Human-Powered Journey

Former corporate suit trades the office for the outdoors and a dangerous worldwide trek

By Jennifer Anzaldi

In 1997, Erden Eruç, EMBA ’99, sat in his office staring at a map, often walking over and tracing his finger across the continents in an arc that he dubbed the “Journey Home.” An avid mountain climber, biker, and outdoorsman, he fantasized about one day pursuing a human-powered circumnavigation of the world. His dream route would take him to some of the globe’s greatest challenges, including Mt. Everest.

Born in Nicosia, Cyprus, and raised in Turkey, Eruç’s first climb was at age 11 with his father on the high east summit of Mt. Erciyes, an extinct volcano in south central Turkey. Since then, he has climbed technical rock, alpine routes, big walls, and water ice.

Eruç was finding the confines of the corporate environment suffocating and longing to make a change when his close friend Göran Kropp tragically fell to his death during a climbing accident in 2002. In Kropp’s death, Eruç found the catalyst to make his dream a reality.

Eruç began the Six Summits Project, a journey in which he is circumnavigating the globe solely through the use of human power. He is kayaking across oceans, bicycling through countries, and climbing the highest summits on six continents.

“I began by riding my bicycle from Seattle to Alaska in winter conditions in 2003 and then walked into Denali [Mt. McKinley] base camp, covering 67 miles on foot over glaciers,” Eruç says. Following the trip to Denali, he pedaled from Seattle to Miami before taking to the sea. For his solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, he rowed single-handedly from the Canary Islands to Guadeloupe in 95 days. He has found this leg to be the most challenging part of his adventure so far. He will take on the Pacific Ocean this summer.

“The entire journey will be completed in 2012 if all goes according to plan,” says Eruç.

Eruç embarked on this sojourn with not just adventure in mind, but with an aspiration to motivate and influence the many schoolchildren he encounters around the globe. Eruç started Around-n-Over, a Seattle-based nonprofit, with the goal to “make the world a better place and make his journey a part of the lives of the children who will be touched by it.”

With the help of a team of volunteer professionals, Around-n-Over provides news and educational content related to the journey via the Internet, giving teachers an opportunity to discuss geography, mathematics, physical fitness, and social and natural sciences in a new way.

“The biggest challenge in starting Around-n-Over was actually making the commitment. As in most challenges, 80 percent of the work was getting to the starting line,” he says. Fortunately, his then-fiancée, Nancy Board, who is now his wife, fully supported his decision.

“We decided to cash out my savings and retirement funds. We also downsized our life and rearranged priorities so that the dream could become reality.”

The decision to work with schoolchildren has been important to Eruç. “I have been able to influence elementary and middle school students by the thousands with my message to follow their dreams, aim high, and persevere,” he says. Eruç believes it is a message for all ages.

For more information about Eruç’s nonprofit or to follow his journey, visit www.around-n-over.org.