a mountain before.

But there is something that I do know about myself. It won't matter. Because when I get excited about something that spring of happiness comes from within-like a child opening their gifts at Christmas. Once it realizes where it is at-my body will remember the training that it had and find a way.

Lost in a Mountain of Gear

When Clarence King in 1864 was attempting to summit Mt. Tyndall in what he thought was his pursuit of the top of Mt. Whitney the sport of Mountaineering was in its infancy. He was more surprised than any that he missed his mark by more than a mile-obscured and disoriented by a passing Sierra storm. Still mistakes like his were rare and what people were able to endure and accomplish in such a simple age was inspiring. What he didn't know he had he didn't need. His list of gear was staggering for what he was about to attempt. A simple nap-sac, a blanket, a pair of leather boats, one lasso, and some dried bacon and coffee for nourishment. To keep himself warm all he had was a blanket and the body of his climbing partner Richard D. Cotter to barricade himself from the alpine cold. People that can endure such conditions with ease and grace, and without complaint are of a different worldly mind than most. It's a single minded mentality that few it seems these days can afford.

Fortunately for me, -or unfortunately depending on the way you look at it-there has been 150 years of advancement (or de-advancement) in the field and in what you can bring with you to those hard to reach places.

Had I a chance I would have happily lended Mr. King my Garmond GPS. Perhaps then he would have set foot upon the right summit.

For the past two months I have slowly been researching the right gear. Most of it came to my house the other day in a big box resembling Christmas. It was as it turned out a bit more synthetic and plastic than what King would have imagined. But what I have to imagine is do I really need all this? There are gaiters, helmets, ice axes and fleeces. Pocket knives, backpacks and a sleeping bag. A carabiner, a climbing harness and a pair of snow shoes. I know own enough layers to clothe a small army. It literally fills up my entire dinning room. Yet.... somehow I am supposed to schlep all of this on my back, up the tallest mountain in the lower 48, and into the thinnest air I have ever breathed? Isn't some of the point of this to be freed from all that binds us?

Perhaps I am forgetting something here.

The most important piece of gear that I could possible take with me are my own two feet. After all they are what will carry me into this predicament and will, with a bit of luck, carry me out. And thanks to EMS I am now the proud owner of a pair of Scarpa Omega Mountaineering boots to protect them. The number one rule in the wilderness is to protect your feet. And I have paid healthy to do so.

For all I care I could go naked now, just as long as I have my boots on. Try that one on for size Mr. Clarence King.

Newtons Law

One of the great think tanks in my life (beside my own shower) is the New York City Subway. I had a thought while riding the subway today. I watched as the subway car came to a screeching halt mid-tunnel as it so often does. Its motion was brought to a standstill by the forces that acted against it: traffic ahead, a red signal, some mass transit workers working on the tracks. We lay motionless for several moments. Then, as suddenly as we were brought to a standstill, the car began to lurch forward again in motion. I watched as the bodies of the passengers across from me jerked backward in inertia as if they had wanted to stay motionless. A momentary struggle had occurred.

I realized something that I had inherently always known. There is a constant force in our lives that combats the direction in which we should be moving. We constantly work and fight to combat this natural tendency. We strive to remain in shape. If we didn't then we would be unhealthy. We fight to maintain friendships and relationships in our lives when we tend to be too busy. We fight to stay focused and accomplished when the tendency is to turn the TV on. We try to give when we want to keep. To trust when it is so easy to mistrust. To get back up again when naturally we fall.

The power to move forward in any direction is driven by our own internal desire to go places. I am sure there is someone out there that can argue the otherwise but it seems to be that the nature of our lives if not acted upon by our own desires is to remain distracted. Some of the most successful people in the world are those that recognize that natural tendency and drive every aspect of their lives in the opposite direction.

I ask. Why does it have to be this way? Why should the things that we perceive as good be such a struggle to maintain?

Perhaps my quest to climb Mt. Whitney and raise these funds is my own attempt to move in the opposite direction of things. The past three weeks I have succumbed to the natural tendency to be too busy at work, distracted by things that really don't matter, and depressed on the outcome of my fundraising. But I must remind myself to keep the motion going. After all if I didn't strive to climb to the top of a mountain then the naturally tendency would to be stuck at the bottom. Think of the perspective I would lose.

One of Newton's laws states that an object remains at rest until acted upon by an outside force. He obviously was not taking into consideration the inside forces of a human being.

I have to wonder what was he doing when he thought of that?

