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Adventures on foot

Whether hitting the rocky crags of mountain wilderness, or the snow-laden trails of Nepal, these locals have laced up their bootstraps and put one foot in front of the other. Read on to experience their journeys.

Trekking to the base of Mount Everest || By Samantha Bey

Coronado local hears the call of the world’s tallest mountain

One evening on a hike with “The Moonlighters” — an organized hiking group in San Diego that hit the trails after work, usually in the dark — Christine Baldwin, 39, heard a fellow trekker mention he was planning a trip to Mount Everest South Base Camp, which rests above the clouds in Nepal at 17,598 feet.

“I’ve always loved hiking,” said Baldwin. “Just being surrounded by trees and nature and dirt — especially during those times you just have to get away from it all.” When her fellow hiker asked her to join him, Baldwin, an Imperial Beach resident working as a buyer’s assistant at the Hotel del Coronado, jumped at the opportunity to hike to the camp.

To train, Baldwin hiked at least twice a week up popular San Diego trails such as Cowles Mountain, Iron Mountain and Mount Woodson, ran regularly and rode her bike. But, Baldwin said, “There wasn’t really anything more specific than that to prepare physically. I knew the altitude was going to be the biggest issue, and there’s just no way to train for that when you live at sea level.”

Last Oct. 15, Baldwin and her hiking companion, Koichi Kunitake, an emergency room doctor, got on a plane from LAX and nestled in for the 15-hour flight to China, where they boarded another plane for a five-hour flight to Kathmandu, Nepal. “We left on a Monday night and got in on a Wednesday morning. The travel was pretty brutal,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin and Kunitake spent a full day in Kathmandu, acclimating both to the culture and to the altitude even though the city is only at 5,000 feet.

The next morning, the pair took a plane with only nine seats into Lukla, a little town where anyone setting out to Mount Everest flies into. “The flight had a weight limit,” said Baldwin. “They weighed our luggage and then they weighed us. We actually had to get on the scale.”

“We arrived in Lukla, and the airport there is widely regarded as one of the scariest in the world,” Baldwin said. “The planes land on a steep incline and appear as though they’ll crash right into the mountains as you touch down.” Despite the white-knuckle arrival, one of Baldwin’s fondest memories of the entire trip was stepping out into Lukla. “There are no cars and no roads. There are just yaks and people and trails, all surrounded by these massive mountains. You feel so tiny — but the peacefulness of it all is overwhelming and breathtaking,” she recounted.

The pair signed up for the journey through a Nepalese company called AME Treks. Their group included a guide, several porters who carried their packs, sleeping bags, and provisions, and just one other hiker, a Belgian named Frederick. The trek itself was 11 days, interspersed with two “acclimation days” that involved scrambling up and down extremely steep mountains to allow the hikers’ bodies to acclimate to the altitude.

The group hiked four to 10 hours per day (usually between two and 10 miles), on moderate to steep grades and at elevations ranging from 9,000 to 18,000 feet.

Along the way, the hikers stayed in small teahouses that pepper the trails throughout the mountains. And while teahouses may have a nice charming ring, Baldwin described them as “bare minimum” with a few cots and a bathroom down the hall. “And by bathroom, I mean a hole in the ground with no shower or sink,” she said with a grimace.

Each teahouse had a basic restaurant that served simple foods such as rice and lentils. Baldwin recalled that on the first day, their guide Shashir highly advised the group to become vegetarians while on the trek. “We definitely followed that advice,” Baldwin said. “I was never much of a yak meat fan anyway.”

The group tended to congregate in each teahouse restaurant, meeting and conversing with other trekkers over hot tea and coffee.

The trekkers were always early to bed and early to rise. “Those 5:30 mornings were so frigid,” Baldwin said. “Coming from San Diego, it felt really brutal to set out on a hike in the dark with snow on the ground.”

But the ultimate destination always pulled her forward.

Each day, after a quick breakfast, the group would head out, stopping for lunch at small towns along the way up. “It never stopped surprising me when we’d turn a corner in the midst of these grandiose mountains and there’d be this little town,” Baldwin said.

One of the biggest culture differences Baldwin experienced was the negative reaction to her as a woman. “I really just felt like I wasn’t there. The locals we encountered — all male — just wouldn’t look at or acknowledge me. They’d address Koichi but never me. Their culture sees women only as caregivers, so they just ignored me being there as a hiker.”

The trails were crowded not just with hikers, but also bustled with porters carrying items to the higher villages. Yaks always had the right of way, “Despite the ‘traffic,’ the trails were wide enough that I felt safe and comfortable,” Baldwin said.

The trails also made for a colorful array of adventurers, with trekkers ranging widely in ages and backgrounds. “We passed a gentleman in his 70s who was trekking with his daughter, and also passed a group of ladies from La Jolla,” Baldwin said. “Everyone’s story was different. The conversations that we had on the trail made the trip all the more worthwhile.”

Spiritual décor also dotted the trails: “We frequently passed Mani walls — boulders carved with Tibetan Buddhist prayer inscriptions — and prayer flags that are hung by the locals to promote peace, compassion, strength and wisdom. They believe the prayers and mantras will be blown by the wind to spread the good will and compassion into all pervading space. Therefore, prayer flags are thought to bring benefit to all,” Baldwin said.

Everest Base Camp was one of the less spectacular scenic sites of the journey, Baldwin said. “It was crowded, but there were mostly just a lot of rocks. Still, it was nice to have made it — and to see all those prayer flags blowing in the wind.”

Fortunately neither Baldwin nor her hiking companions had any issues with altitude sickness, though it is a common ailment at those heights. “Altitude is a serious challenge and must be treated as such,” Baldwin warned. “And altitude sickness doesn’t always relate to how fit you are.” On their downward trek the group met a son and father from Sweden. The son, in his late 20s, was experiencing serious altitude sickness; he had been vomiting and couldn’t walk. His 50-ish father was fine.

Still, Baldwin advised, the trek is arduous and uphill — and physical and mental preparation are vital. “I had very few moments of discomfort or angst,” Baldwin said. “If I did, I chalked it up to part of the adventure.”

Baldwin packed only one backpack for the journey. In it, she carried two pairs of hiking pants, two short-sleeve shirts, two long-sleeve shirts, a fleece jacket, four pairs of underwear, four sports bras and 10 pairs of socks. “Socks can make or break you on a long trek,” she said. “Socks made of merino wool are the best — they absorb sweat and don’t rub, so they don’t cause blisters.” The tour provided a down jacket, suitable for 20 degrees below zero. And, of course, perhaps the most important hiking companions of all — her well broken-in hiking boots.

Other essentials included sunglasses (“The sun shines so brightly and the reflection off the snow can be a real challenge,” Baldwin advised), hand sanitizer, as there are no sinks for hand washing, Excedrin for altitude headaches, a prescription drug, Diamox, in case of altitude sickness, walking poles for steep climbs and descents, a CamelBak water pack, sandals to wear during non-hiking hours and, yes, a phone, as WiFi is available for a fee almost anywhere on the trek.

In addition to Baldwin’s flight from Los Angeles to Kathmandu (about $2,000), the AME Treks tour cost $1,295 per person, which included a guide, porters, transportation to and from the airport, two nights in Kathmandu, and all food and lodging. However, she advised, “You get what you pay for. National Geographic and REI offer this same trek, with the same stops at the same teahouses and their trips are more than $5,000. But the tour guides are more knowledgeable. Our guide spoke almost no English and shared very little along the tour.”

After her successful trek to the foot of the world’s largest mountain, Baldwin has far from retired her well-worn hiking boots. She plans on entering the lottery for a permit to climb Mount Whitney this summer, and hopes to explore and hike more of the national parks in California. She explained, “My favorite quote is by John Muir. He said, ‘The mountains are calling and I must go.’ That’s just always spoken to me — I totally get it.”

Christine Baldwin (right) and her hiking companion Kiochi Kunitake spent 11 days making their way through the Himalaya Mountains to arrive at Mount Everest’s Base Camp
Christine Baldwin (right) and her hiking companion Kiochi Kunitake spent 11 days making their way through the Himalaya Mountains to arrive at Mount Everest’s Base Camp
Everest Base Camp sits above Nepal at an altitude of 17,598 feet.
Everest Base Camp sits above Nepal at an altitude of 17,598 feet.
Hikers stop for food and rest in the little villages peppered throughout the mountains.
Hikers stop for food and rest in the little villages peppered throughout the mountains.
Donkeys and porters carry hikers’ personal items and provisions from village to village.
Donkeys and porters carry hikers’ personal items and provisions from village to village.
“The massive mountains have a way of making you feel so small,” said Baldwin. “They’re breathtaking. And so peaceful.”
“The massive mountains have a way of making you feel so small,” said Baldwin. “They’re breathtaking. And so peaceful.”

Leadership in the wilderness || By Bob Schoultz

Last August I spent a week in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming — some of the most beautiful country in America — heading the Executive Leadership Expedition with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). The expedition, as always, left me humbled by the mountains and the totality of the experience.

The course, designed to build and encourage leadership, teaches participants the fundamentals of backpacking, camping and expedition behaviors. We learn how to support, challenge and take care of each other — including the llamas we use as pack animals.

We traverse mountains and valleys ranging in altitude from 8,000 to 12,000 feet. There is no civilization — no roads, no mechanized transport, no cell phone access. But there are spectacular sheer rock faces, beautiful wildflowers, and lots of wildlife.

There were 11 of us on the course: two instructors, (I was one of them), and nine expedition members — six men and three women, including two of my fellow Coronado Rotarians, Tim Cusick and Ivan Dunn. Among us were the retired former president of the Discovery Channel, an aeronautics professor, and several retired naval officers. The youngest was 37 and the oldest was 70. Our expedition also included six llamas, whose personalities we all got to know well.

