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Today on The Rock Fight (an outdoor podcast that aims for the head) author, journalist, and Los Angeles resident Shawnté Salabert returns to the show to talk about her experience during the worst of the LA wildfires.
Shawnté recounts the surreal moments leading up to the fire, including her frantic drive home amidst chaos and uncertainty. The discussion highlights the broader implications of urban wildfires, emphasizing the loss of not just homes but vital community spaces and natural areas that play a crucial role in people's lives.
Both Colin and Shawnté reflect on the resilience of the Los Angeles community and the importance of supporting those affected, calling for action from the outdoor industry to respond to this crisis.
Click here to read Shawnté's piece on rockfight.co.
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Episode Transcript
Colin True
00:00:00.720 - 00:00:59.516
Welcome to the Rock Fight, where we speak our truth, slay sacred cows, and sometimes agree to disagree. This is an outdoor podcast that aims for the head. I'm Colin True, and today we're going inside the Los Angeles fires.
But first, have you subscribed to Rock Fight's weekly newsletter? If not, you still got time before next week's edition to get the original Rock Fight content that we don't really put anywhere else.
Guys, head to rockfight.co and click join the mailing list to sign up. If you're new around here, I keep asking you. I keep asking you. You gotta do it. You.
You gotta subscribe and join the Rock Fight by lobbing a little bitty stone at the follow button on whatever podcast app you are listening to us on. Give us that five star rating. You know you want to. And hey, the Rock Fight Podcast network is getting bigger.
We have a new podcast, it's called Open Container. It's hosted by Doug Schnitzbahn, the legendary journalist Doug Schnitzbahn. It launches next Tuesday, January 21st.
Go find that show and follow it so you don't miss it when it debuts. And all right, let's start the show.
Chris DeMakes
00:00:59.588 - 00:01:03.640
Welcome to the Rock Fight. Rock Fight. Rock Fight.
Doug Schnitzspahn
00:01:06.420 - 00:02:09.610
The outdoors is not a niche. It's way bigger than that. The outdoors is essential to our lives, essential to who we are as a species.
And as the world continues to get smaller, as new advances in technology push us to the limits of the planet, the outdoors is more important than ever. Open Container is here to explore this new idea of the outdoors.
We'll strive to uncover stories about creativity, adventure, conservation, politics, and the people who make the outdoor space so vibrant. The world is full of anxiety right now. Climate change, politics, cultural upheaval. But fear not, there are answers in the outdoors.
I'm Doug Schnitzpahn and on this show, we will talk to people who are looking to nature to find the solutions we all need.
We will be having honest conversations about how the outdoors can change us, how it heals us, how we learn from it, and how we can build a better world from what we learn about being outdoors. So please join us, open the container and find out what's inside. Let's get some.
Colin True
00:02:12.790 - 00:04:36.760
Open Container launches January 21st. Find and follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
All right, everyone, before we get started, I need to tell you about our amazing teammates at Darby Communications.
If you run an outdoor and endurance or an active lifestyle brand, there is no better PR or digital marketing, belay partner or drinking buddy than Darby. They can help your business reach new heights and they might just keep you from falling on your ass.
I mean, since we started working with Darby, more and more people have been reaching out to us here at the Rock Fight because of that messaging. Look, guys, if they can help us, if they can help the Rock Fight, they can help anybody. Hit them up@darbycommunications.com do it today.
So if you've been listening to the Rock Fight this week, I've been teasing my conversation with Andrea Kelly of Make plus Equal and I did speak to Andrea and she was amazing.
And you're going to get to hear that conversation, but not till next week because we're pushing that episode to next week because I had the opportunity, a last minute opportunity, to talk with outdoor journalist, author and Los Angeles resident Shantae Celebr about how things went down during the peak of the fire last week and how things are going now. You know, Shantae is an incredible writer. She's also a returning champion here to the Rock Fight.
And in addition to coordinating resources to help those in need in la, she was also able to write an amazing piece that we featured in this week's edition of Rock Fight's newsletter. We also put it up on Rock Fight co. She lives in Pasadena, right by the mouth of Eaton Canyon where the Eaton fire is still burning today.
It's things are better there than they were, but that fire is still burning. But during our chat, Shantae recaps her experience when things got bad last week.
What seems to be lost from an outdoorsy perspective and how things are shaping up now. So okay, let's get into it. Welcome back to the Rock Flight where today we're going inside the LA Wildfires with Shantae Salibar.
Shante Salibar, back on the Rock Fight. This was not planned. We were originally going to be running my conversation with Andrea Kelly of Make plus Equal today.
That's going to run next week now because we had the chance to talk to Shantae and Shantae lives in Los Angeles and you know, if you've been paying attention to the world at all, you know that things are happening in Los Angeles over the last week or so. But welcome back to the show, Shantae. I mean, I'm not happy about the circumstances that you're joining us, but are happy you're joining us.
Shawnté Salabert
00:04:37.060 - 00:04:40.880
Well, thanks, Colin. That is, that is a cold, cold comfort.
Colin True
00:04:41.220 - 00:04:41.884
I know.
Shawnté Salabert
00:04:41.972 - 00:04:44.364
And it's nice to be back, I think, right?
Colin True
00:04:44.452 - 00:04:47.372
Hey, your city Almost burned to the ground. You want to come on podcast?
Shawnté Salabert
00:04:47.516 - 00:04:49.852
I'd love to. Sounds like a great time.
Colin True
00:04:49.956 - 00:05:47.470
Good times. But you are safe. Your structure, your edifice is safe for the most part. You have escaped the worst of it, but you are surrounded by the worst of it.
So that's. We figured, we wanted to have you come on and talk a little bit about it. And if you read our newsletter listeners, and if you don't, you should.
Yesterday's edition featured a column by Shantae expressing her love for her home over 20 years, which is Los Angeles. I'll put that up on the website in the next day or two as well. So people who didn't get it in the newsletter can see it.
