The Adventure

Mastering the Rest Step - Secrets from a Lazy Hiker

by Adventure Travelperson

I led treks and far-flung tours for almost 30 years (for an Adventure Collection sister company of CMH’s), and before we started trekking in Tibet, Nepal, or wherever, I’d tell my clients--many of whom were (almost always needlessly) anxious they’d lag on the trail--that there was much little-known technique to hiking, and that the Rest Step could increase their stamina and enjoyment by, oh, 65%. They’d look at me like I was launching some kind of shaggy dog story, but I wasn’t, and many of them ended up thanking me at trek’s end for my little trail-side seminars.

(Not to get all Zen about it, but you never really master the Rest Step; you develop a relationship with it, and as you grow older, as the terrain seems to get a little steeper every year, your step adapts, and the relationship deepens. I’ve found Heli-Hiking a great laboratory for my ongoing dalliance with the Rest Step.)

To cut to the chase, this is what I’d tell my trek mates: Rhythm is everything. But establishing and maintaing a good rhythm takes practice. Your lungs are smarter than your legs, and you should let your lungs determine your pace, dictating to the legs, not the other way around. (If you watch people hike, you’ll notice that many of them hike with their legs, not with their lungs.)

If you’re walking efficiently, linking your breath with your step, you will burn almost all the oxygen you take in, and if you falter or break rhythm, you’ll often find yourself thrown into (non-dramatic, but noticeable) oxygen debt. (This sense of being a super-efficient furnace is a lot of fun, by the way. The Rest Step discipline is a very fun thing in general.)

It’s very difficult to establish rhythm when your steps are of varying length. So: it’s crucial to take steps of the same length as often as possible (something we tend not to bother with normally). It means looking ahead and locating a good place to put your striding foot, making strong, full-sole contact with the ground whenever possible (this helps avoid what I think of as toe-walking, which wrings the oxygen out of your hamstrings; I will turn my foot quite a bit in order to land it as flatly and firmly on the terrain as possible). When you’re taking steps of roughly the same length each time, you’re able to establish rhythm...and you will naturally begin to take smaller steps (which might mean a little slower, but far steadier pace; some of CMH’s heli-hiking guides call this the Wedding March Step).

And when your steps are regular and fairly short, you’ll notice that you’re able to use your quadriceps, or thigh muscles, less. Many people hike with their quads; they often begin one step before they finish another, and end up using both quads at the same time. If both knees are bent when you’re hiking, you’re using both quads at once, you’re guzzling oxygen and energy like a Hummer guzzles gas. But it’s possible to hike using one quad at a time. How? This is the really subtle aspect of the Rest Step, one difficult to describe. But when you concentrate on taking short, well-anchored, rhythmic steps, you can lock the knee of the striding leg very soon in the step. (And when you lock the knee, and shift your weight onto it, you take weight off the other leg, giving it a moment of rest and relaxation).

When you lock your knee, your push-off should provide enough force and momentum for you to use your leg like a strong pole, coming up and over your well-planted foot and straightened leg with surprisingly little effort...resting, in effect, if only for a short moment. (If you get the hang of this, at the top of the step, coming up and over, you’ll have an instant that feels like real weightlessness. No kidding. Some people worry that all this knee-locking is wearing on these notoriously cranky joints; my experience is that if you avoid snapping into the lock, but do it with respect, there’s little to fear.) 

And so: as the left foot, say, is locked and letting momentum do the work, you can use the gluteus muscles--the largest, probably the strongest muscles you’ve got--to swing your relaxed, off leg forward in search of anchorage. One step at a time. Up, lock, relax and swing the other leg, find a trusty anchorage, push off, lock the leg, and on and on. The mantras here are: use your leg as a pole. Shift your weight onto that pole. Avoid using small muscles, which gulp more than their share of oxygen. Use big muscles--the gluteus--whenever possible. Avoid over-depending on your quads (they get enough of a workout already). Learn--this can get wonderfully mystic--to loosen up and rest your legs even while you’re using them (tight muscles soak up more energy than loose muscles.)

I’ve always been a secretly lazy hiker, and the Rest Step has been a boon for me over the years. I’ve discovered gears and gaits and gotten farther and kept happier using it, and I hope you can too.

Educational Travel: A Part of the Everyday at CMH Summer Adventures

by Paul Lazarski

Decades ago hikers would typically be guided with little focus on the long term issues of sustainable use. Exposing guests to Nature's beauty was enough to help protect these areas. Today, with an increased use of 'wild' places and a greater understanding of human impacts, a guide needs to do more. Education is the cornerstone of sustainability! More and more adventure travellers are expecting to be educated and looking for positive ways to protect the environment.
 
