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

Time & Date: Tuesday, May 3, 2016 @ 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.

In 2009, Dierdre went to the climbing gym with her son, Alex Honnold, to see what he did all the time — and she’s been climbing ever since. In 2013, she was awarded a grant by the American Alpine Club to go to the northeast to work on her leading skills. Her birthday in September falls in peak Yosemite season, so each year, she arranges a special climb with Alex, something to take her completely out of her comfort zone and into the world of high elevation and exciting adventure.

A writer all her life, Dierdre has written essays about climbing in 7 states and 3 countries, for magazines in the US, the UK, Canada and others. She retired from college teaching in 2015 to climb and write. Although she’ll never lead anyone up El Cap or make headlines as a climber, she’s been steadily pushing her limits, with and without her son. Dierdre will talk about the climbs that stand out among her experiences climbing with the best.

Come listen to her talk about those adventures. Bring any questions you’ve always wanted to ask about Alex Honnold. Bring your copy of “Alone on the Wall” and get it signed…by the author of the author!

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

Time & Date: Tuesday, April 5, 2016 @ 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.

The Rock Ice & Mountain Club will host an informative meeting and open discussion on the latest California State Park’s Fee Collection Project for the Sonoma Coast and Salt Point State Parks. We have been following this Fee Proposal for several months when the climbing community learned about a proposed fee kiosk on Goat Rock Road which would have eliminated essential parking and access to Sunset Rocks. In response to this Fee Proposal, the Rock Ice & Mountain Club, with support from the American Alpine Club, Access Fund, Bay Area Climber’s Coalition, Vertex Climbing Center and the B-Rad Foundation, started a petition which received over 1,670 signatures. A link to the on-line petition can be found here.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/994/314/983/stop-the-sonoma-coast-fee-proposal-keep-access-to-sunset-rocks./#sign”

Fortunately, State Parks revised their Fee Proposal once again, based in part to our collective opposition to the kiosk on Goat Rock Road, and removed the proposed kiosks at Goat Rock Road, at Bodega Head and at Willow Creek.

Although State Parks has reduced the locations that they propose to install these fee collection devices, they still want to charge the public to access our State Park beaches. State Parks is attempted to bypass Sonoma County’s denial of the project by going to the California Coastal Commission for approval, which will set a statewide precedent if approved. State Parks is also claiming that this project is except for California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review, which allows them to not perform the basic Initial Study research and assessment for this project.

A copy of the Day Use Parking Fee Collection Device Proposal to the California Coastal Commission is linked to this State Parks webpage.
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=28717

At the general meeting, we will provide the background information and latest developments about this Project, give a history of climbing at Sunset Rocks including the group trips provided by Vertex and B-Rad Foundation, and open the meeting to a discussion of the Project.

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

Time & Date: Tuesday, March 1, 2016 @ 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.

Southern Yosemite, located in the Sierra National Forest, has always been overshadowed by Yosemite Valley. Twenty-five years ago, Doug Robinson brought Mike Arechiga to climb in the Southern Yosemite area and he has been hooked ever since. The history of Southern Yosemite is a bit cloudy at best as early climbing pioneers kept no records of climbs or climbing areas. In the early 1970’s, Fred Beckey was the first to climb on several of the prominent domes in the area. A couple years later, Royal Robbins brought his Rock Craft School to the area to climb many fine routes but they did not keep documents on any of the first ascents they did. Over the next four decades, many notable climbers arrived to the area and established many good and sometimes bold routes.

Southern Yosemite is still wild and entices climbers to search out places like Fresno Dome, Shuteye Ridge and The Balls. Mike, along with his family and friends, established a handful of routes in the 1990’s and then started to document routes and climbing areas to add to the climbs that were included Mark and Shirley Spencer’s Climber’s Guide to Southern Yosemite. In 2009, Mike made self-produced climbing guides to Shuteye Ridge and Fresno Dome. Even with Grahm Doe’s release of A Rock Climber’s Guide to California’s Shuteye Ridge in 2013, Southern Yosemite still feels remote and wild.

Mike Arechiga currently lives in Oakhurst, CA but has been an integral part of the San Francisco Bay Area climbing community at Castle Rock State Park and beyond. He has been involved with Planet Granite climbing gyms for the past 14 years as a route-setter, climbing instructor and construction builder. He is always willing to share climbing beta and loves to meet and climb with people who share the same passion in climbing.

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

Time & Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2016 @ 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.

In March of 2015, Steve Curtis spent nearly a month climbing in Argentina and Chile. He teamed up with a colorful cast of climbing partners and climbed numerous spires in Frey and long routes in Piedra Parada and Cochamo. Along the way, he discovered a darker side of his ethnicity and witnessed a small slice of the slow Argentine disintegration. Steve always presents an intriguing slice of climbing, culture and history into his presentations. This time will be no different as he will talk about these beautiful and exotic South American locations, the Bariloche Slovenes of Argentina and the American connection in Cochamo.

Steve has been climbing for 40 years around the United States and the world. His favorite spot is still Yosemite and his proudest climb is still The Nose in a day on El Capitain. Currently, Steve is a professor at University of Pacific. Please come and listen to his story.

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

Time & Date: Tuesday, January 5, 2016 @ 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.

Giovanni Traversi is a Sonoma County native who currently resides in his Honda CRV in the high desert of the Eastern Sierra in order to climb as much as possible. A former climbing gym route-setter, this newly baptised “dirtbag” has matured in many ways, including taking on new challenges in climbing and in life and finding comfort high off the deck. Giovanni will share with us his continued journey, his joy and passion for climbing and his transformation into climbing tall, imposing boulders where he is finding his comfort zone. Giovanni is sponsored by FiveTen.

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

Time & Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 @ 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.

Vitaliy Musiyenko started climbing in 2010 and became progressively excited to explore established classics and peaks few have heard of. His passion to hike or climb on all sorts of terrain took Vitaliy to places he could not have imagined as a kid. “By now, I consider this passion a huge part of my life and I am excited to share it with those who are looking to see a sample from the road less traveled”.

Vitaliy will present photos and stories from climbing he has done around the world. He will focus on rarely seen parts of the Sierra Nevada range where, in the last few years, he has climbed over 30 new routes. With these experiences under his belt, Vitaliy will share the challenges of climbing new routes deep in the backcountry, as well as the differences in strategy and style.

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

Time & Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2015 @ 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.

Adrian Ballinger is a IFMGA guide, professional big mountain climber/skier, and owner & founder of Alpenglow Expeditions. Adrian has 12 summits of 8000 meter peaks (6x Everest, 4x Manaslu, 1x Cho Oyu, 1x Lhotse), 4 ski attempts of 8000 meter peaks (2 successful – Manaslu & Cho Oyu), and is the only person to ski from the summit of Manaslu (8th tallest peak in the world). Adrian has attempted to ski Makalu before, in 2012, and although he did not reach the summit due to poor weather conditions, he managed to ski from below the summit at 25,000.

Makalu, the 5th tallest peak in the world, presents a uniquely beautiful and ambitious challenge in a rarely-traveled part of Nepal. Adrian Ballinger, Emily Harrington, Hilaree O’Neill, Jim Morrison, and Kit DesLauriers will aim to test themselves as high altitude climbers while advancing an embattled sport in a post-earthquake Nepal. The team will also be taking on two groundbreaking objectives: (1) Hilaree and Emily will attempt to summit Makalu without the use of supplemental oxygen (2) Adrian, Kit, Hilaree, and Jim will attempt the first ski decent from the summit.

At 8466m (27,776ft), Makalu will be the ultimate challenge in modern mountaineering and high altitude skiing.