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A VIEW FROM THE CHAIR |
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The Desert Sage Vol. 232 |
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I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for electing me to the chair of the Desert Peaks Section. I would also like to congratulate the other members of the Management Committee. Greg Roach is Vice Chair and Outings as well as Chair of the Mountaineering Committee; Patty Kline will be in charge of Programs; Mirna Roach is Secretary; and Linda McDermott is Treasurer. |
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I also must thank those members filling the appointed positions. Membership once again is handled by Ron Bartell; Bill Russell is our archivist, historian and on the Mountaineering Committee; Julie Rush continues as Council Representative; John McCully is the Editor of The Desert Sage; Dave Jurasevich continues as Peak Guides; Barbara Tidball will handle Conservation; Erik Siering will fill out the Mountaineering Committee; and Ron Jones will be our new Safety Chair. |
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The Safety Chair heralds the return of climbing insurance and we are looking forward to scheduling once again trips requiring ropes and ice axes. The SPS has already led successful restricted trips this spring and I hope we will see peaks like Weaver's Needle, Babo, and Kofa scheduled by the DPS this winter. |
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I began climbing when I was seven years old in New Hampshire. It became a passion with me. I climbed whenever I could whether in New Hampshire or later when I was eleven and twelve in Switzerland. For my twelfth birthday my parents hired me a guide to climb The Mönch. |
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As I became a teenager, prep school and girls distracted me and then later my developing career as a mime and my new family took all my time. Somehow, except for an occasional climb, the mountains faded away until I moved to California five years ago and bought a house in Sierra Madre at the foot of Mt. Wilson. That was almost 300 peaks ago. |
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I love the desert, its peaks, and the wonderful people who climb them. The time I have spent with you out among our peaks has been the richest period of my life and I am forever reminded that it is for our spirits that we climb. I truly believe that on top our mountains we become free, and there I always feel that I have come home. |
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I ask you all to help us make this a year of wonderful climbs, a year that new friends and climbers join us, and most of all, a year in which our spirits will soar even higher than the peaks we climb. |
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© 1994-2001 Dan Richter |
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