"Now let's do this!" - Mike West, Founder of 686

Another member of our incredible CAFrica Kilimanjaro Challenge team is Mike Akira West.  I'm proud to say I have known Mike for more than two decades, before he started the wildly successful, globally popular snowboarding and technical apparel brand 686.  During our college days at USC we were both working together as instructors at Bear Mountain in Big Bear.  I was teaching skiing and he was one of the few guys teaching that new sport called "snowboarding."  How long is this fad going to last, many of us ski instructors thought at the time.  And they dress so poorly too, we said as we carved precise turns down the slopes in our tight-fitting stretch pants with neat red racing stripes.

Mike saw an opportunity and rode the snowboarding wave to the top, creating some of the hottest apparel designs in the industry along the way.  Now he's heading to the top of another peak - the highest on the African continent - Mt. Kilimanjaro!  He's already at the top of our CAFrica fundraising ranks having raised more than $13,000 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation so far.  Mike and his designers at 686 have also  created custom team jackets that you will see our CAFrica members showing off in pics on this blog later.  (Have you subscribed yet?)

As for the quote from Mike: "Now let's do this!"   It appeared in this article published today called "Giving Back: 686 Founder Mike West on Upcoming Summit of Kilimanjaro"  Please check it out.