Steve Fedorchuk is no stranger to hiking through the mountains. In fact, it’s a passion for ATB Financial’s Regional Vice President, Calgary Region. That’s why he decided to pack his bags for Nepal and fulfill a lifelong dream: hike to the Base Camp at Mt. Everest.
Fedorchuk spent months training for his trip, hiking through the back country of the Rockies. But nothing he did could prepare him for what he was about to face. “There’s only so much training you can do for the altitude,” Fedorchuk said of the extreme elevation on Everest. “Once you get over 4,000 metres above sea level, it’s a lot more challenging.”
A challenging journey like that can’t be done without help from local porters, or Sherpas. Fedorchuk was amazed at both their strength and endurance. “It’s very humbling,” he said. “One of the porters was 48 years old, five years older than I am, and I doubt if he weighed 100 pounds. He was carrying my gear, plus someone else’s gear. He must have been carrying 80 pounds on his back. My day pack was maybe 20 pounds. Sherpa-strength we called it. It’s like super-human!”
Fedorchuk’s journey took him from a remote airport near the base of the mountain, along the trails, over a glacier to Base Camp, 5,200 metres above sea level at the foot of the spectacular ice falls. For Fedorchuk, it was a surreal experience. “I remember just taking a moment to sit on a rock, look around, be still and be quiet. It was good,” he smiled. “It was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I’m here. I did all this training and came all this way and now I’m here.’ ”
The next day, Fedorchuk hiked to the peak of nearby Kala Patthar: a climb of just 350 more metres, but in the thinning atmosphere, an arduous task. Suffering from altitude cough and extreme fatigue, Fedorchuk was short of breath before he even started. “The only way I could do it was take ten steps, stop, catch my breath, and decide if I would keep going. It was like that all the way to the top,” he said. “That was probably more emotional for me than Base Camp because I didn’t think I’d be able to finish that one. It was great. Mission accomplished!”
Well, not quite. Climbing two-thirds of the way up Mount Everest was only half of Fedorchuk’s mission. His second objective was to meet Durbash, the Nepalese child he sponsors through World Vision. After an 80-kilometre white-knuckle drive through treacherous mountain roads where “if there’s a centre line, it’s just a suggestion,” Fedorchuk met with World Vision officials, local politicians, and Durbash and his family. “We all sat down and everyone just turned and looked at me and then it was quiet,” Fedorchuk remembered. “I thought, ‘Well, I guess I’m up!’ ”
Through an interpreter, Fedorchuk thanked his hosts for their hospitality and spoke of his journey from Canada to Nepal. “I had lots of questions and tried to talk to Durbash,” he said. “But it was difficult because he’s 11 years old and in a culture where children don’t talk to adults in that kind of setting. I had more of a dialogue with the parents. The father asked me how much livestock I owned and how much milk I got from my cows. That’s when I knew it would be a cultural exchange. I told them about rural and urban life in Canada. Then I learned about them, how they farm and what they do.
“It was a connecting experience: people from two countries getting to know each other.” he continued. “That was more than I expected. There were smiles on everyone’s faces. It was almost sad to leave. Seeing them wave in the rear view mirror as we left, I was thinking: ‘Wow, did that just happen?’ ”
Fedorchuk says meeting Durbash made his World Vision sponsorship more personal. “When you see how the sponsorship actually impacts a family, a child, a community, and all the other things that are done around it, it really does make a huge difference,” he pointed out. “Now when I’m writing a letter or sending a picture, I know who I’m talking to. It was a great, great thing.”
