The plan was hatched to participate in the HERA Climb4Life weekend about 2 months ago when Ray-Ray sent us all an email with details of the event. Ray lost his mom to ovarian cancer several years ago and wanted to do something that would benefit research and treatment for this type of cancer. I was immediately onboard because my mom had her own battle with squamous cell carcinoma in her throat 2 years ago and I witnessed first-hand the devestating effects cancer can have on a person and a family. Thankfully my mom has been cancer free and going strong for over 2 years now.

Team Rockstars was formed consisting of Ray, Tara, Jay, Andrea, Matt, Brie and myself. Now we just had to start raising money and I originally hoped to raise around $500. One day after sending out some emails I was already over $500 so I had to readjust my goal, first $750, then $1000, then $1250. I ended up raising exactly $1800 and was the 3rd highest fundraiser and Team Rockstars ending up raising almost $7000, 20% of the total proceeds raised. Kudos for Ray-Ray for organizing and motivating all of us to get onboard for such a worthy cause.

The weekend of June 14th approached and we all descended on Happy Hour Crag in Boulder Canyon to rack up a bunch of routes for the Climb4Life weekend. Although we had to climb under the watchful eye of the Colorado Mountain School, it was a lot of fun and they had routes ranging from 5.7 to 5.12 to keep all levels of ability entertained. Our professional climbers were Tonya Riggs (an Everest summitter) and Tony Yao who were tons of fun and Tony gave a great footwork clinic. I have to say though the highlight of the weekend was meeting and talking with Lynn Hill, a Boulder legend and the most important female rock climber of all time. Below is a photo of Team Rockstars with Lynn Hill, click the image for a larger version.

It was great to be a small part of such a wonderful event, all the support and encouragement I received from family, friends and co-workers was amazing. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the following individuals for their generous donations and support: