Hiking 2,650 miles after spinal fusion surgery
Owen Trampe had surgery to correct severe scoliosis at University of Iowa Health Care in 2019. Five years later, he completed a thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail.
As Owen Trampe stood at the end of his 2,650-mile journey on the Pacific Crest Trail, he reflected on the hundreds of thousands of steps it had taken to get there. And while he certainly had faced challenges along the way, no step was as difficult as a few he took five years earlier.
“The hardest thing I have ever done was stand and take those first couple of steps after coming around from anesthesia,” says Trampe, who had spinal fusion surgery in 2019 at University of Iowa Health Care to correct severe scoliosis. “I thought about my surgery and recovery a lot while I was out there on the trail, and about how grateful I was to enjoy the privilege of such an undertaking.
“I would not have the confidence to live my life in this way if it wasn’t for the success of my surgery and the support I received during recovery. Thanks to my care team, I have been able to reach for my goals and live without inhibition.”
Trampe was born in Seattle but moved to Des Moines, Iowa, when he was in elementary school. During a routine physical before the 2015 baseball season, his doctor asked him to bend down and touch his toes.
“My mother was sitting across the room, and she gasped,” Trampe says. “It was a very pronounced curve.”
Trampe was fitted for a Rosenberger brace to help prevent the progression of the curve in his spine due to scoliosis.
“It hurt to wear it, but I did because I knew it could help,” Trampe says. “But the curve kept growing, and I was having pain even when I wasn’t wearing the brace.”
The curve in Trampe’s spine surpassed 60 degrees, and the week after his high school graduation, he traveled to Iowa City to have spinal fusion surgery.
Stuart Weinstein, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at UI Health Care and Stead Family Children’s Hospital, says 97% of people who have scoliosis will never need treatment. And of the 3% who do need treatment, very few will need surgery.
But when a spinal curve progresses to a point where it causes chronic pain, reduces mobility, and could affect lung function, surgery may be recommended. Spinal fusion surgery involves straightening out the curvature and fusing the affected vertebrae together to permanently correct the curvature of the spine.
“Owen is an amazing role model for others with this condition who need this surgery,” Weinstein says. “He has overcome what some people might consider a significant bump in the road of life. He’s a highly motivated young man, well above the average person. I’ve hiked a little bit of the Pacific Crest Trail. I’m a big hiker, and I’m so envious and in admiration of his fortitude.”
Spinal fusion is a high-risk surgery, says Weinstein, one in which complications can be devastating. Because of this, patients should be picky when choosing a surgeon and facility.
“This surgery should be done by an expert, someone who does it all the time,” says Weinstein, who estimates he’s performed more than 5,000 spinal fusion surgeries. “And it should be done in a facility like Stead Family Children’s Hospital that has all the necessary resources — the routine resources as well as emergency resources should an adverse event happen.”
Trampe admits he was terrified before the surgery, but that lessened once he met Weinstein.
“I could tell that Dr. Weinstein had a lot of experience and compassion for the people he worked with,” Trampe says. “How fortunate was I to have one of the best surgeons in the country right here in my own home state?”
Weinstein says it’s important for patients young and old to have confidence in their surgeon.
“This condition largely affects young people, and they need to be empowered to ask questions and to know that I’m listening to them, that I’m concerned about the things that bother them,” Weinstein says. “It’s my job to allay anxiety and let them know that we will take care of them. Not just me, but the entire team here at Stead Family Children’s Hospital.”
Soon after waking up from surgery, Trampe was on his feet. And while it was hard, he quickly noticed one effect of the surgery.
“I was a full inch and a half taller,” Trampe says.
After several days in the hospital, Trampe headed home to continue his recovery. For six months, his physical activities were extremely limited — no running, no bending, no twisting, and no lifting anything heavier than 10 pounds.
“Physical therapy was basically walking. Walking. Walking. Walking. And when you thought you’ve walked enough, you walked a little more,” Trampe says. “I had to get shoes without laces and use a shoehorn to put them on. I also had to learn new ways to do certain things, such as how to get out of bed while minimizing twisting. It was a lot of things I didn’t think much about before and had to be very intentional.”
