Latest / Adventure Sports Podcast / Ep 1156: Crossing Death Valley On Foot - Ashly Winchester Revisited

Transcript

Ep 1156: Crossing Death Valley On Foot - Ashly Winchester Revisited · Adventure Sports Podcast

• 0:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: your listening to the Adventure Sports podcast.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for adventuring with us, as we discover what incredible athletes and outdoor enthusiasts are doing all over the world.
• 0:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey everyone, Caleb here.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now I know what you must be thinking.
• 0:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is most definitely not Kurt's voice.
• 0:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, as you can probably imagine, producing a podcast like the Adventure Sports Podcast takes a lot of time and effort.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: And over the years, I've helped out with the Adventure Sports Podcast on the back in the editing episodes here and there as Kurt and Mason
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so Kurt reached out to me who, by the way, is also my dad to see if I would do a few of the revisited episodes to free up his schedule a little bit.
• 0:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Speaking of which, today's episode revisited is crossing Death Valley on foot with Ashley Winchester.
• 1:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is a fantastic episode where Ashley talks about her attempt to complete a fastest known time FKT on foot across the 165 mile area to moon scape of Death Valley.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ashley Winchester is a fantastic athlete known for her FKTs, having more FKT records than any other woman.
• 1:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: At the time of this episode's original release, I hope you enjoy the episode.
• 1:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Here's Mason.
• 1:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: Ashley, welcome to the show.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for having me.
• 1:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm excited to be here.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I really do always ask this first, where are you coming from, and is that home?
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: And if not, where is home?
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: I am currently in Klamophiles, Oregon.
• 1:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: I wouldn't call it home, but I spend a lot of time here.
• 2:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: I actually don't really have a home per se.
• 2:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: I sort of split my time between Klamophiles and Chico California and wherever the road takes me.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: I do a lot of traveling.
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: Did you have like a mobile set up then to do make that possible?
• 2:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't actually, it's something that I'm kind of working on trying to figure out what the best up would be for both podcasting and freelance writing, because I'm a freelance writer, and so I kind of need some sort of setup that works perfectly for all of that that I can travel more.
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, you mentioned, you know, you're adventuring, and you travel around to
• 2:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, well known and becoming even more well known for fastest known times, that is something folks on without compromising have heard quite a bit about athletic does have a partnership with them, but you know, the kind of the growth of fastest known times is almost unavoidable from how everyone was forced out of events last year and onto different sorts of challenges, what, how did you get into that world, what was kind of the trajectory
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, um, I actually started doing fastest known times, um, I think it's been two years ago now this month.
• 3:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, yeah, I'm pretty sure it's been two years and, um,
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: What the person who got me started on, I was Jason Hardrath, and he's the top FK tier in the as 96 FK teams now.
• 3:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so Jason and I are, you know, we've been dating for quite a while now, and
• 3:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: He started doing these FKTs and for me, you know, I was always kind of aware of FKTs on the periphery but just kind of wrote them off as something that, you know, there's no way I'd be able to do that.
• 4:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not a professional athlete.
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not elite.
• 4:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, there's no way I could do fastest no times.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: And he convinced me to do one and I chose one that was kind of a 50k distance.
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: and crushed it and just kind of got addictive immediately.
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Started picking out fascist known times around California and then Oregon and now I've kind of started this obsessive pursuit of them.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: And yeah, now it's very strange for me to say because when I first started this pursuit of FKT,
• 4:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm the female with the most historical FKT.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's kind of a crazy development, you know, setting goals and just kind of running these super amazing routes in beautiful places.
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: What does it feel like to be the woman with the most FKT?
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: What does that feel like to you?
• 5:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's weird, honestly, because that wasn't really a goal of mine until just this last year, and, you know, even then when I started off the year, I kind of was like, oh, there's no way, you know, because there's a lot of other ladies who are out there, you know, crushing FKTs.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: And, but I am really lucky in that my lifestyle and my partner are both incredibly supportive of doing these things.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: what happens a lot is Jason and I will go weekend warrior and take down FKTs over the weekends.
• 5:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: And we were not opposed to driving 10 hours for a two day weekend.
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: That was something that amazed me about y'all is that,
• 5:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: it's not, it's not even the FKT hat.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: The FKT to me is half of what's impressive.
• 6:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: The other half is getting there.
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: You guys just, it's unreal.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: Y'all, y'all, y'all drive.
• 6:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: Y'all make this 15-hour window now possible.
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like, you know, take where you are and put 15 hours of driving around it and everything within that circle is now possible.
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: And to me, it's like, oh, it's 10 hours away, there's no way I can do that this week and y'all just go for it and I'm like, dang that's they drove all night to get there then they do the FKT then they come back.
• 6:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: That is that's amazing.
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's what I find most impressive is the well to just drive.
• 6:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: What do you do?
• 6:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: What do you listen to that whole time?
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, so we, there's a lot of things that happen when we, when we take on these drives, we, we do listen to a lot of audiobooks and podcasts.
• 6:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: We also, you know, just have discussions together.
• 6:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's a great time to sort of spend time talking with.
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: with the person that you're traveling with.
• 6:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so we talk a lot.
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: We've cracked some hair-brain business ideas.
• 7:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I'm just like, we keep, you know, sometimes it takes the, you know, I'm gonna napple you drive type of a thing.
• 7:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: So, I mean, there's, and I guess I would say that we're also kind of productive, like I'll do some writing while we drive
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, research, other FKTs, research routes, there's, there's a lot that we do as long as we have internet access.
• 7:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I was going to say probably thinking and getting like an athlete before a game, you know, getting ready for the FKT itself.
• 7:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: So, so you said when you first did it, you know, completed one got the record of the fastest known time and it was like like an addiction like that you were hooked.
• 7:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: How did it start to grow from there did it just become this list that you wanted to complete?
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: Or were there any sort of classic routes that drew you in?
• 8:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: What was it for you from that point?
• 8:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, at that point, I just kind of decided to start exploring these FKTs that were sort of nearby.
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: I started making a list of FKTs that were like the dream FKT, you know, the bucket list FKTs.
• 8:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: And when, you know, I had time, we travel and go tick on off the list.
• 8:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, they started kind of getting bigger and bigger.
• 8:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just been a slow sort of natural development.
• 8:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: How many of them have you attempted and not gotten the record or not completed?
• 8:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: Ooh, that's a good question, because I haven't actually kept track of the ones that I haven't completed,
• 9:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: thing with FKTs because there's plenty of times where you might run the FKT and then not actually get the fastest time you've been that you completed the route.
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: For me, more often than not, my failures have come from not completing the route for some reason or another.
• 9:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm trying to think of how many, how many I've actually failed on it.
• 9:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's not trying to draw it to it like a negative point of view, but I just, we only see those highlights from the FKT athletes.
• 9:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm always curious, how many attempts do you miss it?
• 9:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, miss either you do the whole thing, but you didn't get the time or like you said, you don't complete it for whatever reason.
• 9:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I would say I've probably got there's at least five that I can think of if not seven different routes that I've that I've failed on or not completed.
• 9:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And you know, like I actually I don't see failures and as a negative thing.
• 10:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: I it's very much a positive thing for me, even though in that moment, it's always really really hard, but I do feel like, you know, I I've.
• 10:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: very openly and enjoy talking about my failures because hey, those are some of the greatest adventures.
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: And be that's where I feel like I learned the most about myself and about my abilities and about where I need to kind of search for or apply myself to be better or be stronger.
• 10:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: Is there a one in particular you could you could share a story about a failure specifically where you learn something through it?
• 10:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: So the the biggest one that actually comes to mind is called the death valley crossing and I kind of made a big deal about this one on my social media when it was when I was coming up to it, but I've tried that one twice and I have failed twice at it for different reasons.
• 11:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: The first time, so just for a little bit of background, this route is about 165 miles, it goes from the northernmost point of death valley to this southernmost point of death valley, it's completely off trail and 100% unsupported solo and unsupported and so being death valley, there's no natural places that you can refill your water, so you carry all of your water from the beginning that you need for the entire route.
• 11:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: Which means you're caring, you know, about 50 or 60 pounds on your back.
• 11:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's kind of like back packing fast packing style at some multi day adventure and the first time I tried it.
• 11:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: I might training definitely was not up to par for it, but more than anything.
• 11:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: I actually ran low on water about a hundred miles in and decided to pull the plug because I knew that I couldn't go 65 more miles on the little bit of water I had left.
• 12:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: So that one, that was a big learning experience for me because that was the first time I had spent
• 12:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: um, more than one night completely solo in the wilderness.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I mean, it was, it was pretty magical as far as that goes.
• 12:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, um, just really empowering and kind of like, okay, you know, I can, I can do these things.
• 12:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: I can be out here by myself and be totally fine for multiple nights.
• 12:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um,
• 12:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so that that was really cool and you know it's kind of finding that magic that's that's in the night when you're walking or running through the night.
• 12:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that was a big eye opener for me.
