FAQs

What is matthewweaver.com?
A website dedicated to entertaining Matt’s family, friends and anonymous visitors through the sharing of photos, thoughts, comments and content. The website was launched on August 22, 1999 and has been sporadically updated ever since. Relaunched on its 9th Anniversary (August 22, 2008) the site will be updated more often due to the use of the Wordpress open source blog software and the NextGen photo gallery plug-in.

Who the heck is Matthew Weaver and why should I care?
Matt is a refugee of Northeastern Ohio (specifically Aurora) who moved west in 2000 to settle in the wonderful state of Oregon. He quickly discovered a latent love of the outdoors and set out to experience Oregon and the Western United States. Along with an existing hobby of visiting Major League Baseball parks, Matt added new hobbies like mountaineering, hiking and the appreciation of micro brews - well, that last one doesn’t add much to this website, but it is true. ;^) Building on a life-long passion for photography, he developed this website to share his images with the world. I guess that’s why you might care.

Why the Major League Baseball Park thing?
In 1995, Matt’s favorite baseball team, the Cleveland Indians, became a winner and fans packed the ballpark in Cleveland almost nightly. After missing out on the first day of ticket sales due to work obligations that day, Matt was forced to travel to see his team. Before long, he had been to the majority of Great Lakes area stadiums and two on the West Coast (where his high school friends Jim & Becky Weber had moved after their marriage). Matt just figured, what the heck, why not see them all? The quest is now more of a way to allow him to see a certain number of MLB games per year since Portland doesn’t have a team of their own…and the Seattle Mariners will never be “his” team.

Did I see Matt on TV? How did he end up there?

Matt volunteered with Portland Mountain Rescue from 2001 thru 2006 and was deployed on Oregon’s tallest mountain during the “Mount Hood Disaster” rescue on May 30, 2002, where 3 climbers died and an Air Force helicopter crashed high on the mountain. After TV viewers worldwide saw the helicopter barrel roll 400 feet down the mountain, Matt shared a photo with ABC News and provided an interview on the May 31, 2002 broadcast of their Nightline program. In the following years, Matt provided analysis on local Portland news station KGW (Channel 8), appeared on Portland channel KPTV’s (Channel 12) morning show in support of the American Lung Association’s Reach The Summit fundraiser. After another deadly incident on Mount Hood in December 2006, four different Fox News programs, including The O’Reilly Factor, used Matt for expert analysis of the situation. Matt’s most recent appearance was February 18, 2007, again on The Billo Show, after another rescue on Mount Hood revived memories of the December 2006 tragedy.

Wait a second…what’s a liberal Oregonian doing on The Billo Show?
Matt went on Bill Orally’s nightly laugh fest in 2006 to try, somewhat in vain, to argue that mountains should NOT be closed for climbing when bad weather approaches. Despite Billo’s past disdain of government regulation and support of personal self-reliance, he decided that those crazy climbers need to be barred from the mountain by some sort of (non-existent) policing organization. Matt attempted to explain that there are few resources to enforce these “regulations” and, regardless, mountain rescues are mostly comprised of volunteers and a fairly small burden on tax payers. Ironically, Matt argued classically “Republican” viewpoints and Billo pushed stereotypically “Democratic” positions. Like just about everything, the issue is complex and multi-layered and, after being asked back to the show in 2007, Matt tried again to explain a gray-area subject to a talking head that sees only in black and white. This was an impossible task, though it seemed that Matt at least held his own.

Has Matt had any of his photos published?
Yes! Matt has been published in major magazines such as National Geographic Adventure, People, Men’s Journal, Climbing and Rock & Ice, as well as other print and online publications.

Can I get my hands on one of Matt’s photos?
Occasionally, requests come in for one of Matt’s photos. Unless the photo is über cool or already under license, Matt can be persuaded to provide a digital copy of his photos for no charge. No guarantees, though. Matt is a busy guy who, evidently, enjoys writing about himself in third person <snark> so he simply may not have time to get to your request.

How can I get in touch with Matt?
Send all correspondence to matt at mattheweaver dot com. (No link provided to avoid spambots.)

I also have a Facebook page..http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1271532129