Location: Round Table Pizza, 2065 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa

Time & Date: Tuesday, October 2, 2012 @ 7:30 PM (Social hours and free beer for members at 6:30)

Directions: From Highway 101 at Santa Rosa go west on Highway 12 to Stony Point Road Exit. Go straight from the middle lane at the light onto Occidental Road. The Round Table Pizza is on the right just down the road.

Jim Thornburg returns to the Rock Ice & Mountain Club to show us his amazing photographs of our local rock climbing crags in the San Francisco Bay Area. Often underratted, our local rocks provide some of the most diverse types of rock and locations. Jim’s long awaited rock climbing guidebook, Bay Area Rock, will showcase these unique climbing areas, divulge new areas and routes and provide lots of eye candy. The guidebook is 328 pages with full color photos with accurate maps and descriptions. Jim will have copies of the guidebook for sale at the presentation. Jim will also show us some of his latest photo shoots and adventures.

Location: Round Table Pizza, 2065 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa

Time & Date: Tuesday, September 4, 2012 @ 7:30 PM (Social hours and free beer for members at 6:30)

Directions: From Highway 101 at Santa Rosa go west on Highway 12 to Stony Point Road Exit. Go straight from the middle lane at the light onto Occidental Road. The Round Table Pizza is on the right just down the road.

Every year, hundreds of hopeful climbers enter the contest to become Yosemite’s Next Top Idol. In 2001, James Lucas left his Vermont life for the tall walls of the National Park. Armed with 50 feet of webbing and grand plans to top rope El Capitan, Lucas fumbled his way into becoming Yosemite’s Next Top Idol. From surviving a 100 foot free solo fall in Joshua Tree to establishing a Grade V 5.13 free route on Washington Column, Lucas tells the highly entertaining story of becoming the Ferror Rocher of Yosemite dirtbags. John Long said, “In many ways, James is an incarnation of the Stonemasters of old”. Lucas’ writing have appeared in Alpinist, Climbing, Rock & Ice, California Climber and other outdoor adventure periodicals. Join the Rock Ice & Mountain Club for this unbelievable presentation….but don’t believe every word you hear.

Location: Round Table Pizza, 2065 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa

Time & Date: Tuesday, August 7, 2012 @ 7:30 PM (Social hours and free beer for members at 6:30)

Directions: From Highway 101 at Santa Rosa go west on Highway 12 to Stony Point Road Exit. Go straight from the middle lane at the light onto Occidental Road. The Round Table Pizza is on the right just down the road.

Yosemite climbing pioneer, Allen Steck, will be showing a film that Steve Roper, Dick Long and Allen made during their ascent of the Salathe Wall in 1966. It was the third ascent of the route which was originally done in 1962 by Royal Robbins, Chuck Pratt and Tom Frost who made the first and second ascents.

Allen, an Oakland, California native, began climbing in Yosemite Valley in 1947, initially learning the use of pitons by trial and error. He said that at that time, there “was no body of people who could help you learn these things.” He has been a Life Member of the Sierra Club since 1947.

Allen, along with Steve Roper, has been the long-time editor of the mountaineering journal Ascent, which was originally published by the Sierra Club and later by the American Alpine Club. Steck and Roper also wrote the book Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, first published in 1979.

photo credit: Dan McDevitt

July 3, 2012
Travis Lombardo – West Sonoma County Bouldering

Travis is a local climber who has been climbing, developing and re-discovering great bouldering in west Sonoma County and the beautiful and rugged Sonoma coast. Travis will present photos and videos of some of his more memorable boulder problems. Notable boulder problems include first ascents of Blockhead (V3) at Salt Point State Park, several problems including Cave Spider (V3) at the Dutch Bill Boulder in Occidental, and re-establishing some of the old school problems from local climbers like Chris Summit, Richie Esquible, Charlie Barrett, Marcos Nunez and Ryan Tolintino.

photo credit: Mike Shoys Photography

Scott Holder – Denali

Location: Round Table Pizza, 2065 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa

Time & Date: Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012 @ 7:30 PM (Social hours and free beer for members at 6:30)

Directions: From Highway 101 at Santa Rosa go west on Highway 12 to Stony Point Road Exit. Go straight from the middle lane at the light onto Occidental Road. The Round Table Pizza is on the right just down the road.

Location: Round Table Pizza, 2065 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa

Time & Date: Tuesday, June 5th, 2012 @ 7:30 PM (Social hours and free beer for members at 6:30)

Directions: From Highway 101 at Santa Rosa go west on Highway 12 to Stony Point Road Exit. Go straight from the middle lane at the light onto Occidental Road. The Round Table Pizza is on the right just down the road.

