Kumusta, mga ka-akyat 🧗🏽♀️🇵🇭 Welcome to the first Rock and Rice episode of 2026 — and we’re starting strong with longtime climber, community builder, and all-around legend, Mecia Serafino (@small_wonder). Tim and Mecia first met during their SPI course in Mammoth (yes, they’re still preparing for the exam 😅), but this episode goes way deeper than anchors and knots. Mecia shares her journey from growing up Filipino in Bernal Heights to becoming deeply involved in Yosemite climbing, outreach, and stewardship. We talk about: 🧗🏽♀️ Getting into climbing later in life — and getting absolutely sandbagged by your future husband, Lucho Rivera 🏕️ Eastern Sierra classics, Tuolumne epics, and why Cathedral & Tenaya still hit different 📸 Being the photographer of the friend group (and why none of the climbing photos are of her) 🧭 Old-school mentorship, climbing with Yosemite legends, and learning on stiff Friends and hexes 🚨 The real reason most climbing accidents happen on rappel — and how Friends of YOSAR teaches people to “Stay Alive” 🧹 Yosemite Facelift, high-angle trash cleanups, and 20+ years of climbers giving back to the park 🏛️ The Yosemite Climbing Museum in Mariposa and the wild history preserved inside 🌲 Restore Hetch Hetchy and the complicated balance between access and preservation 🌁 Bay Area Climbers Coalition, a local chapter of the Access Fund Mecia talks candidly about health struggles, finding healing in the outdoors, and why education and outreach matter just as much as sending hard routes. It’s a conversation about climbing, yes — but also about showing up for your community, protecting the places we love, and making sure more people get to experience them safely. This one’s for the climbers who love long approaches, old gear stories, and doing the work even when no one’s watching. Salamat, Mecia, for everything you do — and for reminding us that climbing is better when we take care of each other. 🤎 🎮 Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/aMe7ktS2 👏🏽 Become a Patron: http://patreon.com/rockandrice
