Lois Fletcher:
By The Outdoor Neophyte
November 2000, I attended my first Women’s Wellness Weekend, a yearly conference sponsored by the Truckee Forest Hospital. Hosted at the Resort at Squaw Creek in the Olympic Valley, outside Truckee, California, attendees have the option of staying at the Resort or commuting. The site for the conference is, in and of itself, an inspiration – the eastern slope of the Sierras literally holds the Resort in its pine-covered embrace. Snow falling, on the magnificent landscape, is emphasized by the dramatic architecture of the buildings with their expansive glass walls.
Workshops, presentations and clinics fill the three-day event, which begins Friday evening and continues through Sunday afternoon. The most difficult aspect of attending the conference lies in choosing from the roster of topics and speakers offered each day.
According to the program notes, the speakers for the Saturday evening session were to be members of the Mount Fuji Climbing Team. With no more info than the title, I settled into a seat and watched the last-minute bustle of women checking slide equipment and adjusting microphone levels. When the Fuji Climbing Team finally assembled behind the podium, they proved to be a far more interesting “team” than just any group of women who climb mountains. This Fuji Climbing Team turned out to be breast cancer survivors who – against the odds – had waged war for their own personal survival against an insidious disease. Alarming statistics show one in eight U.S. women, during her lifetime, will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Globally, in 2001, the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer was projected to reach l.2 million.
These women had summited Fuji, Japan’s ancient and sacred volcanic mountain, in a celebration of life and living. Equally important, to these brave women, was their effort to raise both awareness and funds so that other women could benefit from their experience and achievement. The Fuji 2000 climb raised $800,000 for cancer research.
That evening, Laurie Martin, Windy Culver and Lois Fletcher, each smiling ear-to-ear, became my newest heroes!
The ballroom was packed with conference participants. Everyone instantly became enthralled with the visual beauty of the slides and the compelling narrative of their climb.
Lois Fletcher, as the oldest team member, age 68 years old, served as spokeswoman. She particularly riveted my interest because among the faces which appeared in the slides were those of her daughter, Janet Brady, Janet’s husband, and Lois’ two grandsons, Maclane, age 7 years old, who climbed the entire mountain on his own sturdy legs, and Calvin, age 4 ½, who rode up Fuji in a backpack carried by his parents.
The
notion of sharing such a landmark life experience with immediate family was
something so unique that I had to talk with Lois in person. It took exactly
one year; in fact we met just after the 2001 Conference.
“How did you decide that you wanted to climb Mt. Fuji?” I asked Lois. She laughed and settled back into her chair. “I didn’t decide… At the 1999 Conference, my daughter, Janet, was introducing one of the speakers. She began telling the audience about the upcoming Mt. Fuji climb and then she announced (totally unknown to me) that she was going to be one of the climbers – and to my complete surprise- informed the whole room, full of people, that her mother was also going to climb the mountain!”
“Had you ever done anything like this before in your life?” “Never,” came her reply.
“I remember sitting there after hearing Janet’s words being just speechless. The only thought that crossed my mind was…No way! You’re crazy,” Lois reminisced. “I played a little tennis a long time ago, but no other sports. The only thing even remotely connected to the words I heard Janet speaking, was the fact that I’d always wanted to visit Japan.”
Janet serves as Director of Health Promotions at the Tahoe Forest Hospital. Her tireless efforts help shape and organize the conference each year; she also acts as emcee. Janet Brady is a bubbly and enthusiastic proponent for women taking charge of their own health destiny. Her exuberance now engulfed Lois, a four- year breast cancer survivor.
Lois needed to prepare for the upcoming mountain climb.
While Janet certainly had the expertise to train her mother for the Fuji challenge, she also recognized the fact, that personally training her own mom might not be the most effective plan. Instead, Janet walked Lois down to the Incline Village Recreation Center and “handed mom off” to Lynn Vanheuit-Robbins, a trainer and close family friend.
“It was in the early spring when I started working with Lois. First, she had to overcome her fear of the machines,” Lynn remembers. “We needed to work on strength as well as endurance for the ascent of 12,389-foot Mt. Fuji." The starting point was workouts on the treadmill. Lois recalls the long path to getting fit: “I was in the Recreation Center 4 or 5 times a week and gradually I moved on to more advanced equipment like the Stairmaster. As the time for the climb came nearer, Lynn put me back on the treadmill walking with my backpack loaded with the amount of weight I would be required to carry up Mt. Fuji.”
Lynn introduced the use of free weights into Lois’s exercise program to beef up her strength. Periodically, Janet would take Lois out for “test spins” to check mom’s progress. Lynn’s good sense of humor and genuine caring for Lois rings out loud and true, “They would go out for a long hike on the weekend and when Lois would show up here in the gym on Monday I would get to hear her whine about the whole thing. It was a great experience and fun training her. It became a family project.”
In May, Lois signed up to participate in a 10-K event benefiting the Children’s Cabinet in Incline Village. In July, she joined Janet and others in the yearly climb of Squaw Mountain in Squaw Valley. Clearly, Lynn’s training and Lois’s own diligent efforts were paying off.
In August, when the American team finally assembled in Japan, it numbered 78 members, representing 14 states. Of that number, 30 members were breast cancer survivors. Sixty-nine members of the American team summited Fuji. Japan also assembled a team for a joint climb. Its team members numbered 400, representing 14 cities in Japan. Of the 136 breast cancer survivors on the Japanese team, 122 of them made it to the summit of Fuji.