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: The most recent failure on that route was just at the end of December this last December.
• 12:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: So not that long ago.
• 13:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I took more water with me this time.
• 13:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: And.
• 13:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: kind of funny because what ended up ultimately making you pull the plug was there was a torrential downpour of rain in Death Valley.
• 13:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: So you know I'm in this like one of the driest places on Earth and supposed to be you know one of the hottest places on Earth too and you know it's like below freezing at night and dumped rain on me on the last day and
• 13:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: It just it turned into this crazy like mud fast some of my gear was soaked.
• 13:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was slipping and sliding and mud and just kind of decided it with that that attempt that, you know, I couldn't I couldn't go much further.
• 13:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: Carrying that amount of weight and slipping and sliding all over the place.
• 13:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I ended up pulling the plug on that one as well.
• 14:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: what's going through your head out there when you're, when I just, you know, carrying a pack that size and just walking into this moon scape of a desert, I can't imagine the feeling, you know, just saying, I've got to go 165 miles.
• 14:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: The thrill, the excitement, but also like, oh man, this is, this is wild, but when things are going really poorly like that out there and how do you handle it?
• 14:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, so I knew that the forecast was calling for some rain.
• 14:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I kind of expected it to be more like, you know, this is Death Valley.
• 14:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's going to dump rain on the mountains, you know, in the Sierra's and then on the mountain race.
• 14:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's on the west side of the valley of Death Valley.
• 14:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that, you know, there would hardly be a,
• 14:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: trickle of rain into into the valley itself and when I first started there wasn't actually that much of a chance of rain so I was pretty optimistic.
• 15:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I did just in case I threw rain gear in my pack which you know is just adding more weight, but I'm glad that I did because it it rained for.
• 15:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: hours.
• 15:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was definitely, you know, when it started raining, it was really frustrating.
• 15:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it first I was like, I'm just going to walk through it.
• 15:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm just going to keep going.
• 15:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not going to stop.
• 15:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then I kind of had this realization that, you know, if all of my gear and clothing and everything gets wet and then I go into this night where it's, you know, below freezing, I'm probably not going to make it.
• 15:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so I made the decision to hunker down sort of next to this big plant in this area called the devil's cornfield and I hunker down next to this plant and put this you know rain poncho this little lightweight rain poncho emergency rain poncho over the top of me and my gear and kind of sat in a ball until most of the rain stopped and when I was sitting there.
• 16:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: I kind of fluctuated between, you know, being really motivated and going, yeah, okay, when this rain stops, I'm going like, this is happening.
• 16:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm still going to go.
• 16:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: I have time and still on pace.
• 16:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: And, but also then being really frustrated and a little bit scared because I know, you know, having been through that section before, I knew sort of what I was coming up to and I was really worried about the mud situation.
• 16:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so,
• 16:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: you know, I definitely had moments where I was crying.
• 16:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: I had moments where I was just, you know, angry.
• 16:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: There's a lot of indecision there because I just kind of, you know, of course, of thoughts of like, oh, I should just give up now.
• 16:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: go through your head, but I wanted to at least try.
• 17:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so when it stopped raining or when it lightened up enough, and I could kind of see the end of the storm, I like immediately got up I packed up and I started walking again.
• 17:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: And
• 17:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: very quickly realized what that rain did to the soil there.
• 17:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it was, it was like you sat, it was like cement.
• 17:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was both slippery, but also would stick to the bottom of my shoes in such a way that it was like building out these like platforms of
• 17:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: of mud.
• 17:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: And but I couldn't get it off either.
• 17:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was trying to scrape it off with my trekking poles.
• 17:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was like trying to kick it off.
• 17:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: I couldn't get it off with my shoes.
• 17:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it felt like, you know, each foot weighed an extra eight pounds.
• 17:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then one of the other things that really kind of got to me that that made me feel sort of really bad was, you know, I'm off trail in this very arid desert.
• 18:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: And as with that rain and the mud, my footprints were very deep and obvious through there.
• 18:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that bugged me actually quite a bit because I know that in in a place like Death Valley, those footprints are going to be there for for decades.
• 18:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: So.
• 18:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: That was like, that definitely played into my thought process as well as because I'm, you know, I'm walking through, there's like these little plants that are popping up after the rain.
• 18:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was really amazing because the rain just brought the valley to life.
• 18:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: I saw scorpions and birds were suddenly everywhere bugs and grasshoppers.
• 18:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was so weird.
• 18:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: And all these little plants that were suddenly green everywhere.