Oscar's are like Climbing Mountains

Come out to support BCM, my Summit For Someone climb and watch the Oscars in style!

This coming Sunday March 7th I will be hosting an Oscar Viewing Party to Benefit Big City Mountaineers and my climb!

Location: The Grisly Pear
107 Macdougal Street (Between Bleecker & W3rd)
New York, NY 10012 US

When: Sunday, March 7, 6:30PM

What's cooking for Oscar night?

Oscar Viewing on big screen TV's and surround sound!

Drink specials:
*Ladies Guinness $7
*All Well Drinks $7
*Cosmopolitans $8
*Bud light/Dos Equis $6
*Food Specials

*Proceeds from these help fund the cause! COME HUNGRY!

Raffles for Best Picture/Best Actor & Actress/Best Supporting/Best Director and more! Have a chance to win some extra cash!

OSCAR Bingo!

Character artist on spot to draw your charactercher!

2 Dollar shots every time someone crys during their speech!

AND CRAZY AUTHENTIC BELLY DANCING ALL NIGHT LONG!

Come early if you want to laugh at the red carpet dresses!

$10 Dollar donation at the door that directly benefits kids who need mentoring and off the street! Free Bud light or soda as your first drink!

Invite your friends, all are welcome!

Swanky Dress optional!

-Steven

Publically Speaking..

Hi Folks. This coming Tuesday I am going to be giving a presentation at Tent & Trails about Big City Mountaineers, Summit for Someone and my climb. Tent & Trails is a gear store down on Park Place in Lower Manhattan. I will be presenting upstairs. Wine and cheese included! All are welcome to attend! Click here for their website!

Big City Mountaineering /Summit for Someone Presentation

Hear about the Summit for Someone benefit climb series as they climb North America’s most renowned peaks. Summit for Someone’s fundraising contribution allow inner-city, urban teens a chance to experience the wonder of the wilderness for themselves. Big City Mountaineers’ programs focus on reaching kids who would not have the opportunities otherwise.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 @ 6:30 pm

Tents & Trails-21 Park Place New York, NY 10007

For more info and to sign up in advance call: 212.227.1760 - seats are limited!

Subway:

2,3 to Park Pl, or N, R to City Hall.

Olympic Fundraising

There is nothing like the Olympics. Every two years I am glued to the TV for two weeks. I am not a big fan of watching sports on television. I think it has something more to do with the fact that it reminds me that if you work hard and focus you can basically hit your mark. People like Lindsey Vonn or Bode Miller astound me in that fact that they have tuned their entire lives in the pursuit of a single goal. I am never happier when I see them accomplish that goal. If I had but an ounce of the determination they do than my task at hand would seem simple.

I am up to my eyeballs in fundraising. Not only is it a difficult time to raise money, I am unaccustomed to this sort of project. To date I have raised $1725 dollars. This is a mostly due to the grace and love of my friends and family. To them I shout out a big thank you. In a week I will hit my first fundraising deadline. My goal was to raise 2K by then. With one week left it may still be in sight. But with everything that I do there is method to madness.

In order to climb I must raise $3800. No small feet in this economic climate. My plan is the following:

$2000k-Pestering friends, family, business contacts
$600- Fundraising event on March 7th. (Oscar party)
$200-From my talk at Tent and Trails (Gear Store in NYC) on March 2nd
$500-Corporate Donation
$500-By grace of God (in other words I have no idea where this amount is coming from)

This break down is a complete guess. I am not going to lie to you when I say this is extremely hard. There are days when I wake up and ask myself what I committed myself too. Sometimes people have astounded me with their generosity and sometimes I dumbfound at the fact that they will spend $50 dollars on a single lunch but won't give the same to an incredible cause. At the least it has been a lesson in human nature.

Fundraising is a funny thing. Its a fine line between gently nudging people in a certain direction and being a persistent bastard. I find I live somewhere in between. It's a constant state of purgatory ready to fall over the edge in either direction. It's a spot that is hard to live in until the goal is met. The purpose is of course worth it otherwise the deed would not be endured. For all my reminding, pushing, and persuading one ideal must be kept in the for-front of the picture. What ever raised, whatever endured is for the direct benefit of our next generation. If you give to this cause remember it is their benefit. Be the next Lindsey Vonn and donate today. I will leave you with the faces that you will help change. (video below).