The day before the climb, Lois with other members of the American team, set out for a warm-up climb on a small mountain. Lois admits that she was not happy, “The day was wet and rainy. That small mountain was so slippery that, looking back on it, the little mountain seemed worse than Fuji.” The next morning the weather proved no better, in fact, Lois describes it as “A driving rain.” The team, decked out in matching gear donated by fourteen outdoor retailers, was bussed to the 2nd Station where a celebration, complete with Japanese drums, and speeches, cheered the teams on.
Base
camp, at the 5th Station, elevation 7,874 ft., was the start for
the actual climb. “We waited and waited for the weather to clear. Lightening
on Mt. Fuji can be serious. Climbers are advised that if lightening starts,
they should go to the closest hut. If no hut is near, they are to get as low
as possible and be mindful not to touch any of the metal chains or barriers
along the way.” Finally, late morning, the decision was made for our group to
start.” Cathy Ann Taylor, the Fuji Guide, had offered a mantra to the climbers…
“The slower you go, the higher you climb.” Carrying the traditional wood climbing
stick (kongo-tsue), Lois with her family, joined almost 500 climbers, cancer
survivors and supporters, up the Yoshidaguchi trail.
The first day of the climb covered Stations 5,6,7,and 8. At each of the Stations, a ritual is observed. Braziers are used to heat branding irons, with which to brand each of the walking sticks for the climbers. Long lines form at each Station, each person waiting to have the mark burned into her stick. Along the way, as on every mountain, climbers step aside the trail to rest, drink water, have a snack and chat with other climbers. The stories exchanged on Fuji, during these two days, were ones of courage and personal victories, from old and young women alike.
In the late afternoon, the team stopped at the 8th Station for the night. The altitude is 10,498 ft. From the slides, the audience saw the one-story sleeping huts, which are positioned at each Station along the way. Removing their shoes at the hut entrance according to Japanese custom, the climbers surveyed their sleeping accommodations for the night. Essentially, the spaces are shelves stacked three or four high; climbers squeeze themselves into a space of roughly 2 ft by 6 ft. People who occupy the upper shelves climb past people lying on the lower shelves and then over people who are trying to sleep on the same shelf. If you come late, to the hut, you may well find yourself without even the 2 x 6 space and have to travel to the next higher hut to find shelter for the night.
“After a pretty restless night, we put on our warm clothes and headlamps; at 3 a.m. we started for the top,” says Lois. The mountain becomes much steeper after the 8th Station. Three long hours later the sun rose, the Japanese have a unique word “goraiko” which refers to the view of the sunrise from the top of Mount Fuji. At this altitude, the rising sun gives off both noonday heat and spectacular views for hundreds of miles. By 8:30 a.m. August 22, 2000 more than 400 survivors and supporters had passed through the torii gate and stood on the 12,389 ft. summit of Mt. Fuji exhausted and exhilarated at the same time.
From their backpacks members of both teams pulled out Tibetan prayer flags in honor and in memory of loved ones. Over 750 flags caught the early morning breeze and carried away the member’s prayers on its drafts.
“I was on the summit for only a short time, when someone came over to me and said that I had better start the descent, because the busses would be leaving at 4:00 p.m.” Climbers all know that getting up a mountain is only one half of the trip, descending the mountain is the other half. Descending the steep, slippery face of Mt. Fuji took every bit of the climber’s focus. “Abunai”, the Japanese word for danger, is a word heard especially in descending Fuji. Loose scree and falling rocks are a genuine source of concern. Already exhausted from the six-hour climb to the summit, it would take another six hours to reach the base camp and the waiting busses. Lois made the 4:00 o’clock deadline with time to spare!
“When we got back to the busses, we were taken to a celebration event. All we could do was freshen up by washing our faces and hands. We were all so tired!” It seemed simplistic to ask, but I did anyway: “How would you rank climbing Fuji among the experiences of your lifetime?” Again, Lois settles back into her chair and breaks into an absolutely dazzling smile, “Oh, it was the experience of a lifetime!” “What do you see as the lasting result of the climb? I asked. “After getting in shape for Fuji, I can catch my grandkids much easier nowadays.”
The Japanese have a respectfully, yet fond, way of referring to Mount Fuji; they call it Fuji-san. A very popular saying among the Japanese states: “He who climbs Fuji-san once is a wise man, he who climbs it twice is a fool.” Lois would, no doubt, be the first to acknowledge the truth of that saying.
Graciously, Lois trusted me with her pictures to share for this story. I promised to be especially careful with them. “I know that you will, because they are treasures to me.”
My last stop in Truckee was to visit Janet Brady’s office at Tahoe Forest Hospital. She and the staff were busy getting unpacked after the Conference. Having just left her mother, I wanted to hear her comment on Lois’ feat. Talking about her mom, Janet got the same beautiful smile on her face. “The whole team was great! I know that I push mom to do things…as a testament to just how hard it was for her, I’ll tell you that she has always had a fear of heights.” For me, learning this fact added one more level of depth to Lois’s climb and another dimension of the inner courage she drew upon to summit Fuji. Lois had certainly not mentioned this about herself. Janet continued, “There is no way that I will ever be able to convince her how proud of her I am… just so very, very proud!”
For more information on the next Climb Against the Odds check: www.breastcancerfund.org
For more information on the 2002 Women’s Wellness Weekend (which I highly recommend to any woman) E-Mail – Tahoe Forest Hospital: health@tfhd.com or Community Wellness Resource Center: cwadmin@tfh.hbocvan.com
For a beautifully written account of the first Climb Against the Odds on Mount Aconcagua in Argentina read: No Mountain Too High by Andrea Gabbard.
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