• 18:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I just kind of went, I'm, I'm, I don't feel good about leading is, you know, my path through here.
• 18:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: So that definitely played into the decision making process as well.
• 18:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: What an adventure, cheese.
• 18:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's, I mean, the way you paint the picture, I mean, if anyone, anyone who's never been to Death Valley, it's beyond words, you really have to experience it.
• 19:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: You don't feel like you're on the same planet that you live on.
• 19:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 19:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Gosh, what a trippy place.
• 19:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's, that is crazy to cross it, like that on foot, but you know, so good as you for the second time, do you think there's another time, a third time in your future?
• 19:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: I thought about that a lot.
• 19:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: When I first made the decision to stop, I actually, you know, I was in day three and I was in a lot of pain because, you know, I'm traveling on average 30 miles, 33 miles a day.
• 19:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: The first day I traveled 40 miles.
• 19:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: And you know, my pack starting weight was probably about 60 pounds with the extra gear that I threw in there because of the weather and you know lots of food and lots lots of water and I so you know there's definitely
• 20:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: a lot of pain.
• 20:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, when I was kind of in that pain and in that mud, I was like never again.
• 20:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm never doing this again.
• 20:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's really, it's this is silly.
• 20:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: Why would I do this?
• 20:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I, you know, I'm, I started thinking, well, maybe I could do it in a self-supported manner where I could leave water drops and, you know, water in food in certain areas that I could pick it up when I walk by or
• 20:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, I started thinking about that, and then as I was walking out to where I was going to get picked up, I, I was like, I knew.
• 20:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: that I would probably go for it again.
• 20:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then after talking to some some other, you know, FK tears and ultra athletes and mountain athletes, everybody's kind of like, yeah, you know, sometimes the the ones that mean the most to you or the ones that get away from you a few times before you nab them.
• 20:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so I think that
• 20:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: There's a good chance that I will go back.
• 21:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know exactly when, maybe, you know, maybe this coming winter, I'm not sure.
• 21:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, I do think this route because of the style takes a very specific and specialized and dedicated training for it.
• 21:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because walking that much, walking that those meant that many miles with that amount of weight on your back.
• 21:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: is really tough on your body.
• 21:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so, I think that I would get more dedicated with my training, but with the training that needs to happen for that.
• 21:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: I also think that it would, it's definitely,
• 21:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: impacts my running ability in my speed because there's a lot more strength training and a lot more to slow hiking miles as far as training for for that kind of a route.
• 21:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so it kind of depends on if I make the decision to change my my training and and focus on that and sort of you know, take a step back from running fast.
• 22:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: I guess you could say
• 22:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: So now you, right now you have 39 FKTs and just some unbelievable routes in there, unbelievable experiences I'm sure, has there been one that's really stuck out to you is maybe one of the most memorable or one that that comes to mind the quickest as a great experience.
• 22:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, there's there are always there's, you know, tons of routes that I absolutely love and would love to go back and do again.
• 22:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: One of the more recent ones that I that I did Was is called telescope peak from sport as well, and that's also in Death Valley.
• 22:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it goes from pretty much bad water basin at like negative 260.
• 23:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: feet below sea level and goes all the way up to the summit of telescope peak which is the tallest mountain that's in the range right there and it's about 3132 miles round trip.
• 23:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: There's a bunch of off trail navigation was whacking and then on like it's it's one of the largest continuous climbs that you can do in the United States so it's about 11,600 feet of continuous climbing so that one was actually pretty special to me because I went for it last year.
• 23:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: And failed at it because of the snow conditions that were up on telescope peak and I had to turn around at the trail that goes to the summit on the on the ridge because you kind of pop up from this off trail section up onto a trail that's on the ridge line and you go up to the summit.
• 24:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I actually had to turn around there and head back down and so I went back, I think it was over at this last Thanksgiving and got the FKT on that one and and that it it really meant a lot to me because of that failure before but also because, you know, I really love death valley and the route is just so beautiful like you start off.
• 24:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, in the bad water basin and you climb up to this canyon and then you you go off, you know, out of the canyon you climb up out of the canyon in your you go through I think it's like four different ecosystems on the way out because you're traveling through.
• 24:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, you end up in the alpine.
• 24:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so it's it's just a really cool route.
• 24:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's beautiful death valley is a kind of a special place to me.
• 24:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so, you know, going back and getting that one was was really special.
• 24:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: place of joy and pain.
• 24:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's the alley.
• 25:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I know.
• 25:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's kind of funny.
• 25:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's a special place.
• 25:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: It really is.
• 25:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's an amazing place.