Over seven days and six nights, we moved in a loop of almost 20 miles, mostly at an altitude of around 10,000 feet, climbed through two 11,000-foot passes, and struggled with steep terrain and off-trail navigation. We cooked and tented together, mapped out and adjusted our plans together. As an expedition, we dealt with whatever came our way. When one of our llamas injured his foot crossing a creek, we figured out how to distribute its load among the other llamas and carried on. (He recovered two days later.)

We hiked four to six miles a day, but it wasn’t the mileage that was challenging. Navigating on- and off-trail hiking and making big gains or losses in elevation was a physical feat, but many of us were challenged simply by the newness of what we were doing: camping three to four people in a tent without showers, toilets or modern amenities; hiking in the mountains five to eight or more hours a day; and facing new trials all along the way.

I have rarely, if ever, seen a group of people create an integrated, trusting team as quickly and as well as this group did. Late in the second day of the expedition, Rick Rochelle, our experienced expedition leader, and I were having a tough time. We had gotten off to a rough start that morning — it was raining and hailing while we loaded the llamas to take off on our initial leg, and we got behind our timeline, cold and wet. We arrived at our initial campsite as it was getting dark, and we were struggling to find good places to set up camp and cook before we lost all daylight. But one of the women, a retired naval admiral, told us to relax — despite the challenges, they were having a great time. The shoe was on the other foot; the students were mentoring the instructors — they were owning the expedition.

Amid all the hard work, there was still room for fun and laughter. There was the confrontation between Will, one of our members, and the amorous porcupine. Will opted to sleep outside his tent to escape the snoring of one of his tent mates — only to be awoken by a porcupine crawling across his face. Despite this jarring wake-up call, it turns out that herbivorous porcupines are actually quite friendly. This particular fellow stayed in our camp and even chewed through the wrist straps on my hiking poles to get the salt.

We took a rest day, during which some climbed a peak, some swam in the mountain lake, and others successfully tried their hand at fly fishing. The latter caught 35 trout, which made for quite a dinner that night.

Every night, two of our expedition members shared their story around the campfire, focusing on the key experiences that had shaped their own leadership journey. Some were light-hearted, others personal and moving; all were provocative and inspiring.

It was the longest period most in this group had ever gone without the accoutrements of civilization. We were without access to news, cell phones, music or the media. We were disconnected from the wider culture that nurtures us all.

We found that we were doing just fine without those things which we consider vital. We realized that these things are not essential. In fact, without the trappings of civilization, each of us experienced a new dimension of quality of life that we rarely feel in our lives at home.

There’s a special connection that arises when good people work toward a common purpose in challenging circumstances. It’s a lighter version of what draws troops together in combat. The experience also cultivates an intimate connection to nature. The eons of geologic time were palpable in the glacially cut walls and valleys we traversed in the Wind River Range. In the face of such grandeur and magnificence, each of us experienced our own version of awe.

Leadership takes on many meanings in different contexts. The “leadership journey” on this expedition was different for each of us. Each of us had our own concerns — old injuries, aches, pains and insecurities. But the real leadership challenge is doing things that you don’t particularly like to do for the sake of the group. For some that was cooking, for others it was carrying water bags from the creek or working with the llamas. But we’d pull together and do what needed to be done.

Learning how to successfully live and work with people different from yourself — with different aptitudes and talents, habits and traits, especially when you’re tired and grouchy — to achieve a common goal, is really where leadership is born.

For more information or to sign up for the 2015 expedition, contact Bob Schoultz at schoultz@sandiego.edu.

Bob Schoultz (fifth from left, standing) and his ten fellow hikers, including Coronado Rotarians Tim Cusick (third from left, standing) and Ivan Dunn (far right), spent seven days trekking through the rugged wilderness of Wyoming, learning the fundamentals of expedition practices and building leadership skills.
Bob Schoultz (fifth from left, standing) and his ten fellow hikers, including Coronado Rotarians Tim Cusick (third from left, standing) and Ivan Dunn (far right), spent seven days trekking through the rugged wilderness of Wyoming, learning the fundamentals of expedition practices and building leadership skills.
above: The llamas were an integral part of the group, carrying much of the group’s gear through the mountains. Part of the experience was learning how to properly distribute their load and take care of the animals.
above: The llamas were an integral part of the group, carrying much of the group’s gear through the mountains. Part of the experience was learning how to properly distribute their load and take care of the animals.
Hikers slept three-to-four to a tent and tent groups switched off duties like cooking and navigating.
Hikers slept three-to-four to a tent and tent groups switched off duties like cooking and navigating.
During a rest day, several of the hikers caught 35 trout, which made a hearty meal for the group that evening.
During a rest day, several of the hikers caught 35 trout, which made a hearty meal for the group that evening.
The week-long hike traversed a 20-mile loop at an average altitude of 10,000 feet.
The week-long hike traversed a 20-mile loop at an average altitude of 10,000 feet.

CLM Starfish

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