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Justin "Trauma" Lichter |
Dimitri Kieffer |
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I grew up about an hour north of NewYork City and have since lived in Santa Barbara, CA, southern VT, Dillon, CO, and I am currently living in Truckee, CA. When not hiking, I am a ski patroller. I enjoy backcountry skiing, nordic skiing, snowshoeing, mountain biking, and pretty much anything else relaxing. Since 2002, I have hiked over 30,000 miles. In 2002 doing a cross-country map and compass trip through the canyon country of southern utah, in 2003 hiking from Georgia to Cap Gaspe, Quebec following the Appalachian Trail and International AT, 2004 hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada and then the Pacific Northwest Trail to the Washington coast, 2005 the Continental Divide Trail from Mexico to Canada then continuing on the Great Divide Trail from the Canadian border up into northern Alberta, 11/1/05 to 10/23/06 completing the Eastern Continental Trail (cap gaspe, qc to key west, florida, incorporating the AT), Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail in under a year, a total of over 10,000 miles, and in 2007 a traverse of the Southern Alps and the south island of New Zealand.
TrailnameI got the trailname Trauma on the first hike in Utah. I was sort of resisting a trail name, but was dubbed Trauma because of a few traumatic experiences that I had near the beginning of the trip. The first one was only a few days into the trip. I was hiking up a side canyon and four or five ravens started dive bombing me and swooping down on me. I tried to run forward and they started almost attacking me, so I tried to runback and they wouldn't let me go back either. Instead, I decided to hide behind a boulder until maybe they got tired of me and I could make a run for it. It sort of worked because about five minutes later my friends came up the canyon and said, "what the hell are you doing behind that rock?". I said, "There were all of these ravens dive bombing me and almost attacking me so I hid back here". Naturally, they didn't even see one raven in the canyon. So, that was the first traumatic experience. A few days later towards the end of the first section (a 12 or 15 day section without resupply), I was running a bit short of food and we found these old MREs in can in the wash. I am pretty sure that MREs have not been packaged in cans for quite a while, at least since the 1970's. They were a bit beat up, corroded, and pretty much rusted through. So I popped open the fortified crackers and fortified cheese spread and ate a can of that. It didn't taste much worse than cheese whiz, sothen I popped open the fortified cheese spread with jalapenos. The cheese was a lime green color, so I stayed away from that one and ate the fortified chocolate instead. My friends thought that I wasgoing to get super sick and they would have to carry me out (that never happened though). So, two traumatic experiences in a few days and I was dubbed Trauma. |
French native, Dimitri moved to the United States in 1983 at the age of 17 in order to pursue a college education in international business. He spent his first year in the US as an exchange student in Puyallup high school, Washington state and the next 5 years at the University of Washington in Seattle where he obtained two degrees, focusing on international trade. He then spent the next 15 years honing his skills in international business while working in the software industry primarily in Hong Kong and Seattle. In April 2005, he gained his second citizenship (US) and therefore becoming an official "Franco-American". After having completed his first marathon in 1985 at the age of 20, and his first ultramarathon in Hong Kong in 1990, Dimitri progressively took on more and more challenging races in the USA and furthermore overseas. He completed seven Trailwalkers in Hong Kong, the Western States and other US 100 milers, the Death Valley Badwater 135 miler, as well as multiple races in the Sahara (two 208 miles and one 350 miles non-stop races) and 4 races in Alaska, including the non stop Iditarod trail by foot (1100 miles). In addition to enjoying running ultramarathons in harsh desertic or cold Alaskan winter climatic conditions, Dimitri also partook in 7 to 30 days non-stop adventure races, where with his team, he was able to cover a great amount of mileage, trekking, orienteering, snow shoeing, kayaking, mountain biking, roller blading, etc... through quite diverse terrain such as the Vietnamese and Costa Rican jungles, the mighty Yukon river, the Australian & South African outback and in the US, the San Juan Islands, the Utah and Californian landscape. Since 2005, Dimitri has continued to evolve, transferring from adventure racing to full blown expeditions. Dimitri is also an active member of the Explorers Club. When he is not pushing forward on the trail, Dimitri returns to his permanent home in Seattle to primarily spend time with his girlfriend Gulnara, as well as friends, such as the PSH3 quirky runners and BM friends. He also spends time training, planning the next sections of the expedition and "catching up on regular daily life matters". Dimitri also volunteers teaching elementary computer classes ro refugees with IRC and moves donated furniture from donors homes to new refugees homes: Karen and Chin minorities from Myanmar/ Burma, Bhutanese, Eritreans, Iraqis. Finally, once a year, he makes a "pilgrimage" back to France to visit his own family and friends that he often feels he "has left behind" as well as a second "pilgrimage" to Kazan, in the Republic of Tatarstan to visit his girlfriend family and friends. Expedition2010 Chukoka-Kamchatka section, Nexus expedition Vayegi (Chukotka) - Paren (Kamchatka Russia 2008 Chukotka section, Nexus expedition Egvekinot -Vayegi (Russia) 2007 Chukotka section, Nexus expedition Uelen -Egvekinot (Russia) 2006 Bering Strait Crossing, Goliath expedition Nome to Wales (US) to Uelen (Russia) |
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