Rim (to rim) shot

A team of 12 New Yorkers became a part of the Grand Canyon’s elite 1 percent by completing the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim hike.

Slide one: Team celebration at the Grand Canyon Lodge, North Rim.  From left, Liz Kolsky, Pound Ridge, Brianna Rozzi, New York City; Amy Cilmi, North Salem; Lissie O’Brien, Pound Ridge, Elizabeth Harrington, Pound Ridge; Martha Riley, Bedford Hills; JJ Lee, New York City; Mary Bemis, New York City; Ruth Peck, Pound Ridge; Kara Lazarus, Briarcliff Manor; Alexis Sowinski, New York City; Brian Harrington, Pound Ridge. Courtesy of VITAL Ventures. See below for additional slide captions.

By AMY SOWDER 

Those last five agonizing miles hiking up the Grand Canyon’s North Rim were the most grueling miles of their lives. Last fall, a dozen exhausted hikers from New York questioned their life choices as they attached their head lamps to complete the steep trudge in the dark.

“You feel like you’re climbing on a tombstone,” said Elizabeth Harrington, referring to the rocks placed vertically along the graded ascent, after leading the first endurance adventure offered by her new company, Vital Ventures in Pound Ridge. “It can take you down in a very serious, deathly way if you’re not prepared.” 

This hiking group was prepared, though.

An outdoor fitness and travel enthusiast and certified personal trainer, Harrington coached 11 women in their 30s to upper 50s through a three-month strength and cardio training plan that included weekend endurance hikes at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation and regular check-ins, culminating in this bucket-list challenge. 

The women, mostly from Pound Ridge, Bedford and Manhattan, trekked 23.7 miles down the South Rim of our country’s most famous canyon, across the valley — called “the box” because it’s like being baked, sometimes at 114 degrees Fahrenheit between two oven walls — and back up the North Rim, to collapse and cry with relief and joy after navigating an elevation change of 8,658 feet. They accomplished this journey with nothing but their backpacks and trekking poles in 14 hours, 50 minutes.

Less than 1 percent of the canyon’s 5 million annual visitors hike to the bottom, according to the National Park Foundation. 

And that darkness once they reached the journey’s end held a silver lining.

“Coming over the North Rim, we saw the most beautiful harvest moon. It was magic. It’s really why being in nature emits awe and wonder,” Harrington said. “Here we are climbing, in pain, and wanting to cry — and some of our hikers coming up were crying — they were so thankful they made it.”

Before hikers take their first step down into the canyon, they see a Grand Canyon National Park sign that says: “Going down is optional, but going back up is not optional.” 

There’s no cell service down in the canyon.

“The vertical down and up was much more challenging than people think,” said Martha Riley, 56, of Bedford Hills. “But with the prep and training she had us all do, no one was under-prepared,” Riley said. “You could see people in their late 60s on the trail who were fine, and you could see people in their late 20s who weren’t. Age wasn’t the indicator; it was where you fit physically and in your mindset and were you prepared.”

Riley joined the Vital Ventures group to have a new goal after she left her job at Paramount after 30 years.

“This challenge was a way to help me move forward, because my job was a big part of my identity and accomplishing this was a way to realize, Who cares about that job? This is what life is about,” Riley said.

Like the others, Ruth Peck, 56, a Pound Ridge veterinarian, loved being with like-minded people who appreciate the outdoors. As part of their training, they met up for group hikes at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, starting at 8 miles and gradually progressing to 20 miles before tapering off.

“Doing Elizabeth’s program, I was stronger,” said Peck. “She’d follow us on Strava [app], and it felt like you were accountable. I did not want to be the one to slow people down.” 

Peck recalled their anxiety when the group first arrived at the Grand Canyon the day before the daunting trek. “Looking over the South Rim at all of it, thinking we’re going to do all this in one day? That’s insane,” Peck said. “The craziest thing about the whole thing was I was not in pain the next day.”

After returning home, Peck signed up for a local Vital Ventures challenge, called Vital 100. The goal is to log 100 miles in 100 days by walking, running, hiking before May 7, Ward Pound Ridge Reservation’s 100th anniversary.

“It’s a way of being accountable to someone or to a group, to encourage you to get out there and keep moving,” Peck said.

Harrington continues to host Vital Ventures group hikes at Ward Pound Ridge, plus a functional-strength boot camp twice a week. She has wanted to help gather and encourage others to conquer endurance adventures ever since she completed her own rim-to-rim-to-rim 50-mile hike at the Grand Canyon in 2021, ran her first marathon at age 55, and then set a goal to run six marathons before she turned 60. The time was right when she was reorganized out of her media executive role at a global ad agency. 

“I thought, ‘If not now, when?’” Harrington said.

Vital Venture’s next immersive journey of endurance is the Alaska Kenai Tri Adventure, Aug. 26-30, which blends three months of training with four days of outdoor adventure, including hiking, fishing and sea kayaking through the breathtaking Kenai Peninsula.  

Training with Vital Ventures emphasizes mobility, stamina strength and flexibility for longevity, but the benefits of the support can’t be minimized.

“I love the process, the training and the community. So many people my age and even younger say, ‘I could never do that,’ but they can,” Harrington said. “When you create a plan and find a community, you’d be surprised about what you can do.”

For more information, visit vitalventures.live. 

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Slide two, Heading down South Kaibab trail to Colorado River. From left, Elizabeth Harrington, Pound Ridge; Liz Kolsky, Pound Ridge. Background, Kara Lazarus, Briarcliff Manor; Brianna Rozzi, New York City. Slide three, A training hike in Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in July 2024. Slide 4, Blue Trail, Ward Pound Ridge Reserve. From left, Ruth Peck, Pound Ridge; Amy Cilmi, North Salem; Kara Lazarus, Briarcliff Manor; Liz Kolsky, Pound Ridge; Elizabeth Harrington, Pound Ridge; Lissie O’Brien, Pound Ridge; Martha Riley, Bedford Hills. Slide 5, Hikers at the Grand Canyon; Slide 6, hikers during a training session at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation.