Media Links Updated

I changed servers for my website causing the media links on this site to go down. I have fixed this and once again you can view the first night rememberance, the funeral, and the memorial slide show. These are linked at right, in the "Image Galleries / Highlights" box.

The multimedia was built using an older version of Soundslides. Some platforms have trouble playing this. Allowing the media to load completely before playing may help but if not, my apologies.

Thanks,
tim

20 May: Tibetan Buddhist Ceremony for Lara

Location: Sakya Buddhist Monastery in Greenwood
Date: This Sunday May 20th
Time: 9:30AM

In honor of Lara’s many travels and explorations of different cultures, Chad and friends have chosen to honor her with a Buddhist ceremony. When we first started talking about doing this we thought that Lara would love the idea of such a unique ceremony. For many of us it may be our first experience with a Buddhist service, which is reminder of how Lara loved adventure and was always glad to try something new.

In traditional Buddhist beliefs the 4th Sunday after passing, which for Lara is May 20th, is a special time to honor the individual. A dedication of merit for her will be recited as part of the traditional Chenrezi practice. This is a prayer for loving kindness and compassion. We will also have a reading of the Aspiration of Samantabhadra, which is a prayer that increases the magnitude of our intent for the recipient. With the love we all have for Lara, it feels very appropriate that we would honor her with a Tibetan ceremony.

All is confirmed for Sunday's Buddhist service from 10:00-noon (we are encouraged to show up at 9:30). Chad will be bring a special photo of Lara. The service will be followed by a communal meal for all.

Please note there is no need to bring flowers or food, we will be making a small donation for the service. We hope to see you then.

Questions:
Anthippy Petras
206-323-7706
apetras(at)u.washington.edu

Directions:
Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism
108 NW 83rd Street Seattle, WA 98117
USA Tel: (206) 789-2573
Fax: (206) 789-3994
Monastery@Sakya.org

Sakya Monastery is located in the Greenwood neighborhood of Seattle. To get to Sakya Monastery, from Interstate 5 take the 85th Street Exit and go West. You will cross Aurora Avenue, then cross Greenwood Ave. N. At the second light after Greenwood Ave. N., make a left hand turn onto 1st Ave. NW. Go two blocks and Sakya Monastery is on your right at the intersection of 1st Ave. NW and NW 83rd St.

Lara Kellogg Funeral

These are images from Lara's funeral, reception, and after party at Kasi and Andreas's. The song is the closest rendition I could find to the performance of "You Light Up My Life" during the service by soloist Gloria Hanson and accompanist Reed Terzian.

Remembrance Slideshow

This is a more produced version of the looping slideshow at the reception following Lara's funeral on 5 May, 2007. Duration: 7min 20sec.

Images were submitted by Lara's friends and family; they were compiled in a somewhat chronological fashion though my familiarity with the who's who of Lara's life is limited to the more recent years. Music was a compromise of my tastes, what I knew of Lara's, the numerous suggestions I received, and what I felt would satisfy a broad audience.

The final images are of Lara's last day. The last image is of "Lara Shan," a first ascent by Chad Kellogg, Joe Puryear, and Jay Janousek. Named for Lara.

These images, this slideshow, and the funeral images will be available on CD soon-ish. I will make copies for a select few who I will list and, like the phone tree, they can be copied and distributed.

Thanks,
Tim Matsui

Memorial Service: Photo Submission

CALL FOR IMAGES
Submission Deadline is this Friday evening.

At the memorial after Saturday's funeral we will run a digital slide show. We are asking for a contribution of images of Lara..

Digital Submission Specs (for the techie):
1024x768 maximum dimensions; 72ppi; sRGB; Adjust hi/low values in Curves at 6/245; Unsharp Mask at 120%, .5 Radius, 2 Threshold; save as JPG with embedded sRGB profile, Quality 11

Digital Submission Specs (non techie):
send us the file in its original state.

Analog (slides or prints) Submission Specs:
If you are unable to convert the images to digital yourself, please call Tim at 206.409.3069 to drop these off for scanning.

