UNIMD Festival and beyond

[shanja]

OK so this weekend past KOTR joined with KMPL and a few other groups, namely the Moon Bears Organization (www.moonbears.org), indirectly the Snow Leopard Trust (www.snowleopards.org) and of course the kind climbing folks from O2.
I really encourage everyone to look at these great organizations and seriously consider donating either money, labour or time to spread the message. One thing we all agreed on was that, as we love the mountains and get so much benefit from them, we should be leading the way and educating others by example.
On that note, KOTRers, we were bandying about the idea of an o/s clean-up expedition of KOTR + KMPL + locals...could be a peak in the Hims, China or anywhere...what say you?
Finally many thanks to Shawn at the KMPL for organizing such a groovy and interesting weekend for us.

[Hypoxic]

It indeed was a great seminar. We are looking forward to preparations for next year. Any and all feedback from those who were there is very welcome.

I'd like to second Jake's promotion of those groups. I'd like to point out too that the KMPL's Project: Global Conservation, Focus: Snow Leopards is still in full swing. We've received some generous donations recently and it looks like we'll be able to "adopt" another entire family of snow leopards. Before we close this particular focus period and move on our Project: Global Conservation, Focus: Giant Pandas, we'd like to have "adopted" at least three families of leopards. We're looking forward to further support!

I'm very down with helping to organize a clean up expedition somewhere. We should really keep this in mind and keep the conversation of it going so it doesn't die down. On my trip to the Nepal this coming winter I'll bring it up to my many great friends there in Kathmandu and in the Hills to see what kind of support we could get (assuming we choose somewhere in the Nepal Himalaya as the location).

[shanja]

OK a surprise follow on was that Kyung Ah now is asking about doing some ice-climbing!
Well now that I've unleashed that miracle...lets move on. The idea of a clean up exped isn't new and it isn't impossible either. All we need is
1-to find a good mountain area to clean up (access and waste disposal thereafter need be considered).
2-Get interest from enough members (I'd say 12 minimum, 26 maximum for logistics and effectiveness reasons - camping, transport, food and such, as well as cleaning power)
3-Contact the national govt agencies responsible to get the go ahead and plan a trash disposal line (from mountain to where?)
4-Search out sponsors to lower our costs (uni's, govt grants, companies etc)
5-Commit to a set of dates and book the tickets (groups of 20+ get a airline discount usually, but hopefully sponsorship might reduce our ticket prices by 30-60%)
6-Do a delegation of tasks thing for different peoiple to take care of- equipment, food, local liaision, weather/ route in and out.
7-Go over, network with local media and people and clean up the mess.
8-Come home to a complete lack of recognition beyond our brethren souls.

So now we all see how easy it is, lets tentatively say 2009 Summer holidays period (or fall back winter period). The mountain area should not be overly technical or demanding in either the approach/ exit or in climbing (if involved). This is so trash removal can be feasible by yak/ goat/ porter/ jeep or horse. Also we don't want accidents or peple getting summit fever and abandoning the clean-up to climb for fun
We'll all need set a great example of the minimal impact code too, and maybe even be prepared to have brochures etc translated and printed for education purposes with local communities.

I will contact my Marketing Dept at the Uni and test the waters to see if wee could get anything there in possible sponsorship, but it's a lot easier for us to do this if we have a solid proposal and a good pro-looking prospectus/ slideshow sell campaign ready to show them. The key is to assure them it will be to their advantage (in marketing, brand image and so on) to help our clean-up exped.
Any others interested, lets start a new thread called clean up exped or something.