Fundraising Mission: Accomplished!

As much as I love being around people - especially friends and family - I consider myself relatively introverted. My good friend Sarah says I'm an introvert with extrovert tendencies, meaning I love being around people and being social, but need a significant amount of alone time, what I affectionately call "Katie Time" to recharge. That being said, I have difficulty figuring out how to handle situations in which I receive attention and encouragement, including big birthday parties....and fund raising efforts that result in my receiving significantly more support and generosity than I ever imagined possible.

I'm elated to say that with the support of 63 incredible donors, I met my Summit for Someone fund raising minimum of $4,000 tonight. Reaching that goal took 52 days. I'm speechless, absolutely floored, and not entirely sure what to say to everyone who helped me. Except thank you. And even that doesn't seem to be enough.

I knew that Big City Mountaineers was important to me, but had no idea how many of you would rally around me. I had donors explain how they loved the BCM concept and others who seemed more concerned about helping me whether the cause mattered to them or not. Every time I received a donation, I had to spend a minute or two, or ten, trying to figure out how to explain to that person what they've done with their gift. And what that gift means to me.

With so many incredibly deserving organizations and so many people in need in the world, I am so touched that those 63 people felt Big City Mountaineers and my Summit for Someone climb was one of them. Donations came from some of the most unexpected places - friends of friends, college classmates I haven't seen since graduation, colleagues and coworkers across the country, family friends - and I'm more than grateful for the generosity of people whose lives have been intertwined with mine in some way, and who understand what this climb means to me.

So, from the bottom of, as my friend KatieBeth would say, my incredibly full and grateful heart,

THANK YOU!

Summit for Someone Progress Email #1

I decided to send our progress emails to all who donated to my Summit for Someone climb. But it didn't sem fair to limit it to those people! Here's the first, enjoy!

Thanks so much for your incredible generosity and show of support for my Summit for Someone climb! Each of you have done something amazing for me and Big City Mountaineers (BCM). With your help, I'm currently only $245 short of my fund raising goal! I'm so humbled by the support I've received, and can't thank you all enough.

I'm planning four update emails between now and the day I leave for Mount Rainier in August. My goal is to be sure you can to follow my preparations and understand who you've helped. Whether you realize it or not, your support is what will get me through the toughest training days and the climb itself! But most importantly, your support is going to help some very deserving kids.

What Does your Donation Help Do?

BCM provides an outdoor mentoring experience for under-resourced teens that positively impacts their beliefs in themselves, with regard to age/ethnic diversity, environmental awareness, and interpersonal relationships. Each BCM trip places four or five adult leaders with five teens. The groups then go on seven-day life-changing outdoor excursions together!

BCM certainly doesn't expect every teen on every trip will become an avid outdoors person. Rather, it's a chance for the kids and their adult mentors to learn from each other far away from the normal constraints of life. As a result of the exposure and relationships formed with adult volunteer role models, these teens become better equipped to make critical career, educational and healthy lifestyle decisions.

For ever $1 raised, $0.77 of it goes directly to the Recreational Mentoring Program. The additional $0.23 goes to fund the costs associated with the Summit for Someone climb series.

I can't even begin to explain what being able to test my limits with outdoor activities has done for my belief in myself, and my relationship with the environment. I also know what a difference adult mentors have made in my life, many of whom are on this email list! And to give these kids a chance to have the same experiences is so important.

Who I'm Climbing With
I chose the Mount Rainier Women's climb for a couple of reasons, but primarily because it's something I've always dreamed of doing. And I think standing on the summit with eight other women will be the best feeling in the world. And three of these women are friends of mine! We'll be climbing with three female guides from Rainier Mountaineering, Inc., one of the oldest guiding companies in the area. Some of the strong and talented ladies I'm climbing with include:

• Alicia MacLeay, founder of trailspace.com and mother of two
  
• Amy O'Connell, Creative Services Manager for CamelBak and mother of two
• Hillary Harding, employee of Big City Mountaineers and mother of one
• Lory Stimson Stabolepszy, 45 years old and mother of two
• Candace Edmonston, rock climber and social media expert for Kitsap Vertical World
  
• Sara Lingafelter, lawyer turned field representative for Waypoint Outdoor
• Tiffany Royal, media expert and climber extraordinaire

Thanks again for your support, and I'm looking forward to updating all of you on my training progress in the next email!

TerraMar Trip Report: Pinnacle/Pulpit Winter Hike

It was a perfect, beautiful Sunday for a hike to the Pinnacle, touted as one of Pennsylvania's greatest vistas. AT thru-hikers have remarked it's one of the prettiest views in the state, and I'm beginning to agree with them! We did the hike as a group this past August, but visibility was so awful from a thunderstorm rolling in that we didn't get to see more then three feet in front of us when we got to the vista. I told other TerraMar guide on the hike with me that I didn't believe there was any vista at all! But I was definitely proven wrong this time.

We left Philadelphia at 7:30am and were out on the trail by 10 in a group of 16. It was in the mid-30s in the morning and snowing, but midday the snow let up and the sun came out! We all had trouble finding room for extra layers in our backpacks when it warmed up. I was comfortable hiking in a base layer with my rain coat and rain pants on, despite having brought my down jacket and assuming I'd need it.

The trail begins with a gentle incline, then rises sharply a mile in. After another mile and a half of climbing, we reached Pulpit Rock, pictured at the left. It was absolutely beautiful, and also marked the end of the really hard part of the hike! The trail was pretty well packed down up to that point with obvious steps up to Pulpit Rock. No one wore crampons or used trekking poles, and we rarely punched through the snow pack. It was great! Pulpit Rock is a turnaround point for some hikers, and others proceed another mile toward the Pinnacle and bail out on a red-blazed trail. The trail between Pulpit Rock and the Pinnacle wasn't as well stomped down, but we still had no trouble navigating.

