Marmot

ace kvale

Adventure Photographer

The journey truly is the destination. Ace originally was drawn to the mountains for skiing and the friendships that were forged there have defined his life and career. Getting his ass kicked on huge mountains began to seem pointless when what really affected him were the remote mountain cultures he'd come to love. He began working with the organizations that are giving back. Traveling with eye doctors that restore sight in Africa and Asia has become a personal vision quest. It's an attempt at being part of the solution rather than the problem. Now his imagery has become a tool to help raise awareness. When not traveling Ace makes his home on an organic farm in the remote canyon country of Utah with his dog Genghis. In his own words: "The older I get the more awesome I was."

luanne freer

Dr Luanne Freer is the founder and director of the Everest ER, a nonprofit medical clinic at 17,600ft at the Everest base camp in Nepal. A board certified emergency physician and past president of the Wilderness Medical Society, she "pays the bills" working for Medcor Inc (http://www.medcor.com) and is the medical director for Yellowstone National Park. The American College of Emergency Physicians has recognized Luanne Freer, MD, as a "Hero of Emergency Medicine," in recognition of her contributions to emergency medicine, her communities and her patients, and the government of Nepal recently awarded the Tenzing-Hillary Award to Luanne in appreciation for her 13 years of service to its people. "Dr Freer is not an extreme mountaineer with a list of peaks she aspires to conquer. She is a doctor from Montana who fell in love with the Sherpa and Nepali people. She saw the need that many of them had for access to medical care close to their workplace — which just happens to be Mount Everest. Through perseverance, determination, and countless hours of fundraising, Luanne opened the highest-altitude emergency room in the world. (Since 2003) the Everest Base Camp Medical Clinic hasn't lost a single life. Rather than being about the casualties left for dead on the mountain, this Everest story is about saving lives and aiding the community of hardworking locals, who depend on the mountain and their health to feed their families. And it's about one brave, badass individual." ~ Christine Nardi, Editor Womens Adventure Magazine December 2008

ben ayers

Ben started his career in Nepal carrying massive loads alongside the famed mountain porters of the Himalayas. In 1999 he founded Porters' Progress, an NGO that under his direction went on to transform working conditions and reduce fatalities among porters carrying loads for foreign trekking and climbing expeditions. Now, as the Nepal Country Director of the dZi Foundation, he has carried forward this work into grassroots development, partnering with portering communities as they adapt to a rapidly changing world. Driven by their own motivation, resourcefulness, and desire to improve their lives, these communities have built dozens of new schools, constructed thousands of toilets, and laid miles of drinking water pipes with the support of the dZi Foundation. More importantly, though, they have actualized the belief that they are the only ones who can eliminate poverty and create long-lasting, sustainable change.

sean swarner

Two-time cancer survivor & 7 Summits mountaineer

Sean Swarner has broken through defined human limitation in order to redefine the way the world views success. Sean was diagnosed with two different and unrelated forms of cancer, once at the age of thirteen and again at the age of sixteen. Despite a prognosis of just fourteen days to live and having been read his last rights, Sean astounded the medical community when he survived both these brutal diseases.Sean realized that after defeating cancer twice, no challenge would ever be too great, no peak too high. Sean proved his theory when he crested the peak of the highest point in the world (Mount Everest) with only partial use of his lungs. As the first cancer survivor to do so, Sean decided to continue climbing and has since topped the highest peaks in Africa, Europe, South America, Australia, Antarctica, and North America, thus completing the "7 summits". After having completed the 2008 Ford Ironman World Championship in October, Sean has his sites set on summiting the "peaks" at the top and bottom of the world. This will designate Sean as the first person to ever complete what will be known as the "Ultimate Adventure Challenge". As Sean continues to defy the odds and test his own endurance, he carries his message of healing, hope, and triumph with cancer patients worldwide. Sean also serves as a source of inspiration as the founder of the non-profit organization, The CancerClimber Association, as author of the book "Keep Climbing," and as a motivational speaker to corporations, universities, and other organizations around the world. Sean Swarner will continue to Keep Climbing and defy boundaries in order to change the way the world views a cancer diagnosis. Cancer has shaped him into the person he is today, and he hopes that by continuing to challenge himself, others will see that anything is possible with hope. Visit www.seanswarner.com for more information

