Maz and I stared across the aqua blue lake which was shimmering in the sunlight beneath towering white peaks and clear blue skies. We were lost in conversation. The crisp winter air was refreshing as we walked along the main road out of town, hardly noticing that we had been trying for almost an hour to hitch a ride to the bottom of Roy’s Peak, in Wanaka New Zealand. We were talking about our respective adventures from the recently finished ski season in the Northern Hemisphere. Maz, I discovered, was also an avid skier, backcountry enthusiast, and fellow adventure junkie. I explained to her that I wanted to spend a season kayak guiding after finishing the ski season in New Zealand. Maz told me about a ski mountaineering course she had just finished in Canada, “The guide was really cool, she just came back from a ski mountaineering trip in Kyrgyzstan. I’d like to do an all girls backcountry ski trip to Kyrgyzstan.” Without a second’s hesitation I said: “I’m in.” Thoughts of what it might be like to ski in Kyrgyzstan filled my mind. What was the skiing like there? The idea of a ski adventure to that corner of the world felt both exciting and exhilarating, but at the same time, distant. Something that was fun to talk about but happen years down the road. Though Maz and I had only met three days before, a friendship quickly formed. We discussed the micro-adventures we would like to do over the course of the winter in New Zealand, the powder filled ski days that hopefully lay ahead, and the people we could share these adventures with. Little did I know that hike up Roy’s Peak on a sunny Wednesday morning would change my trajectory and focus for the next year and a half. I grew up on the west coast of Canada and as far back as I can remember, I have enjoyed adventure filled days with friends. As a child adventure looked a little different and closer to home than it does now; exploring the forested areas behind my house, scrambling up rocks, telling anybody who would listen that I was going to climb Mt Everest one day, long summer evenings around the campfire with my family, and sunny days spent swimming in the lake. At the age of 10, I fell in love with skiing and dreamed of being an adventure photographer and ski instructor. I am a perfectionist by nature, when I do something I like to do it well. Those who know me will agree that I like to approach situations well informed and prepared. This has been a hindrance and a help as I have traveled and explored near and far. We slowly started ticking things off of our adventure bucket list; we made the most of days off, by biking, kayaking, skiing, ski touring, and climbing with an awesome crew of like-minded friends. All the while we discussed plans for Kyrgyzstan in an abstract, distant manner. One memorable evening in August a group of us met up to dig a snow cave. After a sweaty few hours we had a small snow palace to call home for the night and enjoyed the sunset over mulled wine, cheese, and homemade curry. These small impromptu micro-adventures, as we called them, fuelled my sense of exploration and reminded me why I love the outdoors. They taught me that the best adventures are the ones that are unplanned, where the outcome is unknown. I didn't always have to have a plan to have fun. Shortly after the night in the snow cave, Maz and I had a discussion about when we could do the trip to Kyrgyzstan. We realized that we were both in a place in our lives with no major commitments and the time to plan and train for an expedition. Why not do the trip as soon as possible? Who knew what the next year would bring and if we would have this opportunity again? We decided we were going to pursue a self-guided, all female ski adventure across a remote and infrequently travelled mountain range in Kyrgyzstan, researching the effects of climate change in this remote region. A date was set for January 2017, 6 months away. The thought of doing this kind of trip in such a short time frame put me well outside my comfort zone, what if we weren’t ready in time? There were so many factors to consider. We had a team of 5 girls and “Seeking Balance, Finding Adventure” was born. We applied for grants, we researched possible sponsorship, we contacted everybody and anybody we knew who had visited Kyrgyzstan before. With a background in outdoor education and guiding, I knew that a ski trip to Kyrgyzstan would take both time and careful planning. Connections would need to be made, itineraries written, budgets created, gear lists put together, meal plans prepared, routes scouted, and a lot of personal training to be done. The next three months passed by quickly; Maz moved back to Aspen where she continued to work as a physiotherapist and ski instructor. I moved back to Hong Kong and continued to lead expeditions and deliver outdoor education programs. The 5 girls were spread across 3 different continents, which meant a lot of early morning and late night phone calls, cross continent messaging, and the use of online servers so we could all access the necessary documents. We were all busy; finding time to do expedition planning was challenging to say the least. We started a 5 week training program which meant waking up at 5 or 6 am each morning to squeeze in workouts while at the same time leading overnight trips. Six weeks before our departure date I hit rock bottom. Everything about the trip became overwhelming. We were runners up for a large grant, preparing for this grant had taken up a lot of our free time in the previous two weeks. This was one of many grants we had applied for but been unsuccessful. It felt as though no matter how hard we tried we were not moving forward. The costs of the expedition were quickly adding up. A day later we received an email advising us that one team member could no longer join us due to work commitments. Our 5 person team was to become 4. I was physically and mentally exhausted. I wondered if we should still be doing the trip. A few days later a good friend asked if I would like to hike the Lantau Trail in Hong Kong in one go; 70 kms and over 3500m of elevation gain.This was exactly what I needed to gain some perspective. 