Steve Curtis lived in Washington DC for 5 years, including 1990-92 and 2006-2009. During the later period he visited numerous traditional crags from Chattanooga to Plattsburg, and climbed with an eclectic selection of personalities. Steve visited huge crags in North Carolina, quartzite of West Virginia and Schwangunks, granite cliffs in Virginia, New Hampshire and the Adirondacks, New York Ice, and others. His partners were an assortment of DC lawyers, ex-military, school teachers, a dog handler, and others; the only unifying theme being free spirits climbing for their own enjoyment.

Please join Steve for his presentation “East Coast Climbing/Friends for life.”

Location: Round Table Pizza, 2065 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa

Time & Date: Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 @ 7:30 PM (Social hours and free beer for members at 6:30)

Directions: From Highway 101 at Santa Rosa go west on Highway 12 to Stony Point Road Exit. Go straight from the middle lane at the light onto Occidental Road. The Round Table Pizza is on the right just down the road.

Gus Benner, an early San Francisco Bay Area climber, grew up in Berkeley and started climbing in his teens on Sierra Club trips to Mt. Darwin and North Palisade and at Pinnacles and the historic Indian Rock. Brad Washburn’s article on new Alaskan routes in the AAJ was what lured Gus to the east ridge of Denali in 1969. Gus has climbed around the world in places like Mt. St. Elias, Mt. Kenya, Mt. Cook, Mt. Waddington and the Brooks Range, but his most memorable climb was the the west rib of the south face of Denali with his two sons. Gus is currently practicing Family Medicine in Berkeley. Please join the RIM Club and Gus has he presents photos and tells tales of his first ascent of Denali’s East Ridge.

Location: Round Table Pizza, 2065 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa

Time & Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2012 @ 7:30 PM (Social hours and free beer for members at 6:30)

Directions: From Highway 101 at Santa Rosa go west on Highway 12 to Stony Point Road Exit. Go straight from the middle lane at the light onto Occidental Road. The Round Table Pizza is on the right just down the road.

Photographer and writer Tom Reed will give a slide presentation showing what’s “behind the scenes” of making his beautiful coffee-table Book, “The Granite Avatars of Patagonia,” (see it at www.tomreed.com ) including maps of his movements between Cerro Torre and Fitz Roy in Argentina’s Parque Nacional Los Glaciares. Tom’s images are dramatic and powerful, in black and white, and the Text of the book dwells on the experience of profound awe and why we should feel that while looking at a big rock. Tom’s conclusion is that Nature itself is divine, a conclusion that has profound implications, and leads to a deeper inquiry into why we climb. He will conclude by signing his book for customers, offering 20% discount on the book.

“Patagonia has a keen, close observer in Tom Reed. His feeling for the landscape and its wild power comes through in his photographs and writing and in the questions he raises about ourselves as natural beings acting in a natural world.”
–Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia Inc)

Location: Round Table Pizza, 2065 Occidental Road, Santa Rosa

Time & Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012 @ 7:30 PM (Social hours and free beer for members at 6:30)

Directions: From Highway 101 at Santa Rosa go west on Highway 12 to Stony Point Road Exit. Go straight from the middle lane at the light onto Occidental Road. The Round Table Pizza is on the right just down the road.

Join the Rock Ice and Mountain Club as Kyle Miller presents Freerider, a film by Crest Pictures. Freerider follows Northwest splitboard mountaineer Kyle Miller deep into the Cascades on his “epic hunt for good snow.” It is a short film chronicling Miller’s passion for his sport, his ski bum lifestyle, his love of the mountains, his triumphs and disappointments, his pain and his joys, and his unyielding dedication towards fulfilling his riding dreams. Each season Miller sets a high bar for himself. Last year completed Washington’s 10 highest peaks while the cameras rolled during the filming of FreeRider.

Kyle’s presentation will focus on personal achievements and progression with time and experience, and how anyone who has that passion can do what Kyle is doing. Too look beyond personal tragedy and create their own noteworthy goals from climbing smaller local mountains to seasonal goals. Its all about adventure!

To me there is nothing more rewarding than looking up at a mountain you feared impossible a few days earlier and seeing your perfect tracks running down the entire slope. – Kyle Miller

For more information on FreeRider and Kyle Miller check out crestpictures.com/freerider and whereiskylemiller.com.

photo credit: Jason Hummel