This month, fourteen committed runners will join elite athletes Scott Jurek, Gebre Gebremariam and Werknesh Kidane for the first ever trail race in the cradle of humanity, culminating a week of shared contribution to the eye health and educational strength of Ethiopia.
Osprey athlete, climber and writer, Majka Burhardt is producing the project, called Accelerate Ethiopia. The expedition sparked as an idea for a fundraising running event to benefit the Himalayan Cataract Project, an leader in providing high-quality, low-cost eye care optimized for the developing world. Majka pulled in another nonprofit, imagine1day, which is a charity educating the next generation of leaders in Ethiopia—and together they created Accelerate Ethiopia.
As Majka prepares to leave on her journey to Ethiopia we caught up with her for a few questions…
Majka Burhardt and her father outside of El Bolson, Argentina.
Winter Call (Summer Ski Apology) was originally posted on Majka’s Blog.
I am not a hoarder. Or at least not of material things. But I might have to confess to being a recent hoarder of snow. And for that, I’m sorry.
Today, December 11th, 2012, I took a hike in the White Mountains and watched yesterday’s thin layer of white turn to clear liquid in the span of an hour. My skis—touring, downhill, classic and skate—are lined up in my garage ready to go. Like most of the northern hemisphere I am ready to ski. But I might be the reason why so few of us are actually getting to shred the gnar.
Here is my confession. I went south to ski and now the north is paying.
This October, a powerful, engaged and curious team is heading to Ethiopia to change the world, and change how they interact in that world. Usually, I’d be joining them. But this year I need you to take my place.
Imagine Ethiopia 2012 is the third iteration of a dream I helped create in 2009 with imagine1day. Our goal was simple: enable others to have their lives profoundly affected by Ethiopia by enabling them to profoundly experience Ethiopia. For the past two years I have co-led the trip with Sapna Dayal and a select team of other leaders. Together we have created an experience blending culture, adventure and connection along with an initiative to raise $100,000 to build schools in Ethiopia. This year’s school is in the Alose Community in Oromiya.
I can’t go on Imagine Ethiopia 2012—I will be in Mozambique for my Lost Mountain Project. But you can. Here is how…
Osprey athlete, Majka Burhardt teaching a climbing clinic. Photo: Red Rock Rendezvous Facebook gallery
We had a great weekend at the Red Rock Rendezvous, catching up with old friends, fitting in some climbing and mountain biking and of course soaking up the sweet, desert sun. If you couldn’t make it this year, mark your calendar for Red Rocks in 2013, they just keep getting better!
I’m practicing owning up to my origins. Colorado used to just roll off my tongue. New Hampshire? It’s clunky, it’s two words, and it takes explaining.
Contrary to what many presume from my quick speech and intense personality, I am not an easterner and never have been. Until now. In January Peter and I packed up the van and headed east. I’ve flirted with living in New Hampshire for the past three years (read more in my Go East Article in Alpinist Magazine). Now we’re going steady.
Unless you’ve been living in a deep, dark cave… You may have noticed that there is a lot of cool stuff going on out there. So, we thought it was high-time we started rounding up some of our faves each week. We call it the Osprey Round-Up… Happy Friday!
This week has been a busy one for us here at Osprey, so we figured the best way to wrap it up was to give shout-outs to some of the folks who have us inspired this week…
Welcome home to Majka Burhardt! Majka just returned from her expedition to the Lost Mountain of Mozambique where she explored the cracks and recesses of Mt. Namuli’s 700-meter cliff face, searching for new species of life. Before that, Majka spent a few weeks in Ethiopia with the great folks of imagine1day. Thanks for all of your incredible work, Majka!
Another big welcome home to Kim Havell who came home after an epic ski expedition to Antarctica. Kim had this to say about her trip to the bottom of the Earth: “We arrived to a place with no one else, with endless first descents and up to 9,000-foot peaks straight up from the ocean. This is a backcountry skier’s dream realm…” Glad you’re home safe and stoked, Kim! To read more about an Antarctic ski adventure and to check out some beautiful photos, please visit powdermag.com.
A huge congratulations from us here at Osprey to Krista Park and other Osprey Bike team members Stephen Ettinger and Chloe Woodruff who will represent the US Mountain Biking team in the 2012 Olympics!
And because the snow is falling here in Colorado, we decided to leave you with a great short video filmed in our own backyard from our friends at Felt Soul Media. Just watch. It will have you packing up your Kode and heading up to the mountain in no time.
Osprey athlete Majka Burhardt is making her way with a team of climbers, biologists and filmmakers this week to Mt. Namuli, a remote granite peak in northern Mozambique. Their mission: to explore the cracks and recesses of Mt. Namuli’s 700-meter cliff face, searching for new species of life.
