LITTLE GIRLS, BIG HEIGHTS an Extraordinary Family Is Born to Hike

LITTLE GIRLS, BIG HEIGHTS An Extraordinary Family is Born to Hike On a bright Saturday last April, Trish and Hugh Herr, and their daughters Alex, 9, and Sage, 7, attended the Appalachian Mountain Club’s annual awards ceremony celebrating people who have hiked all 48 of New Hampshire’s highest mountains. As Trish, Alex and Sage were called up to the stage, the audience burst into a loud round of applause. The presenter swept Sage into in his arms, and held her up high to the crowd. At age six years and seven months, she was the second youngest female ever to complete all 48 peaks, supplanting her sister, who’d held the same position since 2009. Alex and Trish, for their part, had scaled all of the state’s highest peaks a second time, but this time all in winter months. The Herr family, who split their time between homes in Somerville, Mass and Campton, NH, may be the top hiking family in New England. “It’s important for me that my daughters know first-hand that small doesn’t necessarily mean weak, that girls can be strong, and that big, bold things are possible,” says Trish, who holds a master’s degree in biological anthropology from Harvard University, and who home schools the children. She has chronicled their journey and the lessons they learned along the way in her recently published book, UP, A Mother and Daughter’s Peak Bagging Adventure, published by Broadway Paperback. THE ADVENTURE BEGINS The adventure began during a chance stop at a roadside kiosk in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. While five year-old Alex and three year-old Sage ran in circles around a bench, Trish noticed a brochure explaining the AMC Four-Thousand Footer Club. Members receive a patch and a certificate for hiking on foot a list of 48 peaks, all over 4,000 feet high. Trish asked Alex, who was always on the go, if she was interested in climbing an adult-sized mountain. “Sure!” Alex responded, enthusiastically. In March 2008, they attempted to climb Mount Tecumseh, but the higher they climbed, the deeper the snow became, and the girls started sinking up to their waists with each step they took. They decided to turn back before reaching the summit. “No big deal,” says Trish. “I went back and got advice from a lot of people and read some books about hiking.” Alex and Trish set their sites on climbing the same mountain again a few weeks later, and they reached the peak of their first 4,000-foot mountain when Alex was just five years and five months old. In the beginning, Trish thought it would take about five years for Alex to complete the list. However, as they began hiking more often, Alex grew stronger, and they began to hike higher peaks and longer trails. As winter approached Trish knew that it would be difficult for Alex to stop hiking and stay inside, so she learned as much as she could about winter hiking and their journey continued in spite of ice and snow. Alex and Trish hiked all 48 peaks in just 15 months, finishing when Alex was six years and eight months old. AN INHERITED PASSION Trish and Hugh had both grown up loving the outdoors, and they had decided even before Alex was born, to instill a bond with nature in their children. “It gives me a sense of peace and calmness being out in nature, and I can’t imagine my kids not having that,” says Trish. They also believe in spending time with each of their daughters one-on- one. “We trade-off time with the kids every other Saturday. We feel that it’s a way to connect with our kids, and gives us more quality time with them,” she says. While Trish does most of the hiking with the kids, Hugh takes them on adventures such as mountain biking, swimming, paddle boating, and strawberry picking. While he doesn’t often go along, Hugh completely supports his family’s hiking ambitions. “He has total trust in me and I’m grateful for that,” says Trish. An active outdoorsman growing up, Hugh was an exceptional climber and was considered a child prodigy in the rock and ice climbing community. A LESSON FROM DAD But Hugh had one critical lesson to teach the girls. As Alex began to build her strength and confidence on the mountains, Trish noticed that she was taking unnecessary risks such as skipping and jumping over slippery rocks, not paying attention to what she was doing. While a fall in a local park or playground could easily be attended to, an injury in the mountains could require a lengthy hike down to the trailhead before help could be reached, and Trish thought it was time for Alex and Sage to learn about the serious consequences that mistakes can have. On a warm August evening, Trish and Hugh sat down in their living room with the girls and Hugh shared the story of how he lost both of his legs. While the girls had helped him attach his artificial limbs many times, they had never asked how he lost his own legs. In fact, Trish wasn’t sure they knew he ever had real legs. To them his artificial limbs were completely normal. Hugh explained that when he was seventeen years old, he was ice climbing in a ravine on the side of Mount Washington with a friend. When they got to the top of the ice wall, they made a last-minute decision to hike towards the summit. A blizzard developed, creating whiteout conditions. Disoriented, the boys went down the wrong side of the mountain and were lost for four days. A woman who was snowshoeing in the area finally found them. The snow was so deep that they couldn’t tell if they were walking over land or a river, and Hugh’s legs punched through the snow into the frigid, rapidly moving ice water. His friend pulled him out with his ice axe, but Hugh’s legs were frozen and were later amputated below the knees. In addition, a rescuer lost his life in an avalanche while searching for the boys. Having training in metalworking, after the accident Hugh designed his own artificial legs for climbing and within six months, he was back to scaling rock and ice. He went on to get his Masters degree at Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) and his PhD from Harvard University. He is now the director of the boimechatronics group at MIT Media Lab, where he invents and builds robotic prosthesis. LOFTIER GOALS Alex and Sage continue to hike and enjoy the outdoors. They are working on another hiking game called High Pointing, which involves reaching the highest point in every state. They have reached the highest point in 39 states, and plan to attempt one or two more each year. “The remaining states will be more challenging, because they are all at altitude,” explains Trish. At high altitude there is less oxygen in the air, making it more difficult to climb. “We will either get them or we won’t but we will have fun trying,” she says. They have also made their own list of hikes, which they call the Terrifying Twenty-Five. Sage came up with the name, and Alex drew the picture for the patch. The list contains trails that include tricky elements such as boulder scrambling, ladders, or extremely steep sections. They give each trail a score for fun and fright factors as they complete them and anyone that completes the list is awarded a patch. Trish is happy that her girls love to hike but says it would also be fine if they decided to stop. “The goal has to be the kid’s. It can’t be the parents trying to get the kids to do something. You can suggest something, but if they are not interested it won’t work. I’m happy climbing on rocks or skipping stones if that’s what they want to do,” she says. “I’m just happy being with them out in nature.” Susan Dipietro is a native of Concord, Mass now living in New Hampshire. She is a freelance writer and an avid hiker. She can be reached via email at [email protected] .

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