Girls peaking in their prime

Deirdre Newman

Sixteen-year-old Christina Torres has never been on a hiking trip,

but next week she will scale Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the

lower 48 states.

Guiding her will be Trevor Murphy, director of Save Our Youth, an

after-school program that offers recreational, social, academic and

health and fitness activities for 11- to 17-year-olds.

Murphy led several hiking trips up Mt. Kilimanjaro when he was in

the Peace Corps in Tanzania and teaching at an all-girls school. He

felt the African girls were passive and that the culture treated them

like second-class citizens. He felt a challenging experience like a

hike could invigorate them and give them a stronger sense of self.

When he came to Save Our Youth, he began to sense the same

cultural treatment toward Latina girls, which the organization mainly

serves. He hopes the Mt. Whitney trips will achieve the same goal the

Mt. Kilimanjaro hikes did.

“Along the way, there’s lots of hurdles and humps,” Murphy said.

“The main point is: I don’t carry them up the mountain. I encourage

them. I train them. But at the end of the day, they look back and

realize they did it themselves.”

Murphy and nine Save Our Youth girls, who are mostly 14 and 15,

will depart Saturday for their six-day trip. Like Christina, most of

the girls have never done anything like this, Murphy said.

To prepare for the trip, the girls have been working out and going

on hikes at places like Crystal Cove State Park. Christina has been

going to the Save Our Youth center three days a week for more than a

month and using the treadmill, the Stairmaster and lifting weights.

“I’m excited about [the trip] but also a little nervous,”

Christina said.

The girls will be hiking 11 miles uphill. To get acclimated to the

altitude, the group will spend the first two nights at 8,000 feet,

the base of Mt. Whitney. On Monday, they will enter the park and camp

at 10,000 feet. The next day, they will trek 2,000 more feet. And

Wednesday, they will ascend to the peak, then hike down to their

camp, pack it up and descend to the bottom. That night, they will

have the luxury of sleeping in a comfy hotel bed and taking a shower,

Murphy said.

The girls have been practicing with small backpacks, Murphy said.

So carrying their backpacks for the trip, which weigh between 15 and

25 pounds, will be challenging, he added.

Murphy also showed the girls a video of his trips up Kilimanjaro

and has been talking to the girls’ parents to let them know what the

trip will be like.

“[The girls] are getting excited because they don’t really realize

you’re climbing uphill all the time,” Murphy said.

Christina said she has already learned some life lessons in

preparing for the trip.

“Nothing comes easy,” she said. “You have to work if you want to

do something.”