SOL ANO/STATE
DAILY REPUBLIC — Monday, February 28, 2022 A7
Week From Page A3 Login with Zoom using the meeting number 742-7897-0580. The passcode is HWY7cV. An artist’s rendering, and more information, can be found on the city’s website: https://www. suisun.com.
Learn how to sleuth for female ancestry Gena Philibert-Ortega will present “25 Tips for Researching Your Female Ancestors” at the next meeting of the Solano County Genealogical Society. The virtual presentation begins at 11 a.m. Saturday. Finding female ancestors can be a challenge. Historically, women typically adopted their husbands’ surnames when they married and use that name the rest of their lives. Property and estate records were usually recorded only in the husband’s name. Nonetheless, there are records out there that document their lives. Genealogical researcher and genealogical speaker Gena Philibert-Ortega has specialized in researching the women in family trees and the lives they led. Philibert-Ortega holds a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies and a master’s degree in religion. Her published works include three books and numerous articles in magazines and online. Her writings can be
Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic file (2018)
Children enjoy a hands-on science learning program at the Vacaville Recreation Expo, April 28, 2018. found on her blogs, “Gena’s Genealogy” and “Food.Family. Ephemera,” and on the GenealogyBank blog. She is also editor of the Utah Genealogical Association’s magazine, Crossroads. Her most recent book is “From the Family Kitchen: Discover Your Food Heritage and Preserve Favorite Recipes.” Philibert-Ortega’s current research includes women’s repatriation and citizenship in the 20th century, foodways and community in fundraising cookbooks, and women’s material culture. Guests are welcome to attend this free event. If interested, send an email to the society at
scgs@scgsca.org no later than 4 p.m. Friday, and request an invitation. More information on society activities can be found at www. scgsca.org.
Recreation Expo returns to Vacaville The city will host the annual Vacaville Recreation Expo this weekend. This free event is an opportunity to talk to instructors and find camps and classes for the family. There will be discounts, drawings, prizes, demonstrations and more.
People may sign up early for summer camps and save up to 10% with some available promotions. The event will take place from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Ulatis Community Center, 1000 Ulatis Drive. For more information, visit CityofVacaville.com/ CivicRec..
Several government meetings on calendar Various government ings will be held this Some are online only, in-person. Check the
meetweek. others appro-
priate website for attendance information. The meetings include: n Vacaville Planning Commission, special meeting, 6 p.m. Monday, City Hall, council chamber, 650 Merchant St. Info: www.ci.vacaville.ca.us. n Rio Vista Public Safety Commission, 4 p.m. Monday, City Hall, council chamber, 1 Main St. Info: www. riovistacity.com/publicsafety-commissionagenda. n Solano County Board of Supervisors, 9 a.m. Tuesday, County Government Center, 675 Texas St., Fairfield. Info: co.solano.ca.us. n Suisun City Council, special meeting, 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, City Council chamber, 701 Civic Center Blvd. Info: www.suisun.com/government/ city-council. n Fairfield City Council, 6 p.m. Tuesday, City Council chamber, 1000 Webster St. Info: www.fairfield.ca.gov/gov/ city_council/. n Rio Vista City Council, 6 p.m. Tuesday, City Council chamber, City Hall, One Main St. Info: www.riovistacity.com/ city-council. n Vacaville Parks and Recreation, 6 p.m. Wednesday, council chamber, 650 Merchant St. Info: www.ci.vacaville. ca.us/city-government/ city-commissions. n Solano County Planning Commission, 7 p.m. Thursday, 675 Texas St., Fairfield. Info: solanocounty.com/depts/ rm/boardscommissions/solano_ county_planning_commission/ agendas.asp
