News

Commander to tackle 'serious mountain'

  • Published
  • By Kendahl Johnson
  • 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
One group commander at Robins will be ascending new heights in a few days, weathering the elements and pushing his body to its limits so he can look out over the vast landscapes and know that he accomplished something truly remarkable.

Beginning Saturday, Col. Stan Vanderwerf will be taking time off from his day job as the 542nd Combat Sustainment Group commander to tackle Washington's Mount Ranier, one of this country's most prominent mountains - and one of the most difficult to climb - outside of Alaska.

"Mount Ranier is a serious mountain," said Colonel Vanderwerf, who manages the electronic warfare product support group. "And it's a very popular place for moving up to the next level."

With more than two decades of mountain climbing experience, the colonel said he is eager to take his pastime to the next level. His six-day trip to Mount Rainier will include two days of intense professional training, followed by four 12- to 14-hour days of climbing.

"This trip will be both a training event as well as an exciting mountain climbing experience," the colonel said. "I've achieved a certain level of skills in my mountain climbing and now I want to go into expedition climbing, which is longer periods of time. There are some skills I need to learn and those skills require some professional training."

The commander became interested in mountain climbing while stationed in Europe in 1988. He met a civilian worker who had climbed the Matterhorn, a 14,692-foot mountain that lies on the border between Switzerland and Italy. Armed with little more than basic skills, he tackled the mountain.

"In all fairness, I was probably in over my head, but I hired a guide and he took me up and down nice and safe," he said.

That experience was the start of what became a serious hobby, intensified by a permanent change of station to Colorado, home of 58 "fourteeners," or mountains reaching 14,000 feet.

He started slowly, conquering about a dozen fourteeners in the few years he was stationed there before being assigned elsewhere. In 2006, he was once again assigned to a base in Colorado. Knowing he'd only be there for a short duration, he took advantage of his time there and climbed 45 mountains in a span of just 18 months, putting him in an exclusive club of climbers who have climbed all 58 fourteeners in Colorado. He credits endurance as one of his greatest strengths in achieving this accomplishment.

"I have a lot of endurance," Colonel Van-derwerf said. "I am pretty good at setting a pace and going at that pace for a long time, six hours or more."

The colonel also credits conditioning and said climbers, especially beginners, need to be in excellent physical condition.

"It's aerobic conditioning more than anything else," he said. "When you get to a mountain in the range of 13,000 and 14,000 feet, you only have about 60 percent of the atmosphere you have at sea level and then you are working hard to climb the mountain, while carrying a 20 to 60 pound pack. You really have to be in excellent physical condition."

He said recreational mountain climbing is a great pastime that can be fairly inexpensive - a few hundred dollars for a good pair of hiking boots, a nice day pack and some basic safety gear - and it's very rewarding, for a number of reasons.

"You can see the results of your labor quickly. You know when you've achieved your goal - you're at the top of the mountain," he said. "And of course, the mountains are beautiful. The view is fantastic and the scenery is amazing."

The colonel added that mountain climbing doesn't have to be intense or serious to be rewarding. A very simple hike on a well known trail can be just as satisfying as a long climb on a serious mountain. Even his 13-year-old son, Erik, and 9-year-old daughter, Carolyn, have hiked a fourteener.

Although Colonel Vanderwerf may preach mountain climbing as a fun and satisfying hobby to anyone who will listen, he recognizes people can find happiness in any hobby.

"The most important thing is not necessarily which hobby you have, but that you have a hobby," he said. "Find something that keeps your interest, that you can really get involved in. Get involved in the technology of it, in the pure enjoyment of it. Do something with friends or family that's fun, then cling on to it."