HMWC CPAs & Business Advisors’ annual “Death March” hiking adventure was completed with great success, as this year’s 41st annual event in the picturesque Big Sur region of the central California coast was the setting for partners, employees, families, friends, and clients of HMWC. The accounting firm, located in Tustin, encourages this type of team-building experience to help with the firm’s goal of creating a work environment that fosters trust, initiative, loyalty, work/life balance, and mutual employer/employee success.

The annual event is held at different locations each year and involves multi-day hiking adventures in areas of rugged natural beauty. The 2019 edition of the event included a variety of hikes totaling 15 or more miles. Participants ranged from 5 to 76 years of age.

The “Death March” is so-named because of the physical rigors of the event. It was started in 1979 by Gerry Herter, former managing partner, who has attended all 41 Death March outings. According to Herter, the event is not only fun and physically challenging, but also it helps bring people together on a more personal level. “With the intense demands placed on members of the accounting profession nowadays, the Death March provides an enjoyable opportunity for team building amidst some of the most spectacular scenery North America has to offer,” says Herter.

Previous Death March events have been held in such locations as Yellowstone, the GrandTetons, the Grand Canyon, Glacier National Park, High Sierra, Yosemite, Kauai, Sequoia National Park, Rogue River, the Channel Islands, Crater Lake, and Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. Herter’s book, FromLedgers to Ledges, Four Decades of Teambuilding Adventures in America’s West, captures the essence of the longstanding tradition. The book is available on Amazon.com.