From Country Chic to Diva in Down - Chatham
Kent’s Heather Geluk
shares how rural roots have led to Himalayan heights…
(article featured in the January/February 2015 edition of SportsXpress.ca -- the 2015 Launch Edition, highlighting teams and people from all over Chatham-Kent)
I remember dragging my red plastic sled up the
hill, breaking trail through knee-deep snow. Gasping, I took the final few
staggered steps to the summit of Mount Ridgetown. My legs were burning with
exhaustion and I could feel my heart pounding through my hand-me-down
snowsuit. I remember how much it hurt
and how much focus it took. But I also remember the exhilaration of reaching a
goal that my little eight-year-old self had persevered to attain. And so began
my passion for climbing.
Almost 30 years years later, perched on a ledge
at 26,000 feet on the sheer icy face of Mount Everest in the Nepal Himalaya, I
couldn’t help but reflect on
the journey that took me from my rural roots to the slopes of some of the
highest mountains in the world. It’s
hard to pinpoint one specific event or person that prompted this culmination of
events. Rather, I think that what growing up in small-town Ontario instilled in
me was an interest in people and a respect and passion for the outdoors.
My first job was at a local flower shop on
Ridgetown’s vibrant Main
Street. It was there that I was taught firsthand the importance of community
and of relationships; shared emotion, empathy and those little ‘extra’
touches that make all the difference.
This ‘small
town’ interest
in people has inspired me throughout my climbing career on expeditions to Argentina, Peru, Nepal, Tibet, Tanzania,
Iran, India and the Far East. Whilst the objective of each expedition is to
reach the summit of a mountain, the journey to reach this objective is made
richer by the people met along the way. Actions as simple as sharing a hot cup
of tea, a hug at the end of a long day of climbing, a ‘high five’ on
the summit. These are the moments that
have inspired me every step of the way - from that hill in Ridgetown to my
first job at the local florist, to the summits of some of the highest mountains
in the world.
I’ve
always found it fascinating to see how people carve a life out of the earth -
maize farms in the rolling foothills of the Himalaya, fields of potatoes in
Peru, cattle ranches in Argentina, acres of vineyards in France. One of my most
memorable expeditions was to climb Alpamayo in Peru. At the end of our
expedition, we returned to the city of Huaraz where our expedition cook,
Alfredo, a farmer by trade, introduced us to his family and we feasted on an
elaborate dinner of potato, lamb and vegetables. Thinking back to our own vegetable
garden growing up on our family farm, I could relate to the pride that Alfredo
and his wife had in sharing their home-cooked meal. Even through I was sat in a foreign country,
trying to communicate in a language so distant from my own with people I’d met only days previous, I felt so close
to ‘home’.
I remember studying the photographs taken by
early explorers of mountains like Everest in geography classes at Ridgetown
District High School. I never thought I’d see these places firsthand - they seemed part of another world,
the realm of those who write text books. Before I knew it I found myself saying
‘yes’ to opportunity after
opportunity and travelling to some of these far-flung places. Standing on the
summit of Mount Lhotse in the Spring of 2013, in the shadow of Mount Everest at
nearly 28,000 feet, I couldn’t
help but think back to those faded geography text books and wonder how life had
come full circle. That faded photograph in a text book was now in living
colour.
Many people ask, ‘What’s next?’. I spent this past year focusing on
sharing my passion for the mountains with others. I led a team to climb the
highest mountain in Africa, Kilimanjaro, raising nearly $50,000 for charity,
Wellbeing of Women, which funds research into the health of women and babies. I
traveled to Peru to climb Alpamayo and then to the Islamic Republic of Iran to
climb Mount Damavand. In 2015 I hope to raise even more money for charity and
return to the Himalayas.
Even though the memory of The Ridgetown Hill is
a distant one, the lessons learned through my upbringing - the importance of
community, of people, of respect for each other and the environment - shape my
perspective of the world, and make me who I am today.
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