Mt. Baldy Success!

Today I woke up at 2:15 a.m to climb 10,068 ft Mt. Baldy with my mentor and friend Josh. Our climb was a success and it was a perfect climb. After meeting at 3:00 a.m we hit the road and were on the trail to the Baldy Bowl at 4:30 a.m after two hours or hiking we reached the ski hut and baldy bowl. We watched the sun rise over the snow covered mountains while we ate breakfast and then we put our crampons and helmets on and started the 2,000 ft + climb to the summit. The conditions were perfect nice crunchy snow, cool temps, but a bit windy. We climbed for about two hours or so until we reached the summit. Once there we rejoiced, enjoyed the view of down town LA, Catalina Island, Mt. San Grogonio, and the greater LA area! We took some pictures then descended down the mountain... this time with style. We glissaded down the 2,000 ft we had just climbed up. Glissading is a mountaineering technique used to quickly get down large peaks were the climber sits down with his legs straight out in front and slides down the mountain using his ice axe as a break. This was one of the best parts of the climb! It was like being a little kid on a super fast slide that you controlled. It was amazing! After the glissade we packed our gear back up and hiked back out not to tired surprisingly. Then we headed to In n' Out for a much deserved meal. It was one of the best times of my life and I know I will continue climbing as long as my body lets me.

Pictures are on my facebook and on the link above.

Climb Numba 1

So I have a wee bit of exciting news. I have finally managed to schedule a date to go climbing and that day is this Friday!!! I will be attempting to climb 10,068 ft Mt. Baldy with my mentor and friend Josh. This will be my very first mountaineering experience and I am super excited! We plan to meet at 3:00 AM thats right three in the morning to be up at the trail head by 4:00 AM We will climb all morning and hope to be at the summit around noon so if your out side around then look up at the mountains and look at the tallest one you can see with the most snow on it and that is the mountain I will be on (this applies only to those living in the SoCal/ LA area.) Well its an exciting time and its only a day away I will be posting a update with pictures and video of the climb as soon as I return. Wish me luck on my first climb ever!

The Rainier of LA

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

I was able to speak to the manager at the Spring st. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and they are going to support my senior project by allowing me to set up a donation jar in their store (right around the corner from Millikan.) I will be setting these jars up on Monday or Tuesday of next week so go get some of my favorite coffee at the Coffee Bean and donate your change or give a little extra. Now I am just waiting for Ganahl Lumber to contact me about a donation and then I would have more than enough money to send 10 kids backpacking. Also thanks to my spanish teacher from freshman year my fundraising total is now $1800/$2000 only $200 until my goal is met!

muchas gracias Snr. Goldman

Also new pics of most of my gear on my photo page (link above)

Fundraising Success #1

Today I followed up on some of my leads for fundraising and I had my first success with local businesses. NHC Martial Arts gave a very generous donation of $100 to Big City Mountaineers putting the fundraising total at $1,700. I have added a link to their website above. Be sure to check them out if you are interested in martial arts, or any of the many fitness and kickboxing classes they offer. I trained in Hapkido for many years at NHC Martial Arts and earned my black belt in 2005. Again a huge THANK YOU to NHC Martial Arts! Also I am in contact with two corporate offices in hopes of getting donations from larger businesses in addition to local ones. I will keep the blog updated as I make progress.

Also If you have not donated please so what ever you can give is greatly appreciated. There is a link above to my official fundraising page. If you can not donate online contact me. I take checks made out to Big City Mountaineers or cash donations that I will send to Big City Mountaineers on your behalf.

Happy New Year!

And a great new year it will be! I have lots of news to share with you today. First I am now officially scheduled to take a three day intro to mountaineering course in the Sawtooth range of the Eastern Seirra Nevada Range were I will learn all the basics of mountaineering and climb the California Matterhorn Peak at 12,300 ft. I will be climbing Feb 19th-21st. I am also hoping to climb Mt. Baldy Sometime this month to give all my gear a test run and get used to using it all. I am also trying to schedule a climb of Mt. Langley this climb would be my tallest climb at 14,026ft and could take up to a week. Also some even more exciting news is that I have gotten some great leads on fundraising for BCM from so local businesses and even an international company. I gave my presentation to four businesses so far and they all liked to idea! Now on Monday I will follow up with three of them and possibly finalize their support. The best part is that The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf liked my idea so much that they told me I should contact corporate marketing and possibly be a corporately sponsored climber. Wearing a Coffee Bean patch on my jacket and climbing helmet. And holding a Coffee Bean flag on every summit I climb. So I will be following up with an email request I sent Thursday. This is a truly exciting part of my project and I hope that with these businesses support I can make my fundraising goal for Big City Mountaineers more of a success than I could have hoped for.