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

Time & Date: Tuesday, February 5, 2019 @ 7:30 PM (Social hour 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.

Darren Wiemeyer and his wife, Natalie, embark on a 10 day backpack and climbing trip into the heart of the Wind River Range in Wyoming. After years of exploring and enjoying the High Sierra, the desire to backpack and climb in another spectacular mountain range was the big goal for 2017. Unfortunately, they were shut down by a high percentage thunderstorm forecast. So they returned in August of 2018, forecasts be damned. They devised an ambitious plan to pack as many meals as possible into their already stuffed packs in order to complete a big backpacking loop and tag summits along the way.

Darren is the current President of the Rock Ice & Mountain Club and is honored to be part of and contribute to the local climbing community. He works locally as a field biologist/biological consultant and his wife, Natalie, is a surgical nurse.

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

Time & Date: Tuesday, December 4, 2018 @ 7:30 PM (Social hour 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.

Ryan Tetz, long time Eastside resident, is an accomplished endurance athlete, mountain guide, and climber. He makes his home in Mammoth Lakes and works as nurse. Recently Ryan has focused on testing his endurance limits by combining both biking and peak bagging link ups crossing the highest peaks in the California. This last September, he attempted a new record Fastest Known Time (FKT) finishing all the California 14,000 foot summits in a little over 8 days – in a memorably epic adventure all around. “Some of the wilder moments are about as far out there as I’ve been on on my own!” Ryan also holds the current time for fastest human powered ascent from the lowest to highest points in the USA – from Badwater, Death Valley to the Mount Whitney summit among other enduro accomplishments.

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

Time & Date: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 @ 7:30 PM (Social hour 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.

Armin Fisher will present a three week trip he took to Pakistan in June/July of 2017 with the objective of trekking up the Baltoro glacier to K2 basecamp and then climbing the beautiful Great Trango Tower by the Woolens route. “This was a fantastic adventure in post 9/11 Pakistan basically deserted by fear of terrorism”.

Armin is an American UIAGM mountain and ski guide living in Algna Valsesia at the base of the Monte Rosa in the Italian Alps. He was raised in the Napa Valley of California but has lived in Europe most of his life. Armin has multiple first ascents in Europe and has climbing experience worldwide in North and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe. Armin is an ambassador for Marmot and founded the guide service Mountains and More.

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

Time & Date: Tuesday, October 2, 2018 @ 7:30 PM (Social hour 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.

Canyonlands National Park, one of five national parks in Utah, is by far the largest and considered the most remote. Join explorers Josh Pearlman, Lisa Garmat and Seth Dilles as they float and camp 56 miles on the Green River to the gate of the remote Maze District of Canyonlands where they pull out their packs to continue another 50+ miles on foot through the Maze.

Laugh with our presenters as they float for four days down the legendary Green River, exploring Ancestral Puebloan Ruins, sight bighorn sheep and lazily drift through miles of sandstone cliffs. Then to the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers and park the boats at Spanish Bottom just above the famed Cataract Canyon. From Spanish Bottom they will take you along as they climb up through the Doll House with heavy packs for a 50+ mile loop through the remote and rugged Maze District of Canyonlands. Their journey will take them up and down from the rim numerous times as they explore native petroglyphs, the mind bending Chocolate Drops in their constant search for water. For a perfect finale, they return back to Spanish Bottom to be picked up and taken back up the mighty Colorado River to Moab by jetboat.

Backpacker Magazine rated The Maze District as the most dangerous hiking in America. Park Ranger Paul Henderson is quoted as saying “You’d better be a map savant if you want to wander into–and back out of–this redrock jungle, which is full of dead-end canyons. This is not the place for inexperienced hikers”.

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

Time & Date: Tuesday, September 4, 2018 @ 7:30 PM (Social hour 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.