Education is the tool that a guide uses to 'give back' to the environment. Looking forward to the future, and educating guests of what that future can be, is the secret to long term success.  Education can take many forms. As guides, a large part of our day is spent telling stories, joking, pointing out interesting geology and wildflowers. More often than not, its being 'real', telling guests what we genuinely feel about what we do and sharing our personal passions. Not until the last few years, however, has the need for education taken on a new meaning.

By far, the hottest topic today is that of climate change. This is one of the more difficult topics for guides to deal with and many opt out from giving an opinion for fear of jeopardizing their credibility. People tend to trust people who believe what they do, and tend to expect those they respect to repeat what they believe in. Confidence is the cornerstone of guiding, it enforces safety, creates trust, and encourages personal growth. Educating about climate change caries a real risk of damaging a guide's credibility by downgrading a guest's confidence. 
 
I discovered this a year ago, when I was asked about global warming. I began by saying that I've been seeing glaciers recede far more quickly in the last five years. I also mentioned that I had been marking the margins of one particular glacier with cairns and photographing them through the years. I went on to talk about the big picture, looking at glaciers through the lens of deep geological time. I remember, however, being told once not to talk about religion or politics in public for fear of offending someone.  I deliberately didn't talk about present day climate issues for that reason. One of the guests seemed agitated and he wasn't as friendly for the rest of the day. Later I read his comment card criticizing me for not believing in climate change, stating that he expected little more since I lived in Alberta, a conservative, oil rich province and obviously didn't care about the environment. It was at that moment that I realized that nothing I said had made a difference and that the beliefs he had arrived with were the ones he 'expected' to hear from me. I had lost credibility by not repeating what he believed in. The fact that I lived on Vancouver Island, had never seen an oil-field and was once a young idealistic member of Greenpeace didn't fit his required stereotype. Since then, I educate about climate change in a different way. Initially, by listening to the way in which a question is asked helps give a clue to the language the guest is expecting to hear. Secondly, by being honest and open, framing my answer based upon what issues the guest values the most. Communication is my goal and encouraging discussion is how real learning takes place.

Education is important for the guide as well. Investing in the guiding team by providing them with the tools to communicate on environmental issues is a major part of CMH's sustainability effort. Every year, a guide's training session is held. Often special educators are brought in to cover such topics as grizzly bears, learning styles, wildflower pigments, geology etc. 
 
There are many special issues that a guide needs to be aware of in order to guide sustainably. We need to be educated in helicopter noise reduction techniques, flight paths as well as landform considerations in order to protect the public and wildlife from undue noise. Knowing wildlife behaviour better allows a guide to avoid wildlife and if encountered, how to ethically retire without causing undue stress. A resource book, detailing all of the hiking areas alerts guides to environmental concerns and is reviewed prior to the day. Record keeping of weather, wildlife, number of guests, and hiking areas is a required part of the job and adds to the long term knowledge base of the guiding team. Ongoing educational projects including, specific wildlife counts, trampling plot evaluations, and wildflower blooming times help provide the guide with valued information to further educate the guest. In addition, helicopter fuel efficiency is one of the most important sustainability issues and is stressed daily.

To guide sustainably and ethically is probably the single most important part of our job and our being able to give back to the environment, our guests and ourselves through education is our greatest gift and responsibility.

 

Attached photo

Cairn from 1980. The Vowell Glacier(in the distance) has receded over a kilometer in the last 30 years. As one of 11 such cairns, this one is the starting point from which all others are measured, providing an invaluable learning tool for both guides and guests.
 

Why I Guide: An Interview with a CMH Summer Adventures Guide

I love being in the mountains.  It puts my life into perspective, and truly makes me appreciate this amazing place in which I live and play.  But do I love the mountains enough to be a guide?  Tempting, but I'm not sure I've got it in me.  Becoming a certified mountain guide through the International Federation of Mountain Guides (IFMGA) is a long haul. On average, the time and money invested in becoming a mountain guide is comparable to attaining any university degree.

Erich Unterberger, Area Manager of CMH Adamants, is made of much sterner stuff than me.  A long-time CMH guide, Erich truly loves these mountains and draws his energy from them.

We asked Erich why he loves to guide and were lucky enough to get his response on video.  Take a look - his passion will move you.

 

At Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH), safety is our number one priority.  To that end, all of the guides that lead our guests on mountaineering routes and hiking trails on a CMH Summer Adventure are fully certified mountain professionals.  All have some level of certification through the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides (ACMG) or the IFMGA.

