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Wednesday, March 7, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Wednesday, March 7, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
The people behind The Nugget...
Erin Bordonaro wasn’t
looking to get into the
newspaper business when
she answered an ad look-
ing for a bookkeeper at
The Nugget Newspaper.
She was just looking for a
job.
“A job opened up in my
field and I was hired the next
day,” she recalled. “I lucked
out, because it’s a great place
I like opening the
paper every week — and
seeing the public open
the paper every week.
I enjoy being part of that.
— Erin Bordonaro
to work.”
That was 13 years ago —
and now Erin feels like she’s
part of the news business,
and she likes it.
“It’s fun to see what goes
on in town and the commu-
nity,” she said. “I like being
involved in the community
from this end.”
Perhaps her main pleasure
in coming to work each day
is working with the people
she’s been in the trenches
with for over a decade
— and some new faces,
too.
“That’s the most fun —
working with my co-work-
ers,” she said. “And seeing
the new and different prod-
uct come out every week. I
like opening the paper every
week — and seeing the pub-
lic open the paper every
week. I enjoy being part of
that.”
The feeling is mutual
among her co-workers.
“Erin is such a trouper,”
said Editor in Chief Jim
Cornelius. “She’s got a work
ethic like nobody I’ve ever
known and a tremendous
amount of integrity. She is
also utterly unafraid to call
BS when she sees it, which
is wonderful and refreshing.
And she’s got a great sense of
humor, which is an absolute
requirement for somebody
who has to share an office
with me.”
Like many folks in Sisters,
Bordonaro is a California ref-
ugee. While she works hard,
she is committed to a slower
pace of life.
“I came from California,
and was living such a fast-
paced life,” she recalled.
Erin Bordonaro
“ Tr a n s i t i o n i n g t o t h i s
small community was so
surprising to me — in a
good way. It forced me
to pick up that (slower)
pace.”
When she’s not crunching
the numbers for The Nugget,
she’s likely to be out in the
woods.
Correspondent
“I love to be out in the
woods,” she said. “I love to
cross-country ski, hike —
enjoying this beautiful place
we live in.”
Her son Spencer is 17 and
working at Sisters Meat and
Smokehouse, and most of her
family lives in close proxim-
ity in Crossroads, which is
PHOTO BY SPENCER BORDONARO
important to her. And her Erin Bordonaro has been with The Nugget for 13 years.
Nugget family is important to
her, too, and the paper’s role community, but about the the quality of the product. It’s
in the community.
individuals, and we care a business, but we care about
“We really care,” she about this product. We’re not the quality and the product
said. “Not only about the after the dollars, we’re after and the community.”
Now you can help
A life on the peaks
By Eileen M. Chambers
She is also utterly
unafraid to call BS when
she sees it, which is
wonderful and refreshing.
— Jim Cornelius
17
Editorʼs note: This is the
first of a three-part, behind-
the-scenes series about moun-
taineer Warren Thompson,
Sisters resident who has gone
on two expeditions to Everest,
one to Denali and many more
to world-class mountains.
“George Mallory was a
British climber who in 1922
and 1924 tried to be the first
human to climb Everest,”
Warren Thompson said.
Thompson, a Sisters resi-
dent who has made two expe-
ditions to Everest, another
to Denali and many more to
other world-class mountains,
revealed what it is like to
climb — and, perhaps more
deeply, the “why.”
“Mallory was asked,
‘Why Everest?’ His answer,
now famous, was ‘Because
it’s there.’ For years, people
have tried to understand what
Mallory meant,” Thompson
said. “Mountaineering is
inherently dangerous. Lack of
oxygen. Hypothermia. Threat
of avalanche. Ice crevasses.
Still, there are those of us, like
Mallory, who accept extreme
danger without being deterred
by it.”
Warren grew up hiking the
Northwest outside Seattle.
“I had no desire to climb
mountains until a friend
talked me into climbing
Mount Eleanor. After your
usual teenage craziness get-
ting there, after three hours
of climbing, I pestered my
friend, ‘Where the hell are
we?’”
“‘We’re getting there,’ he
answered. I wasn’t so sure.
At 2 p.m. and in avalanche
territory, I had enough. Then
Bruce said, ‘It’s another
30 feet.’ Convinced he was
wrong, I nevertheless kept
climbing. Suddenly, the
clouds evaporated revealing
a beautiful cobalt blue sky.
Ice crystals floated around
us like diamonds. Olympic
Range. Puget Sound. Seattle’s
skyscrapers. It was the most
breathtaking thing I had ever
seen.”
Warren was hooked.
“In mountain climb-
ing, you have your adrena-
line junkies. The bigger the
thrill, the better. Then there
are climbers like me who get
spiritual refreshment from
places that are nothing short
of paradise.”
Amid marriage, working
at Boeing, earning his MBA
and law degrees, Warren
became active in Seattle’s
Mountaineers Club and
Seattle Mountain Rescue,
becoming an instructor in
climbing, mountain first aid
and mountain rescue. After
becoming an EMT, he went
on “a bunch of wild rescues.”
In 1976, as part of
America’s bicentennial cel-
ebration, Warren and his
friends climbed Denali, North
America’s highest peak, tak-
ing a route that had not been
attempted before.
“What most people don’t
know about climbing is the
work you do before putting
one foot on a mountain,”
Thompson said. “Besides
being physically strong,
you have to learn the moun-
tain ahead of time. Routes.
Weather. Supplies. Where
others failed or died trying.
Everything. So, before the
expedition, I studied Denali
intensively. At the time, the
success rate for reaching Denali, 1976.
the summit was 25 percent.
Although Denali is not the leadership with having that
most difficult technically, kind of expert knowledge.”
as Brad Washburn, a climb-
After a month of climb-
ing legend, has said, ‘If the ing, Warren’s team neared
mountain wants to throw the Denali’s summit.
book at you, it can.’ You can’t
“We started at 10 p.m. and
afford to make mistakes on after eleven hours of climb-
mountains like this. Lives and ing, we reached Carter’s
gear are at stake. And, back Horn. What we didn’t realize,
in 1976, I associated good coming up from below, was
PHOTO BY WARREN THOMPSON
that Carter’s Horn was three
peaks, not one. Finally, after
ascending all three peaks, I
saw the summit and hollered
down to the guys, ‘I see it.’
“‘How far away is it,’ they
shouted back.’
“‘I think 45 minutes.’ I
See MOUNTAINEER on page 18
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