Why we climbed against coal

We were moms on a mission. We woke up at midnight Saturday morning to attempt the 14,411 ft summit of Mount Rainier.  We had a message for Governor Gregoire: close Washington’s largest toxic polluter and point source of deadly carbon — the TransAlta coal-fired power plant in Centralia.

We are not experienced mountaineers, but six months ago, when we brainstormed this crazy idea, we determined to meet an urgent challenge with radical action.  We each have children between the ages of 3 and 6, and our kids have taught us to be loud and persistent in our demands.  The Governor’s plan to burn dirty coal for fifteen more years is unacceptable.  The time to transition to clean energy is now.

At the 14,411' summit of Mount Rainier. Banner reads "Governor Gregoire: Close TransAlta Now. Coal Kills"

We were the last team to leave base camp at 1:30 a.m., but all of our training paid off: we climbed 5000 ft in six hours and were the first team from Camp Schurman to arrive at the summit.  While we stood awed and breathless atop Mount Rainier’s magnificent glaciers, it was hard to ignore other, less awe-inspiring facts:

• TransAlta’s coal plant, Washington’s largest point source of carbon emissions, was warming the climate and destroying Rainier’s glaciers beneath our feet;
• The snow that we melted for our drinking water was laced with mercury, a potent neurotoxin which blows onto the mountain from TransAlta’s stack;
• The views we expected from the top of our state’s tallest mountain were muddied with haze caused by TransAlta’s nitrogen oxide emissions.

Vashon friends and family circle up in the O of "NO COAL"

We wrestled our banner out in the wind, managing to snap a few photos, and then it was time to head back down to a less nausea- and fatigue-inducing elevation.  After taking a day back at base camp to recuperate and revel in our accomplishment, we headed down the mountain to Glacier Basin (including a thrilling 1,500′ glissade, a.k.a., sliding on our butts).  I had been anticipating this moment for months–triumphant moms, returning to our families, gathering our kids up in our arms.  We were met on the trail not only by our families, but by much of our island community who had come out to the Park to support our effort and also to make their own stand against coal.  Early that morning, as we were still tucked into our sleeping bags at 9,400′, our friends and families were laying out a 75,000 square foot image with black landscape fabric on a snowfield stating: NO COAL.

It was an incredible moment of solidarity and the mountain really was abuzz with the message of our action.  From the climbing rangers at base camp — “Oh, you’re the No Coal Moms?  You guys are famous!” — to all the climbers we spoke to — “You guys might not have been mountaineers a few days ago, but you definitely are now!”; from the rangers at Glacier Basin and everybody who passed on the trail snapping photos, to the person who hiked down a few thousand feet from Burroughs to get our email address so he could send the photos he took of the No Coal banner.  Everybody we spoke to was supportive, engaged, and ready for Washington to move beyond coal.

We are proud to join the many voices throughout the state urging Governor Gregoire to step up. Our parents taught us to face our problems, to try creative solutions, and not to procrastinate.  We are teaching our children those same lessons.  We can not push this problem into our children’s future.  In 2025, when are kids are grown, we want them to look back at this time with pride–pride that their parents took a stand, made sacrifices, and met a challenge to help future generations live on a thriving, nurturing planet.

We took our message to the Summit!

At 7:30 Saturday morning, the Climb Against Coal team successfully summitted with our message to Governor Gregoire: coal burning must end in Washington.  We are spreading our message far and wide and, with help from all of you concerned about our children, our mountain, and our future, we will move forward into the renewable energy future.  Please contact Governor Gregoire and tell her you want her to put our future first and put a stop to burning coal.

Write Governor Gregoire a letter:
Governor Chris Gregoire
Office of the Governor
PO Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002

Give Governor Gregoire’s Office a call:
Governor’s Office 360-902-4111
For relay operators for the deaf or hard of hearing, please dial 7-1-1

Fax Governor Gregoire a letter:
360-753-4110

Mountain Mamas have begun their ascent!

Go to their facebook page, give them a like and follow the action!

Banner!

We got together last night to work on the banner we’ll be taking up to the summit.  After all these months of focusing on training, it is really fun to be working on the action part of our climb.  Back in March or April, when all of our focus was on training, it was sometimes easy to forget why we are doing this, that we’re not just climbing this mountain for personal achievement.  This is what is motivating me right now, as we get closer and closer (only one more week!) and I feel some apprehension about the climb.  I’ve never had any interest in climbing Mt. Rainier before, and sometimes I wonder why I’m doing this.  But last night was a good reminder.  We also had the opportunity to talk with some folks from Fuse Washington, and talking about the climb, and the issue of coal in Washington,  also helped remind me why I’m doing this.

Plus, the banner looks super cool!  There are about two dozen small flags that kids, (and others) painted at our party a few weeks ago.  We stitched those onto some background fabric and strung them together.  They look great!  We’ll be taking those up with us, along with a banner that has our message to the governor.

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Letter to Governor Gregoire

We sent our letter to Governor Gregoire today.  If you’re on Sierra Club’s email list, you may receive an action alert asking you to sign on in support of it.  Check it out here.