Taking the day off to climb some red rock and soak up some Colorado sunshine at 5Point Film Festival.
I’m thankful everyday for the wonderful group of people I get to work with. It seems that even on the busiest day, someone will pop out of nowhere with a quick email, message or phone call that reminds me to stop, breathe and be incredibly grateful for the work that I’m doing. Over the last month, I’ve teamed up with a few more friends and I’m excited about what we’ve tackled so far and what is yet to come. So big thanks to…
5Point Film Festival. I’d never been to 5Point Film Festival before last year. The road to and from the festival was paved with craziness, but while we were in Carbondale, I remember feeling a sense of community that I’d never felt at a festival before. We weren’t running around, having rushed conversations and trying to eek our way into the films we wanted to see. We had the days off to hang out with good folks, climb up some red rock and soak up some sweet Colorado sun, and then we all gathered into the same room and watched the same films, together. Afterward, we all shared cold brews and talked about what we had seen and experienced. It was awesome. And I was hooked.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all kumbaya and holding hands. There was plenty of debauchery, hot tubs and fireworks to balance it all out. As I’m working with the 5Point team to get ready for this year’s festival, I’m already excited for what’s in store. Justin Clifton, you’re going to kill it. Jake Marty, you better show me those dance moves. Jenny Nichols and Andy Maser, you’re going to Wild Love all over that place. Sarah Kuck, you’re never going to know what hit you.
The White Salmon River erupting through Condit Dam, free for the first time in a century. Photo © Andy Maser
American Rivers. Have I told you how much I love free-flowing rivers? How about explosive dam removal? Oh, and what about bulldozers knocking chunks of concrete out of the river’s way? I started my career with a river nonprofit up in Bellingham, Washington and have spent most of the last decade advocating for free-flowing rivers and wild salmon in one way or another. But I’m not going to lie, I burned out. I burned out big time. I was exhausted from working on a tough campaign and feeling like I was constantly banging my head against the damn concrete dams we were trying to remove on the lower Snake River.
But then something happened. I was in a room with a bunch of rad folks at the Patagonia Tools Conference with a friend from American Whitewater on the weekend that crews cut the first notches into Elwha and Glines Canyon dams on the Elwha River. I felt something. I felt like I was going to scream and shout and start crying. And then a month later while I was packed under a tent with hundreds of people and watched crews blast a hole in the base of Condit Dam. As soon as the White Salmon River erupted through that dam, I lost it. I screamed, I shouted and cried. I hugged everyone in sight. I was no longer burned out. I was fired up.
Thanks American Rivers. I’m excited to be a part of this incredible fight. Want to fight? Do it here.
Jake Norton, renowned climber, guide and founder of Challenge21: Water For People, One Peak at a Time
Challenge21. I first met Jake Norton and Wende Valentine at Mountainfilm last year. But I first got to know them last August when they opened their home to Andy Maser, Jenny Nichols and me for our very first Wild Love interview. I was amazed by their generosity, their mindfulness and I was completely in awe at their ability to juggle two more than full-time careers, two adorable and very energetic children and still be completely in love with each other.
What’s even more amazing? They had recently kicked off a campaign called Challenge21. Jake, a renowned climber and guide, is aiming to be the first climber to complete the Triple Seven Summits – the three highest peaks on each continent – to help combat the world’s most pressing development needs: water and sanitation. His goal is to raise $2.1 million for the Denver-based non-profit Water For People and engage and impassion 2.1 million people in the global water and sanitation crisis. Wende works with Water For People and she and Jake dreamed this campaign up together. Climbing the Triple Seven Summits sounds impossible and kind of crazy, but the really crazy part is this statistic: unsafe water and sheer lack of sanitation in the developing world kills one child under the age of five every 30 seconds. A fact that drives Jake and Wende to tackle this problem each and every day.
Do your part to help here.
Thank you, and happy Friday!
