Q&A: Climber Rosemary Saal Reaches New Heights

In four months, Rosemary Saal will embark on Expedition Denali with a team of leaders in the African-American outdoor community. But their mission goes far beyond climbing the highest peak in North America. With a true zeal for encouraging diversity in the outdoors, this group of trailblazers brought together by National Outdoor Leadership School hope to inspire minority youth to take part in nature and the activities it has to offer.

Sierra magazine spoke with Saal, one of the youngest team members, about her fear of mountain lions, the thrill of climbing and why she carries around a headlamp in her purse.

What made you want to start hiking and climbing in the first place?

I just love the way climbing feels. Pulling yourself higher and higher until you reach the top. It is like you are always reaching for the next step.

I feel like a champion after climbing the flight of stairs to my third-floor apartment. What does it feel like when you reach the top of the huge mountains that you’ve climbed?

I just feel really fortunate and grateful to be able to do it. I remember when I hiked the North Cascades. It was amazing because I had been looking at those mountains from my hometown in Seattle all of my life. Now I was climbing them!

What is a must-have item for you on every hiking trip?

I have gotten so attached to my headlamp I started to just carry it around in my purse. You never know when you might need it. But a less technical item would be my journal. It is super important to have when you’re out there.

What convinced you to climb Denali now, with this group of people?

It just seemed like such an amazing opportunity. I didn’t even think about it. I was just like, “Heck yeah, I want to be a part of that.” It is a sponsored trip to climb the highest peak in North America while encouraging youth to get involved in the outdoors. You can’t pass up an opportunity like that. 

Q&A: Tyrhee Moore on Tackling Denali

Washington, D.C., native Tyrhee Moore was 13 before he saw his first mountain. Now, six years later, Moore joins a group of African American climbers setting out to ascend the highest peak in North America on Expedition Denali. Brought together by the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), these climbers are role models in the African American outdoor community, each having a passion for nature and a dedication to encouraging the involvement of minority groups in environmentally motivated activities.

With hopes to inspire people of color to explore, embrace, and experience the outdoors, this team of trailblazers will begin their summit of Denali in June of this year, on the 100th anniversary of the mountain's first ascent.

Sierra magazine spoke with Moore about the outdoors, being a city kid, and what he’ll do when he reaches the top of Denali.    

What originally motivated you to get involved with outdoor activities?

I was in the 7th grade, and my school had this summer opportunities office. I went there looking for something to do over the summer, and they told me about some camp in Wyoming. When I went, it was my first time flying on a plane or seeing mountains. And I was wondering why didn't I know anything about that at 13. I really liked the camp so I kept going back, and they ended up giving me a scholarship for a NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) course. But if it had not been for that camp that exposed inner city kids to outdoor activities, I probably would not be doing any of this.

I understand you are one of the youngest members of Expedition Denali. As a sophomore in college, what made you want to spend a month of your summer vacation climbing a mountain rather than lying on a beach somewhere with your friends?

I can always spend time with friends, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I think that's the reason that we are climbing. It is such a good cause. Right now most of my friends don't do stuff like this, but hopefully my participation in this expedition will change that.

Q&A: Vegan Long-Distance Hiker Sam Maron

Sam Maron met the Appalachian Trail (AT) in eighth grade and fell for it, hard. He was at summer camp, where a four-day backpacking trip through the Maine end of the nearly 2200-mile path settled in his bones. Maron finally trekked the whole thing almost a decade later, hiking 12 to 20 miles per day for six months in 2009. But when Maron finally did it, he wasn't eating meat anymore. Or dairy. Or honey. Maron, now 26, is working toward a masters degree in environmental advocacy and social justice from Antioch University New England. He also runs the blog Backpacking Vegan to show it can be done.

Q. What called you back to the Appalachian Trail? And why vegan?

A. What appealed to me is that it is one interconnected wilderness experience that goes thousands of miles. You’re always in the environment, you’re always in nature. That doesn’t exist many places. I transitioned to being vegan in college. That was 2005. Definitely an interest in activism and wanting to live my life in a way that is less impactful to the Earth is the primary reason. The more I learned about the environmental and social impacts of the meat and dairy industries, the more strongly I felt that I didn’t want to be a part of it.

Q. How did you prepare for the AT?

A. When I was thinking about it in the years leading up to when I actually did it, I started researching [hiking vegan] and I couldn’t find anything about it. When I started hiking, I decided I was going to try as hard as I could. I also decided I was going to start with an open mind. It’s totally doable. It’s also a challenge, but it’s really important to me. Why would I compromise something that’s important to me when I wanted to travel?

