Leadership Lessons from Yosemite!!

How an excursion became a great learning experience!

Hello and Welcome all!

I am sure you are curious and must be thinking “what’s the big deal about hiking Yosemite?” Every year thousands of people visit Yosemite Valley from around the world and go to many hikes available in the beautiful Yosemite National Park. While it would be perfectly normal for many, for people living in Singapore, called tiny red dot, it’s a completely different experience. Singapore is tiny city-state in South-East Asia with total area of 735 Square Km. The highest peak in Singapore, Bukit Timah Hill is only 164 meter above sea level. Hopefully, you get the point. 

My family decided to visit my bro-in-law, Girish and his family in California at the end of May'22 during school holidays in Singapore. I joined them on 11th of June 2022 in San Ramon. We made a plan to visit Yosemite Valley and enjoy natural beauty of mountains and waterfalls. Prior to the trip, I have been preparing my family; especially my boys then 11 and 9.5 years old for some hikes around the valley by showing videos of waterfalls, views, and trails, before their trip to California.

Trip to Yosemite Valley

We, a group of 8, began our journey on 12th and stayed at Oakhurst as hotels at Yosemite Valley were full. We decided that we will travel to Yosemite Valley in the early morning of 13th June so that we can beat the traffic. In the morning of 13th June, we drove to the valley and made pit stops along the way to take pictures and soak in the beauty of the valley. After arriving at the valley, we visited lower Yosemite Falls trail, which is a very easy 1.9Km loop trail for everyone. We enjoyed ourselves at the waterfall and took many pictures.

While returning from Lower Yosemite Falls, I shared with all that I intend to hike to the Upper Yosemite Falls. And asked whether anyone is keen to join me in the hike. Buoyed by their experience of lower Yosemite Falls and to my big surprise, everyone agreed to join in the excitement. I did warn them that it’s difficult, steep climb, and it means climbing to the top of the falls. Still, they were excited to continue. Even though, I planned for the hike and packed accordingly, I was not fully aware of the difficulty and challenges waiting for us. 

Now for those who don’t know Upper Yosemite Falls trail, it’s a 7.6miles (12km) roundtrip from Lower Yosemite Falls trailhead. Its elevation is 6,526 feet or 1,989 meters from the sea level. We gain an elevation of 2600 feet /790 meters from Lower Yosemite Falls. It’s a steep climb, rated strenuous by people with difficulty level of 8 on a scale of 10 and there is no water, food, or toilets in the trail. Recommended time for hike is around 6-10 hours. Now, you can start to see why this was such a difficult trail coming from Singapore. :-)

Hiking to Upper Yosemite Falls

We started hiking to Upper Yosemite Falls around 1.00pm. I had a basic backpack with a couple of bottles of water and a couple of energy bars, I also packed warm jackets for kids, expecting the temperatures would drop if we climbed higher, and had some hydration tablets as back up. We were severely underprepared for the hike. We didn’t have proper hiking equipment like hiking boots or walking sticks. We had limited water, almost no snacks or energy bars but all of us were full of energy and enthusiasm. I thought to myself that we will go as far as can and will return in 2-4 hrs time max. And oh boy…. I was totally wrong. I had no idea, what’s coming! 

Lesson number 1 – Never underestimate any task and prepare as well as you are going for a war. Communicate well in advance with clear goals and objectives.

HIKING TO THE COLUMNBIA ROCK

We started the hike and soon found that its steep and difficult. My father in-law was the first to recognize and dropped out after climbing for 10 minutes. As we continued hiking up and started feeling tired after some time, we asked people who were coming down that how long it’s going to reach the top and they kept saying its very near…another 30 mins or 15 mins or so. It felt a long time for us. Eventually, we reached to the top of the mountain – at least this is what seemed to us – however, we found ourselves at Columbia rock. We were tired by the time we reached Columbia rock. There were great views of Yosemite Valley from there, we took a break sunk in the views and enjoyed cool wind.

Girish suggested that we return from here. However, everyone was excited and decided to continue. We asked some returning folks and they said that we can get some beautiful views of the waterfall not far from Columbia rock.

After hiking for another 30-40 mins, we were feeling tired, and our water was almost finished. Fortunately, we found freshwater stream along the way and refilled our water bottles. After again there were more calls to stop going forward and return to the valley. In hindsight, it would have been a good decision. However, I wanted to continue and suggested the rest that they could return to the valley.  

At this point, I found my champion and new leader in my younger son, Jai. He said that since we are so near to the falls, he would like to continue hiking with me. Influenced by him, other boys Avi and Krish also decided to continue. And eventually, whole team continued moving forward and found fantastic views of Upper Yosemite Falls.