Do you dream of bikepacking? Well, it’s time to wake up, gear up and get out. Bikepacking is not for only mutant racer-types and crusty globetrotters with too much time off. Bikepacking is for everyone and it’s not difficult. Learn some basic approaches, strategies and other insider voodoo that are sure to equip the novice bikepacker to, at the very least, get into trouble far from home…or, possibly, have the indelible adventure of a lifetime!

Mike Ousley started bikepacking in 1975 at age 14, beginning with a six-day tour of central Arizona. Since then he has gravitated to off-road touring and trail riding, including ticks of the Colorado Trail, Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, Arizona Trail and other lengthy routes. Mike likes to ride self-supported – solo, tandem and with occasional partners. He splits recreational time between cycling, rock climbing and other casual pursuits, and has completed numerous grade VI climbs in Yosemite and elsewhere, both solo and partnered. Vocationally, he’s a freelance writer, graphic designer and a brand ambassador for Guerrilla Gravity Bikes in Denver. His base camp is in Orange County, California.

The Rock Ice & Mountain Club has booked several individual camp sites in Tuolumne Meadows for September 6-9, 2018. We encourage our members and non-members to signup for this trip. We are not charging members or non-members to attend.

If you would like to attend, please send an email to Bessie at [email protected] to reserve a spot!

photo credit: Charlie Barrett

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

Time & Date: Tuesday, August 7, 2018 @ 7:30 PM (Social hour 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.

Dave Harden returns to the Rock Ice & Mountain Club with a presentation from three backpacking trips Dave took last year. Dave backpacked in the Grand Canyon, Northern Yosemite and the Paria River Canyon. Soaring sandstone walls, glacially carved domes, petroglyphs and wildflowers are just some of the highlights you will see.

Longtime Tuolumne County resident, Dave Harden, started wandering in the mountains as a teen in the 1960s. He began rock climbing soon after that and it has remained a lifelong passion. He has climbed throughout the western U.S. and around the world but the California High Sierra remains his favorite place. Harden retired from the fire service in 2005 after a thirty-two year career with CDF (now CAL FIRE) and lives in Sonora with his wife, Pamela Blair.

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

Time & Date: Tuesday, June 5, 2018 @ 7:30 PM (Social hour 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.

Andrew Mowery and his partner, Natalie, started their lives together in the backcountry. Every free weekend was spent on trail and occasionally at the climbing crag. They backpacked all over the Sierra, the Coast and Central ranges, Oregon, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona and even in The Adirondacks in New York. Always with camera in hand, the two were enjoying the splendor of the western mountains. All the trips up until then were training for the JMT in 2015.

In the fall, Natalie went back to school and Bealson (Andrew’s yellow labrador) was getting older and long backpacking trips slowed way down. That desire to get outside and play was still burning strong despite how life gets in the way. Over that winter, Andrew realized that the key to adventure is adaptation. Focusing on more four wheel drive inspired trips, Bealson would be able to go along and Natalie would have more time for school, yet still get outside for some great photography. Over the next year, Natalie went to class and Andrew went to work on his truck. He build his Tacoma for overland travel. It would be comfortable for long road trips on the highway and be able to craw back into most four wheel drive roads in the west. That truck enabled them to be self sufficient and to be able to explore way more than on foot.

They explored all over Inyo County, Bend Oregon, Death Valley, Mojave National Preserve, Great Basin in Nevada, and the Wind River Range in Wyoming. Now that the truck is mostly completed, Andrew has refocused on photography. He has learned from fellow photographers (thank you Jerry Dodrill and James Martin!) and by taking a class or two along the way. He has started a website focused on telling a story of adventure and backcountry experiences through his photography. His mission is to “Bring the joy, disappointment, exhaustion, and exhilaration to you through my photography”. Backpacking is still a huge part of Natalie’s and Andrew’s life, and there camping style shows that. The truck just gives them the ability to travel further and to more remote places to explore and to photograph.

You can see Andrew’s photography work on his website www.backcountryexposures.com and on his Instagram page at @backcountryexposures.