‘Aint no mountain high enough’: Todd Fruth on his love of hiking

Todd Fruth has been a music teacher at ARHS for almost nine years. He teaches Choir, Music Production, and Music Theory classes, but on the side, he enjoys yoga, running, meditation, games, travel, and reading. Outside of school, he also directs the choral groups the Green Street Brew and Novi Cantori. But perhaps his favorite hobby of all is hiking. Mr. Fruth has hiked countless mountains, starting when he was young.

Logan: When did you start hiking?

Mr. Fruth: I grew up in Toledo, Ohio, which is one of the flattest places in the country. Hiking wasn’t a big part of my life then, but I would often dream of mountains. Occasionally my family would travel to mountainous places. I can remember we traveled to the Maroon Bells in Colorado and I was absolutely captivated. I must have taken 20 photos with my disposable camera. Between my first and second years at college, I worked at Yellowstone National Park over the summer, cleaning hotel rooms. I’d hike on most of my days off. That experience served as a springboard to larger hiking goals.

Logan: Why do you hike?

Mr. Fruth: I hike for many reasons: the exercise, the time in nature, the sense of accomplishment. But the biggest reason is that it makes me feel small in the best of ways. 

Some of my more challenging objectives also help me to tackle my fears. When I was ten years old, I was so afraid of heights that I didn’t go to the top of the CN Tower in Toronto because I was afraid of the glass bottom floor in one of the spots. Since I’ve started hiking, I’ve gently pushed myself with increased exposure, and heights don’t bother me too much anymore. I’m trying to do the same thing with grizzly bears now. 

Logan: What’s your favorite hike you’ve been on/favorite mountain?

Mr. Fruth: During a trip out west in the summer of 2022, I climbed Middle Teton in Grand Teton National Park. At the time, I was having pretty severe health issues, and was only able to complete these hikes because of some special short-term medicine my doctor gave me. Anyway, the hike was a total slog, including an endless boulder field, and some class three scrambling in a narrow chute. The rock in the chute was very loose, and climbers from higher up were dropping a lot of fast-moving projectiles at those down below. There were many times I was tempted to turn around, but I stuck with it and made it to the top. I was rewarded with an epic view of Grand Teton and the gorgeous flatlands to the east. I admit I cried a bit at the top.

Logan: What’s the scariest hiking experience you’ve had?

Mr. Fruth: By far my scariest hiking experience happened in May of 2023, when I was climbing Mt. Hood, the high point of Oregon. It was a record-warm day. I started at 2 am and summited at 8 am (and had a Google Meet with Concert Choir), then started down the mountain. But because it was so hot, a lot of loose ice and snow was tumbling down the mountain as I was descending. A guy near me had summited over twenty times warned me that the mountain was basically a “ticking time bomb” and pointed toward an area I should move down. I was near the bottom of the steepest point when I heard people above me yell “Ice!” I looked up and saw some massive pieces of ice tumbling toward me at a high rate of speed. I used my ice axes and crampons to move out of the way as quickly as I could, but I still got hit by a chunk on my left arm and ended up with a gnarly bruise. Still, I’m grateful to that guy for the information he shared. If I had been in a different spot, I may not have made it off the mountain.

Logan: What’s the moment that stands out to you the most on your hiking journey and history?

Mr. Fruth: For the first two days I spent climbing Mt. Rainier, the top of the mountain was shrouded in clouds. The wind and precipitation in the clouds would have made summiting very difficult if not impossible. The day we had planned to summit, it was still cloudy, but we decided to attempt it anyway. We were getting close to the summit, when all of a sudden, the clouds whooshed away, and the skies opened up. We arrived at the summit just as the sun was peeking over the horizon. It was indescribably beautiful. As we started down the mountain, the clouds wooshed right back in. I felt so fortunate and happy to have arrived in that magical window of time. 

Logan: When do you find time to hike with your busy music life?

Mr. Fruth: Admittedly, it’s tough to find time to hike during the school year, though I have done it before. I planned ahead and saved two personal days to use in order to climb Mt. Hood during the ideal climbing season. Otherwise, I’m fortunate to have summers off to tackle some of my bigger hiking challenges.

Logan: Do you ever incorporate hiking with music?

Mr. Fruth: I don’t usually listen to music while hiking. I prefer to immerse myself in the sights and sounds of nature. But sometimes, especially on the tail end of hikes, I get a song stuck in my head as I try to keep a steady pace. As I was hiking the Presidential Traverse in the White Mountains, I had Lizzo’s “Tempo” stuck in my head for about three hours. 

Logan: Do you hike with anyone/have a hiking buddy?

Mr. Fruth: I’ll often hike alone, but I sometimes hike with my partner, or my friend Wendelin. I hiked two of the hardest hikes, Granite Peak in Montana and Mount Rainier in Washington, with a group of people.

Logan: What are your goals for hiking?

Mr. Fruth: In 2019, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. That year, I vowed to myself that I would hike the high points of all 50 states to prove to myself that I wouldn’t be limited by this disease. So far, I’ve climbed 21 of them, and I’m aiming to climb a couple more big ones this year. I’m also trying to climb all of the mountains over 4000 feet high in the Northeast. I try to hike at least five of these each year. 

Mostly, though, I am trying to stay in the moment while I’m hiking. I’m so genuinely happy when I’m on the trail. Each step brings new sensations and possibilities. 

Logan: Is it hard to balance hiking and being a music teacher/human?

Mr. Fruth: I actually think the two work in concert with one another. Hiking in the mountains and making music with other people are both pathways to awe. There is something magical and transcendent about joining your voice in harmony with others and hearing chords lock into place. You can’t fully explain it, but it makes you feel more connected to others and less concerned about your own internal monologue. The same is true for staring out at vast landscapes that stretch to the horizon. There’s an amazing article in Outside magazine that further explores this idea, and I especially love the final sentence: Through these awe experiences, “we find a small seam in the universe through which to feel ourselves entirely irrelevant.”