Alpine Challenges for Charity

By Ali Bronsdon / Leader Staff

Lena Petersen is an avid climber. Rock, ice — you name it; she climbs it.

This August, the Polson High School graduate and current Montana State University Junior majoring in biomed, nutrition and Spanish joined an inspired team of Bozeman-area mountaineers with a lofty goal: To raise $10,000 for the Gallatin Valley Rescue Mission by reaching the summit of three local peaks in just three days.

The so-called "Alpine Triple Crown" would begin with the ascent of 12,799-feet Granite Peak, Montana's highest mountain; Mount Cowen, a towering 11,206-feet atop the Absaroka Range, and finally, Wyoming's Grand Teton at 13,700-feet high.

While Peterson said she'd climbed both Mount Cowen and the Grand Teton before, she'd never thought to string the two together until MSU Junior Michael Spencer posted a flyer on the wall of her climbing gym.

Spear-heading the expedition under his own non-profit Alpine Challenges for Charity, Spencer said that to his knowledge, the three peaks had never been climbed in one 72-hour period. He estimated covering more than 70-miles of trail and rock with over 20,000-feet of elevation gain — a task that would have to be done on whatever small flakes of sleep climbers could collect en-route to the next trailhead.

"It sounded like a neat project that allowed me to be involved in the community and have fun while being in the outdoors," Petersen said. "I've always loved that kind of thing — alpine climbing. It really removes you from all of life's distractions.

Spencer required each participant to raise at least $1,000, so with little time to spare, Petersen went around to people she knew, asking for donations.

"It was a lot more motivating having committed to this instead of just going out and doing it randomly," she said. "It's a lot more fun because you have all these people out there hoping that you reach your goal."

She collected about $1,500, which was added to the pot that will go directly to the homeless shelter for food, clothing, and other general operating expenses.

Originally hoping to run all three peaks, Petersen decided that wasn't in her best interest when a small health complication flared up a few days before take-off. Instead of risking it, she helped out by cooking dinner for those who did climb as well as shuttling climbers to and from the mountains. Then, she went up the Grand.

A little under-dressed, Petersen said it was colder than expected at the top of the Grand Teton, but other than that, the group did not encounter any problems. In its first year, Spencer said organization of the whole thing was a challenge. An architecture student, he didn't have much free time during the school year. In early may, he started sketching out ideas before picking up full steam from mid-June until the climb.

"It's really just a publicity stunt," Spencer said. "But, it gets people involved and they can live vicariously in an adventure through us. A big part of it is just sharing the story."

A story that began when his honors professor asked the simple question, "How would you change the world?" Over Christmas break, Spencer and two friends, Jeremy Sinnema and Travis Swanson, traveled to Ecuador where they summated seven peaks over 15,000-feet while raising almost $25,000 for the humanitarian aid organization World Vision and their efforts in Darfur, Sudan.

"I came up with this idea of combining a passion for climbing with a passion for helping the world," Spencer said. "Kind of like a Relay for Life on steroids."

Based on the overwhelming success of the first charity expedition, the team thought to try something locally this summer.

"We'd been talking about cool things to do locally and decided to string together three of the hardest climbs that we knew of in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem," he said.

The biggest challenge, Spencer said, was working with a group of individual climbers who all moved at different speeds.

"Four of us climb together on a regular basis," he said. "The others who joined — some we knew, some we didn't."

According to Spencer, it was easy to lose focus on what he was actually doing while wrapped up in the busy planning and organizing stages of the event. Now that it's done, however, it feels "super rewarding" just knowing that his "hair-brained" idea actually worked. So far, the team raised close to $8,000 — just $2,000 shy of the original goal, which was $10,000.

"August is a really tough time to fundraise," Spencer said. "We still did pretty well and we are still accepting donations to reach our goal. We've probably raised about $1,000 just in the past week."

Spencer and the other members of his expedition team are open to seeing what happens next.

"We are trying to do the fundraiser for the homeless shelter as an annual thing," he said. "It's local and not too expensive, so we hope to raise six or $7,000 for them each year."

There is also talk of another large scale expedition, which could take place in the next few years — possibly to Africa, Spencer said.

"It was just an amazing experience," said Peterson through the wind-blown static of her cell phone Friday as she biked to meet friends for an afternoon of rock climbing. "I'd like to be involved in this organization and continue to help and raise funds for different causes. I enjoyed it incredibly."