To discern if you are a good fit for this Extreme Trekker portion, please:
Carefully read the “Essential Criteria” below.
Ask yourself if you have had enough experience with camping, hiking, or backpacking to answer “yes” to ALL seven criteria.
Email Joe Onstott to see if you are a good fit for this option before submitting your registration. Please include why you want to go, your fitness level, and your experience with camping and backpacking.
Essential Criteria for Extreme Trekkers:
Be adaptable, persevering, and willing to embrace challenges. This includes a communal attitude: support others, accept help when needed, and adjust to weather changes, itinerary adjustments, or unforeseen conditions, including hiking in the dark with a headlamp.
Be fit and in good health with endurance. This includes maintaining an active lifestyle such as walking, hiking, running, working out, yoga, etc.
Be willing to train for the trip, including hiking at least three times for 7-10 miles with a weighted backpack on inclines, hills, or stairs to simulate trekking conditions.
Be able to carry a backpack weighing 25-40+ pounds, or at least 25% of your body weight. Your pack will include clothing, personal items, food, and shared community gear.
Be willing/able to walk 7-14 miles every day over possibly wet, dry, sandy, rocky, uneven, and unstable ground with elevation changes of 1,500-4,000 feet.
Be able/willing to cross streams without a bridge, sleep in a tent, and poop in the woods (which requires the ability to dig a 6-inch hole and squat over it).
Be willing to openly/effectively communicate with trip leaders about any personal distress, injury, illness, or need for assistance.