At 9:30 AM, on April 27th, our Summit for Someone team topped out on Mt. Whitney via the mountaineer's route.
Along the way we had a heck of a lot of fun, and managed to raise a combined 30K to help get at risk youth out on their own wilderness adventures!!
To learn more about Summit for Someone and Big City Mountaineers, (and doing your own climb or volunteering as a...
"Take us back to sea level!" scream the traitorous, cowardly, jello stick legs that now flap jack in scattered rhythm, attached by pure happenstance it seems to the equally traitorous lungs that, had they not long ago ceased to contain any oxygen, would surely have spilled the most embarrassing of betrayals. The granite tufts and red dirt of a steep mountain path leave little doubt that, despite the inner voice which assures me repeatedly that I have arrived at the gates of hell, I am in fact in Boulder, Colorado.
"During our time in Nicaragua, Forest and I traveled from region to region visiting over twenty villages. Each one had a different story to share.
Some had completed projects, and some were waiting for funding or still constructing their wells. In the villages without wells, people hiked anywhere from ten minutes to an hour and a half (round trip) to collect water. Of these, most have to make several trips a day to the source and some then have to boil the water before it is safe to drink....
Canyon's account of our first day visiting the Por Venir water projects:
"Juan’s motorbike sputtered to a near standstill as we bounced up yet another rocky hill. I felt the throttle release and prepared for the downshift that would send the bike lurching forward and nearly topple me backwards once more onto the mercilessly gouged up washboard of a dirt road behind us. 1,500 miles from home, one kilometer to La Ceibita.
[...]
In early March, my younger brother Canyon and I detached ourselves (somewhat reluctantly) from the revelry of carnival and our new friends in Rio and headed north into Central America.
Attempting to fly out of Sao Paulo, we were kept from boarding the plane by an agent who said we couldn't leave without yellow fever vacinations. Nine hours and a couple wasted plane tickets later we found ourselves airborne and heading towards Nicaragua, where we planned to spend the next couple of weeks volunteering with El Por Venir, an organization working to bring clean water and...
