A Video A Day... Grandma KickAss

This lady will show you up!  55 and still cruising down the mountains.  Solo.  Wow!  If you ever need some inspiration to get outside, this is it.  You go, Uta!

Granny MacAsskick from Summitride on Vimeo.

Life Lesson: Be Thankful

As we approach Thanksgiving, I'm reminded of two things.  One: be thankful for what you have. And two: never forget to say it.  Here's what I'm thankful for everyday:

My Parents: From the very beginning my parents have fostered my adventurous spirit.  The took my sister and I on camping trips to exotic places, taught us about appreciating our natural world, gave us the opportunities to explore. I'm 28 and I still eager to spend time with them.  Every year we plan an epic trip and knowing that we still get to have adventures makes me grateful that I have a wonderful relationship with my parents.

My Sister: My best friend and partner in crime. But we weren't without our sisterly conflicts!  The end of the day, she's always been there for me. The Tia to my Tamara.  The Emily to my Zoey.  The Ramona to my Beezus.  The Elizabeth to my Jane.  The Nester to my Fossey.

My Family:  I've mentioned my parents and my sister, but the truth is I'm thankful that we're such a tight-knit family.  We've done everything together and we still do.  We're close.  And close is an understatement.  We're a unit and we always will be.

My Husband: We learn from an early age that we're supposed to search the world for that one who can complete us in every way.  And in a world filled with 7 billion people it seems like a daunting task.  So when you find that person a mere twenty miles from your own house, it's a wonderful feeling.  My husband and I are two completely different people.  But for some crazy reason, we work.  While not complete opposites, it's the ways we're different that attracted us to each other.  And the ways we're similar are the reasons we fell in love.  He's my better half and I'm his.  Perfection.

My Friends:  Who is the first to answer the call to take on a new adventure?  Who can you call at all hours to talk?  Who's loves you regardless?  Who's the one helping you dig a car out of the snow five miles down a Forest Service road? Who's the one sitting in a diner soaking wet after being drenched by a truck at the May Fair?  Who's the one jumping into freezing cold alpine lakes with you?  Who's the one sitting next to you downing Malibu buckets gossiping about boys?  Who are the one's who fly across the country to be at your wedding? Who are the ones standing by my side as I say my wedding vows?  My friends.  And they're the best.

Myself:  This might sound egotistical, but you have to be thankful for your own abilities and your own life too.  My passions take me to grand places and to do amazing things.  I dream big and I love that about myself.  So I'm thankful that I'm physically capable to do the things I love to do and mentally competent to pursue my dreams.

The Natural World: The beauty of our world never ceases to amaze me.  I go to a new place and I'm near tears at the world and all it has to offer.  I find that this year, the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, I am thankful that history has given us one of the smartest decisions. I hope that our future generations continue the legacy of providing us places where we can explore and enrich our lives with amazing experiences.  So here's to our world and the next adventure.

With every Thanksgiving we're reminded that we have so many things to be thankful and appreciate.  But the real sadness is that we tend to wait until this one day to communicate why we are truly thankful.  I tell my husband everyday that I love him.  Every time I speak to my friends and family, I do the same.  The true advice: Don't wait to tell the people you love just that.  And don't wait until you have money and time to create memories.

Below Zero: When 2,650 miles isn't enough...

Wanna hike 2,650 miles?  Sounds like fun, right? Walking up and down the most gorgeous mountains, deserts, and valleys in the country is a dream.  But what if you wanted a bigger challenge?  Well, for two guys that challenge might just be one of the most dangerous and adventurous quests I've ever heard about.  Justin Lichter and Shawn Forry have decided to tackle the Pacific Crest Trail this winter.  That's right. 2,650 miles in the snow, cold, and ice. Extreme!

October 21, 2014 - Trauma and Pepper set off from Manning Park, Canada to hike 2,650 miles to Mexico

This trek has all the classic challenges of a normal thru-hike: injury, fatigue, weather, illness, solitude, terrain.  But Trauma and Pepper (their trail names) will have to face the unusual difficulties of winter: lack of resupply.  When people hike the PCT during the usual time period, April - October, the roads leading to or close to the trail are perfect places to walk into a town or grab a hitch for food and a zero (mile) day.  But during the winter, the majority of those roads could be closed, completely socked in with snow, leaving no access to supplies.  Their itinerary shows some stretches of 100+ miles without a resupply and there is always the possibility of the access to planned food drops could be inaccessible too.

Besides the topic of resupply, extreme winter weather is a serious issue.  There have been normal seasons were people have had to skip the Sierras all together because of snowpack.  What will happen is 2014-2015 is a high snow year?  What happens if someone gets hurt?  There are many serious questions that put doing a winter thru-hike onto the high-risk list.  Although winter thru-hikes of the Appalachian Trail have been successfully done, the AT doesn't have to compete with the altitude challenges of the PCT.

What's to be expected for the majority of the trail? Whiteout.

But enough of the negative, what are the positive outcomes from this incredible adventure?  Breaking new ground, setting new records, complete solitude.  There's a lot to look forward to on this journey and luckily they are blogging about it (Lichter and Forry).  They made it to Cascade Locks in just three weeks (they are traveling SOBO). And their latest post, yesterday, puts them in Bend, Oregon.  Having underestimated the trail conditions, they had to bail for a day to regroup.  No-snow travel time they were making 30-35 miles a day. Two feet of fresh snow without snowshoes dropped that down to 10-15 miles a day, only averaging one mile per hour. Thanks to the help of wonderful trail angels, they'll be back on the trail tomorrow and trekking on to Mexico.

There's beauty around every corner and that's the lasting memory of the journey.

Photo Credit: Shawn Forry

Below Zero: Mica to Mecca

The North Face has done it again.  They have managed to produce a film that has every adrenaline junkie salivating over their keyboard.  And this was just the teaser.  And boy did it do its job.

I couldn't imagine a more stellar cinematic journey then to the untamed peaks of Greenland with some of the sickest lines just waiting to be run.  This takes #winterstoke to a whole different level.  When the athletes themselves are saying the peaks are "maybe ride-able, maybe not", you know they are in for a world of fun and we...  Well, we get to watch in constant anticipation.

The flyovers are breathtaking; from the ship cracking the ice sheets and the dogsled powering up the valley, to the time lapses of fog billowing over this incredible peaks.  They even threw in some incredible animations and my personal favorite, the human backbone that transforms into the peak itself.  It's almost symbolic, not only to the mountain range, but to the adventure.  You've got to have a very strong backbone to tackle something that monumental.

I am eagerly awaiting the full length film's release on November 17, just in time to get us all super pumped for winter.  I don't know about you, but the temps are in the low twenties, there's frost on the ground, the air is crisp, the wind is brisk, and I'm impatiently pleading for that first snowflake.  Watching Mica to Greenland was supposed to curb some of my eagerness, but it's only adding fuel to my fire.

Update!  The whole video is out to view!  And it's incredible!  The North Face also uploaded a new video about the sustainability actions the crew used to limit their impact on the environment.  Very rarely do we take the time to evaluate what impacts our recreation activities have on the environment. Adventure sports take a huge amount of fossil fuels.  Human-powered travel and public transportation are underused methods of accessing our favorite playgrounds.  So next time you're heading out into the wilderness, be mindful about your impacts and do everything in your power to limit your carbon footprint.  Be a warrior for the environment!