Sunday, September 14, 2014

Help us Save Blair Mountain!

Yo, climbers!

Too many mountains (over 450 of them and counting) have been erased from the landscape of West Virginia and the surrounding Appalachian States.

Now that process threatens a mountain that stands for so much more, Blair Mountain.

How would you pay tribute to a place that changed the course of the labor movement forever? 

We stand at a fork in the road where we can either protect the West Virginia mountain where coal miners fought for their right to unionize, after enduring years of abuse at the hands of both law and coal thugs. Fragmentation bombs were dropped on miners, after machine guns were used to strafe their families and homes from a flatbed railroad car.

We can remember the struggle of these people to simply be treated like human beings, and protect the mountain that stands as a monument to their fight and sacrifices.

Or we can allow Big Coal to blow the top off Blair Mountain in exchange for a simple plaque.

A plaque would not replace Yorktown, or Gettysburg.

And all the plaques on earth cannot replace one mountain.

Tell the Army Corps of Engineers that a plaque won't do. Blair Mountain is an important part of our history and deserves to be off limits to mountain top removal mining.

Find out more and send your message here: http://action.sierraclub.org/ProtectBlairMtn

Friday, September 5, 2014

Thanks to all the Kickstarters

Wow, crazy month, but just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to each and every one of the people who helped us reach our goal on Kickstarter:

Robert Abramowitz
Jon Alexander
Kristin Anderson
Ex Pow-anpongkul
Ethan Atwood
Henry Barkhausen
Jeff Baxter
Ed Begoon
Gabi Benel
Don Blume
Nicholas Borror
Dallas Branum
Brian Bridges
John Burcham
John Burkhart
Adam Byrd
Tony Canike
Cedric Capiaux
Nathan Cauffman
David Ciesla
Tommy Cockerell
Tim Collins
Sarah Cook
Joe Coover
Dennis Coyle
Jackson Crane
Kirby Crider
Josh Davidson
Garth Dellinger
Chelsea Devening
Brandon Dorman
Andrew Dotson
Rick Dotson
Gary Dunn
Brian Dziekonsky
Chris Egress
Sherry Erickson
Ryan Eubank
Morgan Falls
Mike Farnsworth
Keith Fegler
Jeremy Fox
Ryan Fishel
Lucas Fisher
Mark Folsom
Curtis Gale-Dryer
James Garner
John Gathrite
Tom Georgevits
Jackson Goss
Gilbert Gray
Charles Green
Michael Greene
Peter Guyre
Stephen Haase
John Harman
Amy Hazam
Jeanette Helfrich
Michael and Liz Horlick
Eric Horst
John Huber
Alexander Hypes
Collin Jenkins
Stephanie Jesteadt
Adam Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Steve Jones
Jude Kalet
John Kelbel
James Kim
Jeff Koelemay
Takuto Lehr
George Lewis
Patrick Light
Anliko Lowman
Phil Lutz
Hung Ly
Connie Magee
Kristan Markey
Joshua McVeigh
Paul Meehan
David Mitchell
Aaron Moses
Ian Nathan
Ryan Nelling
Jennifer O’Brien
Mark O’Neal
Ted Plaase
David Raines
Eduardo Ramirez
Scott Ransom
Aaron Ray
David Riggs
Chris Riha
Milas Robertson
Danny Rowand
Regina Schulte-Ladbeck
Eric Seme
Corey Shaw
Lisa Shepherd
Thomas Shifflett
Kelly Shipp
Brian Skarda
Todd Sleeman
Doug Smith
Douglas D. Smith
Craig Spaulding
Ronnie Stadtfeld
Jerry Stankunas
Zachary Stone
Lisa Storey
Greg Sudlow
Paul Sullivan
Andrew Suter
Christopher Sweet
Donovan Sweet
Samuel Taggart
Matt Thomas
Joe Thompson
John Tung
David Turk
Voltaire Valle
Frank Velez
Corey Vezina
Johnathan Wachtel
Josiah Weeks
Rachel Wills
Sigmund Young
Sofia Zarfas
Lester Zook


Thursday, September 4, 2014

Save the DATE! Hallowe'en weekend Trail Daze: Reed's Creek

Make your plans now to join the Potomac Highlands Anchor Replacement/Upgrade Program (PHAR/UP) on Hallowe'en weekend, Friday, October 31st through Sunday, November 2nd, 2014, a weekend of community, trail work, clean-up and climbing.

Limit 20 people, so sign up now!

Depending on the weather, PHAR/UP will reserve a Smoke Hole campsite, or two cabins at Thorn Springs 4-H Camp just south of Franklin, for the use of our volunteers. We will be supplying hot grub and cold refreshments while handing out Smoke Hole T-shirts, Owlfeather jewelry and other prizes to those who attend.

We'll also raffle off a new guidebook, to be delivered to your door when they come back from the publisher in December.

Respond in the comments section of this post or email wvmgray@gmail.com to reserve your spot.