Three months after surgery, Trampe started college at Seattle University. All his textbooks had to be electronic because carrying his laptop already pushed the envelope of how much weight he was supposed to carry. While his roommate had to help him with things like doing his laundry for a few months, Trampe quickly made up for lost time after getting the all-clear to resume normal activities.
“I overloaded on everything. I joined the Ultimate Frisbee team and the water polo team. I started going to the gym,” Trampe says. “I was rediscovering my physical agencies and capabilities.”
Trampe had long enjoyed hiking and backpacking, becoming familiar with it in high school and continuing in college, including while studying abroad in Iceland.
After graduating with a degree in environmental science, Trampe looked for opportunities to travel. He had long thought about hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.
“It felt like a ‘now or never’ moment, and I didn’t want it to be never,” Trampe says. “Plus, my recovery was just walking, walking, walking. I figured I was pretty good at this whole walking thing, so I decided to do it for five months straight.”
On May 1, 2024, he took his first steps on the trail at the U.S.-Mexico border in Campo, California. He took his last steps 144 days later, on Sept. 23, at the U.S.-Canada border in Manning Park, British Columbia.
Trampe came home with hundreds of stories about his time on the trail, but one thing in particular stands out: the people.
“You meet a lot of friends, people from all over the world and from my own country. Incredibly, I ran into another person from Iowa!” Trampe says. “The fact that you’re all out there working toward this huge goal really brings people together. For me, it facilitated a lot of meaningful connections.”
After returning to Seattle and spending a couple of months resting and recovering, Trampe started a job as a ski instructor at Snoqualmie Pass in Washington — which the Pacific Crest Trail runs through and Trampe had hiked just months before.
“You can take a hiker off the trail, but if you do, he might just start skiing it instead,” Trampe says, laughing.
Weinstein says it’s important for patients who are considering surgery to correct scoliosis to see what people who have already been through the procedure are up to today. And Trampe is an amazing example of what someone can accomplish after spinal fusion surgery.
“It’s a major surgery, there’s no two ways about it,” Weinstein says. “But it’s one that’s hopefully worth it to have a normal life at the end.”
Trampe says he doesn’t regret having spinal fusion surgery and that the challenges he faced before surgery and during recovery made him realize how deeply he values his body and physical abilities.
“The night before the operation, I was full of anxiety, unsure of how the rest of my life would change moving forward,” Trampe says. “I’m proof for anyone experiencing something similar that there is a life beyond spinal fusion. Know that those first few steps and first few months will be difficult, but, at least in my experience, they only get better from there.”
Sunrise at 14,500 feet
Owen Trampe can point to dozens of memorable moments during his 2,650 mile thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail in 2024.
“But there was one moment that was particularly profound for me,” says Trampe, who lives in Seattle. “It was seeing the sun rise at the top of Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48.”
Mount Whitney’s summit is not actually on the Pacific Crest Trail. But Trampe, who had spinal fusion surgery to correct severe scoliosis in 2019 at University of Iowa Health Care, decided to do it as a side quest with a few other hikers.
To get to the summit by sunrise, the group started climbing at midnight.
“It was a real special moment to be sitting there watching the horizon, waiting for it to slowly change and see the sunrise,” Trampe says. “Everybody was huddled in their sleeping bags quietly watching for the sun to rise. You’re being blasted by wind, but once those rays finally hit your face, you feel warm again. And that contrast was really powerful for me.”
Photos contributed by Owen Trampe
“Almost all the research that people use right now to make decisions about nonsurgical and surgical treatment for scoliosis comes from work done here at Iowa,” says Stuart Weinstein, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at UI Health Care and Stead Family Children’s Hospital.
A 2015 study led by University of Iowa researchers and published in the New England Journal of Medicine compared the risk of curve progression in patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis — diagnosed between the ages of 10 and 18 — who wore a brace with patients who did not.
“We found that if a curve is caught early and braced appropriately, you have a significant chance of preventing that child from needing surgery,” Weinstein says.
Weinstein and his colleagues now are focusing on early onset scoliosis diagnosed in children during the first three years of life, looking at whether repetitive casting under anesthesia or bracing can better cure the problem or delay the need for surgical intervention.
“We’re not only providing the treatments, but we’re also providing the research that supports the decisions that patients and families make in the treatment for scoliosis,” Weinstein says.
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