Marengo woman scales Everest, sets her sights on future climbs

MARENGO — You drive up and down a couple of nearby steep roads to get there, but Jen Loeb's home five miles from the heart of Marengo wouldn't put Mount Everest in your mind.

It certainly isn't the first place you'd look to find someone who recently had climbed to the summit of the world's largest mountain.

But she hadn't clamored to be found, anyway. The first female Iowan to reach that peak hasn't called any attention to herself since earning that distinction on May 19.

There has been no commercial sponsor trumpeting her achievement, no public-relations firm firing out news releases, not even a simple website. A co-worker tipped off area news outlets.

'I never contacted media,' said Loeb, 40. 'It's an interesting story, and if people want to hear it I'd be glad to tell it.'

Jen Loeb grew up in Jesup, elevation 984 feet. She earned a degree in biology at Wartburg College. She works at the General Mills plant in Cedar Rapids, packaging Cheerios in the cereal department.

'I started climbing in 2010,' she said. 'It kind of started out of curiosity and intrigue. I used to go backpacking with friends in college. The trail would always skirt around the peaks when you're trekking through the mountains. I'd be on those trips and wonder, 'What's that feel like to get to the peak of a mountain? What kind of fitness level do I need? What kind of skills do I need?'

'Being from Iowa, I knew nothing.'

While on a volunteer trip with American Hiking Society, Loeb climbed 14,505-foot Mount Whitney in California, the highest summit in the contiguous United States.

'I thought, 'This is fun and interesting and hard and a little bit scary,'' she recalled. 'I wasn't sure how I'd handle the altitude being from Iowa and living here my whole life.

'The climb went really well, so after that I decided to kind of kick it up a notch.'

Loeb immediately focused on climbing Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro, 19,341 feet above sea level.

'That's not a technical climb, so I didn't have to worry about not having a skill set or any technical gear,' Loeb said. 'I wanted to see if I could make it up 19,340 feet without getting altitude sickness.

"I'd be on those trips and wonder, 'What's that feel like to get to the peak of a mountain?"

'I did, and I thought, 'OK, time to take it to the next level.' It was time to go to mountain-climbing school, get some skills, learn how to travel on a glacier, learn things like tying knots in rope and how to use gear.

'I was signing up for as many climbs as I could squeeze into my schedule. I was most definitely hooked.'

In 2013, Loeb climbed Alaska's Mount Denali, North America's largest point at 20,310 feet.

'Then I got home,' she said, 'and for the first time, I started to even consider climbing Everest.'

'I'd like to think she reaches for whatever goal she sets,' said Loeb's mother, Carol Smith of Independence. 'She's so dedicated and hardworking. She puts not only all her physical into it, but all the mental. She leaves no detail undone.'

Details were abundant. You can't climb Everest cheaply.

Loeb used Seattle-based Alpine Ascents International. The cost to go on one of their two-month-long Everest expeditions is $65,000. That's on top of airfare to Nepal, vital gear to purchase and other expenses.

'Then there are all the other climbs you have to do just to qualify for one of our Mount Everest trips,' said Ben Jones, the guide for Loeb and one other client — accompanied by four Nepalese Sherpas.

All that is with no assurance you'll even get the chance to try to climb Everest in each year's small window of availability in May. No one reached the summit from the mountain's south side in 2014 or 2015 because of ice avalanches that killed a total of 34 people.

'It was not a simple decision to make,' Loeb said. 'It was a huge financial burden. And I knew that if I was going to do that climb, it was basically going to consume my life. Just with the level of training, setting up the training, setting up the logistics, getting insurance, booking the flights, getting gear.

'So I mulled it over for quite a long time before I finally decided to go for it. I knew if I didn't, I would always regret it.'

She could handle the training, which included her using a StairMaster while she wore a backpack containing a homemade sandbag. But the financial aspect, she said, 'is crushing.'

'I did some fundraising, I had a GoFundMe website set up. Last year I did a silent auction and dinner combined and invited everybody to show up.

'But the brunt of it was I had to take out a loan,' she said. 'I thought about waiting until I had enough money saved, but I was already prepared for the trip. I was already in shape, I had the gear, and I didn't know how long it would take to save up that kind of money.

'I thought, 'If I'm going to do this, it's now or never.' It was a huge gamble, really, to take out a loan with no guarantee I was going to summit.'

