EPISODE 2 -- Eric Robinson forges a new friendship on the John Muir Trail, while an old friendship frays under stresses of the trail. From the High Sierra to the Himalaya, Eric’s aspirations in the outdoors continue to grow. His wife, Marilyn Koolstra, accompanies Eric on some of his adventures. But a rift emerges when Eric insists on going out alone after a few close calls with death in the mountains.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What does Eric love about reading?
Eric Robinson loved to read. He spent his mornings in his garden with a cup of tea and a book, the Alaskan adventure fiction of Jack London, the mountaineering tales of John Krakauer, and the musings of naturalist John Muir.
Chapter 2: Who was John Muir and why is he significant?
John Muir was a Scotsman who established trails and parks and part of the wilderness conservation in America. That's Eric's wife, Marilyn. She previously told us about a time when Eric disappeared while hiking alone in New Zealand. The outdoors in New Zealand can be unforgiving. I'll remind you, Eric's friend Alan Beck was supposed to meet him at the end of that trek.
One night I got a phone call from Alan and he said he hasn't come in. We haven't met up yet.
Chapter 3: What challenges do hikers face on the John Muir Trail?
We'll get back to what happened in New Zealand soon. But first, I think it's helpful for you to know a bit more about Eric's friendship with Alan. In particular, we need to talk about an experience they shared before the New Zealand trip. They walked the John Muir Trail. The John Muir Trail, or JMT, is one of the world's top hiking destinations.
Trekkers on the JMT follow Muir's footsteps through the Sierra Nevada Range in the U.S. state of California, passing through three national parks, Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia. Hiking that entire stretch takes time. It was nearly a four-week trek that they took, walking most of that trail. It also takes planning, persistence and a good backpack. So Eric did some shopping before departing.
It was time to get a new backpack because the other one had, you know, worn a few holes. The backpack Eric chose came in two colors, sapphire and ruby, blue or red.
Eric didn't like the color red. I love the color red. I wear lots of red. I enjoy red, you know, and if I've got a high-powered day where I need to feel confident, I would wear something red. but not Eric. Marilyn expected her husband would buy the blue one. But it was red. And I said, oh, yeah, you've gone red. It's not red. Anyway, the argument went backwards and forwards. It's not red.
It's ruby. And the backpack became known as ruby. That ruby red backpack made Eric easy to spot on the JMT. It stood out against the natural colors of nature. And Ruby later became a key target for searchers when Eric disappeared. My name is Dave Cauley, and you are listening to Uinta Triangle, an audio documentary from KSL Podcasts. This is Episode 2, Aspiring.
Eric Robinson and Alan Beck started their hike on the JMT in August of 2006, beginning from the bottom of the Yosemite Valley. Alan and Eric were very social on that trip, and of course there are a lot of people coming onto the trail at various points along there. One of the first people they met was a young woman named Julia Geisler.
When I was in my 20s, I was on the Travel the World plan, and I wanted to do some backpacking, and I had a friend, Devin McClive, who wanted to join me.
Julia was no stranger to long hikes. She had through-hiked the Appalachian Trail a few years earlier. That's a walk from Georgia to Maine, through the dense forests of the eastern U.S. Julia had spent a year in Japan afterward, but was now back stateside with no commitments.
No roots to have to cut or no ties and free and had the time.
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Chapter 4: What is trail magic and how does it enhance hiking?
And Eric's the same, you know, just these long distance trails that they had done. There's an important distinction here.
Eric was a trekker or bushwalker, someone who travels on trails. Alan was a mountaineer. That's more specialized, a combination of hiking, scrambling, and climbing, often without a trail, sometimes over snow and ice. You don't have to be a mountaineer to hike the JMT, but keep this difference in mind because it will matter later in our story.
From the Yosemite Valley, the JMT travels to a place called Tuolumne Meadows. The trail turns south there and breaks out of the trees before crossing Donahue Pass. They were in the alpine, above timberline, where no trees grow. A very different environment from the places Julie had hiked before.
I definitely thought a lot about the Appalachian Trail when I was out there and just the amount of rain and walking in wet shoes and monotonous long miles of green tunnel. Like, I was just psyched to have views every day and be out there in nature and it was gorgeous.
But the tall mountains of the Sierra are prone to bouts of bad weather. Bursts of wind and rain can lash hikers. Eric and Alan both came prepared.
I think that they had both had a lot of experience in the mountains and seen, you know, bad weather and were very knowledgeable on how to be prepared in high alpine terrain.
Getting soaked in the mountains can put a hiker at risk for hypothermia. Eric and Alan put up tents each night, attaching rainflies to make sure they stayed dry.
