Miss Trekking to the Mountains? Take Inspirations from these Trekkers on Virtual Expedition
The fall outs of the coronavirus outbreak have left travelers all over the world with a different kind of claustrophobic feeling. But as they say it trekkers always find a way! Nearly 30 climbers ventured on a virtual expedition pushing themselves to reach an altitude of about 5,364 after getting inspiration from trail runner — ‘Rory Southworth’.
Aimed at materializing his dreams even during quarantine — Englishman Rory Southworth organized an online group challenge post getting great response for three solo hikes he took up in the initial week of lockdown. Sources claim that the negativity prevailing in the outdoor community about being confined at home has encouraged him to take up this virtual expedition. As he claims, the multiple online challenges taken up by him have given many people a reason to exercise indoors.
The five day long virtual expedition challenge was successfully completed using stairs, ladders and other higher areas on the property of the participant trekkers. Speaking about the virtual Mt. Everest trek, Southworth said, “I did Snowdon on my bottom step; Ben Nevis on the seven stairs down to my garden; and ran up the hill at the back of my garden 29 times to scale Scafell Pike. For this challenge, I wanted to bring people with me on the journey.”
Showing great spirit for the challenge, the other trekkers had constantly shared their progress via their Twitter handles. Becky the Traveller tweeted : “It’s the last day of #virtualEBC today, a cooler start but soon warmed up once I started hiking.”
Virtual expedition is a great idea to reflect on the actual hiking experience. As a trekker, one remembers the feeling of triumph more than the journey. Clearly, if one could only evoke those feelings even when stuck in quarantine, it would make fight against Covid-19 a lot easier. With the Southworth challenge, we can say that indoor trekking has come across as another way to strengthen community spirit amid a global pandemic.