jim nowak

Jim Nowak has been avid rock and ice climber for the past 40 years. His remarkable mountaineering and climbing career has taken him on mountain adventures throughout the greater ranges of North America, Alaska and to the high peaks of Himalaya. Jim's 1989 attempt on the west ridge of Pumori (23,424 ft.) in Nepal was one of his most challenging mountaineering expeditions, introducing him to high Asia for the first time and inspiring later his philanthropic work in the region. Jim and two other climbers, Gil McCormick and Steve VanMeter were just 600 feet below Pumori's summit when Gil was struck in the face with a rock, breaking his glasses directly into his eye. Jim and Steve dragged Gil back into a make-shift snow cave and picked the shards of glass out of Gil's swollen eye. For the next twelve hours the team descended from 22,800 to 21,000 ft., reaching base camp the following day and Katmandu several days later. Gil should have lost his life (he lost most of his vision in one eye) but his pit-bull will to hang on, coupled with Jim and Steve's determination to get safely off Pumori, the trio survived the high-altitude drama. Flash-forward to 1997: Jim and Kim Reynolds (also a Marmot Athlete), and several other climbers set their sites on a return expedition to Pumori's West Ridge with the idea of using the expedition platform to also fund a girls safe home in Kathmandu — an early example of cause expedition climbing. While the team only reached 21,000 feet (conditions were too dangerous to climb any higher) their humanitarian mission to help others took on new life. For Jim it was the beginning of a life-transforming experience into philanthropy that would change him forever: "For so many years I felt I'd been selfishly focused on my climbing and did not look around to see how I could help others. Through our Pumori expedition, I took my first meaningful step to work for a girl's safe house in Kathmandu. The initiative triggered something deep inside me; something that had been brewing all along. The ability to help someone else and leave the planet better-off than when I showed up, just felt right. I suddenly knew I wanted to do so much more. I had a deep connection to Nepal and to the indigenous people there who had been so gracious towards me over the years. They had shaped who I was and in the wake of the Pumori expedition, the idea of helping other people finally sunk into my thick climber skull." Jim returned to the U.S. and was committed to the livelihood of the girl's safe house In Kathmandu. Through Jim's blend of philanthropic initiative and sheer happenstance, the challenge of managing the safe house was handed directly over to him and to Kim Reynolds. Jim relocated to Ridgway, Colorado and registered his organization with the IRS as a 501c3 as the dZi Foundation — named after the auspicious dZi stones, which are worn throughout high Asia. Jim spent significant money out of his pocket to launch the fledgling non-profit and organized a number of climbers and Himalayan friends to join the dZi Foundation board: "That was back in 1998 and we all sat around the kitchen table, trying to figure out the non-profit world. Now we are seated around and actual board table in our offices. So much has changed — and all for the good. We've been at work for nearly 14 years and I've had a lot of help from very passionate and generous people. The dZi Foundation has been a group effort; many people deserve credit for making the organization a success. Since those first days of helping just 14 girls on a $25,000 budget to now serving 21,000 individuals throughout eastern Nepal with an annual operating budget of $800,000 — it's been an amazing journey!" About The dZi Foundation: The majority of dZi Foundation's work in Eastern Nepal falls underneath the Revitalize A Village program (RAV), an innovative model of community development that encourages poor communities — some of the most remote Himalayan communities Nepal — to discover their own abilities and skills to create solutions for better educational opportunities and facilities, basic health and hygiene, and income generation. Over the past decade, dZi has partnered with them to: build schools so kids don't have to walk five miles (each way) to get an education; sponsor children to get an education giving them better opportunities in life, and removing them from the dangers of child labor; and build toilets and clean water taps for communities with a history of water-borne diseases. Prior to his work with the dZi Foundation, Jim worked for the Ore House Corporation throughout the western US, building restaurants from pouring the foundation all the way to opening the doors. He was also four-color scanning technician doing digital enhancement of photographs in nation-wide magazine publications. Jim also worked for many years as a master tile setter and contracting homes. Jim was also a forest fire fighter — one of the best jobs he ever had — with the exception of the current position he holds as President of the dZi Foundation. Climbing Career Highlights: Lower 48 • Four ascents of El Capitan: Mescalito, Zodiac, Dihedral Wall and North American Wall 1999-2002 • Eldorado Canyon: Naked Edge, Diving Board and numerous other classics • The Diamond: Nine ascents; twice in winter: D7 and Dunn-Westbay • Best Sport Climb: Breaking The Wave, 13A Pool Wall Ouray • Numerous Grade 6 ice climbs in Colorado and Canada • Highest grade free solo: 10C Homestead Wall outside of Vail • Best mixed: Mighty Aphrodite M9 at 56 Yrs Old — super fun! Alaska • Mt. Huntington, Standard Route 1990 • Mt. Hunter, Southwest Ridge 1988 • Denali: West Rib and West Buttress (two times: once from 14,000 in a day — seven hours up, five hours back down) 1988 Himalaya • Ama Dablam, South West Ridge (22,450 ft.) 1988 • Pumori, West Ridge, (high point of 22,800 ft.) 1989 & 1998 Canada: 1986-1992: • Robson • NF Bryce • Athabasca • Temple • Sir Donald • Assiniboine • Edith Cavell

