The Cleanest Line

By the Numbers: Quantifying Some of Patagonia’s Environmental Initiatives

Today we repurpose an easy to digest, numbers-based summary of Patagonia’s environmental work in fiscal year 2009. First published in July in our Environmental Initiatives booklet, we’ve updated it slightly and present it Harper’s Index style. Perfect grist for a blog post, we think you’ll find it chewy but not filling.

By the Numbers
Quantifying Some of Patagonia’s Environmental Initiatives

• Dollars in grants and in-kind donations given by Patagonia to environmental causes since 1985: 35 million
• Dollars in grants and in-kind donations given by Patagonia in fiscal year 2009: 3,816,750
• Number of environmental groups that received a grant this year from Patagonia: 398
• Dollar amount (retail) of clothing Patagonia donated to nonprofit groups this year: 357,000
  

Save the Waves Film Festival this Friday in San Francisco

[Trailer for All Points South, one of four films you can see this Friday in San Francisco. Video: Save the Waves Coalition]

We already told you about the Adventure Film Festival going down in Boulder, Colorado this weekend. Those preferring to stay on the west coast now have another option. Save the Waves, an ocean advocacy group we've featured in the Tin Shed, is hosting the Save the Waves Film Festival this Friday, November 13 at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco, California. It's a one-night gig featuring a quartet of inspiring environmental/surf films, live music, prizes, an art exhibit and a party to benefit the ocean. Hit the jump for the evening's lineup and ticket information.

Backyard Corridors: What wild animals live in your area?

Freedom to Roam is Patagonia’s current environmental campaign. Its goal is to create, restore and protect corridors between habitats so animals can survive. Freedom to Roam wants to preserve and protect big wildways (or corridors) for large animals. But we also want to help all of us better understand what a corridor is, and what it means to animals that live near you.

[Wildlife corridor sign in Central Park, New York. Photo: Tom Skeele]

So, we’re kicking off Backyard Corridors: We want to hear from you about what wildlife is roaming through your backyard, neighborhood or town – and what are some of the issues they face. Each week, we’ll ask a different question about animals and corridors to help get things started – our Patagonia stores will have the questions posted too. Here's the first question:

What wild animals live in your area?

You can share your stories in the comments on our blog, The Cleanest Line, or on Patagonia’s Facebook page. Here’s one from Ron Hunter to get things started. Ron works for Patagonia’s environmental department in our Reno Distribution Center.

Fear and Laughter on Lost Arrow

Today's post is from Patagonia Customer Service Representative, Dave Campbell. A climbing guide and instructor, Dave recently put his skills to use to lead a couple of Patagonia colleagues (one of them, his boss) up a Yosemite Valley icon, one that holds a special place in the founding of our company, the Lost Arrow Spire. Here's Dave . . .
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As a child I always regarded Halloween as my chance to run totally wild. It was the best shot we had as kids at letting our imaginations wander free; sometimes into a dark unknown where we got scared, other times into a colorful Peter-Pan mindset where anything was possible. As an adult I always feel as though an important part of me is fading away when I let another Halloween pass without a bit of sheer and unfiltered wildness and a good scare. Simply getting drunk at a rowdy Halloween costume party doesn’t cut it.

This year I set out with fellow Patagonia Customer Service lads Rob Flesher and Andrew Marshall on a mission—to Yosemite Valley to climb Lost Arrow Spire and set up a Tyrolean traverse 2,700 feet above the Valley floor. In order to pull off this semi-outlandish stunt we had to first hike 3000 vertical feet up to the Valley rim, rappel off the edge to a notch where the spire meets the main wall, and then climb a few exposed sections up the outside of the spire…and then do all of the rigging for the Tyrolean traverse.

[Rob Flesher on his way back to the Yosemite Valley rim from Lost Arrow Spire. Photo, Dave Campbell]

2009 Adventure Film Festival - Nov. 12-14th - Get to Boulder Any Way You Can

The Adventure Film Festival in Boulder, Colorado is an international forum for the best and most inspiring independent films of the year. The over 30 films featured in the Festival encompass all aspects of adventure from serious exploration and environmental heroism to gripping tales from the edge of the believable. With award-winning films from around the globe‚ adventure art and powerful speakers‚ the annual Adventure Film Festival in Boulder continues to inspire and awaken us all to the world we live in.

All of us at Patagonia are very proud to once again be the title sponsor for the event that was started by our late friend Jonny Copp. This will be the first year without Jonny's loving presence at the festival but producer/director Mark Reiner and his amazing staff have busted their butts to bring you an incredible lineup of films and activities. Special events include a family and kids show with Patagonia ambassador Lynn Hill, artwork from climber Renan Ozturk and a filmmakers' workshop with the director of photography for The Cove.  

Tickets are available now. Please visit http://www.adventurefilm.org for more information, the festival schedule and film trailers. If you can't make the trip to Boulder, please consider sharing news of this unique event with your friends and family on Twitter and Facebook. Thank you. Descriptions of the films and events after the jump...

Stormfront Boomerang – Part 2

Christian Beamish is back with his hand-built sailboat, Cormorant, and the conclusion to his story from Baja. Please read part 1 first if you missed it yesterday.

This was bad, but in the realm of wilderness breakdowns, not so bad really. I was not injured, I would not go hypothermic – worst case scenario I would drift across the bay and wash in along the beach somewhere that night or the next morning. But how the hell did I know? Anything could have happened. So I guess it was a bad enough. At any rate, I soon caught sight of a panga charging towards me over the rough water, and yet again in my short career of Baja seafaring and beachcombing, I was about to experience the kindness and generosity of Mexican fishermen.

Stormfront Boomerang – Part 1

When you build your own sailboat in Southern California and attempt to sail it the length of the Baja peninsula you don't come back with just one story, you come back with many. Today, we're stoked to have Christian Beamish join us again with another high-seas tale to complement his Dirtbag Diaries episode "Three Eighths to Eternity." Here's Christian:

A ten-mile sail across a shallow estuary, with cormorants and pelicans in their thousands on sand island rookeries, brought us to a desolate Baja village living out the hangover of a used-up fishery. One hundred miles of mangrove channels lay to the north, but our destination was the reef point where desert bluffs meet the sea on the other side of the barrier island. Everything came off beautifully – the dog stayed on board when we ran the surfline, my friend K called out the approaching set waves as I rowed the swift water of the estuary mouth, and then, once in deep water, we glided under sail (silent and magical) out to the headland.