Apollo Gonzales's Blog: Saving Wildlife and Wild Places tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2010:/blogs/agonzales//71 2010-05-03T02:29:19Z Movable Type Enterprise 1.52 Deepwater Dispatches (Part 1) tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2010:/blogs/agonzales//71.5973 2010-05-01T04:56:34Z 2010-05-03T02:29:19Z The first thing you forget when you leave the Gulf Coast, where I grew up, is the humidity. It is also, the first thing you are reminded of when you come home. When I got the call that I was... Apollo Gonzales The first thing you forget when you leave the Gulf Coast, where I grew up, is the humidity. It is also, the first thing you are reminded of when you come home. When I got the call that I was to pack up and head out to New Orleans I loaded my bags with long sleeve shirts and ties, the uniform of DC. I am drenched just sitting here, and my coaster doesn’t stand a chance against the sweating glass of ice water. My ties are not going to see the light of day.

Sweaty Glass

I spent the better part of my youth on a different bayou, one ostensibly tamed by concrete and steel. The truth is, the climate, the mosquitos, the Gulf...they’ve been around long enough to not be fooled by a few office buildings or air conditioned rest stops. Whether you are from Houston (like me), New Orleans, Mobile, or Pensacola, you feel a kinship with your fellow bayou dwellers - we are a special breed who chooses to live in generally unbearable conditions for 9 months of the year.

New Orleans is buzzing tonight. Jazzfest is in it’s final days and people are tired from the 7 days of festivities, but it is still the talk of the town. Here in my hotel in Houma, the buzz is different. The bar is stacked shoulder to shoulder with men in shirts with faded screen print that reads “EPA”, “Coast Guard”, “DEQ”, and “NRC”. They are mostly silent as CNN reports the progress of the reach of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The oil is almost here, and the way the wind is blowing you can bet it’ll be here soon. It is clear that CNN isn’t telling them anything they don’t already know.

I’ve seen this scene before, at hotel bars in Utah and Arizona, where wildfire fighters from around the country have come to do everything in their power to mitigate the disaster at hand without concern about who is to blame. These men at the bar tonight are fresh, they’ve only just arrived on the scene from all over the country. In that way they are like my fellow bayou dwellers, in it together, for better or worse.

The pictures of oil covered wildlife are making the rounds, and when I mention to my waitress the tendrils of oil making their way inland she sighs and asks, “How much more can we take?” It is the question, it seems to me, we should all be asking our leaders who support a policy of addiction to the fuel of the past.

I am steeling myself for the things I will see here on the coast, in the Gulf that taught me to swim, surf, and fish. I suppose there is no better inoculation than the damp night air and the sound of the bayou.

]]> From Blacksmith to Environmental Hero tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2007:/blogs/agonzales//71.697 2007-11-02T01:51:20Z 2007-11-05T21:33:04Z I laced up my first pair of climbing shoes in the fall of 1997. At the time, climbing in Texas was relegated to a few over crowded outdoor spaces, and more than a handful of indoor climbing gyms. After an... Apollo Gonzales
The history of rock climbing in the United States is chock full of the sort of adventure I should have been reading about as a kid. In the late 1950’s a bunch of guys who had heard about climbing in the Alps wanted to see if they could climb the expansive granite faces found in the Yosemite Valley in California. El Capitan, The Shield and Half Dome, all seas of untouched granite beckoned the likes of Royal Robbins, Chuck Pratt, Warren Harding and Tom Frost. Together these men, armed with hemp ropes and leather lug soled shoes made the first ascents of these now iconic pieces of rock, often sleeping in their bivy sacks while tied to the rock. At the age of twenty-four I had my first real set of heroes. Their achievements would not have happened if it had not been for the talents of a young climber who was a trained blacksmith, Yvon Chouinard. In a small smith-shop Chouinard forged the pitons and carabineers that provided the basis for the safety systems the climbers used on their ascent, and the predecessors for the equipment I would pack every weekend for my adventures into the southwest. At the time it would have been possible to order the equipment from Europe, but these climbers were innovating and driving change in how climbing was done. Eventually, driven by Couninard’s imagination, the group created the clean climbing technique, which absconded with pitons that damaged the rock. Chouinard saw further into the future than any other climber had, and designed some of the best equipment ever used.
Winter photo of El Capitan, Yosemite National Park
Eventually Chouinard’s smith shop became Black Diamond Equipment, and an industry of climbing innovation was born. Royal Robbins went on to loan his name and experience to a clothing company, and later in his life Tom Frost lent his name and expertise to a small climbing company called Frost Works. But neither changed the world of climbing technology as much as Chouinard.

In my imagination, in 1997 I still saw the Chouinard of a black and white photo taken in the early ‘60’s , young, wearing a blacksmith apron surrounded by my heroes. What I did not know at the time was that Chouinard was still alive, and still innovating. Then one day, a friend of mine handed me Chouinards book entitled Let My People go Surfing. My mind was blown. Chouinard had also started Patagonia, the clothing company I already admired for their environmentally conscious and sustainable business practices. Over the years I have preached the gospel of Patagonia, their business model, and their drive to innovate the manufacturing and procurement process of their products. It only made sense that Couinard was there, at the helm, looking to the future.

On October 24th, 2007, the National Forest Foundation presented Chouinard with its Conservation Leadership award for his tireless and innovative efforts to preserve the wilderness and support of organizations with the same mission. I wanted to write this post because everyone knows the Patagonia brand, but so few know about the man behind the idea. His name is Yvon Chouinard, and he is one of the few people left that I am willing to call a Hero. Congratulations Yvon.

Climb On!]]>