Welcome to Travis Kay's Climb to Fight Breast Cancer Web Page

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Lydig Construction
Amount Raised
64 percent of goal achieved.
Goal: $6,000.00
Achieved: $3,850.00
Fundraising Honor Roll


Devil's Thumb, April 2012

I have a great love for the outdoors. My wife Jessica and I moved to the Seattle area a little over 5 years ago and have grown to love this region more and more each year. We have 3 young children (Dawson, Hallie, & Davis) and it is such a joy to take them outside to enjoy the beauty that the northwest has to offer. Spending time with my family keeps me active and optimistic about life.

I have been fortunate enough to have good health throughout my life.  This is not because of anything I have done, it is simply a blessing from above.  It is because of this blessing that I am in a position to help others. Because of my great love for the outdoors as well as my strong belief of serving others, it was an easy decision to join this cause. This is pretty new to me... I have only done one other event like this in the past, but I plan on getting more involved in the future. It is a perfect way to do something I love and help out a worthy cause at the same time. My team will be climbing Mt. Adams, the 2nd tallest peak in Washington State in late July.

I have a friend who has recently overcome breast cancer. When I learned this, I was surprised that someone so young could be affected with this terrible condition. It then occurred to me that more people than I ever thought are affected with cancer, both young and old, it does not discriminate. They are our friends and family and we dearly love them.  I don't have anybody in my immediate family that has been affected by cancer, nor do I ever hope to.  But do I have to in order to get involved with this fight?  No.  I am doing this to be proactive, not reactive.  If my mother, wife, or daughter ever get cancer, I want them to beat it in the first round, not go down swinging.  So lets do ourselves a favor and support the proper research to give those affected a better chance!

This is an unusual and lofty goal for me and I am asking for your help. It doesn't need to be a large donation. Every bit helps! Please help support me in this important project by contributing. Your support will help fund cutting-edge research in the prevention, detection and treatment of breast cancer. Please click on"Donate to Travis in 2012" (ORANGE button). Whatever you can give will help - it all adds up! I greatly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress.

You can also check out my interview in the Everett Herald here: http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20120316/NEWS01/703169882/1031/LIVING08

Sincerely,

Travis Kay

My Climb Journal

Topics

Heather Lake / Pinnacle Lake - June 9th, 2012
A few friends and I hiked into Heather Lake, which is located on the northeast side of Mt. Pilchuck. We then moved around the east ridge and hit Pinnacle Lake. We passed the lake and climbed up the chute to suicide ridge. We might have had a nice view if visibility wasn't less than 100'. It was a good training exercise anyway... all in all, we climbed about 3,500' in just over 10 miles. Heather lake trail was mostly clear, but we hit snow early on the way to Pinnacle. And we had an awesome glissade down the chute.

by Travis Kay on Sat, Jun 16, 2012 @ 4:06 PM

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Mt. Pilchuck - June 4th, 2012
My wife Jessica and I summited Mt. Pilchuck via the west ridge last night. We arrived back at the car just before dark. 2,200' in 2 miles, every bit in the snow. lots of good snow pack this year... She did awesome too.

by Travis Kay on Tue, Jun 05, 2012 @ 3:15 PM

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Mt. Ellinor - June 2nd, 2012
Ryan & I Climbed Mount Ellinor in the Olympic range last Saturday. 3 miles in about 3,700'. We went up the winter route and glissaded down the chute (the longest and steepest glissade I have done yet).

by Travis Kay on Tue, Jun 05, 2012 @ 3:06 PM

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Mt. Pilchuck - May 16th, 2012
The gate on Pilchuck Road opened up about a week ago so some friends and I climbed the winter route this last Wednesday night. This is a fun route and the best part is that we were able to glissade down most of the way because the whole route is on a ski resort. It was very wide open and I only hit a couple trees!

by Travis Kay on Fri, May 18, 2012 @ 11:21 AM

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Granite Mountain Lookout - May 5th, 2012
Saturday was supposed to be a beautiful sunny day (according to my research) which it was toward the end of the day, but in the morning it was a rain/snow mix up at Snoqualmie Pass. Kep Peterson, Dustin Shelton, Ryan Dahle, & I headed for the Granite Mountain Lookout at 6:30am. The trailhead is off exit #47, just 5 miles west of the top of Snoqualmie Pass. The avalanche chute was full of snow, dirt, and fallen tree debris at around 2,000' whereas the snow level was much higher. It was a huge swath of debris and looked like it would have been a nasty slide to witness. It was obvious the debris had come a long way down. so we bushwhacked up to the west of the chute where we lost the trail in the debris. We were on and off the trail for a mile or so until we determined for the sake of time and safety, we should turn back. I was home by 11:30, just in time to take Dawson rock climbing at the REI Pinnacle. He did awesome!

by Travis Kay on Mon, May 07, 2012 @ 11:45 AM

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Heather Lake / Lake #22 - April 28th, 2012
Dan Perkins and I took advantage of the fair weather yesterday and set off to climb the ridge between Heather Lake and Lake #22 on the north side of Mt. Pilchuck. There was lots of snow and, but its been warm enough that the snow shoes weren't necessary. It was pretty cool to see both lakes from one spot. We watched a few avalanches and sluffs while eating lunch, then had about a half-mile long glissade back down to the lake... home by 4:00.

by Travis Kay on Sun, Apr 29, 2012 @ 11:25 PM

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Devil's Thumb - April 14th, 2012
A friend (Dan Perkins) and I climbed Devil's Thumb in the North Cascades. It's just 9 miles to the SSE of Darrington, but accessed from the south off the Mountain Loop Hwy (NF-4052). We ventured toward Lake Kelcema at first (heading northwest on Coal Creek Road instead of northeast when it spit). About 2 miles into it realized we were headed to the wrong basin. Lots of fallen trees along the road and about half way into it, the road ended with no marked trail, at which point it became somewhat of a bushwack. We climed through the trees for some time until we came to Devil's Lake Basin, which was beautiful. It was about a mile through the basin and then a 50 degree ascent up to the SW ridge. From there we roped up and climbed up a 4th class exposed rock face, then back onto the snow for another 100' or so. There's somewhat of a false summit at that point and getting out to the summit was about 100' rope length of fully exposed knife edge (2,000' down to Helena Lake on the west and 1,500' down to Windom Lake on the east). It was an amazing climb.

by Travis Kay on Mon, Apr 16, 2012 @ 4:36 PM

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West Tiger 3 - March 17th, 2012
10 more Lydig folks made the trek up West Tiger 3 on Tiger Mountain in Issaquah. It was raining at the bottom which turned to snow around 800-1,000 feet. By the time we got to the top, there was 4"-5" on the ground. Great hike, everyone made it to the top. Big kudos to everybody for pushing harder when the wet, slippery trail was pushing right back.
*Noteworthy event*
Dustin decided to carry a 65lb bag of sand approx. 1 mile up the trail where he ditched it and picked it right back up on the way down. It may have slowed him down a bit but he still kept up and finished strong.

by Travis Kay on Wed, Mar 21, 2012 @ 4:05 PM

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Poo Poo Point - February 25th, 2012
Today, 10 Lydig family and friends made the 7.4 mile round trip hike to Poo Poo Point on the west side of Tiger Mountain in Issaquah.

by Travis Kay on Sat, Feb 25, 2012 @ 10:23 PM

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Mt. Saint Helens - February 4th, 2012
Ryan Dahle and I climbed Mt. Saint Helens for our first official training outing this year. It was awesome! It was the first snow climb I have ever done, it made me so excited for this summer.

by Travis Kay on Wed, Feb 08, 2012 @ 10:42 PM

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