California adventurer attempts to ski 240 miles – alone – in remote Alaskan wilderness. In winter Tribune Content Agency At the top of a rise overlooking a snowy alpine meadow near South Lake Tahoe, Roland Banas unscrewed his Nalgene water canister and took a few sips, the crown of his head glistening with perspiration. He’d just towed an 80-pound sled full of winter camping gear a mile uphill on cross-country skis at 9,000 feet of elevation. “Definitely a good workout,” he said between sips. It was warm for a February afternoon, about 40 degrees Fahrenheit, with blue skies above the treetops. Banas, a Frenchman who lives in Orangevale, near Folsom, is 47 years old, with the lean body of an endurance athlete, a closecropped buzz cut and 5 o’clock shadow. He wore wrap-around sunglasses, nylon pants and leather boots clipped into his narrow skis, which were fitted with fur skins for ascending icy slopes. The sled was attached via a waist harness, and Banas pulled it along with the aid of a ski pole in each hand. He was in the mountains to prepare for a trip few people have attempted: a solo winter backcountry ski tour in Alaska’s Brooks Range, a 700-mile, razor-edged spine of peaks extending into the Arctic Circle. It is one of the more remote areas on Earth, with a climate so harsh that the few stunted trees and plants able to root there can scarcely survive. An article in Columbia Climate School’s State of the Planet news publication describes it as a place where “the Earth as most of us know it comes to an end.” For humans, it is even less habitable. Frequent Arctic winds, barren terrain, grizzlies and roaming wolf packs keep away all but a small number of villagers who live there yearround. It is brutal in winter, when the landscape is crusted in snow, bone-chilling blizzards spin down from the top of the world and temperatures can drop low enough to break a thermometer. Banas recalled some of this as he stood in his skis above the Sierra meadow, sweating lightly. “I can’t sweat in Alaska. If I was sweating like this and it was -20, -30, I’d be in trouble,” he said. “The water is gonna drain heat from your body and you’ll go into hypothermia pretty quick.” Banas is an accomplished solo trekker who thrives in extreme environments. In
the past four years, he has ticked off a short list of extraordinary feats, including a two-week winter excursion across the frozen surface of Russia’s 400-mile-long Lake Baikal and a world-first backcountry summer traverse of Death Valley. In the Brooks, he sees a chance to test his fortitude in one of Earth’s wildest landscapes. Banas has mapped out a 240mile route through the frozen tundra. His bags are packed. He plans to fly from Sacramento to Anchorage on Sunday and embark alone into the icy range on Wednesday from the small village of Ambler. From any point on his journey, the nearest person may be 100 miles away. “Alaska is really the last frontier,” he said. “It’s one of these places where you can be so alone and so remote that it feels like you’re exploring a place nobody has been. That’s something I’m really curious to experience.” n n n Little about Banas’ lifestyle suggests a man driven to extremes. He runs a daycare for 140 children with about 18 staffers, a job that is normally stable and predictable, though it has been anything but during the pandemic. He attributes his adventurous streak to growing up in a village at the foot of the French Alps with parents who encouraged him to explore. As a boy, Banas and his friends would hike and bike through the countryside on weekend excursions – “microadventures,” he calls them. “That stayed with me,” Banas says. “Early on, it was just like: do your thing and have fun.” After college in France, Banas worked as an earth science engineer in the oil and gas industry, which afforded him the flexibility to live in Qatar, Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Mexico and the United States. In 2014, Banas and his then-wife bought the childcare business and decided to settle down in Orangevale to raise their two young sons. For fun, he wrenches on vintage Japanese and European motorcycles, spends time with his girlfriend and takes his sons, 9 and 11 years old, mountain biking in the Sierra foothills. To stay in shape, he runs about 30 miles per week, mostly on trails near Folsom Lake. It’s a great life, Banas says, but it sometimes feels mundane.