But today we just wanted to have you on the show talk about when what went down during the peak of the fire last week and I guess how things are going now. So, you know, take us back.
And so the funny thing is just again, for the listeners, you and I were literally on a conference call Tuesday afternoon, having a good time, lots of cool stuff, talking rock fight stuff, you know, outdoor stuff. And then it was the next day and I saw your post on Instagram and realized, oh my God, I didn't even connect the dots of how close you probably were.
So what happened from your lens?
Shawnté Salabert
00:05:47.890 - 00:06:34.938
Well, yeah, it was pretty surreal. It remains pretty surreal a week later.
So I lived in the city of LA for the better part of the last 20 years and now I live in Pasadena, which people probably know for the Rose Bowl. And now unfortunately, because of the Eaton fire, which is one of the two biggest fires that has been burning here.
The other one is the Palisades fire, which is kind of directly west of here in the Santa Monica Mountains. So yeah, I had this, you know, pretty, pretty chilled Tuesday last week for most of the day, talked with you, had a nice time, did some work.
And then I left my house probably about 6pm to go take class. One of a six week pottery course that I'm taking. And you know what?
Colin True
00:06:35.074 - 00:06:36.138
Sounds wonderful.
Shawnté Salabert
00:06:36.314 - 00:06:46.550
I signed up for this pottery course, Colin, for a little stress relief. So did you get to do the pottery first? I did, I did.
Colin True
00:06:46.590 - 00:06:47.494
Oh good. Okay.
Shawnté Salabert
00:06:47.622 - 00:07:05.126
I was doing the pottery and it was like a two hour class by the time I got there. I think I got back to my car maybe 9, 9:15 or something like that.
And when I pulled my phone out, I had, and I'm not exaggerating this number, I had 60 text messages.
Colin True
00:07:05.238 - 00:07:05.702
Oh my God.
Shawnté Salabert
00:07:05.726 - 00:10:31.858
And you know what happens when you see that Your phone shows 60 text messages is you start to freak out and look at them. And the text messages were everything from, are you okay? Are you evacuating? Where are you right now? A lot of where are you right nows?
And I started to put the pieces together, looking at some of the things my friends were texting and they were saying that Eaton Canyon, which is one of my favorite outdoor spots here in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains, was on fire. And Eaton Canyon, as the crow flies, is less than three miles from my house. So I went into a full pan mode.
Now, traditionally, fire likes to burn uphill. So when we get fires, and we've had fires here in the foothills, the fires go uphill, they start running at the ridge lines, running up the canyons.
The difference last week is that we had just entered a period of absolutely ferocious Santa Ana winds. The winds that night were forecast in my area. And I'm not in a canyon. I'm in the flatlands. I'm in urban Pasadena north of the 210.
The wind that night got up to something like 80 miles an hour. And it was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. And it was blowing in a direct line from where the fire started to my neighborhood, like, to my house.
And so I got in my car and I'm absolutely freaked out. I'm trying to reply to some of my friends saying, hey, I was in a class. I'm so sorry, I didn't see this. The fire sparked, I think, just after 6:00.
Like, it was just after I left. Had I been home and had I been here, I would have, you know, seen it and I would have packed up. So I drove home. I'm driving up the 2 freeway.
You know, all I see is a line of lights going in the opposite direction. Not. Not a comforting thing in the evening. And then I start to see red on the horizon. And as I get closer to home, I start to see the flames.
And, you know, again, I'm a couple miles from where the fire ignited. I'm thinking, okay, it's going to run uphill. I'm not in the. I'm not in the immediate path, but, oh, my God, everybody over there is. This is.
We're not talking about some, like, mountain enclave. We're talking about an urban area.
We're about a dense urban area filled with homes, filled with, you know, retirement communities, filled with apartments, filled with stores, filled with everything. And so I got home, I checked in with some neighbors. You know, a lot of people were packing their cars. As I got there, some people had already left.
A friend of mine offered me a place to go. So I grabbed my cat, put some things in bags. I just kind of.
I got into my house and I had a moment where I was like, wait a minute, is this going to be here? People don't. I don't think a lot of people understand unless they see the videos or unless they've unfortunately experienced it.
But with high winds, I mean, fire also makes its own wind. But the embers, the embers are the problem here. It's not like you're getting a wall of fire marching to your house.
You are getting embers that sit on your roof and then light everything on fire.
I live in 110 year old wooden bungalow, you know, in a Courtyard full of 11 year old wooden bungalows filled with really old trees and a lot of schmutz. So more schmutz now. But so there's this moment of standing there and going, okay, am I overreacting?
We don't have an evacuation order yet for my neighborhood. We did get a warning. Do I go? What do I do? And the winds were just so vicious that I thought, you know what? Better safe than sorry.
Colin True
00:10:31.954 - 00:10:32.402
Sure.
Shawnté Salabert
00:10:32.506 - 00:10:43.742
And I just looked around the house. I'm like, what do I grab? I grabbed my computer, I grabbed my files for a book I'm working on.
I grabbed my backpack, which was still packed for my last backpacking trip. Know that's kind of expensive stuff.
Colin True
00:10:43.806 - 00:10:44.970
Probably smell great.
Shawnté Salabert
00:10:45.430 - 00:10:49.758
Yeah. Oh yeah. Smells just like the outside. But yeah.
Colin True
00:10:49.774 - 00:10:52.462
So I went, you didn't unpack it? Like, sweet. I got my kit.
Shawnté Salabert
00:10:52.526 - 00:12:24.122
Right. Glad I was lazy. Lazy me wins this time. Yeah.
So I grabbed it and you know, my thought process honestly was like, there's a lot of expensive shit in this bag, so. Well, true, I can get new socks, but I don't really want to buy a new Durston X Men. Like, let's just get this out of the house. Yeah.
