Rick Atherton picked up bouldering and running in a flurry of activity in 2016. Three weeks before his first marathon he discovered self-supported 50k’s and ran two back-to-back — sabotaging his road race — but fueling an obsession with the outdoors which has not abated. He focuses on multi-pitch trad, sport climbing, ultrarunning, and ice climbing. Rick is currently a graduate student studying electrical engineering at Portland State University, and working at Tektronix in Beaverton.

Sandy Dash developed a passion for running in 2015. She ran 5 marathons and several half marathons before starting to experiment with mountaineering. She started by climbing Mt. St. Helens on Christmas Day, 2016. Following a logical progression, she next ticked off Mt. Cayambe, a 19,000 foot peak in Ecuador, and has only continued from there. She’s since picked up sport & trad climbing, ice climbing, and ultrarunning. Sandy is a Principal Engineer at Ampere Computing and a PhD student at Portland State University with a focus on Machine Learning. She is determined to find a way to sequester substantial amounts of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere using M.L magic and positively impact climate change.