We reached the Pinnacle just after 1pm, pictured right, and the view was certainly worth the trip! It dispelled any doubts I had about its existence. The snow still fell a bit, but the sun was weaving in and out of the clouds, casting shadows on the hills around us and the landscape below. It was beautiful. We stopped for a snack break and photos, then proceeded down an abandoned fire road back to the parking lot. We met a group of snowmobilers on the way, and I was thankful they'd packed down the snow for us!

We arrived back at the cars just after 2pm, which is the fastest I've ever hiked that trail with TerraMar. A group of us were anxious to make it back home to watch the Canada vs. US Olympic gold medal hockey game! I walked in the door just as the second period started, and spent the afternoon watching the game while Dan, who's Canadian, bantered back and forth with American friends on the phone.

It was a perfect day for a hike, and a great, enthusiastic group of TerraMar folks. We're doing the Pinnacle/Pulpit hike again in April, but the next hike we've got coming up is one of my all-time favorites - Mount Tammany Hike and Pie!

TerraMar on Twitter!

I'm happy to announce that my adventure group, TerraMar Adventures, now has a twitter account! Follow @TerraMarAdv for the most exciting upcoming events, notes from group guides/organizers, and anything else that has to do with playing outside around Philadelphia!

This is particularly exciting to me because I blog about events I do with TerraMar all the time, but to my greater readership, I'm not sure I've done the best job of explaining what TerraMar is and what my role is within the group.

Essentially, TerraMar Adventures is the largest outdoor adventure group in the Philadelphia area. We specialize in local and regional outdoor events that help our members meet other like-minded individuals, and help them understand what beautiful Pennsylvania has to offer. We work with some of the best guiding services and experts to bring safe and exciting experiences to our members. From hiking to adventure racing, from powered paragliding to skydiving, and from rock climbing to ice climbing, we've got it all!

I found the group when I first moved here via the meet-up webpage, http://www.meetup.com/PhiladelphiaAdventure, and the group has easily doubled in size since I joined. I wanted to meet people who liked hiking and climbing, and people who knew where the heck to go around Philadelphia to do it! I've ended up meeting most of my best friends in Philadelphia thanks to TerraMar. I was brought on as an assistant organizer/guide/Adventure Consultant for the group to help manage the climbing-related events, and haven't turned back!

If you live around Philadelphia, in New Jersey, in Delaware, or just want to check out what I spend most of my weekends doing, check out our website, http://www.terramaradventures.com, or follow the group on twitter at http://twitter.com/TerraMarAdv!

Valentine's Day Ice Climbing

I'd venture to guess most of you who read my blog don't believe in a typical Valentine's Day celebration, or at least find creative ways to express love. Don't get me wrong, I adore flowers and being doted on and celebrating and dinners out! But I can't think of a better way to spend a Hallmark holiday rooted in the celebration of love than playing outside.

Sunday was a beautiful day in northern Pennsylvania, and a perfect day for what might have been my favorite TerraMar Adventures event to organize of all time: a mountaineering and ice climbing skills day! I started working with Brett Simpson, Associate Director of the Quest program at Bloomsburg University, a month before the event. Of course, with a sport like ice climbing that's so completely dependent on weather, we did our best to plan and crossed our fingers, hoping the ice would stick around long enough. Working with Brett was an event organizer's dream come true - everything was as smooth as butter on my end!

After several days of 40º F temperatures at the end of January, I was a little concerned about the conditions. But then Mother Nature walloped us with two feet of snow, it got considerably colder, and all was right with the world!

We met at Ricketts Glen State Park Sunday morning and spent an hour getting geared up. We hiked an hour in through snow covered trails and around beautiful waterfalls. The park is know for its 22 named waterfalls, one of which is 94 feet tall. Perfect for ice climbing! We split into two groups during the hike in. The first group, led by Brett, was comprised of more experienced climbers, i.e. those of us who'd used crampons before. We got right down into the gorge and on the ice. The second group, let by Jeremy, spent a little more time learning how to walk with crampons and move with an ice axe.

Brett and his team from Quest (Jeremy, Lee, and Tabitha) had set up four topropes for our group of 16 people. We had the gorge to ourselves all day, which surprised me. I couldn't wait to get started and jumped right on a 30-40' NEI 4. The Quest team had set up ropes on three other climbs as well, and I'd guess the rest were NEI 2-3. The ice was perfect, just soft enough, and I managed to make it up the NEI 4 climb with a few falls, mostly a result of poor technique. Two other TerraMar members, both first time ice climbers, made it up that route by the end of the day. We were all whooping and hollering when Carla, a brand new ice climber and triathlete extraordinaire, made it to the top on our last climb of the day.

RE: bad technique - I have a tendency to stand up on my toes when I have a solid grip on the ice with my crampons. Lifting your heels or moving your feet too much at all once you've placed them wiggles the crampon points around in the ice, causing them to slip out. It's an unpleasant surprise if you're in the middle of placing your ice tools!

We all rotated through the four climbs, getting in two or three climbs on average. Other things we were able to cover included:

• belaying - a good number of people had never belayed before
• ice screw placements
• ice anchor building
• movement with an ice axe
• characteristics of ice that is safe to climb
  

I was incredibly impressed with how well everyone did through the course of the day, considering many had never seen an ice tool before! Making it up an ice climb for the first time is an incredible feat, much less those who were able to climb the NEI 4 on their first day. It was a great learning experience and a whole lot of fun!

A big thanks to Brett, Jeremy, Lee and Tabitha for taking such good care of us, and for helping us all have a unique and incredible Valentine's Day on the ice! Check out the Quest program, too, they have a couple of really amazing international trips coming up, including Portero Chico rock climbing! And thanks to Cory and John for the photos!