Pubdate: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 Source: Santa Barbara News-Press (CA) Copyright: 2000 Santa Barbara News-Press Contact: P.O. Box 1359, Santa Barbara, CA 93102 Website: http://www.newspress.com/ Author: Sally Cappon, News-Press Correspondent, http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1214/a05.html MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, CLIMBERS HEADING HOME Ten Santa Barbara climbers were due to start home today after successfully reaching the summit of a remote Arctic mountain in an effort to raise funds for an adolescent substance abuse center in Santa Barbara. The climbers got to the top of the previously unnamed 7,000-foot-tall peak with little time to spare, as a storm bore down. "If it was even a day later, they wouldn't have made it," said a spokesman for the Santa Barbara Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, which spearheaded the expedition, called Summit for Danny and All Our Kids. "It was a lot harder than they thought,'' said the spokesman who has been in communication with the group that left Santa Barbara Aug. 21. They flew to Pond Inlet on Baffin Island in far northern Canada. They then crossed to Bylot Island, 500 miles from the North Pole, where they began a trek over a glacier they named Danny's Glacier. Danny Bryant, son of Santa Barbara jewelry store owner Bob Bryant, died of a drug overdose in 1995. Since then Bob Bryant has led a campaign for a local drug treatment center. He organized the Canada climb, which also included Sheriff Jim Thomas, District Attorney Tom Sneddon, Drs. Michael Pesce and Richard Kahmann, Don Lafler, chief financial officer of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, Santa Barbara City College President Peter MacDougall, Jeff Dozier, dean of UCSB's Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, KEYT-TV anchor Debby Davison and Patty Wiessner. Wiessner and Bryant climbed Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro on New Year's Day, also to raise funds for the drug center. Santa Barbara philanthropist Lady Leslie Ridley-Tree manned a Bylot Island base camp (and brought jerky, fresh bananas and Sneddon's lost hiking boots to the climbers, according to a journal on the group's Web site). Climbing steep, rocky terrain, the Santa Barbarans reached the summit of the peak, their goal, on Saturday at 3 p.m., naming it Mountain of Hope, or Niriungjik in the native Inuktituk language. That night in the base camp, it began to rain, which continued for 36 hours as the hikers walked several hours in snow. At a rain-swollen stream, Dozier, expedition leader Dan Ortolani and his brother Art formed a human chain to help the group across. Returning by boat to the town of Pond Inlet, they circled an iceberg, according to the Website journal. The trip was injury free except for blisters and a few minor aches, Bryant reported. No estimate was yet available on how much money the trek raised. The group spent Tuesday night in Pond Inlet, where they had hot showers. This morning, they were to fly out on a two-day return flight home via Iqalui, Nunavut and Ottawa and Toronto, Canada. A homecoming is scheduled for the group's return to the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport 7:30 p.m. Thursday, said Maria Long, media and special events director for the Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. "We're really proud of them," she said. "I know it took a lot of stamina." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D