17 hours of good conversation, excellent company, and many gummy bears later, I felt like a new human; re-energized and motivated. I was reminded on that hike that things do not always have to be perfect or go to plan, all I could do was keep moving forward and try my best. We continued to plan and train with a new-found motivation but three weeks before the trip, we were faced with a difficult decision. Due to a combination of unfortunate events we decided to postpone our expedition. A difficult phone call between myself and Maz was had and we reset the date for January 2018. We had done all we could. Maz and I met in Vancouver, we identified areas that had gone well in the past few months and areas that had not gone so well. Plans were made for improvement and a group of 3 committed girls were ready to take on the challenge a second time. We focused on the task ahead rather than dwelling on the fact that our first attempt at the expedition to Kyrgyzstan had not gone as we had planned. It has been a year exactly since that hike up Lantau Peak; I sit reflecting on all that has happened in the last 12 months. I think what a blessing in disguise it was that we did not go to Kyrgyzstan in January 2017. In the last year Maz, myself, and our teammate Nicole have been focused on our goal, traveled and trained hard to get to where we are now. We have collectively backcountry skied in 8 countries, focusing on technical ascents and always seeking to expand our knowledge base. We have ski toured up volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest, in remote areas of South America, and central New Zealand. We have journeyed up iconic glaciers in Norway and experienced the ski culture that exists in the far regions of the Kashmiri Himalayas. Maz was even invited to compete in the first ever Freeride World Tour Event in Asia, hosted in Hakuba Japan. We have had all the time in the world to train during the down season and have had to fight to make it out together during peak season. We have been so stretched and busy at points that Maz and I would go a week without seeing one another, despite living in the same house. There have been many highs punctuated with many lows; through it all, we have stayed focused on our goal and the three of us have supported one another during the process. One year later, we have all grown and made significant progress. Though we have not yet left for our trip I feel like I have gained so much in the process. Planning can only take you so far; planning helps you be prepared to navigate known or predictable events - and all the “What ifs?” Adventure lies in navigating the unknown and unexpected. We are excited to see what the unknown will hand us next as we enter the final stages of Kyrgyzstan 2018.
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Firstly some background; I travelled to the North of Bolivia in November to visit the amazon (the Madidi National Park is the Bolivian amazon) instead though I ended up going to Serere Reserve (a sanctuary not actually in the national park/ Amazon but close) as a result of what I started to learn about the area. During my time in Serere I was able to interview one of the guides about his experience with conservation, the government and the local people. History of the Madidi National Park (Bolivian Amazon): After years of petitioning the government of Bolivia the Eco Bolivia Foundation (founded by a lady called Rosa Maria), along with the support of the World Bank, succeeded in creating the Madidi National park in 1995. This protected this diverse area, home to 11% of the world's bird population, from lumbering companies, hydroelectric schemes and various mining and roading projects. After this the Eco Bolivia Foundation started educating locals in the park so that they could undertake tourism initiatives. The foundation also built various structures to accommodate people. However the work was not over and in the ensuing years the government challenged the status of the park with attempts at various profit making activities which the Eco Bolivia Foundation stood up against and which eventually led to a violent attack on the Foundation and burning of their buildings within the park in 2003. After this the Eco Bolivia Foundation relocated and began work in restoring an area further East along the Beni river (which also runs through Madidi National Park). After removing 20 Tonnes of rubbish from an 81 square kilometre area of forest the Serere Sanctuary was borne in 2007. The following is my interview with our guide from the Serere Sanctuary: Q: Where did you grow up? A: In a jungle community in the North of Bolivia Q: And why did you leave? A: We have a ceremony that boys partake in at age 15 to become a man, they need to drink a herbal mix and undergo the experience that follows. My father wanted me to prove myself so he forced me to take it when I was 8 years old and I nearly died. My grandfather told my mother that my father was dangerous and that she should leave so she moved to a village slightly South East and I started working on the river banks helping with farming. I saw my first white person when I was 13. I never thought I would see a white person. Q: How did you start working for Serere reserve as a guide? A: I starting working as a guide in Madidi park when I was 18 because I had grown up in the jungle and had a lot of knowledge already and I had been learning English. I started hearing about what the Eco Bolivia Foundation/ Rosa Maria was doing to protect wildlife and offering working opportunities to locals and I approached her to start working at the Serere Sanctuary. Q: What is the situation with animals in the wild around Madidi/ Serere? A: There is still a culture around hunting animals in local tribes. Animals such as Monkeys, Caimans, Tapirs and Jaguars are still hunted and sold as meat. Q: Do you think local people are changing to care about conservation? A: It’s hard to say because where there is tourism surrounding the wildlife like in Rurranabaque town (access town to the Madidi National park/ Amazon) then yes people care but in the jungle communities who knows, they are poor and they don’t understand the importance of these animals and the nature. Q: What is happening to the conservation in Madidi national park? A: Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia, tells the world we have this park and it’s great and we are protecting the wildlife but then he goes and changes policies so that it is possible to build a hydroelectric dam along the Beni river and a highway through the park and he accommodates Chinese investors interests in mining gold and petroleum in the park. For instance there is already many mining activities and petroleum contracts operating within the park that are kept quite by the government and that even many locals wouldn't know about. Q: How do you feel about these activities? A: Extremely upset. The forest, the jungle, it is so important. Can't they see how special this is, all these different species, this ecosystem? People say you need to go to school to be smart and make good decisions but I don't see any of these people making intelligent decisions. We applied for more grants than we can count/remember. For more than a year now we've been filling in grant application forms. Completing forms, reviewing them as a team, re-writing them, finding references, submitting them, answering more questions, re-submitting etc etc. Each grant required a specific application, tailored towards their demands. For example; the North Face required a day by day itinerary with a proposed route on google earth and daily vertical and horizontal meters covered. Kathmandu was really interested in our presence on social media and our environmental aspect. The Mt Everest Foundation really wanted proof that where we were going was previously unexplored. I’m not kidding, we’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of hours applying for these various grants, and we’ve got very little to show for it. We received $500 NZD from the NZAC splitfest youth ski mountaineering grant, $1500 USD from the Mountain Tactical Institute Crux award and £1200 from the Mount Everest Foundation. We are incredibly grateful for the support we’ve received but sometimes I feel like it would have been better to just get a job stacking shelves at the supermarket for $10/hour. So why bother? Well actually through the grant application process we’ve really had to refine our expedition. We’ve been forced to study maps, analyse google earth, plot alternative routes and contact those who have previously been to the At Bashi area for beta. We’ve found mountaineering trip reports which have proven incredibly useful and which we would not have found had we not been trying to verify the peaks we are attempting are unclimbed. We’ve also had to consider how we are branding ourselves on this expedition. What are our primary values and motivations? Why are we doing this project? It’s been awesome to continuously be asking ourselves these questions, to ensure we’re still on the right track and doing what we set out to do initially. We’re still very environmentally focused and we’re not willing to compromise those aspects of the project in order to receive a grant. We’ve been required to make and re-make budgets for most grants. This has ensured that over the past year we’ve remained aware of the financial obligations of this trip and how much more money we needed to obtain. We had to search well in advance for the prices of gear such as satellite phone rental and super doper warm sleeping bags and extra costs associated with travel such as translator fees and mountaineering-specific travel insurance. We’ve gradually been purchasing these items and because of our extensive budgeting at least nothing’s been a surprise. The Mountain Tactical Institute grant has been amazing, much more so because of the training program it provided than the money. We’ve had a custom program created for us, it’s 6 days/week and it’s hard! We would definitely have been training for this expedition but not nearly as hard and not as specifically as with this program. A lot of the grants put us in catch 22 situations. They required we have a professional photographer on board to capture the expedition with high quality photos, but the photographer we initially wanted to join us wasn’t able to commit until we secured a certain amount of funding for her... Most of the brand associated grants needed guaranteed media coverage but no magazines will promise to write or publish any story on our project until it’s completed…. It all seemed impossible at times. Lastly a lot of these groups only seemed interested in funding us if we said the project wouldn't go ahead if we didn't receive funding. Of course we'd rather receive funding but does that mean we shouldn't be actually working and earning money on our own? We felt it was important to mention how hard we were working to save money ourselves. We’re nearly set to go, we’re waiting on two further grants to (fingers crossed) be granted. Until then we’re working round the clock to save up as much as possible before we head off. Here’s a list of most of the various grants we applied for. Several of these we were runners up for which is rather sad but the competition is high and it’s exciting that there are a lot of other amazing projects and adventures out there! Mountain Athlete - Successful! Northface - Runner up 2016, TBD 2017 Patagonia - Unsucessful MacPac - Unsucessful NZAC - Unsucessful NZAC splitfest Youth Ski Mountaineering - Sucessful! Kathmandu - Runner up 2016 Harvard Travellers fund - Unsucessful MEC Adventure Grant - Unsucessful MEC VIFF Grant - Unsucessful Nancy-Bird Walton Grant - Unsucessful Transglobe Expeditions - Unsucessful Sony Sponsorship - Unsucessful Mount Everest Foundation - Successful! Millet Expedition Grant - Unsucessful Sidetracked Adventure Fund - Runner up Aspen Environmental Foundation - Unsucessful Jen Higgnes Fund - Alpine Club of Canada - TBD |
AuthorMarian Krogh Archives
August 2019
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