“With my routines, I don’t have the challenge I crave, and it starts to get to me,” he says. So every couple of years, Banas takes leave of his life for a few weeks and ventures into nature’s harshest environs. n n n That gnawing feeling of stagnancy led him to hike the length of Death Valley – twice. On his first crossing, he trekked 167 miles, off trail, by himself, during winter. Traveling through the Mojave Desert unsupported over seven days meant humping all the water he’d need for the journey, sleeping on frozen salt flats and grinding over miles of sand dunes. Beginning in 2015, Banas failed four separate attempts before completing the journey in January 2019. “That is something about me: If I can’t do something because it’s too much for me, it’s one thing. But if I do something and I fail and I know why I failed, I can’t just leave it, I have to try again,” Banas said. “I enjoy getting over my failures.” He experienced doubts, physical aches and emotional lows during the desert treks but came away from the final crossing feeling peaceful, even enlightened – and also with a fastest-known time to his name. “Being out there and singly focused on one thing for so many days and hours was a very deep reset,” Banas said. “You shed a lot of the day-to-day annoyances that chew on your life and don’t have any meaning and refocus on what matters to you.” He emerged from the desert gripped by a deep curiosity about his physical potential. “I thought, this is hard but it’s not the hardest I can do,” he said. “What I thought was originally a one-off sort of opened a door to me: Maybe I can try something else, too.” n n n The Death Valley trip popped up on the radars of niche outdoor media outlets but didn’t win Banas the big-name sponsors that might fund his next adventure. Still, it propelled him toward another solo excursion, this one in an arguably more challenging setting. In March 2020, Banas flew to Siberia to attempt a crossing of Lake Baikal, the world’s largest and deepest body of freshwater, which in winter freezes over into one vast ice rink larger than all of Belgium. He’d read that polar explorers train there, “which sounded pretty cool,” he said, and began working out the logistics of a tra-
verse in his head. “Once I start thinking about that stuff, it’s really hard for me to drop it,” he said. Banas spent 15 days walking and skiing Baikal’s length, crossing paths with ice fishermen, local villagers and the occasional tourist. In the evenings, he attached his tent to the lake’s frozen surface with ice screws and melted snow for cooking and consumption. At night, he’d frequently awaken to thunderous cracking sounds of deep ice shifting beneath him. But he wasn’t able to unplug. A week into the trip, Banas’ satellite communication device began beeping with texts from his children and daycare staffers back home. A virus outbreak was shutting down civilization, and Banas couldn’t escape it, even on a frozen lake in Siberia. He finished the trip and hurried home. “It was hard to disconnect,” he said. “I did enjoy the trip, but it wasn’t a proper reset.” A few months later, seeking the respite he felt the pandemic had stolen from him on Baikal, Banas set out into Death Valley again – this time in summer, when temperatures there can hit 130 degrees Fahrenheit. He towed his gear and supplies in a wheeled cart that, at the start, held 29 gallons of water and weighed 340 pounds. The 181-mile hike took him a little more than five days. It’s the first and only time anyone has completed such a trip. n n n The Brooks Range will test Banas in new ways. A simple mistake like, say, exerting himself to the point of sweating, could compound and become catastrophic. “You’re always one stupid mistake away from death,” said Andrew Skurka, a preeminent wilderness guide who has led trips in the Brooks for the past four summers. “This is not like the Sierra, where you can wander around pretty pleasantly. It’s a different category of wilderness.” Banas’ route will take him from Ambler east through Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve to the village of Anaktuvuk Pass, about 240 miles away. But there are no trails to follow, no guidebooks on the Brooks and very few trip reports online, so he’ll have to chart his path on the fly and break trail through the snow for the duration of his journey while dragging a sled weighing about 140 pounds. He has packed
camping gear, freeze-dried meals, extra clothes and boots, a solar panel and an iPhone loaded with music and at least one Jack London audio book. Much of Banas’ route traces the paths of the region’s major rivers through wide valleys, which are frozen over into flat glaciers, perilously thin and slick in places. Of major concern is the potential for overflows of deep subterranean water that can push to the surface and rush across a frozen expanse, soaking through boots and icing up ski bindings. Winds blasting through the range can knock a person over. When inclement weather arrives, Banas will have to set up camp quickly and burrow into his tent. “It can be violent and there aren’t places to hide,” Skurka said. The intense cold, which can plummet to -50, will complicate every facet of Banas’ trip. It kills electronics, saps batteries and freezes the moisture on a person’s face. Banas will try to keep his skin covered at all times. Adventurers have abandoned winter crossings of the Brooks after succumbing to frostnip on their noses and fingertips. The scale of the landscape, from the endless valleys to soaring, jagged spires, can overwhelm the senses and induce anxiety attacks in newcomers, said Australian explorer John Cantor, who has traveled in the Brooks many times. “A number of people attempting a summer traverse have given up on day one,” he said. “It’s very common. It’s a terrifying place.” Banas will carry a satellite emergency beacon in case something goes wrong. He has corresponded with a local guide and a bush pilot who would likely be called to his rescue. His first priority, he says, is returning home safely to his children. “The one rule is, basically, don’t die,” he says. “I’ve taken all the precautions to make sure I come back, no matter what.” Banas has budgeted three weeks in the wilderness. He expects to arrive at Anaktuvuk Pass and fly home before the end of March. When asked if he is afraid of what he’ll encounter there, he replied, “Of course I am.” “There’s a level of worry and anxiety that comes with the unknown, but that’s part of the trip,” he said. “I’m not scared of what happens out there. I want this insecurity and discomfort. That’s the whole point.”
