www.RogerWendell.com
Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic EvolutionSM
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CMC - Colorado Mountain Club

Roger J. Wendell CMC Service Award - 12-03-2017  
 
 
Although the Colorado Mountain Club (CMC) has its own website I'm proud to feature them here as well! I was first involved with the CMC in the early 80s but didn't become really active in the club until the mid '90s when my kids were almost grown and my career was finally calming down! Nevertheless, it's been a great experience with lots of learning in addition to contact with interesting and knowledgeable people. Below is a list of some of my CMC experiences along with trip photos as they become available:
 
 
 
 
 

 

CMC Rectangular Logo

 

A few of the CMC Outings I've been on:

Roger J. Wendell climbing ice at Vail, Colorado - February 2000
Me climbing ice in Vail, Colorado

 

 

Yellow Arrow Pointing Right Click Here for my main climbing page...

Yellow Arrow Pointing Right Click Here for a look at the CMC's Beginner Rock Climbing Seminar...

Listen Icon Click Here to listen to the CMC's phone greeting (Me!) that was used from 2013 to 2020!
Listen Icon Click Here to listen to a CMC history promo that they used for some of their films and other events!

 

(Click on any of this page's "thumbnail" images for a larger view)

 

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AIARE Level 1 Training Certificate for Roger J. Wendell - 01-22-2012
AIARE
CMC Avalanche Course Roger J. Wendell - 01-11-1997
Basic Avalanche
CMC HAMS Graduation Certificate - March 2000
HAMS
CMC BRCS Instructor's Badge Roger Wendell - 2002
BRCS Instructor
CMC Mountain Oriented First Aid Roger J. Wendell - 10-22-1998
MOFA
CMC Wilderness First Aid Roger J. Wendell - 03-11-2012
WFA
CMC IRCS certificate for Roger J. Wendell - 1999
IRCS
CMC Trip Leader School Roger J. Wendell - 11-15-2011
Trip Leader School
CMC Basic Mountaineeering School Roger Wendell - 1998
BMS
CMC Wilderness Trekking School Roger Wendell - Spring 1997
Wilderness Trekking
CMC XC Ski School business Card - I graduated on 01-21-2011
XC Ski school
CMC Tech Section Examiner, Roger J. Wendell - 2012
Tech Section Examiner

 

In August, 2022 the Colorado Mountain Club purchased and installed a new website (same domain name at cmc.org) that
incorporated "badges" as part of an award and record keeping system. These are the badges I was subsequently awarded:

 

CMC Advanced Trad Climbing badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Advanced Trad
CMC AIARE badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
AIARE
CMC Alpine Trip Leader badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Alpine Leader
CMC Avalanche Terrain Avoidance badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
ATA
CMC Basic Navigation badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Navigation
CMC Bike Leader badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Bike Leader
CMC Basic Mountaineering School badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
BMS
CMC Backcountry Nordic Ski School badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
BNSS
CMC COVID badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
COVID
CMC High Altitude Mountaineering badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
HAMS
CMC Difficult Trip Hiking Skills badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Difficult Trip
CMC Ascending Hikes Leader badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Difficult Trip
CMC Intermediate Rock Climbing badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Inter. Rock
CMC Intermediate Snow Climb badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Inter. Snow
CMC Ski Leader badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Ski Leader
CMC Ski Mountaineering badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Ski Mount.
CMC Telemark Ski badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Telemark
CMC Technical Trip Leader badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Tech Leader
CMC Trip Leader badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Trip Leader
CMC Trip Leader School badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
Trip Leader
CMC Wilderness First Aid badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
WFA
CMC Wilderness Trekking School badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
WTS
CMC BPX Trip Leader badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
WTS
Rocky Mountain Over The Hill Gang badge issued to Roger J. Wendell
RMOTHG

 

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Mt. Rainier (Tahoma)
14,412 feet / 4,392.7 metres
 
HAMS Graduation Climb

Yellow Arrow Pointing Right Click Here for my YouTube video of Rainer from my plane window eight years later...

HAMS is the High Altitude Mountaineering Section of the Colorado Mountain Club and is an excellent course of training for anyone interested in serious mountaineering. Back when I was in class, Tom Urban was my immediate instructor and Ken Yarcho was the school's director.

Below: Over the 2000 Independence Day holiday nine members of our HAMS group made the summit of Washington State's Mt. Rainier for our graduation climb. We were in three rope teams so it's somewhat difficult to display complete group photos here. At the time, summit conditions were clear, 15°F (Minus 9.4 Celsius), and extremely windy with continuous cloud cover at around the 10,000 foot (3,048 metres) level over the entire state...

 

From parking lot to summit!

