Guy Waltman attempted to hike all 46 Adirondack High Peaks this past week. It was part of an awareness campaign to help raise money for a homeless shelter in Schenectady. (Photo provided)

LAKE PLACID — A Schenectady man set out to hike all 46 High Peaks in record time this past week, expecting to end his journey on the summit of Whiteface Mountain the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 16.

But things didn’t turn out as planned.

Some people try to break the 46 High Peaks hiking record for glory, and others do it for a worthy cause.

Guy Waltman’s reason was the latter. He wasn’t doing it for the clout alone — he wanted to raise awareness and $46,000 for the City Mission Homeless Shelter in Schenectady.

Waltman has worked as the health and wellness coordinator for the City Mission in Schenectady for the last year, though he volunteered there for six years before becoming a full-time employee. Through his time volunteering at the shelter, Waltman became passionate about addressing a major barrier people experiencing homelessness face: getting a driver’s license.

Guy Waltman, of Schenectady, takes a leap over the peak of Little Porter in early August. (Photo provided)

Just because a person who’s homeless doesn’t have a driver’s license doesn’t mean they won’t drive, Waltman said, and that can result in a pile of traffic tickets, missed court appearances and even incarceration. Homeless shelters in the U.S. historically haven’t offered driving programs because the shelters often operate on tight budgets, according to Waltman, and their liability insurance usually isn’t great. But Waltman said that thanks to his passion for and persistence behind the issue, the City Mission is in the process of founding a pilot driving program for people experiencing homelessness that would ideally be located on the mission’s campus.

Starting a program like that is costly — around $51,000, Waltman estimated.

Enter “Mission 46,” Waltman’s effort to raise $46,000 in starter funds for the driving program and raise awareness about homelessness in this country. He decided he’d do an assisted thru-hike of all 46 peaks with the intention to break the existing time record, which he thought was around seven days and 11 hours.

At City Mission, Waltman said, workers there aim to walk alongside people, “shoulder to shoulder,” who are experiencing homelessness and suffering. Waltman wanted to hike the 46 peaks as a symbolic gesture of walking alongside people in suffering in the best way he knew how: athletically. He trained for months in the High Peaks over the course of the summer, putting in 80 miles a day on the weekends to prepare. But when he finally started his thru-hike on Aug. 9, he ran into something he hadn’t prepared for: lots and lots of rain. Waltman encountered more suffering than he’d bargained for.

Waltman said he’d trained in sunny and dry conditions this summer, and he got the opposite during his thru-hike. He was waist-deep in mud at the top of Couchsachraga, he was knee-deep in sludge throughout his first four peaks at the Seward range, and a rough night on top of Colvin nearly killed him.

Guy Waltman, right, hugs Tyler Barhydt, the producer of the Mission 46 documentary, after his descent from the Dix Range on Tuesday, Aug. 16. (Photo provided)

He decided to spend one night sleeping on the peak of Colvin to stay safe from animals. It was a dry, warm night — around 60 degrees Fahrenheit — and he had a thermal blanket. He fell asleep feeling warm, but he later woke up in the middle of a hypothermic episode. The weather had changed, and rain rolled in along with cooler temperatures. Every muscle in his body was violently shaking.

“I described it as like a vibrating cell phone on a hard surface,” he said. “I was the cellphone.”

Waltman lost control of his bowels, and he hid his soiled pants and shoes in the woods. He coached himself through a series of downward-facing dog yoga poses and push-ups, interspersed with screaming, to regain his dexterity and warmth. He called a friend to help him through the hard time, and he was ultimately able to pack his bag and descend the mountain.

But after he later finished hiking the Dix range, his body broke out in hives and he could hardly see. His feet had sustained an immense amount of water damage. Though Waltman only had seven peaks left — Giant, Rocky, Big Slide, Porter, Cascade, Whiteface and Esther — he knew he had to call it quits. He walked out of the woods on Tuesday, Aug. 16.

“It just became clear I had to go to the hospital,” he said.

Guy Waltman hikes in the Adirondack Park. (Photo provided)

Throughout his hiking journey, Waltman said that one memory from working at the homeless shelter kept coming to mind. During Waltman’s first day on the job at City Mission, he said a man named Michael walked down the mission’s snow-covered driveway. Michael wasn’t wearing any shoes, and his feet were in bad shape. None of the employees wanted to be the one to tend to Michael’s feet, and Waltman said he was the only one who volunteered to do it. As he hiked with battered feet over the last week, Waltman said he felt fortunate.

“I’d think about how I have 50 people who were planning to be at the finish line for me up at Whiteface — all of which who would want to help take care of my feet — and here’s this guy and we’ve got 50 people who are playing hot potato because they don’t want to take care of his feet,” he said.

Waltman hopes that his hike will help raise the bar for the amount of compassion people have toward people who are experiencing homelessness in the U.S. And even though he didn’t finish all 46 peaks, he said Mission 46 is complete. A documentary is being filmed about his journey to help promote his fundraising efforts, and people can donate to Mission 46 at www.citymission.com/mission46.

Waltman said he was reprimanded by the mountaineer who assisted him through the last leg of his hike.

The mountaineer told Waltman that he was irresponsible for putting himself and others at risk and that he should have been ashamed of himself. But Waltman said he’s learned his lesson about the unpredictability of the weather in the Adirondacks, and that persevering for the sake of achieving the challenge wasn’t as important as the awareness he felt he raised. He was apologetic to people who might have felt he put others or the mountains they love in danger.

“It all was with the best of intentions in mind, and I’m very proud of who I am and what I learned about myself,” he said. “I can live the rest of my life moving forward knowing that I’m a survivor and knowing that I did something — I think — uniquely special for people who I love, who live every day in a state of suffering.”

Waltman said that, depending on how quickly his feet heal, he hopes to return to the High Peaks this fall and break the assisted thru-hike record.

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