Foundation News

I recently spent a late spring weekend on Mount Shasta exploring vast snow fields, glaciers, and rock formations. I was fortunate enough to have good company: three Sierra Club Foundation Directors Paul Farr, Mike Richter, and former board member Nels Leutwiler. We were joined by Sierra Club Foundation volunteer Chris Marrone, chair of the Foundation's Horse Camp Committee.  

We climbed roughly 3500 feet to Lake Helen. From there, we had panoramic views of the mountain itself - Castle Craggs State Park to the west, and the Trinity Alps to the northwest. What an unbelievably wild and majestic place!
 
From Lake Helen, we skied down 2500 vertical feet of perfect “spring corn.” We stopped off at the Shasta Alpine Lodge, an historic climbers' hut located at Horse Camp, a 720-acre area on Mt. Shasta, owned and operated by The Sierra Club Foundation. Horse Camp has long been a popular base camp for climbers and hikers. It is where John Muir started his climb of the mountain in 1874.

Each year, more than 40,000 climbers and hikers pass through Horse Camp on their way to the summit, including school kids from surrounding Siskiyou County who've never visited Shasta before even though it looms large from every vantage point across the county. Giving kids access to and an appreciation of the mountain just might convince them to protect it and other mountains for future generations.  This is at the heart of a national initiative we've launched called Mission Outdoors. You can help by getting involved with one of the four Mission Outdoors programs or by making a donation.

By the time we skied back to the parking lot, our legs were rubber, our faces tinged from a day in the mountain sun, and our minds and bodies re-charged.  Let's give thousands of deserving kids that same opportunity.

Peter Martin, Executive Director, The Sierra Club Foundation