And so I went to my friend's house that night and then she ended up chatting with one of her coworkers who ended up staying on the couch. I stayed in her fold, a futon that she had in her office.
And the three of us were just in shock basically all night watching this thing rip through Altadena and then start to come into Pasadena, where I live. Yeah, it was Colin. It was a week later. I still can't adequately describe how terrifying it was. And I know that I'm one of the lucky ones that didn't.
Like, a friend of mine sent me a video. She Returned home after evacuating, helping her neighbors evacuate horses.
After evacuating her pets, her llamas, she returned home and kind of like collapsed on her couch. The police woke her up by knocking on the door and were like, you have to leave now. Both of her neighbors houses were engulfed in flames.
She sent me a video. She was like so out of it that she didn't even register this was happening because she had just spent all these hours evacuating everybody.
It's the middle of the night. I didn't have to deal with that.
That's something I can't even comprehend that, like, the trauma that people are going to be dealing with from all of this is extraordinary. You know, I don't know when I will. Like, people keep asking me, do you feel okay? I'm not okay.
Colin True
00:12:24.266 - 00:13:04.464
No, it's not. I mean, it's not. Well, because it's also not even over yet. I mean. Right, right. I mean, that's as this is happening.
And I mean, I've heard of the Eaton fire and here something's going on in Pasadena, but you know, obviously with the Palisades fire, like, by the way, while you're dealing with that, that's burning all the way down to the ocean, you know, and like, and just ripping through things over there. So I mean, it's. I can imagine you were probably watching that happening while everything is happening in your backyard.
So not to kind of skip ahead, but like, that is kind of the thing too. It's like, you know, hopefully we're through the worst of this, but there's no rain in the forecast.
I mean, that'll bring its own problems when there is. But even still, that's.
That is sort of the one thing we desperately need so that we're not, in six months going, well, here comes another fire because everything's still dry.
Shawnté Salabert
00:13:04.592 - 00:13:17.340
Yep, it's. It's super surreal. I came back the next day. So of course the.
I decided to come back after things got worse because then I was like, well, shit, I better maybe go look really quick and take some more stuff with me.
Colin True
00:13:17.460 - 00:13:19.980
Yeah, maybe at a window right. Where you could still get into the house.
Shawnté Salabert
00:13:20.020 - 00:13:35.420
And yeah, I was like, I can still get in there. We're not mandatory yet. We were under the warning, but the winds were still crazy high the next day.
And again, the wind pattern was like a direct funnel from where the fire was ignited to like, my block.
Colin True
00:13:35.500 - 00:13:38.396
It's kind of shocking that your house didn't burn or your neighborhood just didn't burn.
Shawnté Salabert
00:13:38.428 - 00:14:36.864
Frankly, we were very Fortunate because I'd say the closest house to me that burnt was less than a mile away. I know friends up in that same part of the area that their house is one of very few that remains standing that was also part of it.
Like, there were areas in Altadena that were completely flattened. And then you'd have a block where a couple houses stayed, like, stood. And for various reasons. Like, a lot of it is luck and fortune.
Some of it is like how people landscape and how they clean and clear debris out of anything from their yards to their eaves, their gutters. Like, you know, it's all. It's. Having urban wildfires is so unprecedented. You have paradise, of course, is the one I think most people think of.
And then you can go back in history and see things like the Chicago Fire and everything.
But, you know, to have large scale urban fires, it does not happen often enough that we were really, you know, inclined to sort of be super proactive about it.
Colin True
00:14:36.952 - 00:14:37.200
Right.
Shawnté Salabert
00:14:37.240 - 00:15:04.030
You know, you get the, like, clear the brush from around your house and all that stuff is pretty common knowledge here.
But, you know, a friend of mine, my friend Toru, who is an outdoor guide, climbing guide, backpacking guide, incredible wilderness instructor who lives over here, lost his home.
And instead of posting about, like, what he lost, he started posting about the science behind why all these homes caught fire and thinking about things that nobody talks about, which is those things like leaves in your gutters.
Colin True
00:15:05.010 - 00:15:05.750
Right.
Shawnté Salabert
00:15:06.050 - 00:15:34.094
But yeah, so the next day, you know, I came back and things were still super bad. So I packed up some things and I ended up staying that day. And my cat was still at my friend's house, so I stayed and helped a few of my neighbors.
We just started watering down people's roofs and houses, trying to get some of the downed debris. You know, I had noticed that pretty much the entire top layer of my roof had sailed off in the night. So trying to gather all of those sticky little.
Colin True
00:15:34.182 - 00:15:36.606
So when damage did impact your house?
Shawnté Salabert
00:15:36.678 - 00:17:03.840
Oh, the wind damage was. Yeah, it could have been a lot worse, but it's not great.
But yeah, so we, you know, you stay and in those moments you think a lot about community and, you know, people love, love to shit on la, which I talked about a little bit in that piece I wrote. You know, that piece is really stream of consciousness from the heart the other morning. But people really love to shit on la.
They like to sort of look at it as a place where a. It's not outdoorsy at all.
You know, the stuff I've gotten from the outdoor Industry, like people in the industry in the past is just so disappointing to me. It's small minded. And, you know, we're ringed by mountains here. We live in a basin.
We have the transverse ranges, which are amazing even, even though they keep burning up. We have the deserts, we have national parks, we have the ocean, we have all of this stuff. Great weather on top of it generally.
But then we also have these incredible people and I live in this little bungalow courtyard and we all just look out for each other.
And that's what we did that day is you look around and even in the thick of everything, you're like, you know, what's important here at the end of the day, it's people and it's these relationships and, you know, stuff is stuff, it can be replaced. Sentimental stuff is harder.
But you know, at the end of the day, when I left again, I was like, well, all right, you know, my people are all okay, you know, okay in varying degrees. Like I said, you know, none of us are going to be okay for a long time, I think. Sure, but how could you be. But yeah.