You can join Erich on a CMH Summer Adventure this July, August and September while he makes some guest appearances at the Bobbie Burns and Bugaboos.  Alternatively, he'd love to take you for a few turns this winter if you come heliskiing at the Adamants!

A Bugaboo Painting Retreat with Mountain Artist, Liz Wiltzen

CMH's heli-hiking guides come to us from all walks of life and each have a common passion of sharing the mountains with guests.  In addition, many of our guests have specific interests that make them ‘requested guides' by many of our repeat Heli-Hikers.  One such guide is Liz Wiltzen who has  stepped back from guiding to focus on her painting career but still remains an important member of the CMH family.  A long-time lover of watercolours, Liz has recently made the switch to oil paintings and has truly found her groove.  Liz has been teaching painting workshops for artists of all levels and will be doing so again this coming August on a Painting Retreat in the Bugaboos for CMH Summer Adventures guests.

I finally caught up with Liz last week, after she returned from a trip to Arizona where she was taking a workshop, and working on her own personal challenge of 100 plein air paintings in 100 days.

Here's where our conversation lead:

JC: Liz, you travel quite a bit to immerse yourself in new landscapes for your work.  Where have you been lately?

LW: My latest painting trip was in Scottsdale, Arizona. Last September I was on the West Coast for two weeks painting on Gabriola, Denman and Hornby Islands. I also spent a month in Peru last year, mostly gathering photo reference for paintings.

JC: Do you have a favourite place in the world to paint?

LW: Wherever the light is interesting. So pretty much everywhere!

JC: That's pretty broad! Does your approach, technique or style changes depending on where and what you paint?

LW: My style and approach change depending on if I am studio painting or plein air painting. I use a much faster, looser approach in the field as time is very limited before the light has created an entirely different scene in front of me.

JC: Liz, how are you furthering your career as an artist?

LW: I am doing a lot more working from life, either setting up still life in the studio, painting live models or getting out painting plein air. I am currently into a self-created project to do 100 plein air paintings in 100 days. This is about working on discipline, and skill building, and also is motivated by curiosity to see what I will have learned by the end of it. The concentrated time period requires greater focus than just doing it when the mood strikes, and causes me to do things like pull the car over on the side of the highway spontaneously to do a quick sketch of something interesting rather than just noticing it and driving on by.

JC: And how do you approach your teaching?

LW: In painting as an instructor, I am not trying to do a completed painting with all the problems worked out, but rather a quick sketch that gives students an idea of all the basic elements of applying paint and what to think about as you approach a painting. Often in demo-ing I will speak about what I am thinking about as I apply paint, which is always curious because with a studio painting that process is deeper in my consciousness, not verbalized out loud.

JC: You've described this upcoming workshop in the Bugaboos as a very special treat.  What makes the Bugaboos so special to you?

The Bugaboos has a very special energy that I have experienced only very occasionally in the natural world. I think this energy is everywhere, but it is turned up to full volume in the Bugaboos. It is simply a magical place to spend time in.

JC:  Is the workshop open to artists of all levels?

LW: Students should have some painting experience, and if they are new to plein air, they should try to do 2 or 3 outdoor paintings prior to the workshop (even just in their backyard) to get used to their outdoor gear and sort out any kinks.

To learn more about the Bugaboo Painting Retreat, contact CMH Reservations at 1.800.661.0252 or e-mail Liz. Space is limited.

7 Tips for Hiking Off-Trail

One of the surprising elements of CMH Summer Adventures is that most of our time is spent with no trail in sight.  Sometimes the bears, moose, and other animals go the same way we want to go, and then we can follow age-old animal trails for short distances.  The rest of the time we walk gently on carpet-like tundra dotted with tenacious wildflowers, across scree slopes made of billions of tiny rocks, over chaotic boulder fields of burly talus, through lush old-growth forests, on low-angle slabs of ancient stone, and everything in between. 

With groups of adventurous hikers, we’ll encounter all of these terrain features in a single day.  With hikers wanting only the easiest hiking, we use the helicopter to access the ideal, mellow terrain.  

For everyone, hiking off-trail requires paying attention and walking with a focus beyond that which we are accustomed to while hiking on well-used trails in National Parks and popular recreation areas.  For some suggestions on better walking off-trail, I asked Erich Unterberger, an IFMGA guide and lifetime adventurer who, beginning as a kid in Austria, has spent most of his life in the wilderness, away from any trails or roads, while wearing hiking boots, rock climbing shoes or skis.  Erich took time away from building his family a house in Revelstoke, British Columbia to give us some pointers, and here’s what he had to say:

As for walking off-trail, I don't know when I last walked on a trail. I think I always walked, or looked to walk, off the beaten path.