Part of CMC HAMS summit party on Mt Raineer - photo by Roger J. Wendell 07-02-2000
Mt. Rainier Summit: July 02, 2000
Part of our summit party;
left to right:
Ray Meng, Denise Bingham, John Streeter, Kurt Wibbenmeyer and leader John Mill
Our entire team
Our team at White River Ranger Station
left to right:
Me, John Streeter, Dave Ditchkus, Denise Bingham,
John Shunk, Linda Johnson, assistant leader Steve Cleary,
Ray Meng, leader John Mill, and Kurt Wibbenmeyer

 

A decade later, in the Spring of 2010, my friend Linda Jagger found the original trip report that I had long since forgotten about. I posted it here exactly as it appeared on some CMC listservers figuring after ten years most of the email addresses have expired:

 

  From: Roger J Wendell
To: rockies@climber.org; high-altitude@climber.org
Cc: ken.yarcho@juno.com; JMILL@sah.com; dbingham@sysinn.com; istvon@hotmail.com; ditty_dinkus@msn.com;
johnson.lindas@epa.gov; rmeng@itsden.com; jshunk@mprlaw.com; jstreeter@spike.dor.state.co.us;
kawibbenmeyer@yahoo.com; peakbagr@earthlink.net
Sent: Wed, July 5, 2000 8:13:44 PM
Subject: Rainier Trip Report

 

Pix from our Rainier climb:

Roger on the windy summit
Me on top the windy summit
Roger going up in shorts
Me going up in shorts...
Passing a crevasse
Passing a crevasse
Crevasse swarm
Crevasse swarm
One ugly crevasse
One ugly crevasse
View from Glacier Camp
View from Glacier Camp
View from above the clouds
View from above the clouds
Looking down from the top
Looking down from the top
Glacier Camp toilets
Glacier Camp toilets
Mt. Rainier (14,412 feet), Washington State:

On Sunday morning, July 2nd, CMC leader John Mill, and his assistant Steve Cleary, led 9 of our 11 member HAMS graduation team to the summit of Rainier. From camp Schurman (2,875 metres / 9,430+ feet) we departed around 03:00 am after waking to clear, starry skies at 01:30 am. Our route of travel was both the Inter and Emmons Glaciers, having started around 4,300 feet at the White River Ranger Station. (My GPS indicates that there are 1.79 line-of-sight miles between Schurman and the summit - we were delayed about an hour, mid route, due to a change in rope teams).

Summit conditions were clear, extremely windy and cold with Kurt measuring the temperature at about 15 degrees F (Minus 9.4 Celsius). Visibility was good in all directions except for the continuous cloud layer covering the state at around the 10,000 foot (3,048 metres) level. The down climb was relatively quick until we reached the clouds and had to look around for wands until reaching Schurman.

The next day, Monday, required more careful down climbing as a steady snow fell, at times reducing visibility to a rope length. Earlier that morning, between about midnight and 02:00 am, we listened to many teams abandon their plans for a summit attempt because of the weather. We reached the White River Ranger Station in the early afternoon - walking through snow or continuous drizzle the entire way.

In SUMMARY I found the trip to be extremely enjoyable, educational, and inspirational. In some areas the glaciers were so bluish or green that it seemed "otherworldly." Also, our team, for a beginner like me, seemed efficient and cohesive under the expert guidance of both John Mill and Steve Cleary. And finally, no matter how difficult the hike it sure beats a day at the office...

Our Rainier Tem Members:
John Mill - Leader, Steve Cleary - Assistant, Denise Bingham, Dave Ditchkus, Linda Johnson, Chris Long, Ray Meng, John Shunk, John Streeter, Bob Thompson, Me, Kurt Wibbenmeyer

 

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Tom Urban's HAMS ice climbing class
above Vail, Colorado in February 2000
(photos by me):

Tom Urban's CMC HAMS ice climbing class above Vail by Roger Wendell - 02-05-2000 CMC HAMS ice climbing class above Vail with Scott Nykerk coming over the top by Roger Wendell - 02-05-2000
In this one (above) Scott Nykerk is coming over the top...

 

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My CMC Training and Awards:

 

Giving Back:

 

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Is it fourteener season yet in Colorado? Almost.
Experts warn traversing snowfields without proper gear is risky;
Colorado Mountain Club recommends waiting until July.

By John Meyer, The Denver Post Jun 19, 2021, 6:00 am

"'Somewhere along the line, the fourteeners went from being mountaineering objectives to being hiking destinations,' Athearn said [Lloyd Athearn, executive director of Colorado Fourteeners Initiative]. 'I think there is a big difference between those two terms. From year to year, the mountains can still be very much mountaineering objectives in June if they've got snow. It only takes one small patch of icy snow in the wrong place - you're trying to cross it, you slip and fall and end up in a talus field. Or worse.'"
 
"That's why the Colorado Mountain Club typically recommends casual hikers wait until July, and they're holding to that advice this year despite Colorado’s recent heat wave and rapid snowmelt."
 
"'Traveling through snow, especially on a steep slope, can be hazardous,' said CMC membership specialist Roger Wendell. 'Post-holing - punching your foot and your leg into the snow, sometimes up to your hip - can be exhausting. But if things froze over or were hard-packed, and you're not prepared - if you don't have crampons, or you don't know how to use an ice axe - you can slide. You could get seriously hurt, if not killed.'"

 

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My job at the CMC!