If you have time, please caption your images with "who, what, where, when, why" as there is a chance we will have time to include this in the production. But getting the images submitted should be the priority.

EMAIL TO:
For less than 4mb file email to Tim: photo(at)timmatsui.com
For greater than 4mb file email to Andreas: dakobed(at)hotmail.com

**please send an email with no attachments to confirm image arrival

Thanks,
tim matsui

Lara-Karena Bitenieks Kellogg Memorial Conservation Grant

A fund has been established in Lara's honor with the American Alpine Club. In lieu of flowers at her funeral, Chad would appreciate donations to the Lara-Karena Bitenieks Kellogg Memorial Conservation Grant in honor of Lara's commitment to preserving natural wild spaces.

Please contribute your tax deductible donation in one of the following ways:
- To donate by credit card, click on the "One Time Gift" link on the AAC website http://www.americanalpineclub.org/pages/page/8. Please be sure to type "Lara-Karena Bitenieks Kellogg Memorial Conservation Grant" into the "Comments" section.
- To donate by check please send to this address. Please be sure to write "Lara-Karena Bitenieks Kellogg Memorial Conservation Grant" on the check:
The American Alpine Club
710 10th St Suite 1
Golden, CO 80401

In addition the AAC has this information on its website at the bottom of this page:
http://www.americanalpineclub.org/pages/page/21
The news release is here: http://www.americanalpineclub.org/pages/news.php#149

Please forward this to EVERYONE who would be interested so we have the opportunity to make this a lasting legacy.

Memorial Service, Saturday May 5th

Please pass this information along to anyone who knew Lara... Everyone is invited.

Direct Link: http://rememberlara.blogspot.com/2007/05/memorial-service-saturday-may-5th.html

Link: Call for Photos for Memorial Service

FUNERAL INFORMATION:
The funeral will be held Saturday May 5th at the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church. The viewing will be from 12-1PM and the ceremony will be from 1-2PM. There will be memory boards to display pictures of Lara. Please bring up to 3 pictures; if they are originals please take them with you after the service.

Following the ceremony there will be a gathering at the Bitter Lake Community Center from 2-5PM. This will be a potluck gathering so please bring food to share. (No alchohol is allowed at the Community Center.)

Location information is below:
Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church
11710 3rd Ave NE
You approach it from 5th Ave NE which is immediately east of I-5.
[Map]


Bitter Lake Community Center
13035 Linden Ave N
Seattle, Washington 98133
[Map]


In lieu of flowers, Chad has asked you donate to the Lara-Karena Bitenieks Kellogg Memorial Conservation Fund

Smiling 'til the end

This is the last photo of Lara. Her enthusiasm was infectious.
Check out more photos at 59A2.org/lara

Jed Brown

Graphic: Accident on Mt. Wake

This is an image of Mt. Wake showing the high point Jed Brown and Lara Kellogg reached before snow conditions became poor. Lower down the face is where the accident occurred. Mt. Wake is 9130 feet in elevation and is located in the Ruth Gorge of the Alaska Range, Alaska. Photo by Eamonn Walsh.

For media: This link is for a higher resolution version 300ppi, 6x6 inches. For editorial use, mandatory photo credit to read "Photo © Eamonn Walsh."

The Accident Report

Report by Climbing Partner Jed Brown on Lara Kellogg's Death


For those of you who haven't already heard, Lara died in a rappelling accident while we were descending the NE Ridge of Mount Wake yesterday (April 23) evening. I am in Talkeetna and have just finished a debriefing at the Park. What follows is a detailed account in order to provide as much context as possible. Please pass this on to anyone I have missed.

On April 15, we flew to the Buckskin with reports that it was ``bristling with ice''. Unfortunately, this turned out not to be true
and after a couple days of poking around, decided that spindrift over slab just wasn't our thing and decided to bump to the Gorge. It had snowed lightly every day and when Paul bumped us to the Gorge on April 20, we were happy to see that there was much less fresh snow there.

