The Adventures of Lori and Monty

Here are the photos

Here are the photos.

We rode in the Susan G. Komen Aspen/Snowmass Ride for the Cure. This was our first 100 mile (century) road bike ride. The Ride for the Cure is a fundraising event first, and a bike ride second.

The ride was an emotional, challenging and exhilarating event. It gave us the opportunity to support the fight against breast cancer, to remember those who have lost the battle, and to celebrate those who are surviving.
Thanks to events like Race and Ride for the Cure, Komen has raised over $1 billion for research, education and health services, and is the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world.
In 2007, cancer accounted for 7.9 million deaths worldwide. Lung, stomach, liver, colon and breast cancer cause the most cancer deaths each year. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. Without a cure, an estimated 25 million women around the world will be diagnosed with breast cancer—and 10 million could die—over the next 25 years.
Breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women in the United States. Every day, nearly 600 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and over 100 women die from the disease.

My Mom fought and survived breast cancer in her 40’s. She died from a recurrence when she was 64 years old.

My Grandma and Great Aunt died of breast cancer.

My Aunt is a breast cancer survivor.

My Friend is fighting to survive breast cancer.

I have an altered gene (BRCA1), which greatly increases my lifetime risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. My sister has the altered gene, too.

This life is a gift. We shouldn’t take it for granted. We should take care of ourselves, and we should take care of each other.

Here are the photos from the ride.

Here are some photos.

Here are the photos.

Mt. Whitney is the highest summit in the contiguous United States with an elevation of 14,505 feet. The peak lies within the John Muir Wilderness and the Sequoia National Park Wilderness. The western slope of the mountain lies within Sequoia National Park and the summit is the southern terminus of the John Muir Trail which runs 211.9 miles from Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley.

The peak was named after Josiah Whitney, the State Geologist of California. It was first climbed in 1873 by Charles Begole, A. H. Johnson, and John Lucas; fishermen who lived in Lone Pine, California.

What's really cool about Mt. Whitney, is that it is just 76 miles west of the lowest point in North America at Badwater in Death Valley National Park (282 feet below sea level).

The granite that forms Mt. Whitney is part of the Sierra Nevada batholith. In Cretaceous time, masses of molten rocks that originated from subduction rose underneath what is now Whitney and solidified underground to form large expanses of granite. In the last few million years, the Sierra started to rise enabling glacial and river erosion to strip the upper layers of rock to reveal the resistant granite that makes Mt. Whitney today.

The steep eastern side of the mountain offers a variety of climbing challenges. We climbed the "Mountaineer's Route." The Mountaineer's Route is a gully on the north side of the east face. In 1872, John Muir was the first person to climb Mt. Whitney from the east, via what is now known as the Mountaineer's Route. The route is considered a mostly Class 3 scramble and is about 12 miles round-trip.

The most popular way up Mt. Whitney is the hiking trail, called the Mt. Whitney Trail, built in 1904. It is a Class 1 route (an easy, well-maintained trail) and is 22 miles round-trip. We didn't think that the long round-trip distance, fighting the crowds, and dealing with a permit lottery would be too much fun, so we decided to challenge ourselves with the Mountaineer's Route.

I chose to photograph the garage because it is a place I am very used to. I don't often look at it as art, rather as a place to work.

Hope you enjoy the photos.