Jan 09
The Crew
JONATHON HARADON
Jon, a former high-jumper turned climber, is something like a kangaroo crossed with a monkey. In the last 8 years, he’s spent 300,000 miles on the road, and cooked almost 700 meals in the back of his truck. Along the way, he’s summitted half of Colorado’s fourteeners, descended more than two dozen of Utah’s most difficult technical slot canyons, and climbed some of the wildest big walls and desert towers in the West.
In Colorado, he has climbed technical routes on Crestone Needle (Ellingwood Arete; IV 5.7), Longs Peak (the Casual Route; IV 5.10b), and Kit Carson (the Prow; III 5.7), as well as some of the state’s most exciting technical traverses (North Maroon to South Maroon Peak; Crestone Needle to Crestone Peak; Little Bear to Blanca Peak). In Utah, he has climbed Prodigal Son, Moonlight Buttress, and Spaceshot (in a day) at Zion; as well as the Stolen Chimney on Ancient Art (5.8, A0), the Cobra (5.11b R), the Colorado NE Ridge of King Fisher Tower (5.8, A2+), and the Kor Ingalls and North Chimney routes on Castelton Tower (both III 5.9).
He’s climbed long routes in the Bugaboos, Tetons, and Yosemite; been up Ixtacehuatl (17,800 feet), in Mexico; and attempted 17,913-foot Yanapaccha and 20,846-foot Chopicalqui in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca. He’s descended Kolob Creek Canyon (solo), Englestead Canyon (solo), and Imlay canyon (in a day). He’s also gone 27 days in a row without showering.
Jon grew up in Pennsylvania, and, after briefly pursuing a career in chemical engineering, now works as a high-school math-and-science-and-everything-else teacher. He first stepped foot on a sailboat in 2003.
Jonny is more or less an energizer bunny with undiagnosed ADHD. Over the last 12 years, he’s climbed in at least 20 states, and biked up, through, or over the rest of ‘em.
He has been up every peak in the Tetons, all of Oregon’s Cascade volcanos, and all 46 of the 4,000-foot peaks in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. He’s led 5.10 trad climbs at Squamish, Joshua Tree, Index, and the Gunks; flashed V7s in Bishop; and onsighted 5.12 sport climbs in at Rumney, Red Rocks, and the Red River Gorge. He’s also climbed a dozen grade IV routes from Wyoming to California, and been up Citlaltepetl (18,700 feet) and Ixtacehuatl (17,800 feet) in Mexico.
He has biked across New England (from Amherst, MA to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia), and biked solo across the country (from Washington, DC to Colorado). He raced in the 2007 North American Cycle Courier Championships, and has finished in the top-5 in many alleycat races in San Francisco, Washington, DC, Baltimore, and NYC. He’s biked up all of Colorado’s big passes, ridden to the top of Mt. Evans, and linked up Vermont’s four gaps in a day. He’s also run three marathons, even though he hates running.
Jonny grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC, the son of two writers. Big surprise: he’s a writer, too. He learned how to sail — on a 14-foot Sunfish — when he was 12 years old, and hasn’t been on many boats since.
Matt, the captain of Syzygy, actually knows how to sail. He has spent the last two years racing on five different boats on San Francisco Bay, primarily working the foredeck aboard Cirque (a Beneteau 43 skippered by Louis Kruk), the winner of the Offshore Yacht Racing Association’s 2007 race series.
A landlubber like Jon and Jonny, Matt has driven across the country 25 times, and climbed innumerable crags and mountain ranges along the way. He’s climbed 5.13s at Whiterock, Rumney, and Red Rocks; placed in the top-3 at climbing competitions in New England; and climbed long routes in the Tetons, Yosemite, and Zion. He’s also been up a dozen of Colorado’s fourteeners, and down more than two dozen of Utah’s technical slot canyons.
He spent three winters snowboarding (and working) in Crested Butte and Vail; and two summers leading teenagers on three-week backcountry trips in Colorado and British Columbia. He’s taught climbing classes in New Hampshire and New York; led
hut-to-hut ski trips in Colorado’s Elk Mountains; and organized a mad float trip down the Colorado River through Utah’s Caynyonlands.
Matt grew up on a farm in New Jersey, and, having briefly pursued a career in theoretical astrophysics research, is now a digital photography whiz. He’s a terrible swimmer.