Colin True
00:17:05.950 - 00:17:31.648
Yeah. It's interesting you mentioned like, you know, the, an urban wildfire.
I mean, I remember when it was not that long ago when there was the fire in the Front Range in the town of Superior, like just outside of Boulder, and a lot of homes were lost in that. I remember that. That was really like, oh my God, these houses are burning. Right.
Because typically it's, it is if there's a mountain community and some homes burn, it's like, you know, like.
Well, you kind of understand and you know, it's, it's tragic and terrible and you feel for the people, but also it's, it's like, well, that's what happens there, right?
Shawnté Salabert
00:17:31.704 - 00:17:34.544
You're butting up against it. You know, you're kind of taking your risk.
Colin True
00:17:34.712 - 00:18:20.306
Yeah.
You know, you're like, you're accepting that, you know, and like, you know, we've talked about like, oh, should we get a house like up in Big Bear or something like that. And it's just like eventually and it's like, yeah. Then the next thought is, well, it really could burn. It could. You don't think of.
And this is why, you know, I, and I referenced and, and I think it was. Oh yeah.
When I was talking with Justin the other day about how it's also why, you know, when the hurricane hit New York City, you know, and like how like it just flooded that entire part of the city. Hurricane Sandy, I guess it was about 10 years ago or whenever that was. And the same thing here. You just.
Some of these big cities you kind of feel are borderline impervious to this kind of thing. And I think that's what is the most shocking kind of piece of this, right? It's not just like, oh, there was a wildfire in California.
It was like how it all unfolded. It was just this kind of reason.
Shawnté Salabert
00:18:20.378 - 00:20:17.368
Yeah, I think we do. I think we look at cities and especially these big, you know, marquee cities like New York and LA and things like that.
And you tend to think like, ah, they've gotten through so many wildfires. But really the wildfires we generally have are those ones in the hills. And yeah, you will lose some houses.
And that is, those are high risk areas to build in. But people aren't thinking like, I, my. I have two grocery stores I go to every Monday morning and it's an Aldi and it's a grocery outlet.
They're next to each other, both of them. Burnt in the Fire. The bank of America. I go to Burnt in the Fire. The coffee shop, Cafe de Leche that I love. Burnt in the Fire.
But Ace Hardware, that's like the neighborhood hardware shop. Burnt in the Fire. Apartment buildings, people, you know, this isn't just like a few fancy homes in a hill. This is city blocks, miles of city blocks.
And the other thing I think people aren't understanding and that is starting to maybe shock people is realizing like, this isn't rich people. Like, yeah, there's wealthy people that lost their homes.
But you know, a, we can feel bad for them too, because they're human beings that lost things. But this is also. Altadena has a very large black community. And this is a community that goes back generations. Like, this is a historic community.
And these people have owned homes and passed them down generation to generation. And that's a huge deal in a place like this where everything is so expensive.
And, you know, you're already hearing about people being super predatory and being like, let me buy what remains of your land. Let me buy your pile of ashes. And it's also shitty. But there's just so many complex layers to this fire.
And we're not even talking yet about sort of the outdoor aspect of it, the nature and the loss of that. But from a human perspective, it's just deeply complicated.
And I think it's really hard for people to wrap their heads around what actually happened here and that it's real. This is worse than your disaster movie. This is actual human lives and this isn't going to be a quick fix.
Colin True
00:20:17.544 - 00:21:15.470
It's not.
And I, you know, and I've heard some, even people today talk about how another delayed, like the Oscar nominations were supposed to come out later this week and then it got delayed and there's probably people saying that, you know, we should, you know, they should push off or cancel this year's Oscars or the, or the Grammys. I'm like, no, actually I think keep. We bring the attention. You know, like, that's it.
These are events that people like, look to at LA and like, why, why wouldn't you put a lot of people on TV that, that people are interested in to talk about it? You know, make, make it a fundraiser. You know, how do you kind of like leverage those things that LA is known for, right?
And you know, and bring some attention and you know, frankly, looking ahead, like, well, the, the Olympics, I know there's gonna be a lot of chatter now probably in the next few months. I'm like, oh no, it's like, no, there's your goal. LA is back. The Olympics are here. Like, that's what we have.
Because otherwise what do you, what are we doing? Like, you gotta, you gotta look at it in, at a, not in a. It's nothing positive coming out of this.
But you, if you're looking ahead, it's like, what are the ways to kind of like, you know, build towards something. But I mean, go ahead.
Shawnté Salabert
00:21:15.590 - 00:21:41.502
Oh no. And I was gonna say too along with that, like, okay, Olympics 2028, like a lot of people right now are super activated. The fundraisers are insane.
Like, you know that I started a Google Doc and I started it just primarily for my friends who live out of town who are like, what can we do? And I'm like, well, here are some people that either I know directly or who are friends of friends, people in my community.
There's like over 100 people on that list now. And that just scratches the surface.
Colin True
00:21:41.566 - 00:21:47.306
We've been linking it in the show. Notice I looked at it before we got on to see how big it's, it's like, yeah, there's like, it's like almost 100 names on that now.
Shawnté Salabert
00:21:47.378 - 00:22:54.950
Yeah. And that's nothing. Like, I can't explain to you how small that is compared to what's been lost.
But the like thinking about these long range things like, sure, Louisiana is like, whoa, let's get into the Olympics and do all this stuff. These people are going to have needs that go past this week and next week and one month. This, this is, this is Long range.
We're going to need long range help here. This is a major disaster. And, you know, we've got an incoming administration that's not super keen on California, as it turns out.
You know, we're going to need people to sort of stick the course with us. And if you're going to get excited about the Olympics, also recognize that the fabric of this city has changed because of this.
That's something I'm still grappling with. Three blocks down from my house, at the end of my street, there's a water and mask distribution center. Right. That the city is doing.
And on the fence at that, you know, on the sidewalk there, somebody. I saw it this morning for the first time. You know, I left town, I came back last night super late.
