Yosemite, CA – June 2008

22 Jun Yosemite, CA – June 2008

Success beyond my imagination! In planning this Half Dome event, at first it seemed unrealistic, and quite possibly delusional. Without the help of such spirited people being in the right place at the right time, my hope for actualizing the “human heart” would have been scuppered!  But, because of my amazing team of supporters along with the “kindness of strangers”, we pulled it off! To prove we actually did it, Click Here to view a few photos.

I will say this idea didn’t come without the typical set of obstacles.  Yet, as illustrated in my book, obstacles are only present when you take your mind off your goals. As such, no one in the course of history has accomplished anything by letting weakness or obstacles stop them, and it didn’t stop me. A few of the challenges we had to overcome were:

• Approval from the National Parks Dept.  (Note: While quite comprehensive, I honor the work they do to maintain the natural beauty of Yosemite Valley).
• Convince friends and supporters to hike up the back side (over 8 grueling miles, each way) and bravely negotiate the daunting cables at the top.
• Rally supporters to haul up over 225 Oakley commemorative tee shirts to the summit and hand them out to strangers. (By the way, each tee shirt weighs about 1/2 a pound. A special shout-out of appreciation to Dave Slater, who made over 6 trips up the cables in just 2.5 days carrying loads of tee shirts, water, ropes, etc. Suffice it to say, Ironman has some competition!
• On the uneven surface of the top, create a heart, 100’ x 100’, and make it actually look like a heart! Per the project engineer, “It’s funny that when things are planned and the plan works, that the result is something akin to magic.”
• Pull on heart strings of others ~ with a compelling story and reason to “hang out” on the top on an exposed, hot, and sunny summit, some for over 1 hour, all to demonstrate support for organ, tissue, and blood donation.
• Orchestrate a film crew to capture the event so we could graphically share the important message with others. This is one case where a picture is truly worth a 1,000 words. Fortunately we were able to reunite with our seasoned team of filmmakers and climbers, including Michael Brown     and Matthew Kennedy of Serac Films, along with Araceli Segarra and Kevin Thaw.
• And least I not forget, climb the sheer 2,000’ face of Half Dome. As our climbing buddy and guide, Scott Stowe, had warned, this included a nasty, steep, long approach to the base of the climb, followed by a technical ascent with several extremely exposed and tricky traverses along the 23 pitch route. In spite of the fact that our first night concluded at 2 am (including a headlamp lit pendulum move at the Robins traverse), at least our 2.5 day adventure included a few ledges where were able to rest our head for a few hours of sleep.

So in honor of our theme, “Exercise Your Heart, Share the Beat”, we made it happen. Thank you all!

On a final note, those who have read The Climb of My Life may see this climb as another full circle. However, full circles don’t have to end.  As such,  this climb brought out the point that my work is not done; it simply drives home the point that there is a desperate need for hope and for attention towards “life” causes!