[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 149 (Tuesday, December 9, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S6444]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REMEMBERING MARK HESSE

  Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, I wish to remember an 
upstanding Coloradan and accomplished mountaineer who passed away 
unexpectedly this year while doing what he was so passionate about: 
climbing. Mark Hesse was a man of exceptional character, exhibited a 
strong sense of adventure, and was a devoted admirer of nature; all of 
which are qualities of a true conservationist. He was an inspiration to 
many of us in the great State of Colorado.
  Mark grew up in Colorado Springs, CO, where he became an Eagle Scout. 
Upon graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a 
master's degree in special education and teaching, Mark took to 
traveling abroad in pursuit of climbing peaks around the world. In 
1976, he became the first person to climb the completely vertical 
southeast face of Mount Asgard on Baffin Island. In 1986, he made the 
first ascent up the northeast buttress of Kangtega in Nepal, a 
prominent Himalayan peak with a summit of over 20,000 feet. These 
ascents, among countless others, inspired him to advocate for 
conservation and accomplish so much for Colorado's environment.
  He is survived by Julie Asmuth, his wife of 30 years, his two 
daughters Hartley and Laurel, his mother Florence, brothers Jon, Paul, 
Phil, and sisters Anne Ness and Maria Hesse Vasey.
  Mark was a loyal and devoted husband and father. He had a warm 
personality and a great sense of humor. He also had an amazing knack 
for turning ordinary outings into epic adventures, and thus was well 
known for adventure stories that seemed almost too absurd to be true. 
These qualities enabled him to inspire and educate his children and 
their peers, as well as the friends and colleagues he had through 
climbing and service projects he was part of. Mark was devoted to 
taking his family on trips to some of the most remote places possible, 
including the rainforests in South America and the ocean reefs of South 
East Asia. He believed in supporting ecotourism and educating himself 
and his family about different cultures and natural wonders of the 
world before they disappeared.
  Mark loved the environment, believed in a higher standard for 
managing public spaces, and was committed to preserving the natural 
beauty of our great Nation. He received several distinguished awards 
for his work, such as the American Alpine Club's David Brower Award for 
Mountain Conservation in 1995, the Bob Marshall Champion of Wilderness 
Award presented by the U.S. Forest Service in 2005 and 2007, and the 
U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Making a Difference National Volunteer 
Award for outstanding service on public lands in 2014. He was the co-
founder and executive director of the Santa Fe Mountain Center from 
1977 to 1980, the program director of the Southwest Outward Bound 
School, and co-founder of the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative Program. 
He worked with the Bureau of Land Management to preserve two popular 
climbing destinations: Shelf Road and Penitente Canyon. Perhaps most 
notably, Mark founded the Rocky Mountain Field Institute in 1982, which 
has engaged more than 16,000 volunteers to contribute 200,000 hours to 
public land stewardship projects. These efforts amounted to more than 
$4 million in on-the-ground restoration efforts.
  One of Mark's final projects, and a dream he had been nurturing for 
many years, was to create a hot-shot trail crew with high-end rock 
working skills that could build climbing access trails in the steep, 
rocky, and unstable terrain where climbers travel. At the time of his 
passing, Mark was collaborating with the Boulder Climbing Community and 
the Access Fund, two non-profits based in Boulder, to develop the Front 
Range Climbing Stewards trail crew. The project moved forward, inspired 
by Mark's lifetime of work, and in 2014 the trail crew performed more 
than $120,000 worth of work, in both Eldorado Canyon and the Flatirons, 
including the spectacular rebuild of the iconic Royal Arch Trail that 
was destroyed in the flood of 2013.
  Colorado lost an irreplaceable individual with the passing of Mark 
Hesse. I, along with many others, have lost a respected leader, 
visionary, and friend. Let his life be a reminder of what every 
American is capable of accomplishing.
  I ask that my colleagues join me in remembering Mark Hesse for his 
passion for the outdoors, his vast wealth of experiences, and his 
leadership in showing us how to be good stewards of our public lands.

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