A Journey of Spirit

Many of us who live on the Bayfield Pennisula in Wisconsin are heroes in our own right. We survive with creativity and fortitude in a locale that relies on a 90-day summer tourist trade. We harvest firewood to warm ourselves during long winter months. We live lightly on the earth--recycling, conserving, living off the grid--in order to preserve our livelihoods and conserve the beautiful natural resources that surround us.

But for most of us, that's just daily life. When we look for a hero to encourage and inspire us, for someone who's traveled around the world and climbed its highest summits, we need look no farther than down the road. That’s where Lori lives.

Lori Schneider, 52, is an inspiration to many on Lake Superior’s south shores because she’s like us: friendly, modest, soft-spoken, and intimately connected to the natural world around her. But she’s something else too … she’s a mountaineer who’s climbed the seven tallest peaks on the seven continents of the world.

Recently returned from scaling the highest point on earth, Mount Everest, Lori boasts another huge accomplishment. She climbed these mountains—all but one—while living with multiple sclerosis (MS). And that, my friends, is no small feat.

What motivates someone to make such a commitment in her life, to follow through, and to accomplish what no one else with MS has done before? Lori climbed Mt. Everest to complete a long term goal she’d set for herself in 1993. That year she and her father climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa to celebrate her dad’s 61st birthday.

But Lori’s story goes back further--to age 15--when she raised money to travel to Europe and spend the summer living with a German family. Once she learned to immerse herself in another world, she decided that one day she would walk the seven continents and learn about their people and cultures. Fast forward to 1999. Lori awoke one morning with half of her body numb. Next came a diagnosis of MS, a disease that attacks the central nervous system. It was then that her plan reinvented itself: She would no longer simply walk the seven continents, she would climb their highest peaks.

After Mt. Kilimanjaro, Lori climbed Aconcagua (South America), Mt. Elbrus (Europe), Mt. McKinley in Alaska (North America), Mt. Kosciuszko (Australia), Mt. Vinson (Antarctica), and finally the greatest challenge of all: Mt. Everest (Nepal). Everest is known as the roof of the world. It’s a peak that has taken the lives of nearly 10 percent of those who have climbed it, more than 200 people. The fact that Lori was willing to attempt a climb of this magnitude was the ultimate proof—to herself and to others—that a chronic health condition is not reason enough to stop pursuing your goals, whatever they may be.

Finally, and perhaps most important, Lori carried with her the dreams and longings of family, friends, and community. Life in Bayfield shifted when she left us to travel to Nepal. Tibetan prayer flags appeared everywhere … at the Bayfield Regional Conservancy offices, Big Waters Café, the Bayfield Carnegie Library, and Pinehurst Inn, to name a few.

Lori’s trip was no longer her trip alone, even though she was the woman who devoted years to prepare herself—body, mind, spirit—for the challenge. She planned to ascend into altitudes that the rest of us will never reach, or even care to. But she also demonstrated to us, by her example, that we have the power to accomplish anything when we want it strongly enough.

Lori is not the first woman to remind us of this fact. Several decades ago polar explorer, Ann Bancroft, became the first known woman to cross the ice to both the North and South Poles (dogsledding to the North Pole in 1986 and skiing to the South Pole in 1993).

But Lori is one of us. She lives in our community, she works out at the local Recreation Center, she hikes up and down Mount Ashwabay, the local ski hill, with her women friends as training partners. In a big way, she’s not just one of us, she is us. And, darn it, Lori, you’ve made us proud.

On Tuesday, June 9, 2009, members of the communities surrounding Bayfield (a small burg of 600+ people) turned out by the hundreds to honor Lori and her achievements. The celebration included a parade, potluck supper, and public proclamations from the Mayor of Bayfield and Governor Jim Doyle. Six of her friends donned costumes to join with her to represent the seven peaks Lori climbed since 1993.

It’s hard to express the significance of Lori’s accomplishment since her journey of the human spirit reaches so much higher than the tallest peaks she scaled. It also reverberates deep within us in a place without words, a place where we feel our connection to all living beings even though we may not understand how or why it is so.

Many years ago singer/songwriter Ann Reed wrote, “Every Long Journey,” in honor of Ann Bancroft’s trip to the North Pole. Her lyrics alluded to the spiritual journey that Bancroft took to the Poles. It's an appropriate tribute, too, to Lori and her quest--now concluded--to climb to the top of the seven tallest mountains on seven continents. Reed sings, in part:

Every long journey is made of small steps,
Is made of the courage, the feeling you get.
You know it is waiting,
Been waiting for you.
The journey’s the only thing you want to do….

Every long journey begins with a dream,
A spirit with courage to make it all real.
The dream has been calling,
Been calling to you.
The dream is the only thing you want to do.

We cannot know what you go through
Or see through you eyes,
But we will surround you,
The pride undisguised.
In any direction,
Whatever you do,
You’re taking our love there with you.

To see a video and slideshow of Lori's climbing team and their ascent to the summit of Mt. Everest on May 23, visit http://www.alpineascents.com/. To learn more about Lori's lifelong journey to the top, visit her website: http://www.empowermentthroughadventure.com/.