By Gabriella Vukman
Ron Tiesler, 81, still walks the thousand steps and Covid, ageing and weather patterns aren’t going to stop him.
Residing in the Ranges area, Ron’s thousand steps journey began with an unusual start when he was in his early 50s.
“I used to work for the federal government for the department of employment and youth affairs and at one stage I was actually manager of the employment service in Boronia,” Ron said.
“Eventually I decided to leave the public service after thirty years sitting behind a desk and at my little afternoon sendoff, one of the young employees of mine walked up to me and said, ‘Ron, now you’re retiring, you should do something you’ve always wanted to do.”’
“For whatever unknown reason I just flunked out something ridiculous and said ‘yeah I should go to Mount Everest.’”
Little did Ron know, but this spur of the moment statement was to change his life.
“That very Christmas, I bought myself a pair of boots, a pack and a jacket and I started training on the thousand steps,” Ron said.
“Fifteen months later I was at Mt Everest base camp at 57 years of age, after thirty years behind a desk.”
Not only did Ron hike to Everest Base camp but he also continued the extra thousand feet to the top of the Kala Patthar peak where, on average only 50 per cent of people make it to the summit.
Ron describes Everest base camp as “beautiful” with the “snowy peaks towering up into the sky”, making for “ absolutely amazing scenery.”
“Whilst sunny during the day, it got down to minus 20 degrees in the tent overnight.”
While Ron did not experience any falling outs with abominable snowmen, he does claim to have “almost been trampled by some marauding yaks.”
“The milestone I am most proud of is my second hike up to Everest Base camp in 1999, aged 57,” he said.
“I encountered only one other person over fifty on my journey to Everest base camp.
Utilising the thousand steps as his training ground for Everest base camp, though originally a short term goal, has become a detrimental part of Ron’s life.
“I actually went back again to Everest base camp when I was 59 and the thousand steps was a very important part of that for me to get fit and stay fit,” Ron said.
“I even used to go up to the thousand steps in the middle of the night.
“I’d come home from work, grab my boots and a little headlight and head off at nine o’clock that night in the dark and do the thousand steps up and back and I would do it two or three times a week and had some interesting adventures along the way.”
Walking the thousand steps multiple times per week entailed chats with others, who were later to summit Everest as well as night-time encounters with a savage Powerful Owl, drunken youths and an unlucky mountain biker who crashed and broke his collarbone.
Ron’s fitness journey hasn’t stopped with him either.
“I introduced my grandchildren to the thousand steps and they’re now fitness and health enthusiasts and it’s been quite a journey,” Ron said.
Living adjacent to the Dandenongs is a highlight for Ron.
“Living in the Ranges area is wonderful. It’s peaceful and there is a friendly community and helpful neighbours,” Ron said.
Since his Everest endeavours, Ron has trekked the New Zealand Alps three times and frequented the Tasmanian trekking scene more times than he can count.
“I also worked on the Snowy Mountains Scheme which included some seriously long steep bush-bashing and route finding from Upper Geehi Valley to the flanks of Kosciuszko,” Ron said.
All it took was one nonchalant remark for Ron to go from 37 years behind a desk to hiking to the Everest base camp and scaling surrounding peaks, changing his life forever.
For Ron, the key to staying fit and healthy at his age is walking.
“Walking is the best medicine in the world,” Ron said.