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

As with any quest the line that takes you there is not always forward. Sometimes you have to take a few steps backward to start moving forward again. I received word today that my good friend Matt Wilson will not be making the climb with me. Matt is a good friend of mine from college. He living in Denver, Colorado and I NYC, we had been talking about doing Summit For Someone for several years. We had always wanted to strengthen our mutual love of the outdoors by bridging the miles between with a mutual cause. This Christmas when he had phoned me up and said that he had gotten a green light from his doctor and had signed up for the same climb as myself I couldn't have been more elated. My decision to pursue this goal seemed somewhat vindicated. Here was a chance to spend some quality time together doing what we both love best. Here was a chance to have someone else to bounce ideas off of and to motivate each other to the top. People rarely accomplish great things solely on their own. They often have the support of their family and friends to get them there. I was lucky enough to have a good friend walk with me to the top.

Matt has a medical condition in which puts his chances of climbing with me very unlikely now. At this point I don't know if he will climb this year or perhaps the next but we can still support each other. We just won't be standing on that mountain together. He still is raising money for the cause and if you wish to support him click here. It's not life threatening but I wish him a speedy recovery.

We can spend our lives accomplishing one goal after another but if those accomplishments are not shared in the company of good friends or family then at times those pursuits can almost feel hollow. It's of course not. However I can't help but feel that way sometimes. I shall continue to move forward as I always do. Alone and persistent. There is nowhere to go but up. I will climb for both us Matt.

Little Green Blinking Cursers

I am not sure what people did without the wonderful world that is the Internet. I was in high school when it caught on. It was a strange world filled with blinking green cursors and giant floppy disks that could store a whole megabyte of information. The very fact that you are reading this is due to that little green blinking cursor that I remember from my friend Mark's basement computer. He was the first of my friends to have Internet at home. At that point a web page didn't even exist yet. Who knew 15 years later our entire grown up lives would revolve around the informational and social highway that little green cursor would eventually create?

Well I am glad that little green cursor grew up because the Internet is definitely helping the Summit for Someone cause. Word is getting about the climb. Recently Big City Mountaineers posted a short entry about why I am climbing on their own blog. Check it out at by clicking below:

Why I am Climbing:The Big City Mountaineer Blog

Also a big thank you to Eastern Mountain Sport for linking my blog to their Facebook, Twitter, Meet-up, and Craigslist pages. A very big hello to my new readers!

And last but not least a big thank you to the that little green blinking cursor for making the leap into adulthood. You will certainly be used to your full potential on this summit bid.

It Comes in Threes

I live in New York City. To say that things are saturated here is an understatement. In volume alone your choices are much more complicated because you have that many more options. Should I take this job over another? Is it Ethiopian or Indian tonight? Should I date this person or that person? Technology and the accessibility of information has only made it worse. Blackberry or IPhone? I often wonder if life would be simpler if I had fewer options or if I knew less about the options that present themselves to me. One can become lost in the endless sea of opportunity. With out clear goals there is no one path but many paths that lead nowhere.

This is why projects like Summit for Someone are important. It is a clear obtainable goal that helps give focus to people who need it. Its the ultimate in a win-win situation. It gives clear focus to both the kids it benefits and the those that are climbing for their benefit. We need projects like this to keep ourselves on track. Otherwise we are just floating around trying to navigate the waters and hoping we make it to shore.

I saw the movie "Avatar" the other day and when you see an epic movie like that you can't help but wonder how they did that. It's simply really. They take it apart piece by piece and focus on one thing at a time with a clear goal . The goal is a piece of art that is solid story telling, artistic genies, and a clear picture of a world in which you want your audience to live.

The goal of my Summit for Someone project is three fold. Exceed or hit my fundraising mark. Make a difference in someones life. Make it to the top of the mountain in one piece. From there I am sure the picture will be all encompassing.

To reach those goals I must focus on what will get me there. It seems my choices are clear. The only way to the top of Mt. Whitney is by focusing on three things.

1). Fundraising
2). Gearing up
3). Training

My next entries will outline what I intend to do for each. Noting that intend is the operative word in that sentence.

Big City Mountaineers

"Sometimes the only way to change a teen's perspective is to provide an entirely new one"

I first learned of the Summit For Someone Program in 2007 when I was chosen to head a team of five guys into the Montana Wilderness to map the Continental Divide Trail for BACKPACKER Magazine. One of those guys had just gotten back from climbing Mt. Shasta for the program. All week long and on the trail he regaled us with stories of how he received a mountain of gear in a large box just like Christmas. He couldn't stop talking about how transformative a program it was for both him and the kids that it would benefit. I am an avid backpacker and outdoors man and I had always wanted to make the transition to climbing mountains. Here was a clear cut program that not only gave me the opportunity to learn the sport of Mountaineering, but way to give back to the community and make a difference in someones life at the same time. I knew then and there that this was for me.

