Monday, August 31, 2009

The Beginning (retrospectively)

The seedling idea for the H.A.C.E. Club first originated in 1995 on a afternoon drive with a few of the HACE Club founding members and their father. As they contemplated the need for adventure and weighed it against their startling lack of skills, their gaze steeled and a firm conviction settled down upon them like a wet pair of undies.

After the "epiphany in the pickup truck" (sounds like a country song, huh) the three brothers decided that 1) adventure was their destiny, and 2)the world was their bathroom, and began the planning and organizational phase of what would be come the HACE Club.

High Altitude Cerebral Edema, or HACE, was chosen as the name for this newly formed club of adventurers.

High Altitude Cerebral Edema, a significant, often fatal medical condition that has symptoms of "loss of coordination (ataxia), and decreasing levels of consciousness including disorientation, loss of memory, hallucinations, irrational behavior, and coma". This seemed to be the perfect acronym and name for the club due to the fact that our general emotional and physical baseline functioning seemed to be described perfectly by the symptoms of HACE (with the possible exception of the coma-part... though there remain some concerns with the current Wyoming chapter president).

With critical details like our name, and a club dues structure settled, the plans for the first big adventure (FBA) began in earnest! The target: Le Grande' Teton. (I won't tell you what it means in French)
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In our next historical installment we will discuss the ill-fated and treacherous attempt at summiting the Grand Teton in 1996. And though our heros ended up scampering off of the mountain with their collective tails between their legs in defeat, there were no major "boo-boos" and they learned many valuable lessons that would serve them well in the coming years of adventure!

Don't forget to tune in and tell your friends!