So she proceeded to plan an attempt to join the very small circle of Iowans who have reached Everest's summit. Charlie Wittmack of Des Moines was the first, in 2003. Wittmack repeated the feat in 2011, and Brian Block of Adel also summited Everest that year.

'Congratulations to Jen,' Block said. 'Even though there are no mountains here, I think Iowans in general can be successful (at Everest) because of their work-ethic. Everest is something for people who can manage suffering and work hard.'

Loeb went to Nepal in 2015 to climb 22,349-foot Ama Dablam. 'A dry run,' she said. 'It was my first time in Nepal, first time in the Himalayas. I had a glimpse of Everest.'

Then came this year's adventure. She left Iowa on March 30. All went well for seven weeks. From what climbers commonly call the 'death zone' — 26,000 feet and above — the weather forecast was deemed good enough for a push to the summit.

The final climb began at 9:30 p.m. Loeb's group reached the summit at 10 a.m., the next day.

"The sentences I would repeat over and over in my head were, 'Jen, stay relaxed,' and 'Jen, breathe'."

'It's such a long day,' Loeb said. 'We climbed all through the night. Storms blow in during the afternoon, so you'd ideally like to be off the mountain before then.

'You're trying, really, just to keep your head in the game. I didn't want to get too excited because I'm not there yet. I was putting one foot in front of the other, paying attention to what I was doing. ... The sentences I would repeat over and over in my head were, 'Jen, stay relaxed,' and 'Jen, breathe.'

'I kept telling myself that over and over, putting one foot in front of the other. It's so exhausting. You take a step and you might take five or 10 breaths. Take another step, another five or 10 breaths. It's really, really slow.

'It's such a massive amount of work to get up there, and you've already been climbing for 12 hours. Imagine working out for 12 hours straight.'

Emotion poured from her as she recounted this: 'So I'm getting to the summit, and the guide is already there ... and I'm like, 'Oh, my God, I made it!''

It took another five hours to return to the highest base camp, back at 26,000 feet. That descent is when some climbers make mistakes, exhausted and losing focus after having attained their goal.

'The whole day, I had one bottle of water, a half-liter of tea and one granola bar,' Loeb said. 'It was the most-demanding day you could ever imagine. A day unlike any other.'

Loeb was one of more than 160 climbers to accomplish the feat this year.

'I didn't know Jen before,' said Jones, who has summited Everest three times. 'I was very impressed with her from the beginning. She's a quiet person. I think she's very humble in the things she's accomplished, and she's just a very determined person.'

'She has lofty goals,' Loeb's mother said, 'but she keeps her feet to the ground.

'This trip to me was more of a concern. I know she thinks smart and always tries to be careful, and she'll use every avenue possible to get the outcome she wants. I just have to put my faith in her judgment.'

As with everyone who has climbed Everest since Sir Edmund Hillary was the first in 1953, Loeb has repeatedly been asked why she wanted to do it. (Hillary's famous response was 'Because it's there.')

'You would think it would be a simple answer,' Loeb said, 'but it's actually not. Part of it is for the challenge. I always enjoy a good challenge. Part of it is for the adrenaline rush.

'But even those two things don't really completely answer the question, and I don't even know that I have a good answer.

'All the little petty things that seem to weigh you down in day-to-day life are completely stripped away. The things that really matter to you the most come to the forefront of your mind. It strips away all the junk and you're left with what you really care about.'

Last Monday, Loeb returned to work after using five weeks of vacation and another five weeks of unpaid leave. She still has a goal to fulfill, climbing left to do. She has reached the highest point of six continents, and still has Antarctica to conquer. That would complete the Seven Summits. Block is the only Iowan who has done so.

'I don't have that expedition booked,' Loeb said. 'My finances won't allow it. But eventually ...'

So now Jen Loeb's story has gotten some publicity. No, she isn't a self-promoter. But she seems to get at least a small adrenaline rush here in Iowa when she enthusiastically discusses what she's seen, done and experienced.

'I've had some people ask me if I'm willing to do presentations, and I'm totally up for that,' she said.

'With Jen,' her mother said, 'it's not always what she says you'll remember, but how she makes you feel. Jen makes people inspired.'

From Eastern Iowa to Mount Everest. You literally can't top that.