And on the fence, there's crosses pinned to the fence for every single person who lost their life that we know of.
Colin True
00:22:56.530 - 00:22:57.562
That part's not over yet either.
Shawnté Salabert
00:22:57.626 - 00:23:23.874
That part's not over yet. Do you know how long it's going to take to go?
There's things still burning in Altadena like rubble, like the homes, there's gas lines, there's embers. Fires burn hot and they last for a long time. So it's going to continue to be worse and worse. So I just, I hope people don't forget about it.
I hope people remember that folks are going to need stuff like once the shock wears off, oh my gosh, people are going to need things.
Colin True
00:23:24.042 - 00:24:04.006
I mean, and that's kind of what I mean about bringing in some of the more long term goals and like, and I mean, that's a way to kind of leverage, keep the attention on what happened and how maybe it can positively influence like something like the Olympics. Could that positively impact, like how people are made whole again and, or rebuild.
Because I just, you know, I'm thinking of, you know, when I spoke to our friends at Darby and everything who are in Asheville after Hurricane Helene this fall.
And we through the end of the year kept linking, you know, resources in the show notes and talking about on the podcast, partly because we all know the news cycle, right? I mean, like, I mean, I already noticed even on Blue sky, like LA fire is not trending anymore. Right. It's like, it's like, okay, well, we've.
Shawnté Salabert
00:24:04.038 - 00:24:05.974
Moved on that, you know, that's right.
Colin True
00:24:06.062 - 00:24:38.394
And it's just. And right. Probably at the time when you need the most help is when usually people start moving on with their day.
So however, we can continue to bring attention to it in a positive way, we absolutely should I guess kind of moving a little bit towards the more outdoorsy side of it. Not that that's important right now, but it's also. You mentioned Eaton Canyon being one of your favorite places to go. Is there.
Looking at the areas that burned, is there a favorite place you want to talk about? Kind of. Are you not ready for that yet?
Shawnté Salabert
00:24:38.562 - 00:26:54.148
No, I can't. I mean, this is the reality. Like I said, I've been out of town. I already had a trip plan and I was gonna cancel it. And I said, you know what?
I need to leave. Just for my nervous system, it's smelling. And also for my body. I have mild asthma. I also have long Covid and some complications with that.
And the air here is horrific. It's still bad. The AQI will look a lot better when you look at the little colorful dots, but there's.
The city has issued like a no leaf blower ordinance for right now, for instance, because there's lead in the air, there's arsenic in the air, there's other chemicals in the air that are deeply dangerous to us. Not just right now, but long term. This is stuff that could affect me for the rest of my life.
So, you know, anyway, when, you know, when I got back and I drove to Home Depot this morning to rent some cleaning stuff and to buy a bunch of stuff that I can then just throw away, which I hate to do, but that's. It's not safe to keep these things once I clean it. I've thrown away stuff in my house. You know, I was driving back and I could.
I looked up at the mountains for the first time and I wanted to cry. They're black, they're gray, there's lines of fire retardant. It burnt.
The whole, like, if you think about, you know, Denver, Boulder area and you think about how people talk about the Front Range, right? Like, this is our version of the Front Range is the San Gabriel Mountains. And the Santa Monica is where the Palisade fire burnt.
If people, people who know LA or people who are from here will remember the station fire from back in 2009, that fire just burnt a massive swath of the Angeles National Forest, the San Gabriel Mountains. And it was not long after I, you know, I'd only lived here a few years. I started hiking, like all the time up there. I loved it.
It was this close to the city getaway. You can be up in pine trees in 20 minutes from LA. A lot of people don't know that. And so it was a respite.
It was a way to sort of, you know, balance city life. This kind of crazy hectic, beautiful wildness of living in la, and then you could go up into the crazy, beautiful wildness of the mountains.
And that was all taken away from any of us who use that as a respite. And that was almost five years that a lot of those areas were closed. Yeah, they'll have to go in now and they'll do something called a bear.
A burnt area. It's like burnt area, you know, something, something report. You know, burnt area.
Colin True
00:26:54.204 - 00:26:55.200
You don't know.
Shawnté Salabert
00:26:57.340 - 00:27:01.892
You know, cone. As it turns out, I am not a wildland firefighter or a fire scientist.
Colin True
00:27:01.956 - 00:27:05.680
You know, there's an acronym. I didn't even know that. So, like, you're already ahead of.
Shawnté Salabert
00:27:06.220 - 00:27:30.004
I do, and I know it.
I know it because when I was writing the PCT book, my Pacific Crest Trail book, right at the tail end of that book, the Blue Cut fire, the sand fire, and then I forget the third one, there was about a hundred miles of the PCT impacted by those fires right before my book was due. So I had to get an extension. I went back into some of those areas that didn't burn very hot. But I learned about a bear report.
Because this is a terrible way to.
Colin True
00:27:30.012 - 00:27:31.028
Get a rewrite, by the way.
Shawnté Salabert
00:27:31.084 - 00:27:35.764
Terrible, terrible. Right. I'm sorry, I need some extra time.
Colin True
00:27:35.932 - 00:27:37.640
It's no longer accurate.
Shawnté Salabert
00:27:39.020 - 00:27:47.940
I know. I did have to tell my editor that. I was like, so there's these sections where I'm like.
And then you just going to take a break under a beautiful stand of pine trees. Just kidding. What a lie.
Colin True
00:27:48.280 - 00:27:51.568
Well, you could have if he had done it earlier. Where were you then?
Shawnté Salabert
00:27:51.704 - 00:27:53.020
You should have thought ahead.
Colin True
00:27:53.880 - 00:27:55.072
Oh, my God.
Shawnté Salabert
00:27:55.216 - 00:28:22.126
Yeah. But that's how I learned about the bear report and that basically when they do those, they're basically assessing the soil and they're like, hey.
I mean, that's one of the components. But they're like, hey, how hot did it burn? Because that's how they learn. Like, all right, are the plants going to come back? How long will it take?
Are the trees done? So, like, do we need to start. Start essentially, like red tagging them and saying, like, these are dangerous. Don't. Don't go under trees.
Or we're just going to close this area for a couple years and see what happens.
Colin True
00:28:22.318 - 00:29:00.958
I had it in our outline. Like, how permanent is this? Because you do. I mean, generally speaking, vegetation rebounds pretty quickly in a lot of burn areas.
Like when you kind of see like a few seasons on, years on, you're like, oh, you see the, you know, the damage, but also all the new things that have grown in place. But I was wondering how that affected in the trail and how they evaluated that because. Yeah, because. And we talked about it.
Hiking Guy.com did a video about what was burning. He's a big Southern California guy.
And it said the Shantry Flats, I think that it just had just reopened after four years from the Bobcat fire, I think it was. And this past October, just. And I don't know if it got caught. Did it get, did it get burned again, do we know?
Shawnté Salabert
00:29:01.094 - 00:29:15.038
As far as I know, I think Chantry was spared the fire, ran up to Mount Wilson. So Mount Wilson is just above Shantry Flats. It's also the location of like most of LA's communications infrastructure.
Colin True
00:29:15.134 - 00:29:20.110
There's like billions of dollars of antennas on it. So you gotta think they're like, not today, fire.
Shawnté Salabert
00:29:20.230 - 00:29:41.802
Not today, fire. Not today, Satan. Yeah, and they did, they, they put.
Luckily by then the winds had died down enough that they started like the, the sound of helicopters was an absolute relief to the soul because you're like, oh my God, finally they're getting water onto the fire. They couldn't even put water on it. That's the thing too, is that you have these Santa Ana winds.
It's super dry out here and they couldn't do water drops.
Colin True
00:29:41.866 - 00:29:43.466
Vaporized fire just burn.
Shawnté Salabert
00:29:43.578 - 00:32:39.882
Yeah. So, yeah, Chantry, I think knock on wood is okay. I know the fire did run down one of the canyons. Hopefully it didn't burn.
Like, one of my friends that lost her place in the fire in the Eaton fire in Altadena has a small cabin that she bought like a forest service cabin in the canyon there. So we're just hoping against hope that at least that survives. But yeah, so that's the thing is that this, this area. Yeah, Shantry just opened.
People have been waiting years to get in there. That was one of the most popular areas. Got some waterfalls, you know. You know, you asked for me.
What's going to be, you know, essentially what, what's going to be the hardest for me, I, you know, within 10 minute drive, I can be on all these wonderful trails that I hike and I run. I use them to prepare for backpacking trips. One of the hikes that I was going to do last week was one of my favorites.
And it's up to Henninger Flats, which is a cool little area with pine trees. There's an old fire, fire service, like forest service fire stationy thing up there. It used to be a tree farm up there, campgrounds, and that's that.
You can get there. You get there from Eaton Canyon or some of the other connecting trails. I cannot imagine that's going to open in the next few years.
Like, I can't imagine a lot of the stuff in the front. Front country here that burnt is going to open in the next few years. It's. It's really devastating.
Like, when I think about that and, and you could think like, yeah, oh, Shantae, you're talking about trails and people are losing their homes and people have lost their lives, and that's, you know. Yeah, you can't. That's, that's a somber reality check right there. But also, people need these places.
We need these opportunities to connect to the natural world. We mourn for the animals. You know, a lot of people those, you know, the Eaton Canyon Nature center couldn't evacuate their animals.
The animals all died when the nature center burnt down. Like, it's horrific to think about that, but these places are a balm for the soul.
This is where Angelenos go to let off steam, to go to connect people, go do baptisms out there. It's a very religious place for a lot of people, you know, and that part is going to be really hard to deal with.
It's a big reason why I've stayed in LA all of these years is because nature is here. It's right here. We can touch it, see it, feel it, probably don't taste it, but, you know, get out there.
I get out every day, and right now it's not even safe to walk around my neighborhood. So, yeah, that's going to be a hard thing to contend with is how do you then recalibrate, you know? All right, well, the Rose bowl is still here.
I can go walk around the Rose Bowl. The arroyo is still, you know, I can go walk in the arroyo and you, you'll, you'll find those places.
But to have so much of the mountains off limits again, you know, is, is a hard thing to take, to be honest.
Colin True
00:32:40.026 - 00:33:22.878
Well, and, and for the outdoor community listening.
And I know I spoke a little bit about this on, on the Wednesday episode, too, but it's if, if you, if you respond to these kinds of stories and these tragedies, like if you did for Asheville or whatever, for any other kind of stereotypical mountain community, this is the same. I mean, and that's kind of what I was getting at. Like, people.
And you mentioned earlier, like, there's Southern California, most of the communities, especially Los Angeles, you know, I experienced it down here in San Diego, too. It's like being in a mountain town, like. And look what you just described. You said you were living in sort of LA proper.
You moved to a spot so you had trail access. Why do most people move to the classic mountain towns? It's like trail access or to go skiing or whatever.
By the way, I'm sure you're relatively close to skiing as well, if you wanted to go skiing. It's true.
Shawnté Salabert
00:33:22.894 - 00:33:23.838
It's true. And.
Colin True
00:33:23.894 - 00:33:25.722
And it's not great this year. Time this year.
Shawnté Salabert
00:33:25.826 - 00:33:26.490
No, it's not.
Colin True
00:33:26.530 - 00:34:21.614
Which is part of the problem. But I often think of that when I'm, you know, I'm in North County, San Diego. And. Yeah, it very much reminds me of when you kind of cut.
When you cut through Park City and you're in that kind of part. That part of the Wasatch with the way the mountains look there. And they don't look like they do in, like, bigger little cottonwood canyons. Right.
