Dear Summer Associates: Read The Fine Print Before Signing Up For the Mountain Hiking, So The Firm Doesn't Have To Send A Helicopter For You

An eventful hike into the mountains for Quinn Emanuel summer associates...

QUINN EMANUEL URQUHART & SULLIVAN — MEMORANDUM — 2012 FIRM HIKE

2012 FIRM HIKE — BANFF, LAKE LOUISE & MT. ASSINIBOINE, CANADA — JULY 19-22, 2012

Get your passports ready! This year, we take our second trip to Canada. We will be hiking in the Canadian Rockies, through Banff and Kootenay National Parks, and heading to Mount Assiniboine, dubbed the “Matterhorn” of the Canadian Rockies and the highlight of what promises to be the hardest Firm Hike ever! This hike has been on our to-do list for years and is routinely listed as one of the world’s top 10 hikes. O Canada! Here we come.

We leave from our respective hometowns on Thursday, July 19 and hike that day, Friday and Saturday. After we’re all done hiking on Saturday, we will have a celebratory hike dinner on Saturday night at the famous Chateau Lake Louise (www.fairmont.com/lakelouise), where we will stay Saturday night. We fly back on Sunday, July 22. If you go, you must hike, you can’t just chill at the Chateau!

This hike takes us through some of the most scenic parts of the Canadian Rockies, famous for their massive peaks, sub-alpine forests, sprawling meadows, stunning glaciers and moraine lakes. The area has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Mt. Assiniboine, the highlight of the trip, was described by James Outram, who made the peak’s first ascent in 1901, as a “monster tooth, from an entourage of dark cliff and gleaming glacier, 5,000 feet above the valley of approach.” The scenery promises to be breathtaking.

In addition to the soaring peaks, the lush valleys teem with flora and fauna. A total of 56 species of mammals live in the area including Rocky Mountain goat, bighorn sheep, moose, mule deer, white-tailed deer, red deer, grey wolf, grizzly bear, black bear, wolverine, lynx, cougar and marmot.

Those of you who have participated in previous firm hikes know that the classic QE hike involves a test of physical determination and mental toughness. This hike will significantly exceed the rigors of our norm. If you chose to go, you will hike nearly 35 miles in 3 days (and more than 15 miles on day 2) up nearly 7,500 feet of elevation gain wearing a 40 pound pack carrying your own tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, food, water, rain gear, clothing, and everything else you need to survive. If the weather is good the hike will be strenuous, if it snows or monsoons on us, let’s just say it will be unforgettable. By nature, QE hikers revel in this suffering. After all, how else to find out what you are really made of?! Whatever it is, it will be epic!

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Needless to say, you will need to be in excellent physical shape to finish. Turning around will not, probably, be an option. As we normally do, we’ll move fast. We will use every second of the nearly 17 hours of daylight to log more miles than on any previous Firm Hike. If you are not willing to get yourself in excellent shape, don’t perform well at altitude (we’ll be hiking between 5,000’ and 10,000’), have a health condition, or have a fear of heights, grizzly bears or things that go bump in the night, this is not the hike for you. You will also have to sign a waiver releasing the firm, its partners, associates, staff, and everyone connected to the hike from any and all liability, to participate.

In the interest of full disclosure, you also need to understand that we are heading to a remote area that is critical grizzly bear habitat and contains a large concentration of female grizzlies often accompanied with cubs. Seeing a grizzly in nature is a privilege. But, getting between a mother and cub will ruin your day faster than forgetting to keep your Blackberry on during waking hours. Hikers have surprised bears on this trail and have been seriously injured. The trail is also closed occasionally because of bear activity. However, bears, by nature, will avoid humans when possible. We will, therefore, be adhering to proper “bear aware” guidelines to reduce the possibilities of crossing paths with a bear. To give you an idea of what this means: you have to take direction from the group leaders; hike together with your group and not run ahead or fall behind; at camp, you must cook far from where you sleep and also hang food and everything with odor far from where you sleep; you must not take anything with a scent into your tent, including prescription or other medication, sunscreen, lotions, toothpaste, gum, lip balm, food, juice, trash, hygienic items, smelly clothes, your backpack, etc. — all of this and more will be set out in the gearing-up and group leader memos that will be sent out later. We will also carry bear-spray.

You can also expect to be constantly annoyed by swarms of unusually determined members of the Culicidae family of insects. And, the close encounters with the locals won’t end on the trail: it is known that cars left at the parking lot have been disabled by the local rodents, marmots, and porcupines that have a fond taste for auto parts, particularly brake lines, tires and electrical wiring. After the hike, we’ll need to check the cars before we get in and drive off.

PASSPORTS: We’ll fly in and out of Calgary. Precise itineraries will be announced later. Don’t forget that you will need a passport to go on the trip — if you don’t have one or if it has expired, the time is now to get that in order (it can sometimes take months to get a passport, so get on that today).

FIRST-COME-FIRST-SERVED: Due to limitations imposed by park officials on the number of hikers that can enter the area, we may have to limit this year’s hike to those who sign up first — so sign up early. If you are a summer associate, and decide to go, you already have a spot — but you still need to let Selene know whether you will attend.

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If you attend, the firm will require a $500 contribution from associates/of counsels, and significantly more from partners (to be determined), which will in part cover all transportation, hotel and food. Free for Summers. If you cancel for unapproved reasons, you must reimburse the firm for any non-refundable expenses incurred on your behalf.

Earlier: Quinn Emanuel Babes in the Woods: How Two Summer Associates Got Lost on a Firm Hiking Trip