They were both pretty concerned with Devin and I's camping shelter setup because I had hiked the Appalachian Trail with a tarp, not knowing that, you know, high alpine terrain with rocks and not a lot of soil or trees is way different.
Hanging a tarp with no trees takes ingenuity. It worked okay for Julia on this trip, mostly because the weather remained calm. Could have been a different story in a storm.
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Chapter 5: How does Eric's relationship with Marilyn evolve during his hikes?
Eric and Julia would have probably never met any other way. But their chance encounter on the JMT turned into a friendship that will have major repercussions later in our story. For now, just know Eric leaned into his role as the father of this ad hoc trail family.
Devin liked to sleep in the mornings and Eric wanted to get going. And he would just like pretty much not yell at the top of his lungs, but loud enough that she would hear like, Devin, it's time to get up. It's time to get on the trail. You know, that was his personality of like he was so happy out there and passionate. I mean, it's a grand adventure.
It's great to be out there with friends where it gets a little bit boring sometimes.
Eric lived for this grand adventure. But he told Julia he wished he could share it with his wife, Marilyn.
Yeah, definitely sharing about family and friends back home. His wife, Marilyn, he talked about a lot and love of his life and, you know, his grandkids. And he had a pretty strong, it seemed like, family network.
The JMT ends just below Mount Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48 states. Eric and Julia both woke early on their last day so they could ascend Whitney's summit for sunrise. As they approached the top, they passed behind a series of pinnacles.
I have this image of actually being up there and Eric in particular walking between these huge spires of rock and there is just light like you've never seen it before. It's like this golden light that shines between these huge spires of rock. And he was just standing between two spires with his arms open, just like basking in that light. Yeah, that memory definitely stays with me.
Returning to civilization after weeks in the wild, without cell service or news from the outside world, can feel jarring. After finishing the JMT, Julia and Devin headed to San Francisco.
I definitely struggled coming off that trail because it was a month in the woods and then I was dumped into this city. And it's a pretty eclectic, crazy city where anything goes. So it was a bit shocking and overwhelming to come out of the woods for me that time than I think any other hikes I've done. And I had no idea where I was going next.
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Chapter 6: What led to Eric's decision to hike alone in New Zealand?
So I called Department of Foreign Affairs and they liaised with New Zealand. The message went down the track and all the conservation department workers were on alert.
Still, no word came. Where was Eric? Every passing minute cast additional doubt in Marilyn's mind that her husband was simply sitting in a tent, waiting out a storm. But it seemed all she could do was wait and hope. A haggard hiker carrying a red backpack walked up to the aspiring hut on the side of the Matuketuki River around midday on March 2nd, 2008.
He reached for the door handle and stepped inside. And one of the workers, a Scottish lady, was standing at the door of the hut and Eric walked in and she said, oh, you're Mr. Robinson, I presume.
the door fell shut behind Eric. He shrugged off his pack and explained how he had sheltered in his tent atop Cascade Saddle for two straight days. When the storm broke that morning, he rushed to make a treacherous descent down to the hut. Eric smiled and it was a bit of a laugh about, you know, how people worry.
It all seemed a bit silly to Eric. He hadn't realized anyone was looking for him. Eric made it back to Wanaka a day later and called home to let Marilyn know he was okay. Oh, he called. Yeah, what were you thinking? What were you doing? You're a troublemaker. Look what you've done. Caused a bit of concern. And we had a bit of a laugh about it, but we also talked about the safety angle of that.
Eric's safety was never in question, at least from his perspective. Marilyn saw it differently. Yes, Eric had come out of this situation okay, but getting stranded on Cascade Saddle highlighted how his choice to go out alone amplified the risks he faced. Marilyn told Eric how awful she'd felt during those uncertain hours. She didn't want to go through that ever again. So she said,
So far, you've walked by yourself. Maybe you can't go by yourself anymore. He shrugged her off, saying, don't worry so much. I'm fine. In fact, he was already repacking Ruby, getting ready to go out on another solo hike. He went to buy some food and ran into Alan.
They crossed paths fleetingly because Alan held back in Wanaka to make sure that Eric was safe. I think maybe a day's delay. And they had maybe a five-minute, ten-minute conversation. Alan said it wasn't too late to join the climb of Mount Aspiring. Alan took an extra pair of crampons in case his friend would change his mind and they would climb together.
But Eric said no. That would have been Eric's kind of last chance to say, OK, yep, I'm jumping and going up. Yeah, I'm not coming. I'm not climbing. I don't want to delay you. I'm not familiar. I haven't walked in crampons. I don't want to hold the team up.