They are more. That sort of. It's like Deer Valley. Like, there, there's.
There's relief, but there's also a little softer, maybe than some of the more traditional Rocky Mountains. In a way, the way they present, that's kind of what they look like around here. And they're everywhere. And no one really considers.
They think la, oh, you know, glitz and surf, or San Diego, like, you know, California burritos and surf. They don't think about the fact that what's. What is actually around here. So. Right. So if you.
If you are considering any sort of outdoor tragedy that if you would donate to. If you would consider or speak out about or support, this should go on that list as well.
Shawnté Salabert
00:34:21.772 - 00:36:01.628
Yes. And, you know, to add to that, you know, a couple.
I can't remember what year it was, but so we, you know, you got your Reis and all that and your big five sports and whatnot. But LA had a really special outdoor shop called Adventure 16. So they used to, you know. Yeah, we used to. We had the. San Diego had one.
And when they closed, we lost. Like, I wrote.
I wrote a piece for Adventure Journal, and I talked about the fact that that shop was such a good example of how LA was like a strange mountain town in a way, in that.
That we would go there and you'd go see people's, like, slideshows about their adventures, and you'd talk to the guys there who knew everything about everything, and they could guide you to the right gear. I could buy mountaineering boots. There Which I can't do in most places because nobody thinks women want to mountaineer. Yeah, right. You know, so it.
But that place, like, I wrote a. I think I called it like a elegy or something for an urban mountain shop. But, like, that is such a great example of what.
Like, there's such a tight outdoor community here, and it's such an expansive outdoor community. Like, several of the people I know who lost their homes in the Eaton fire are outdoor leaders. They're outdoor guides.
They take people to climb and hike, and they teach them skills. Like, you know, one of my friends, Toru, that I'd mentioned earlier, he is a climbing instructor.
He actually helped me learn how to, you know, do anything from. He was like my number one guide for learning how to set up an anchor.
And I, you know, I was talking to him and I'm like, he's going to need to rebuild all of his climbing gear and everything. And I'm gonna give him, actually my rack. Cause I haven't used it in a while, and I've got arthritis in my feet. And I'm like, you know what?
You can actually use this. I'm just looking at it.
Colin True
00:36:01.764 - 00:36:03.400
What happened to your feet, man?
Shawnté Salabert
00:36:03.700 - 00:36:12.044
Dude, it turns out when you climb and hike and stuff, and you have a family history of arthritis, maybe you'll get it, too. Cool. Cool.
Colin True
00:36:12.172 - 00:36:30.568
No, but that's amazing. Think about that and look to your point. With the loss of life and in business and property, it is a.
Think about somebody's climbing rack as a small thing, but, I mean, it's why, you know, your friend lives where he lives. I mean, in the accent, that's what makes us human. Yeah. And it's part of your identity. Like, so that's part of. Your small gesture is huge.
Shawnté Salabert
00:36:30.744 - 00:38:35.238
Yeah, it is. It's like, we don't need to.
We can feel the profound grief and the loss for the human life, for the animal life, for the plant life, for, you know, people's homes and businesses. And, you know, schools. Like the school where I used to teach the wilderness travel course, the Sierra Club Club class. I used to teach the school.
80% of it burnt. Like, that school is not usable. Again, multiple other schools burnt, Synagogue, burnt. Like, you know, like I said, my.
My grocery store is burnt, you know, but. But there's also all these things that make us human. Like, somebody I know, a woman I know, posted a GoFundMe and she talked about.
She's like, you know, really, at the end of the day, the things I'm going to miss Most are the sentimental things, like the creative things that I've lost.
And you know, for somebody who's into the outdoors and you've got this, you know, for this example, a climbing rack that you've accumulated over a bazillion years. Sorry about that alarm. But for somebody who is outdoorsy, somebody who's a climber, a climbing rack could be a very sentimental thing.
You know, there's a few pieces I'm going to pull off and keep for myself. But the idea that, yeah, you just. This is all part of being a human being.
This is all part of what makes life enjoyable for us is these things that bring us, these things that make us feel connected, these things that make us feel like we're part of a community. And I just keep thinking, I'm like, I know that, like I'm watching the music industry right now. Just show up for each other, everybody.
There's so many different organizations fundraising and doling out small micro grants and everything. Helping people replace their instruments and their gear that they've lost because a lot of people have.
And this is from the marquee names that you're seeing in the news to like small, like there's a mom and pop.
Amazing, percussive, like black owned music shop that burnt in Altadena, you know, to people who are casual musicians, people who are in touring bands, people who are studio musicians. I'm not seeing that from the outdoor community and that like, why isn't Black diamond saying hey? Why isn't Patagonia saying hey?
Like, I know my friend's local Patagonia store is going to talk about giving some clothes, but really like, hey man, let's. Why can't we.
Colin True
00:38:35.294 - 00:39:33.470
It's a good point and I don't get it. I don't want to speak out of school if somebody has said something, but I mean, I'd like to hear from the Outdoor Industry Association.
Anyone listening to this on the brand side, if you are planning to do something, please send it over to MyRock. We can kind of start a list going on on our website and talk about it. Put in the show notes of the pods as well. You know, for.
We're linking to Shantae's resources, but we can link to others as well.
And I would love to see, you know, how the community, I mean, look, this is part of the ethos of the outdoor industry and community anyway, regardless of how much you think or the LA is an outdoor town or think that it's not, shouldn't matter, right? Because we've learned anything over the years is that there are outdoor enthusiasts and there's outdoor people and outdoor opportunities everywhere.
No. Regardless of the access or what you have access to in your community. Community.
So this is a national tragedy and maybe the worst natural disaster we've ever seen. And it's in the second largest city in the country. So please respond and we're happy to help promote any efforts that you're making.
And I'm going to start digging around and if nobody's doing anything, where you're going to hear about it from me, too.
Shawnté Salabert
00:39:35.210 - 00:39:36.162
That's right, man.
