We had our Climb for Clean Air Kick-Off for our 2010 climbers last night! It was another full house. We had such a great time and it was so great to meet so many of the climbers this year. We began with a slideshow from a past climb year - it has great footage on the mountain and up at Camp Muir. Lou Whittaker, legendary mountaineer and our Honorary Chairman, was there to welcome everyone and get everyone pumped for the next few months!

We had a 2009 Climber's Panel with Don O'Neill (from The Ron and Don Show), Jenna Edlund, Jeff Allen, Jeff Rafuse, Shae Wyatt, Russ Gambil, and Teresa Kuzmer. They gave a highlight from their climb expierence and then a piece of advice to this year's climbers. Biggest take home point for fundraising advice was to open your heart and share your story as to why this climb is important to you and why you and participanting in this event. Making it personal when you ask people to donate to your climb is really important.

We had our first Climber's lotto of the year. Eveyone who is interested buys as many tickets as they want ($1/ticket). Whosever name gets chosen wins the pot and all the money goes towards their fundraising. We got up to $68 last night and the lucky winner was Don Morgan!! We had some other great raffel items too - 2 really nice winter backbacking books from Mountain Hardwear and 3 Nuun waterbottles with a tube of product inside. During this time, one of our 2009 climbers stood up, Shae Wyatt, and offered to make a $100 donation with a matching gift from Microsoft to the next name pulled.  That is a $200 donation and very generous. Thanks Shae!!

Jake Platt from NW Crossfit was there to talk about how crossfit can be an incredible way to cross train for the climb. Obviously, hiking and climbing are the best ways to train for Rainier, but crossfit is such a great workout and can really help you get in the best shape possible for the climb. Check them out at www.nwcrossfit.com.

We also had Mike Gore from Nuun at the event to speak. Nuun is sponsoring the climb this year and is a really great way to stay hydradted throughout this training process. Nuun is a local Seattle company and is growing exponentially as people try and love their product. www.nuun.com

After a short Q&A we celebrated the end of the night with some birthday cake for Lou and Mark. Lou Whittaker's birthday was last week and Mark's is tomorrow. 2 incredible men who have helped make this event so successful over the last 23 years - we couldn't do this without them!

We have our first training hike on March 6 at Rattlesnake Ledge and then our next meeting on March 10. I'll hopefully get some pictures up soon!!  

In the history of the Climb for Clean Air this is the earliest that we've ever had to cut off registration! This is very exciting for us are happy to announce they will will be doubling the number of spots for next year from 45 to 72!

I have been working with a lot of the climbers on beginning their fundraising and training - everyone is doing a really great job. We were able to open the 2010 Climb registration in October of last year which is very early. I believe that for the Climb it is essential to begin the fundraising aspect of this event right away. For so many people the hardest part about fundraising is just beginning - but once you start and see the donations begin coming in it gets a lot easier. As a group so far we've raised over $38,000 which is absolutely fantastic.

We are so excited to be able to share our adventures with you over the next several months! I will be posting updates and pictures from our monthly meetings and training hikes.

There have actually been some really good mountaineering articles that have come out just this week. One from the Seattle Times NW Weekend http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outdoors/2010974287_nwwrainier04.html

And another in Outdoors NW Magazine http://www.outdoorsnw.com/c_editorial/Pursuits/Climbing/Purs_0110NWMountaineers.cfm

Both articles include information about Lou Whittaker, our Honorary Chairman for the Climb for Clean Air. Lou will be celebrating his 81st birthday on Feb. 10 and we look forward to doing some late celebrating with him at our 2010 Kick-Off on Feb. 16.

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves." --John Muir

Hi Everyone, welcome to The Climb For Clean Air Blog.  Feel free to post comments, and if you would like to post new topics, send them to me clapping@alaw.org and I'll post them up for you.

-Carna Lapping