Can a rock climber help ‘restore’ Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley?
For nearly 100 years, since it was dammed and flooded to provide a stable supply of drinking water to San Francisco residents, Hetch Hetchy Valley has been off limits to campers, boaters and fishers and is accessible to day visitors only between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. … [Rock climber Lucho] Rivera wants to open more eyes to Hetch Hetchy’s potential as a recreation destination. To that end, he and [Mecia] Serafino, a 41-year-old climber and San Francisco native, recently joined the board of directors at Restore Hetch Hetchy, a Berkeley nonprofit with a singular mission: to persuade the powers that be to drain the valley and reopen it to visitors.