Peak Condition : Troubled Teens Train for Trip to Everest, Face Mountainous Financial Challenge Too

It’s a chilly, wet morning in Los Padres National Forest and about a dozen troubled teens are taking turns scrambling up a steep, 30-foot canyon wall.

Some of the Brighton Academy students complain about cold fingers and loose footing, but all make it to the top.

They know they had better get used to the cold, dizzying heights, because in two months, these emotionally disturbed kids--some with an abusive upbringing--hope to be trekking through Nepal around the base of 29,029-foot Mt. Everest.

Everest?

They have been training for several months, but many of these kids still haven’t slept under the stars or been above 6,500 feet, let alone traveled outside Ventura County. Some haven’t even seen snow.

“Yeah, Everest,” said Erik Shaw, an outdoors instructor at the publicly funded high school for troubled boys in Ojai. As he speaks, yet another student successfully scales the cliff.

“Everybody has the vision that these kids are total burnouts and failures who can’t handle the responsibility of a big challenge. I’m letting them take on something huge and telling them to go for it.”

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To make the trip, they must get high marks in school, stay out of trouble at their group homes, maintain an exercise routine and even quit smoking. The boys must also spend extra time learning about Nepal’s history and culture and training for the expedition. And above all, they have to solicit donations. They are still $50,000 short of their $67,500 goal.

It’s a challenge the kids are taking seriously.

“I’m on track,” said Ryan, 15, from Ventura. “I got something to look forward to. Instead of doing drugs, I got something better.”

John, 16, of Oxnard said he yearns to accomplish something big and exciting.

“There have been so many obstacles in my life,” John said. “I just want to know that I can do this.”

Everest?

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It all started innocently enough last fall, when Shaw--a husky, 38-year-old former Green Beret--took his class to a Beverly Hills dinner honoring Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to reach the world’s tallest peak.

After dinner, Shaw got an idea.

“I wanted to take them to the biggest mountain and strangest culture they could see,” said Shaw, who usually confines his classes to Los Padres. “I wanted to take them to Everest.”

After some hesitation, school officials consented, but insisted that Shaw and his students raise all $67,500 needed for the trip. Several months later, Shaw and his students have come up with $17,500 and are desperately seeking more. Without funds, the trip could be delayed until August or canceled completely.

But if they do raise the money in time, in April they will be flying to Nepal for a monthlong adventure.

After a short stay in Katmandu, they will embark on a seven-day hike to the 18,000-foot-high Mt. Everest Base Camp with the help of professional guides. Once there, they will spend five days cleaning up decades’ worth of expedition refuse--such as spent oxygen tanks--before heading back to Katmandu.

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But for now, the kids are content with training on rock walls beside the Sespe River--an exercise designed to instill confidence and teach trust.

“Trust is something these kids don’t have,” Shaw said. “Until now, everyone they’ve trusted has betrayed them on almost every level.”

Learning to trust is the biggest lesson of all, John said.

“If you can’t trust anybody and nobody can trust you, then you’re stuck wherever you go,” he said. “You need trust to make friends. These guys here are like my brothers now.”

The combination of fresh air and hard work is working wonders, Shaw said.

“The leaps they make are huge,” he said. “They’re thriving on all the new responsibilities they have.”