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Chapter 7: What tragic event occurs during Eric's solo hike?
Now, Eric was the one making phone calls to let friends and family in Australia know Alan was missing. Eric called me and he was extremely upset. You know, I had to keep asking, what did you say? Tell me that again. Explain what happened.
It took two days for the rescuers to find Alan, his lifeless body tucked under an ice shelf at the glacier's edge. It appeared he had lost his footing and fallen on a steep section of ice. He'd probably flailed as he picked up speed, trying to stop the slide. But he couldn't. One of his crampons had come off. Alan launched over the edge, making a 10-meter drop onto bedrock.
and no crampons and the black ice and the rocks, bang. He was scooted back into a hollow, in a seated position, suggesting he survived the initial fall and sought shelter from the weather. But he had suffered severe chest and head trauma. A coroner later determined Alan died from internal bleeding.
He was cremated in Wanaka. Eric went to that small ceremony or that happening with Alan's wife, Amanda. Alan's death weighed on Eric. His anguish poured out in phone calls with Marilyn. I was concerned for him. So she took emergency leave from work. He was there, he was alone, he was clearly distressed, and I went to be with him.
They met in Christchurch, then traveled to the small seaside town of Akaroa, where they quietly marked Eric's 61st birthday. It was a stark contrast to the big party a year prior. Eric showed Marilyn photos he had taken during his Cascade saddle hike with their new DSLR camera.
One showed his red backpack at the top of the saddle, looking across the Matuketuki River Valley toward a fog-shrouded Mount Aspiring. The picture seemed ominous in retrospect. Eric couldn't stop thinking about what might have happened if he had accepted Alan's invitation. Maybe his friend would still be alive. There were many debriefings over that and processing everything that had happened.
He kept expecting a call from Alan's wife, letting him know if and when she intended to hold a memorial service back in Australia. But he hadn't heard and that distressed him even more and he couldn't understand why.
Marilyn finally called home and learned Alan's celebration of life was happening the next day. She and Eric rushed to the airport. The printed program for that service included two photos of Alan. Eric had taken them both during their trek in Patagonia.
The program also included a quote from famed New Zealander and mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary, who, along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, was the first man known to have summited Mount Everest. You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things. To compete, you can be just an ordinary chap sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.
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Chapter 8: How does Eric cope with the aftermath of his friend's death?
Eric and Marilyn flew to Kathmandu that September, then took a long bus ride to the start of the track. It was hot to start, and as we got higher, it got cooler. They ascended into evergreen forest, gaining jaw-dropping views of the Annapurna Massif, its high summits brilliant white with year-round snow. They came to the village of Manang, where they paused for a day to let their bodies acclimate.
One way to stave off altitude sickness is to hike to a high point during the day, then retreat down to sleep at a lower elevation. So on their rest day in Menang, Eric and Marilyn walked up a steep hill to Prakengumpa, a tiny Buddhist monastery chiseled into the side of a cliff.
It was folklore that you went up there and got a blessing for safe passage. So we made that trek to get to the holy man. They each bought a good luck charm from the monk. A necklace made from a hand-plated string looped through an old coin with a hole in the middle. From Menang, they trekked west and north, climbing constantly.
So it was steep, it was rocky, it was imposing. And then the night before we did the pass, it snowed. So everything was silent and it was a beautiful postcard picture of They started for the pass in the dim blue light of pre-dawn. Within a few hours, they reached the last outpost of civilization, a small stone hut where a Nepali man served hot tea.
And the overpowering smell of kerosene, if I close my eyes, I can still smell that.
Then they stepped back out and made the final push to the pass. At last, they reached the top. Strings of tattered Tibetan prayer flags came together at a large sign that said, Congratulations for the success, in painted yellow letters, along with the elevation, 5,416 meters, or 17,769 feet. That's more than three miles high, about halfway to the cruising altitude of a commercial airliner.
Marilyn had proved she was every bit as capable a hiker as her husband. This pass seemingly to me was the Mount Everest of my walking and probably the Mount Everest of Eric's as well. The Annapurna trek wasn't the only experience Eric and Marilyn shared in Nepal. They went to an orphanage school and saw how the staff there struggled to meet the needs of the kids.
Eric was always confronted by the difference in treatment between the rich white hikers and expeditioners and the conditions that the Nepalese faced.
He felt so moved. He pledged financial support to the school with a recurring donation out of his pension. Eric's understanding of the inequalities came into sharper relief a year later, when he received an invite to return to Nepal. He joined an expedition co-led by a mountaineer named Stuart Morris. Stuart is my eldest son's close friend since high school.
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