Q. Did you do this alone?

Q&A: Underwater Photographer Cathy Church

Underwater photographer Cathy Church has been exploring the ocean world since the 1960's. Inducted into the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame in 2008, Church is also a fierce activist and ocean conservation advocate with a background in marine biology and a keen eye for the underwater world. Sierra caught up with Cathy in her art gallery and photo center on Grand Cayman, where she shared her experiences with crocodiles and turtles, her fight to protect the ocean, and how she captures each moment behind the lens. --interview by Allison Montroy

Sierra: Do you ever feel that you build a relationship with the creatures that you're photographing?

Cathy Church: You do build a relationship with the feeling of being there. You may not have a relationship with a particular nudibranch — but yes, you can have a relationship with what a nudibranch is because you know how they behave and what they are going to do next. And yeah, they do talk to you — not with words — but with the way they look at you. I like to be in the water long enough and often enough that when I see something in a scene, that scene talks to me. I relate to it. The photography, the seeing the image, is definitely in your heart. 

So, how did you first get into underwater photography? 

I was a birdwatcher. I loved nature — anything natural was wonderful for me. But I knew that there would not be much future in birdwatching, and that I should become a marine scientist, because I just always loved the ocean. So, as a marine biologist it was obviously a good idea to take up photography to document my theses. And I fortunately met a fellow named Jim Church who did photography, and we continued to pioneer underwater photography together in the 70's because there wasn't a lot known about it. We had primitive equipment and flash bulbs and we would take our light meter and put it in a Skippy peanut butter jar — so there wasn't a lot of sophisticated equipment, but it was enjoyable to figure it out. And I liked the science part of it. 

Science comes into play? 

Q&A: Kayaker and Windpower Fan Jeremy Rodgers

Jeremy Rodgers is a sponsored paddler for the US Canoe and Kayak Team, and a Colorado-based chiropractor, to boot. While his big water kayaking has given him an appreciation for the outdoors, he has shown commitment to the environment by living as green a lifestyle as he can and by traveling as green has he can: in a repurposed 2006 diesel-run van or his “Ultimate Multisport Van,” which is fully solar- and wind-powered and whose wind turbine he flies as “proudly as the American flag.” In the latest of our Q&As with green athletes, Jeremy tells us why athletes have a responsibility towards the environmental movements and why all adventures require a woman’s companionship.

SIERRA: What came first: Your chiropractic practice, your athletics, or your commitment to the environment? 

JR: Growing up in Oklahoma, football and wrestling were king. Wrestling taught me many life lessons about discipline and balance that I attribute a lot of my success as a big water kayaker.

Environmental awareness was a distant thought to me growing up in the heart of the energy belt, where "if you can afford it, you have a right to consume it" This was the environmental attitude that defined the early 90's in the Midwest.

Much has changed, and I'm proud of my home state of Oklahoma for acceptance of local environmentalism. Where are your favorite places to paddle?

Every continent has jewel river basins that teach us the history of that country's own ecosystem, but if I had to commit to one place that makes the list of kayaker's best natural wonders, I'd put that place as Pacuare Canyon, Costa Rica with Southern Chile's Patagonia in a close second.

How did your commitment to green vehicles evolve--especially considering that it's not directly paddle-related?

Journey Across America: The 178-Day Hike

From stable living to the open road, Nicholas “Hobo Nick” Kleckner recounts his epic walk across the country in just 178 days—monsoons, run-ins with the law, McChicken sandwiches and all.

What made you want to head out on the road?

Well I had a good job, a house, a new car, new motorcycle. So I guess by society’s standards I was moving forward in life, but I felt like I wasn’t growing. So that’s what really started wearing on me—I just needed to break out of that rut. Eventually, I kind of pushed it to the point where I boiled over and I just came to this spot where I just decided to walk away from it all.

Wasn’t that scary for you?

Oh yeah, for sure. But I feel like I fought [that frustration and stress] for so long that when I boiled over and I walked away, I wasn’t as scared… I kind of just came to the point where I hit that peak and I knew that was what I had to do. There was no real second guessing about it, but I would say that it was just really scary in the sense of having to live on the streets. That’s just a scary thing in general.

Q&A: Wildlife Photographer Suzi Eszterhas

Wildlife photographer Suzi Eszterhas spends months in far-flung locations, documenting the family life of endangered animals. Her children’s book series, Eye on the Wild (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books) inspired a Sierra magazine slideshow. Sierra recently chatted with the California-based photographer about how long it takes to get a great photograph of a cheetah hunt, the mountain gorilla’s chances of survival, and how it feels to be slapped by a chimp.  

Do you ever get tired of looking at adorable baby animals?

I don’t. I get tired of some of the travel and some of the physical strain, depending on where I’m working, or the mental [strain]. But I don’t get tired or bored of the wildlife itself. For example, I spent five and a half months at a jackal den. Every day, all day, I sat there in front of the den, from sunrise to sunset. And for most people, five and a half months of that seems quite boring, but for me—of course there’s down time and there’s slow times—but I never felt unhappy or miserably bored. Sure, there were times when it was like, “OK guys, wake up,” but I never felt like, “Oh my god, I need to end this project because I’m bored.”

