Originally Posted By wandering_daisy
Difficult, long, isolated, newbie partner. She will need to be confident and experienced enough to get out on her own if something happens to you. That is a huge expectation for a newbie. Yes, one year is enough, but she needs to get the proper training. I suggest that about half way through the year you two do a 3-4 day rigorous trip so you can see if she is making proper progress towards the goal. There is more to backpacking than walking and camping. She needs to be "on the same page" as you- if this is a trip with the goal of being challenging and hard, she has to totally buy into that. As a newbie, she does not even know what a "hard trip" means. IF you decide that she is ready to accompany you, then you must be willing to change objectives if she is not able to do the planned trip. If you are 100% set on your goal, I would say do it solo and plan another trip for the two of you. Since you have not identified the exact trip, it is hard to say if your plan will work or not.


I agree 100% with this statement. With your added bit that it's mostly above 10K in the andes I become even more apprehensive.

Now having said that, i've taken very large out of shape newbies down what most would call a "hard" trail (West Coast Trail, B.C.) for their first ever hike. In this case the individual involved was motivated to go, and spent the better part of 8 months preparing - they started walking every day - and kept walking every day. I had them buy boots, socks, and clothing, pretty much everything else they took my gear. They did well and had a good time.

So nothing is impossible, but it really depends on the individual and their motivation. *I* would not take a newb on an over 10K hike for their first time out. I would want to do some serious warmup trips first.
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