• What I look for when I’m off-trail is safety first.  I always check for any hazard above like loose boulders, cornices, etc.
  
• You want to make sure to avoid sensitive areas like marshy places or heather slopes. 
• Pick your line from a distance - almost any peace of terrain has a path of least resistance through it.
• When you are crossing a steep side-hill, point your downhill foot outward to minimize stress on your ankles.
  
• When crossing talus or scree slopes, you need to look a few steps ahead.  This gives you better balance. 
• Take small steps.  This makes covering ground easier and more efficient.
• I often use a walking stick which comes really handy for rugged sections and makes walking downhill much easier.
  

Exploring off the beaten path is one of the most rewarding aspects of mountain adventures. The CMH guides will outfit you with the needed equipment, like boots and walking poles if needed.  Most importantly, they cutomize each adventure to ensure that you get just the right kind of experience to be safe, exciting and eye-opening for you without it being too difficult for your ability and fitness level.

Heli-hiking photo by Topher Donahue

CMH Summer Adventures Guide: Kellie Erwin

Each summer when I venture out to the Bobbie Burns and Bugaboo Lodges I'm struck by the passion and commitment of all the guides and other team members making guests experiences exceptional.  We're sending one of those such guides, Kellie Erwin back to her home state of Colorado for an event with our good friends at Outdoor Divas in their store in Cherry Creek on April 21.  Kellie will be speaking about her life as a mountain guide, filmmaker and Everest Summiteer.

Marketing Diva Marily MacDonald chatted with Kellie last week and after reading the post on the Outdoor Diva's blog I learned a few things about Kellie myself.  With Marily's permission, I am re-posting that interview here.  To view the original please see the Outdoor Diva's Blog. 

Kellie Erwin; a women who tops it all!
Everest Conquer will speak at outdoor DIVAS on April 21st

OD: How did you first decide that you wanted to climb Mount Everest?

KELLIE: I saw a slide show when I was 14 years old about a Himalayan climber and it inspired me to dream big and I thought to myself, I want to climb in the Himalaya's one day.

In 1979 I started working for Colorado Outward Bound where I met Peter Athens, and in 1987 he asked me to join the first American women's Everest expedition.

OD: What was the hardest part of your preparation for the journey to Everest’s summit?

KELLIE: Well, I had 20 years of preparation you could say in preparation for the summit. It took four attempts, over a 20 year period to actually summit the top. The hardest part is the unknown and the altitude; those are two things that no matter how prepared you are, you are always going to have to deal with. In 1987 I made my first attempt and in 1999 I was successful in reaching the So. Summit.

OD: What was the best thing about growing up in Aspen and how has that helped prepare you for the adventures you’ve lived?

KELLIE: No doubt about it, it was being “IN” the mountains! I am so thankful that I was immersed in the mountain way of life as a child. I feel your surroundings really affect how you see the world and the mountains are so unknown and ever changing that I think it really gives you great insight into the world around you. Passion for mountains is in my heart and I feel it helped me reach my goals.

OD: What has been your most challenging accomplishment on and off the mountains?

KELLIE: I am a Cancer survivor (early 90’s diagnosed) and that process was a huge reality check. It really put life into perspective and made me reevaluate my life--- I would say the mountains are in my heart but they are not what define me.

OD: What is the one piece of advice you wish you’d had that you would give to women looking to get into these kinds of endeavors?

KELLIE: Get educated! You can go anywhere with a great foundation---get FULL guide certifications if you are serious about guiding or whatever you are getting into. Give it your all.

OD: Are you more outdoor or DIVA--or a bit of both?

KELLIE: I am a bit of both, I like being a woman and embrace my femininity, yet I am an outdoor lover of course. I love that I can be both.

OD: Do any hilarious stories come to mind when asked what has been the funniest thing to happen to you while on a hike/adventure?

KELLIE: Bathroom issues are always a bit funny, especially when you are in a tent, high on a mountain, with strong winds and you can’t get out to do your business. One time my aim was rather off as I was attempting to fill a wide mouthed water bottle, and well, some ended up in my sleeping bag. Whelp - you just have to deal with those sort of moments, I mean it was just pee. You can’t stress about the silly stuff—ultimately that’s what makes great memories.

Will you be in the Denver area April 21?  If so, be sure to RSVP with Outdoor Divas for this inspiring event! See you there!