sue parvis

Sixteen years ago, I took a chance. I followed a dream and I haven't looked back. With an unknown future ahead of me, I had to believe. My name is Sue Purvis and I save lives... and I teach others to do the same. From a small ski town in Colorado, circa 1995, I traded a geology career hunting gold in Latin America for a black Lab puppy. I trained that puppy, Tasha, and myself, to save lives on some of the most avalanche-prone slopes in the nation. As a team, Tasha and I launched mission after mission to find missing people, or their remains, so their families could go on. In between missions, I learned to care for the sick and injured as a medic on ski patrol and at an urgent care clinic. Not long after, my passion led to purpose and I started Crested Butte Outdoor. www.cboutdoors.com My company specializes in outdoor education with an emphasis in wilderness medicine and avalanche search and rescue. My work over the past two decades has led me to every continent. I've traveled either by bicycle, boat, Cessna, ski and foot working as a freelance writer, a medic, an exploration geologist, a teacher, a lover of the outdoors, a life coach, a guide, and a search and rescue dog handler. I founded a nonprofit school teaching Sherpa's and Mount Kilimanjaro guides how to care for the sick and injured as they ascend into extreme altitude. Marmot has named me Ambassador. I'm proud to represent Marmot. I'm just an average outdoor woman embodying the Marmot lifestyle; I represent the young, the middle- aged, the wise, the restless, and the adventurer. Really, I'm the hip 49-year-old trying to balance a healthy lifestyle with work and play, giving back when I can. Marmot's clothing and equipment has supported my endeavors from Antarctica to Africa and from the class room on the flanks of Mount Everest to the matt in the yoga studio. Discover your path through Crested Butte Outdoors. Find out how our workshops, trips and courses can help you find your passion. We hope to teach you a little something along the way... hopefully sprinkled with the courage and confidence to follow your heart.

Jordan campbell

Athlete, writer, Marmot PR Manager

Throughout Jordan Campbell's twenty-five year adventure life, an existential journey which includes expeditions, photography, documentary film, philanthropy and advocacy, the Colorado native has emerged as a dedicated writer and journalist, capturing important human-interest stories born from high and wild adventures. Jordan's work has been featured in Backcountry, Climbing, Outside, Men's Journal, Elevation Outdoors and Wend. His writings range from thoughtful, atmospheric memoir — his voice and style once described as a 'gothic ornateness' (Katie Ives, Alpinist) — to hard hitting, expose-style journalism. Jordan views international adventurers and mountaineers as the tentacles of the human experience — unique ambassadors that travel to far-flung, lofty destinations who then return home to share their fresh-minded, global perspectives. As part of his own journey, Jordan has climbed and skied in Europe, Asia, North and South America; he has participated in successful expeditions to India, Nepal and Tibet, and also visited lesser-trodden destinations like Morocco, Iceland, Tasmania and Jordan. He has appeared in several documentary films for network and theatrical release. His photography can be viewed at www.jordancampbell.com. Jordan has forged his adventure life forward through his professional career path in the outdoor industry. He specializes in marketing, brand communication and media relations for outdoor-apparel companies with a focus on technical outdoor apparel, clothing and equipment, athletes and expeditions. Since 2006, Jordan has worked for Marmot Mountain LLC as Director of Public Relations, introducing the brand to new audiences and core users worldwide. He also serves as a Marmot Ambassador Athlete, exporting the brand's values and the spirit of People Product Planet™ in his travels abroad, including Marmot-sponsored expeditions. He currently lives in Colorado.