Colin True
00:39:36.266 - 00:39:38.994
Well, you know, come on, let's go. Outdoor industry.
Shawnté Salabert
00:39:39.082 - 00:40:01.470
Yeah. And I do think, I mean, I really do think, Colin, though, it's because the people don't think of this as being an outdoor town. And I really like.
Listen, there's enough outdoor brands here and there's enough outdoor brands between here and down south, Adventura and everything that you guys can rally a bit. I don't just want to see a square on your Instagram show up for people. Do you want me to compile a list of people that are going to need things?
Because it's pretty extensive.
Colin True
00:40:02.050 - 00:40:02.970
It's not hard to figure out.
Shawnté Salabert
00:40:03.010 - 00:40:04.426
Show up, hook it up.
Colin True
00:40:04.498 - 00:40:36.048
Don't send it to Sierra to sell. Send it in to some folks who need it in the LA basin, I guess. All right. So, I mean, really, we could wrap it up. But I mean, I guess the.
So we put together the. You. You have the Google, the Google Doc going with 100 GoFundMes.
We'll continue to find some of the other things we can link in the show notes as well. I mean, if we're assuming we're on the other side of the worst part of this and without any rain in the forecast.
Like we said, rain's good and bad in this scenario because we. Yeah, but we really need the rain. We. We needed the rain well before this happened.
Shawnté Salabert
00:40:36.214 - 00:40:36.796
Yeah.
Colin True
00:40:36.908 - 00:40:41.692
I mean, where are. I mean, what now? I mean, it's just day by day right now.
Shawnté Salabert
00:40:41.716 - 00:41:52.440
I think it's day by day. I mean, people like me are very fortunate. You know, I have so far spent most of this day trying to clean the ash out of my house.
Living in an old house. It gets in everywhere. And then the leaf blowers began.
And so thankfully, those are verboten for the time being because they're just blowing more arsenic and lead into your home. But, yeah, I think, you know, the fires are still burning. It's going to take a while before people can get back to their home.
Homes that burnt or to see if their home is one of the few that are still standing in those areas. We're going to need long term support but the community is rallying together and that's what we do best here.
You know, for all of the BS that people throw at LA LA in a lot of ways is, is just a bunch of tight knit communities looking out for each other because nobody else will.
So we got us, we got each other and I think that's what you're going to continue to see is like we're going to keep an eye on the, the literal sky and you know, hope for rain but also be pretty nervous about it because that is going to meet slides. I mean this whole area is one big slope. I'm at the bottom of it.
So not exciting about that but you know, all we can do is wait and see and in the meantime try to take care of each other as best we can.
Colin True
00:41:52.980 - 00:42:24.674
All right, well and with that I guess we'll, we'll wrap it up. I think the, like I said in the show notes we mentioned multiple times, look at Shantae's Google Doc. We'll continue to find some other resources.
It sounds, sounds like a lot of places now are starting to refuse physical donations. It's more like money is what is needed more than anything.
And you know, I will have to I guess keep checking in as things, as things progress here and hopefully next time you're on you're like, oh my God, we are rebuilt. We, we are, we are back. And it took a week.
Shawnté Salabert
00:42:24.842 - 00:42:32.972
I wish Colin, I wish from, as my, as one of my friends says, from your lips to God's ears. So yeah, try to make that happen.
Colin True
00:42:33.156 - 00:42:40.076
Well, thank you so much for making some time. I know it's been a traumatic seven days but I guess it's been about a week now, right? Or a little over a week.
Shawnté Salabert
00:42:40.148 - 00:42:42.280
A week or 10 years, it's hard to say.
Colin True
00:42:43.700 - 00:42:45.080
But thanks for coming on.
Shawnté Salabert
00:42:45.460 - 00:43:24.160
Thanks so much for having me and thanks to anyone who listens and decides to chip in and do what you can even just amplify that link that Colin's going to share. Any of the GoFundMes. Really the best thing to do right now is give money. Just give money money, give it locally.
So if you're going to give to a big national organization. World Central Kitchen does amazing work here abroad and around other disasters around the United States.
They're actively feeding people several different areas here in, in my community. But, but really you know, check out the resources that exist there's.
A there's a ton of of ways to give if you don't want to give to gofundmes, but money, money, money and volunteering if you're local.
Colin True
00:43:24.490 - 00:43:26.834
Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on.
Shawnté Salabert
00:43:27.002 - 00:43:28.082
Thanks, Colin.
Colin True
00:43:28.226 - 00:44:08.160
All right, that's our show for today. Big thanks to my guests, Shantae Salibert, one of my favorite people in the world.
I'm so glad she took a few minutes to come hang out with us and wish her the best.
Please send your feedback on this and every episode of the Rock Fight by sending an email to myrockfightmail.com Please support those in need in Los Angeles by clicking the links in the show notes, the ones that Shantae put together or any other way that's helping those in need in Los Angeles. Please support those folks. The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight llc. I'm Colin True. Thanks for listening.
Back again to take us out, it's Chris D'Makes with the Rock Fight Fight song. We'll see you next time. Rock Fighters.
Chris DeMakes
00:44:16.350 - 00:45:03.900
Welcome to the rat fight where we speak our truth, slay sacred cows and sometimes agree to disagree.
We talk about human powered outdoor activities and big bites about topics that we find interesting like pop culture, music, the latest movie reviews, ideas that aim for the head. This is where we speak our truth. This is where we speak our truth. Rock fight. Rock fight. Rock fight. Welcome to the Rock fight. Rock fight. Rock fight.
Welcome to the Rock flight. Rock flight. Rock fight. Rock flight. Rock flight. Rock fight. Welcome to the Rock fight. Rock fight. Rock fight.
Colin True
00:45:06.120 - 00:45:07.232
Rock flight.
Shawnté Salabert
00:45:07.376 - 00:45:08.640
Rock flight. Flight.