Lesson number 2: Find your champions or chief influencers early on. Form your core support group as it will be instrumental in achieving success.

HIKING TO THE UPPER YOSEMITE FALLS

Having seen the waterfall, my wife Mamta and Girish suggested again to return to the valley. However, I felt that it would be a missed opportunity having come so close to climbing top of the falls and didn’t want to regret it later. Hence, I shared with them as we are coming so far from Singapore to hike, we probably won’t get another opportunity to hike to the Upper Yosemite Falls in near future.

Jai agreed with me. He encouraged everyone to continue as we’ve already climbed so much and with a little bit more effort, we can reach the top. Everyone got inspiration from Jai and agreed to climb. However, we didn’t know that toughest part of the trail is yet to come.

After a while we found ourselves staring at steep climb on the rock. The rocky path was sandy and very slippery. Jai was leading the team and went ahead with Krish and Girish as I waited for Mamta and Avi. After they arrived, we climbed slowly-slowly up the rock where we could see the signs for Upper Yosemite Falls and Yosemite Point. We followed the signs and soon reached the top. We were ecstatic, the views were simply amazing and worth the hike and pain. 

We proceeded to viewpoint above the waterfall. We saw Jai, Krish and Girish returning from the Upper Yosemite Falls viewpoint. The path going down to the viewpoint was carved out on the rock, very narrow and very scary. 

Thankfully, there were railings to provide support and hold onto. There was very strong wind and we had to be very careful as any slippage could have been fatal. We carefully climbed down and took in the amazing views. We saw the top of Upper Yosemite Falls from where water was cascading down and creating beautiful waterfall and rainbow. 

We returned to the top of the rock where Girish, Jai and Krish were waiting for us. The temperatures dropped and Jai was shivering and Krish was cold. Fortunately, I planned for this scenario and carried their jackets in my backpack and gave them. I also shared remaining energy bar and hydration tablets and they started feeling better. We took some pictures.

Lesson number 3: Leadership is not about age, size, or title. Anyone can be a leader. Focus on the goal, let go of control, instead inspire, develop, and support team members to become leaders.

CLIMBING DOWN FROM THE UPPER YOSEMITE FALLS

Mamta and Avi wanted to rest for a while, so Girish and Krish decided to climb down first as time crossed 5.30pm. After taking some rest, we also started to climb down. Climbing down was even more treacherous than climbing up. Mamta was very careful and taking every step very slowly. Pain and hunger were taking over everyone. Soon as the evening fell, temperature dropped, it turned into anger and frustration. Jai started cursing himself that why did he asked everyone to climb. Soon, he turned to me and asked why I planned to come there at first place and to hike the Upper Yosemite Falls. I was very tired as well, but my family’s well-being was the only concern I had. I kept listening silently and tried to divert their minds by showing them the beautiful golden hour views created by setting sun on the mountains. However, it was of little consolation for everyone. 

Soon night fell and it became dark. We had to be even more careful when taking our steps due to darkness. Our mobile phone batteries were dying and crowd on the trail disappeared. We were feeling scared of possibilities of mountain lions in the surroundings. We kept talking and encouraging each other. Fortunately, I had a power bank in my bag and I used it to charge my mobile phone. We used our mobile phone as flashlight to see the path. It became more dark when we entered the forest below Columbia rock, and we became even more slower. Walking slowly-slowly by holding each other’s hands, we finally reached down the valley where my in-laws were anxiously waiting for us. Frustration turned into a sigh of relief. My family kept repeating not to go back there again or even for any other hikes and trails. After getting some food and calming down, all of us realized that as a family we became even more close to each other. 

Lesson number 4: In the difficult times, keep calm, persevere, trust your team, and encourage each other (even when you are scared inside). Adapt to situations.

The next day, we were reflecting on the journey the day before. And the common sentiment besides sore muscles and painful body was that it was very difficult, we were not prepared and shouldn’t have gone. At the same time, everyone agreed that they did almost impossible and still couldn’t believe it. 

In their rightful minds, they wouldn’t have even thought about it and whether they have the capability to do so. After few days we returned to Singapore, muscles were not sore anymore and while watching pictures, Jai was asking about the height we climbed at the Yosemite and how does it compare to Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in Southeast Asia. Not that he wanted to go there immediately but was just curious. I started smiling...:-).

Lesson number 5: Seek challenges to discover the strength you never thought you had and enjoy the journey while pursuing your goals. Reflect on the journey and learnings from it upon reaching the goal and start planning for the next… 

I hope you like the story and my learnings from it. I would love your comments and read your own stories too. Thank you very much! 

Signing off until next story.

-Bhagwat