Here’s the latest post from Majka and her climbing partner on the trip, Sarah Garlick…
Day 1
MB: I say goodbye to Ethiopia (intentionally), and to my new ultralight Thermarest (unintentionally). My first-ever spotting of the Congo appears initially out of a plane window, and soon through a propped-open plane door during a re-supply. Malawi and Mozambique bound.
SG: It’s 5:30 a.m. at Boston’s Logan Airport. I have a bad reaction to my anti-malaria meds and vomit into a trashcan at the airline check-in desk. I can feel the stares of the hundred or so early morning passengers in line behind me. Please let this not be a sign for what’s to come.
Day 4
MB: We hike the wide side of a long arcing bend in the trail to see Mt. Namuli on its other side. I requisition a flask of whiskey from an already drunk porter. Herpetologist Werner Conradie confirms the presence of crocodiles in the Malema River while we are hip deep, midstream.
SG: It’s dark. We’ve been hiking for 6 hours already and there’s nowhere to stop until we get to the Queen’s hut at the base of the mountain. Our guide Cotxane (pronounced co-chan-ee) says it’s only 30 more minutes, but I don’t believe him. We are a group of thirteen—climbers, scientists, guides, and porters—hiking single-file through the bush, illuminated by the narrow light of four headlamps. I can’t help but think about lions and spitting cobras, the former apparently hunted out from this area, the latter we’ve already seen, but with any luck not active at night?
Read the rest of the story from Majka and Sarah over on The Lost Mountain blog…
Majka Burhardt is a writer, climber, and AMGA-Certified Rock Guide who lives in Boulder, Colorado… when she’s home. Lately she’s been spending a lot of time searching for stone in Africa. Stay posted on her adventures in Mozambique over on The Lost Mountain site.
Osprey athlete Majka Burhardt is making her way with a team of climbers, biologists and filmmakers this week to Mt. Namuli, a remote granite peak in northern Mozambique. Their mission: to explore the cracks and recesses of Mt. Namuli’s 700-meter cliff face, searching for new species of life.
Over two years ago I came across photos of granite faces in Mozambique. I had no idea that those photos would lead me to today, November 6th 2011, packing for one of them in room 108 in the Jupiter Hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is fitting that Ethiopia—the place that has given me so much unexpected adventure and even more of life from adventure—is my staging ground for this next journey.
I’m lucky on this trip to be joined by Sarah Garlick and Paul Yoo. Sarah and I have been climbing partners and friends for years but this will be our first big trip together. Paul is a filmmaker base in LA and this is the first project for the three of us as a team. We really have no idea what we’re in for. None of us would want it differently. We have the basics—an unclimbed granite face, a landscape in Mozambique that is a hotbed of biodiversity, a group of local stakeholders who care about that landscape and need it to live off of to survive and flourish. And we have the intent to find all that we can in ourselves and in the journey.
Majka Burhardt is a writer, climber, and AMGA-Certified Rock Guide who lives in Boulder, Colorado… when she’s home. Lately she’s been spending a lot of time searching for stone in Africa. Stay posted on her adventures in Mozambique over on The Lost Mountain site.
At the top of a mountain, under the hot sun stands a tall eucalyptus tree. Under the tree sit children packed tightly together on stones, dusty earth beneath their feet, no protection from the afternoon heat. There are no desks or books. Yet every day the teacher carries in the one village blackboard and begins a new lesson. And every day the children arrive, some after walking for over two hours, eager to learn.
imagine1day is a group of movers, shakers and change-makers committed to the next generation of leaders who will carry Africa into a new era of prosperity — with a goal to give all Ethiopians access to quality education funded free of foreign aid by 2030 — in a world where all people are connected to their greatness.
Ethiopia is one of the world’s poorest nations, but despite this it remains full of promise and its government is cooperative and committed to education for all. Our good friend Majka Burhardt recently landed safe and sound in Addis, Ethiopia with a slew of Osprey Packs for scholarship recipients at imagine1day. Thanks to Majka for her passion and for bringing this incredible story to us here at Osprey. Stay tuned for updates from Majka when she returns from here adventure…
Learn more about imagine1day and how you can help send children to school in Ethiopia here.
Earlier this month, Osprey ambassador Majka Burhardt, recently published a book called Coffee Story: Ethiopia. In her book, Majka digs deep to tell the story of coffee’s heartland and how the crop has shaped a region, a people and a culture. Spending so much time in Ethiopia, Majka came home with a message of hope and powerful motivation to tell the story of this incredible place and to urge people to help.
In a recent article on Forbes.com, Majka shed some light on how we can all do something to help countries like Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa.
There is famine in the Horn of Africa. Of course. Isn’t there always?
Are you cringing yet? Good. Here are three things we can do now to help the Horn of Africa, beyond just sending famine relief: (1) Change the conversation. (2) Invest in the positive. (3) Tackle the uncomfortable.
