Bozeman climbers to tackle Wyoming’s highest peak to benefit at-risk youth
Phil Knight of Bozeman stands on the summit of Table Mountain with Grand Teton in the background during a climb in 2006. Knight and fellow Bozeman climber Patty Walton will climb Wyoming's Gannett Peak in July to benefit Big City Mountaineers. Photo courtesy Phil Knight.
By BEN PIERCE Chronicle Outdoors
Bozeman-area climber Phil Knight is on a mission. It’s a mission he never imagined for himself, but one that has taken him to some of the most remote and rugged regions of the Rocky Mountain West.
“I am trying to climb the highest peaks in all the ranges in the greater Yellowstone region,” Knight said on Monday. “I have identified 24 peaks to climb.”
In mid-July, Knight, along with climber Patty Walton of Bozeman, will attempt to summit Gannett Peak in Wyoming’s Wind River Range. At 13,809 feet, Gannett Peak is the highest mountain in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The mountain is flanked by 896-acre Gannett Glacier on its northern slope and Minor Glacier in a west-facing cirque. The climb requires a 20-mile approach and a full day to reach the summit and descend.
It’s a peak Knight, 50, regards with the utmost respect.
“Of all the peaks,” Knight said, “this one is the most difficult.”
But even the challenges presented in summiting Gannett Peak pale in comparison to another challenge Knight and Walton have taken on. The climbers are aiming to ascend the barren slopes of Wyoming’s highest mountain to benefit at-risk youth through Summit for Someone’s Big City Mountaineers program.
Summit for Someone is a Denver-based non-profit that offers inner-city urban teens the chance to “experience the wonder of nature for themselves.” The organization sponsors teens on trips to the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, the Colorado Rockies, the North Cascades in Washington and the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. Funding comes from climbers like Knight and Walton.
“What we are working on with teens is this idea of self-efficacy,” Big City Mountaineers director Hillary Harding said on Wednesday. “We are taking teens outside what they know and offering a one-on-one mentoring opportunity. The wilderness is a fantastic metaphor – getting up the mountain and working together – we can talk about how that transfers to life after a Big City Mountaineers trip.
“It opens their eyes to what these teens are capable of,” Harding said. “We are hoping to unlock the potential and give them support to succeed.”
The Big City Mountaineers program partners small groups of at-risk urban teens with adult mentors. The groups take week-long expeditions into the backcountry. In 2009, Summit for Someone provided funding for nearly 2,700 program days to inner-city teens that may not have had the chance to experience the wilderness on their own.
Big City Mountaineers has four “hubs” across the country where teens are recruited for the program. The Midwest hub serves Chicago and Minneapolis. A Denver-area hub serves Colorado. The Bay Area hub serves San Francisco and the Northwest hub serves Portland and Seattle.
Harding said teens from these urban areas experience the outdoors as a classroom that fosters growth in key areas such as commitment to learning, positive values and positive identity.
It’s a cause that resonates with Knight who grew up a short drive from Hartford, Conn.
“To me, giving back is important because I started out learning about the outdoors on wilderness trips,” Knight said. “I did a week-long wilderness canoe trip in Maine with the Boy Scouts. It was just an incredible experience. We got into some deep wilderness and we climbed Mount Katahdin.
“I said to myself, this is where I want to be and I kind of structured my life around those opportunities.”
Knight, who works in the winter as a guide for Crazy Mountain Ranch and in the summer for Yellowstone Association Institute, believes outdoor opportunities are important for teens.
“It has been fairly well identified that kids disconnected from nature have a harder time in life,” Knight said. “I see it here with kids that don’t get out and you can imagine in a big city. Plenty of kids don’t have the opportunity in any way, shape or form and that is troubling.”
The Summit for Someone program, which is supported by Backpacker Magazine, offers climbs 16 to peaks from Denali National Park in Alaska to Orizaba and Iztaccihuatl mountains in Mexico.
Harding said the number of peaks offered through the program has grown slowly since Summit for Someone opened to the public in 2005.
“We look for mountains, some that are really well known, but others in the West, Alaska and Mexico that are a great adventures,” Harding said. “These climbers are testing their limits and going out on their own and that parallels what our teens are doing.”
Climbers who choose to participate in the Summit for Someone program agree to raise funds that pay for the cost of the trip and act as a donation for Big City Mountaineers. Each climb is outfitted by professional guides that help to ensure safety and success in the mountains.
The Gannett Peak climb is guided by Jackson Hole Mountain Guides and requires each climber to raise $4,500. Walton has already reached her goal through a generous donation by her employer. Knight has raised roughly $1,000.
“This is a new challenge for me,” Knight said. “I figured I would go for the double challenge – the fundraising and the climb. I think the fundraising is a bigger challenge than the climb because it takes a lot longer.”
Knight said he feels lucky that we have open spaces left in this country were people can get away from the hustle and bustle of daily life to experience the outdoors in a wilderness setting.
And, he said, it’s important that more people are exposed to those places and experiences.
“If (today’s youth) don’t experience wilderness they will have no basis to protect it,” Knight said. “Getting (teens) out there and exposing them to wilderness – maybe it will open some doors, or at least give them the memory of a lifetime.”
To donate to Big City Mountaineers and help Phil Knight reach the summit of Gannett Peak, visit www.summitforsomeone.org.
For check/money order donations, make payable to Big City Mountaineers. In the memo line of the check, write “SFS-Phil Knight” and mail to Big City Mountaineers, Attn: Summit for Someone, 1667 Vine Street, Denver, CO 80206
Map of Gannett Peak in Wyoming’s Wind River Range
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