What’s the most difficult animal to photograph?

I think chimpanzees, by far, have been my most difficult, but they’re not in this series [Eye on the Wild]. So out of this series, I would say probably cheetahs, because the behavior that I captured is not easy to get. For instance, the hunting shot of the mom—the sprint after the gazelle—it took 17 days to get that photo, and it was like 17 days of nothing. There are a lot of failed hunts. And then sometimes they run the gazelle in an area where you can’t follow: a rocky area or a super-bushy area. Other times they run them in a different direction than you think they’re going to run them. For me, gorillas are the easiest by far, because they’re such incredible photo subjects. And we have an amazing opportunity to sit with these animals because of what researchers have done in habituating them.

From Whitney to Yosemite: Hiking the JMT

Suzanne Roberts, avid hiker and author of Almost Somewhere: 28-Days on the John Muir Trail (University of Nebraska Press, September 2012), takes a moment to dish on terrible trail meals, ghosts, and a woman’s perspective on hiking.

Looking back, if you could add any one creature comfort to “Big Heiny” (Suzanne’s backpack) for that hike on the JMT what would it be and why?

Nothing. I would have taken things out of Big Heiny—she was way too heavy as it was.

Out of all the people you met along the trail, who sticks out in your mind the most to this day?

The woman I called “the ghost of Muir Pass” in the book. Even if she didn’t seemingly disappear into nowhere overland, which she did, I would have still been inspired by her. She was a woman in her 70s, hiking alone, overland with a map and compass.

 

Rock Climber Chelsea Griffie Inspires Youth

Chelsea Griffie's life wouldn't be the same if it weren't for her determination to follow her childhood dreams. Chicago, where she was raised, lacked the mountains she craved, so she left to find them. Her pursuit of an outdoor lifestyle led her to excel in rock climbing and backpacking, which landed her in the hotbed of both — Yosemite. In 2001, she became the first African American woman to climb El Capitan.

Her passion for the outdoors then led her to work with youth in California cities. From 2006 to 2011, she was the program director of Bay Area Wilderness Training (BAWT), which teaches adult trip leaders how to safely guide outdoor excursions for kids and also provides them with gear.

With her inner child's determination still driving, she brought the BAWT model to Los Angeles, where became founder and executive director of Los Angeles Wilderness Training (LAWT). Just before heading into the field for a five-day Wilderness Leadership Training course, Chelsea answered a few of our questions on her accomplishments and future goals.

Sierra: How did you become fascinated with the mountains and camping?

Chelsea Griffie: The truth is, I’m not totally certain myself. My mom was a nurse, and we went to the Girl Scout camp. As a little kid — I was probably a teenager, I knew I wanted more. I knew I wanted more mountains and backpacking. And then two things on TV — mind you, this was a long time ago — were Grizzly Adams and Escape to Witch Mountain. For my first camping experience, I went on a solo motorcycling trip and I couldn’t convince anyone else to go with me. My first night I didn’t bring a sleeping pad because I thought those were for wimps. I quickly learned I was a wimp and got one the next day.

Q&A: Extreme Skier & Consultant Alison Gannett

Alison Gannett, a world champion extreme skier and climate change activist, has always had her hands full. But after a knee injury resulting from overshooting a cliff landing at the 1999 X-Games, the now 46-year-old returned to her roots as an environmental activist and climate change consultant.

She also began integrating her love for the mountains through her foundation Save Our Snow, whose mission is to educate people on global warming's impacts on glacial recession, as well as her women's adventure camps KEEN Rippin Chix.

As someone whose goal is to reduce her carbon footprint to two tons a year (versus the U.S. per capita average of 20 tons) Colorado-based Gannett takes her public role as a citizen athlete personally — from maintaining the homestead where she and her family live to the way she now skis.

In the second of our Q&A series with athletes committed to the environment, Alison Gannett shares stories of her past inspirations and future aspirations with SIERRA.

SIERRA: When did you start skiing, and how has it influenced your environmental and social outlook?

AG: I started skiing at 1 1/2 in my driveway in Massachusetts, and then at the massive 800-vertical of Crotched Mountain, New Hampshire. My dad managed the 800-foot hill, and almost all kids went there after school everyday, as we lived in the boonies and there was nothing else to do. My mom took us camping for all our vacations, and I really learned to love the outdoors and wanted to take care of it.

Was there a particular moment or adventure that led you to be more involved in the environmental movement or to start SOS?

When I was nine, I started getting really upset about my dad's styrofoam coffee cup use; after that, I just got worse through college.  Now my friends call me the environmental alarmist.

I started my first environmental business designing homes and doing energy audits and solar design in 1991, and have since founded four non-profits, including Save Our Snow. I've been fighting to make the world a better place twice as long as I have been a professional extreme skier.