Graham Ottley, me, and Gabriel Romero modeling new t-shirts - 06-14-2024
(L to R) Graham, me, and Gabriel modeling new shirts- June 2024 (shirt design by Alec and Hannah)
I was employed by the CMC from May 3rd, 2013 through the end of 2025* - just under two years after I retired from the Postal Service.
 
My position was with Membership Services where I worked closely with members, staff, government (Parks, Forest Service, BLM, counties, etc.) and other nonprofits (American Alpine Club, Continental Divide Trail Coalition, Colorado Trail Foundation, Fourteeners Initiative, Colorado Mountain Club Foundation, etc.).
 
Most of what I did consisted of assisting folks by telephone and email for the creation and organization of outings, events, and various business transactions. I was also responsible for a big part of our "press" operation - fulfilling book orders, working with the Mountaineers on keeping our book inventory up-to-date, and coordinating larger shipments with our various book authors.
 
Working for the Colorado Mountain Club was a fun chapter in my life that afforded me the opportunity to interact with our members, volunteers, and numerous authors, photographers, and famous mountaineers and climbers. That being said, what was even more fun was simply being a longtime CMC member and participating in all kinds of hikes, climbs, ski trips, bike trips, and international trips. Plus, I gained a lot of new skills over the years through the dozens of courses I completed through the club. In summary, I am thankful for all of the great people and experiences throughout my volunteer and professional time with the club. Thank you!
 
* I believe I may have been the longest serving employee in the club's history...  
 
 
 
 
Sent: Friday, August 16, 2024 3:05 PM
To: Madeline Bachner [Ed. Note: CEO at that time] Subject: thanks
 
Hi Madeline- my wife and I are CMC members from Illinois and we manage to get out to Colorado a few times each year for recreation.
 
I’ve contacted CMC via phone on numerous occasions to ask various questions and it seems that I always get Roger on the telephone. I just wanted to pass on a compliment to him regarding the excellent service he has always provided. He’s super friendly and very helpful.
 
Sometimes people fail to get recognized in an organization, yet I assume that you probably are already aware of what an asset he is to your group. Thanks for the great service supporting your members- even us flatlanders :)
 
Pat Butler

 

Executive Director Keegan Young

Keegan Young and Roge J. Wendell Mt Morrison 1000 times cookie - 11-16-2022 Keegan Young was the Colorado Mountain Club's Executive Director from September, 2018 through October, 2023. Keegan succesfully navigated the club through some very difficult times - the pandemic, legal issues, the usual myriad financial problems associated with owning an old building, and doing it all during a questionable economy.
 
There's no doubt that the club wouldn't have survived without Keegan's leadership and guidance - he certainly has our thanks! In this photo, as is Keegan's custom, he's celebrating a member's (me!) personal achievement! A few days earlier I completed my 1,000th climb up nearby Mount Morrison. Thank you, Keegan!

 

Me, the CMC, and Media

Colorado Serenity Magazine and Roger J. Wendell - August, 2019 Over the years, while a staff member, I was interviewed a number of times about the CMC. Admittedly, most of the interviews took place only because I happened to be an employee but, sometimes, because I was involved in an outdoor activity as either a volunteer or trip leader. This interview concerned my overall view of opportunities in the club and was published by Colorado Serenity Magazine in August, 2019 - p. 51

 

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CMC Circular Logo Links:

  1. 12ers
  2. 13ers
  3. 14ers
  4. Acongcagua - a 2004 Bonowski/CMC trip...
  5. Africa (Eastern) - Kenya, Tanzania, and my Kilimanjaro climb
  6. Africa (Southern) - Our trip through Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe
  7. AIARE - The American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education
  8. Alpine Resuce Team - Evergreen, Colorado
  9. American Avalanche Association
  10. Camping
  11. Colorado Avalanche Information Center
  12. Bear Safety
  13. BRCS - Beginner Rock Climbing School
  14. Climbing
  15. CMC - Colorado Mountain Club
  16. CORSAR - Colorado Outdoor Recreation Search and Rescue Card
  17. Ecuador with the Colorado Mountain Club
  1. Gear - Stuff for the Backcountry...
  2. High Altitude Medicine Guide
  3. Hiking
  4. Knots for climbing (animated by Grog)
  5. Leave No Trace - Center for Outdoor Ethics
  6. Lightning Safety
  7. More climbing photos...
  8. Pikes Peak and Barr Camp
  9. Russia
  10. Sierra Club
  11. Skiing in the backcountry...
  12. Survival in the backcountry
  13. Ten Essentials - Don't leave home without 'em!
  14. Travel
  15. Travel Two
  16. Walking Softly in the backcountry
  17. Waypoints, Grid Squares and Navigation

 

Warning! Climbing, mountaineering, and backcountry skiing are dangerous and can seriously injure or kill you. By further exploring this web site you acknowledge that the information presented here may be out of date or incorrect, and you agree not to hold the author responsible for any damages, injuries, or death arising from any use of this resource. Please thoroughly investigate any mountain before attempting to climb it, and do not substitute this web site for experience, training, and recognizing your limitations!

 

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