The weather was quite good on April 21 and we skied over to the huge chimney system to the right of Snow Patrol on Dickey to see if it looked like a go. The first pitch turned us around, due to very steep, unprotectable snice, but it looked like it was filling in and might be in better shape with a couple more snow-free days. We tossed around a couple other objectives and decided that the NE Ridge of Wake looked like fun. We discussed leaving in the afternoon of April 22, so as to climb the snow at night, but decided to go in the morning.

At 2:30 on April 23, we awoke and began brewing up for a single push attempt. We brought a JetBoil and shovel, but no bivy gear. We took a single set of cams, a few nuts and pins, six ice screws, and a single 8.5 x 60 Edelweiss Sharp since we figured we would be doing mostly ridge climbing so there wouldn't be too many rappels. We left our skis around 5:00 and started up the long snow gully. At the top of the gully, we roped up and simuled up the ice/névé corner for a couple rope lengths to a belay under a small overhang. Above was the technical crux---two steps of thin, awkward 90 degree névé with one steel nut between them. This 30 meters of hard climbing put us on more moderate terrain which we simuled. This brought us to a lot of shoulder deep wallowing. We climbed the ridge crest to a notch just before the fluted face high on the ridge. Here, we were turned around by a mushroom that we couldn't get off and snow conditions that were not favorable for going around. At this point, it was 15:30 and it looked like weather was approaching, so we weren't keen on waiting for the snow to set up.

We began descending and downclimbed to the top of the steep step. I found a good nut and one 30 meter rappel just barely reached our belay under the overhang. We ate and drank at this alcove, then fixed one end of the rope to the anchor. The plan was that Lara would rap on the single strand, putting in a couple pieces at a traverse, and I would downclimb. She would either downclimb with me or do a similar rap/downclimb to the top of the first 30 meter step. This had a bulge of good ice at the top that we could V-thread to reach the top of the snow gully.

I recall pointing out that the single strand of 8.5 mm was slippery in her Reverso. We did not put a knot in the end of the rope. She rapped to the traverse, then out of sight. A couple minutes went by, then I heard a scream, the sound of falling, then a thud. As reality sank in, I tried to calm my nerves. Since she had the whole rack, so I couldn't rap if I wanted.

I packed up the rope and began downclimbing. It was 18:30. I came to a Yellow C4 before the traverse, then a Red C3 below it, then a 10 cm screw. Near what must have been the end of the rope, there was a marginal nut. I downclimbed to the top of the step, then made one 30 meter rappel off the ice screw to reach the snow gully. There was an impact mark near a tongue of rock at the bottom of the step. I estimate that she fell 30 meters down 60-70 degree ice, then 35 meters of free-fall over the cliff, then about 300 meters of tumbling down the gully. As I downclimbed, I collected tools, screws, and other gear. Her body came to rest near the bottom of the snow cone. I reached it at 19:20.

I skied back to camp and borrowed a sat phone to report the news. After a few minutes decompressing, I noticed the incoming weather and skied back with a sled. The owners of the phone helped me put her body in the sled and lower it down to the bottom of the snow cone. I pulled it back to camp in the midst of a squall which deposited a few inches of fresh, then erected the tent and settled in for a long night.

As I try to piece together the accident, I suspect that she was concentrating on finding gear to belay from and didn't realize how close to the end of the rope she was. Fatigue may have been a contributing factor. I don't know if the slippery rappel system played a part. I do not think she was hit by rockfall. I am confident that a knot in the end of the rope would have made the difference. This has certainly caused me to rethink the value judgement that the added security is not worth the hassle of stuck ropes and extra time to tie and untie knots.

Before the accident, we were in good spirits, constantly perpetuating one running joke or another. The climbing was enjoyable and the company was unbeatable. Our conversations were never dull. She was always up for a challenge and quite the rope-gun, although she would never admit it. I cherish the time we spent together.

--
Jed Brown