Based out of Boulder Colorado, Big City Mountaineers (BCM) was founded on the principal that a one to one ratio mentoring experience is the best vehicle for providing self esteem and guidance for inner city youth. What better way to do so then in the great outdoors? Wide open space is something of which most of these teens do not get an opportunity to experience. Their main program is called R.E.L.A.T.E. (Recreational Experiences Linking Adults & Teens Environmentally) which matches five adult mentors with five teens for a week long single-gender backpacking or canoeing trip. These trips provide teens with opportunities to cultivate relationships with caring adult mentors promoting self awareness, self-efficacy, and communication. They then follow this program up with their G.O. program. These consist of one day programs which usually involve climbing, mountain biking, or snowshoeing. They are designed as a follow up to the R.E.L.A.T.E program and are a way for the kids to continue the relationship with their mentor. From there they can enter their G.O.A.LS program where the alumni kids can move into a leadership role with in the BCM organization. In 2008, BCM delivered more than 2500 program days to teens across the country. This time is almost matched by volunteers that help run the program. Learn more by clicking here.

Created six years ago, the Summit For Someone (SFS) program is their main source of income. SFS climbs contribute to about 61% of their annual operating budget. And a whopping 100% of the SFS programs proceeds go directly to benefit Big City Mountaineers. Without this fundraiser they would simply not be able to survive. Since all of us climbers are volunteers their operations are low. If you were to contribute one dollar to my climb-$.77 goes directly to BCM and only $.23 of that dollar goes to operating the SFS program.

When I was a kid I had the fortune of having a complete family structure and woods outside my back yard to play in. I would spend days in those woods running around and building forts with my older siblings only to be recalled back for dinner by our screaming mother. (how trusting they were back then). At the time I was just being a kid. However, when I look back on it now I was learning self reliance in the great outdoors with those that were older than me. Now its my turn to be the older person and give back.

Help Big City Mountaineers do the same.

There is Will, There is Way

"If we are sometimes at pain when realizing within what narrow range of latitude mankind reaches finer development it is added humiliation to experience our marked limitation in altitude. At fourteen thousand feet, little is left me but bodily appetite and impression of sense"

-Clarence King 1873

In 1873, Clarence King, then a young man of twenty nine, had finally attained his goal. He was standing on "The highest peak in all the land". Many years before in 1864, while serving on the California State Geological Survey he had spotted that same peak from six miles north atop Mount Tyndall-a peak he had thought at the time to be the highest. Upon discovering a higher peak to the south he named this high peek in honor of his survey leader Professor Josiah Dwight Whitney. Three attempts and nine years later Clarence King would finally set foot upon the summit of "Mt. Whitney" on a clear day in September 1873.

Little was known about mountaineering in those days. If someone wanted to climb a mountain all they needed was a rope and will to go. Nobody had been there before so there was no precedence or standards to guide you. There was no safety equipment or guides to provide safe passage. Every step taken on such a journey was a fine line between failing and succeeding. King was a unique individual in the fact that he faced the unknown with great stride and imagination. He simply looked up and through the great sea of precipice, stone, and danger he found a way to the top. Such singular vision is motivation for great accomplishments.

A little over three weeks ago I signed on to such a journey. In late April of this year I will attempt what Mr. King took three tries to do. But this time the route is laid out and I will have the knowledge of hundreds of people before me to get me there. This time, however, I will only have one try to do it. For many having one try at all is enough to change a life. My motivation is not the singular glory of accomplishment but a bigger cause: those unfortunate enough to not have the opportunity to try.

In the next four months I will train, attain the necessary equipment, and raise money for a Summit For Someone benefit climb of Mt. Whitney. The funds I raise will support Big City Mountaineers who mentor inner city youth on wilderness trips throughout the country. Like King my challenge is the same. I have never climbed a mountain of this stature before. To train, raise funds and gear up in the time allowed will be a difficult journey.

From where I sit now I do not know the path to the end of all this. But like King before me I must try. Join me as I make this journey. These pages will be for you-all those that support me in this cause.

I propose to make this an active discussion medium. So chime in and lets start the climb together.

-Swargo