• 25:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, so many people, they just drive through because there's a highway that goes through the valley.
• 25:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: They just drive through and stop at bad water basin and go, okay, below sea level.
• 25:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's a salt pan, awesome, and they leave.
• 25:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: But death valley, there's so much more to it.
• 25:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: And there's actually so much life there.
• 25:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: the plants and the animals are pretty amazing and so much to explore.
• 25:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'd love to move into rapid fire.
• 25:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: If you don't mind, I know Death Valley, you're crossing kind of consumed the episode, but I think it's a really cool story to tell.
• 25:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I just think it's definitely unique for the show, so if that's cool, we can move on to rapid fire.
• 25:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's fine with me.
• 25:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: Sweet.
• 25:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, your known for FKTs and you're always, you know, getting more and done almost 40 now, which is just crazy.
• 25:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: All those experiences, there's just awesome.
• 25:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: But what would you say you're most curious right now about outside of FKTs?
• 26:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, most curious, how side of FKT's well, I shoot.
• 26:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: You kind of got me there.
• 26:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm terrible at rapid fire questions.
• 26:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: Good.
• 26:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's what I want.
• 26:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: Thinking on the spot, I'm really bad.
• 26:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, being a writer, I am actually really into reading other people's memoirs right now.
• 26:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: And finding a lot of inspiration from those.
• 26:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: What is your proudest achievement
• 26:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, man.
• 26:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: You are so good.
• 26:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, my predecessor, she was probably actually taking a step away from my full time job and jumping into freelance writing full time.
• 26:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: Pretty exciting endeavor.
• 26:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it was really crazy.
• 26:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was a really difficult decision to make, but also very exciting.
• 26:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: I can imagine it's you take this step, take the leap and it's a thrill, it's a thrill skin.
• 27:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 27:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: Exciting.
• 27:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: Just like FKT, I'm sure.
• 27:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's kind of funny because I, you know, I had this full-time job for, you know, I was in Veterinary Medicine for like 13 years and it's pretty much all I knew as far as work went, you know.
• 27:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so I had this realization actually when I was out backpacking one time, it was just
• 27:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was backpacking on the lost coast and there was just really intense feeling of peace and happiness and just kind of a feeling of, you know, this is where I meant to be and that's kind of where I decided that I needed to change my life somehow to revolve more around the things that I love.
• 27:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's awesome.
• 27:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: Somebody that took action, you know, that's why athletic brews here.
• 27:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's why anything's where it is.
• 27:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: Someone took action.
• 28:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's really cool.
• 28:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: So, so, all right, speaking of that, and this can be FKT's too.
• 28:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: What is the biggest goal you have yet achieved?
• 28:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh man, we have some heavy hitters.
• 28:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I know.
• 28:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: They're not like, I can't answer these quickly.
• 28:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: So the biggest goal, and you said this can include if this can be anything.
• 28:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, well actually, you know, one of my biggest goals right now is to grow my podcast and community kind of build this community surrounding my podcast and start having, um, start kind of hosting retreats and, you know, kind of expeditions and,
• 28:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: trips for women and to get more women into the outdoors.
• 28:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I'd love to have, you know, intro to backpacking clinics and retreats where we kind of focus on women who have maybe been victims of domestic violence and rape.
• 29:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: There's a lot of things that I want to do with.
• 29:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: women of the wild.
• 29:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right now it's kind of it's a podcast and it's a growing community of people, but that's definitely one of my biggest goals.
• 29:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's awesome.
• 29:18
  [SPEAKER_02]: What is your favorite athletic
• 29:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: the golden nail.
• 29:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's it's my go to just because it's like it's kind of refreshing and I've you know I like IPAs but I feel like IPAs have a time and a place in the golden it's like I can drink that anytime anywhere.
• 29:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 29:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: All right last question and it's a it's probably a doozy too.
• 29:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: What does it mean to you to live without compromise?
• 29:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, man, to live without compromise, I think, to live without compromise is to live 100% like unabashedly yourself.
• 30:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I don't, that might sound kind of, you know, self-centered or self-fish.
• 30:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I think that, you know, to truly embrace who you are and what you love and to make that the center of your life can make you, or help you become sort of the person that you've always that you've always meant to be.
• 30:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so that's kind of, I think that's what living without compromise it is.
• 30:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: First of all, thank you so much for listening and means the world to us that you choose a listen to this show.
• 30:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: If you'd like to help us further, you can leave a review on iTunes, share us with your friends or family, it goes a long way to grow in the show.
• 30:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: You can also support us financially through patreon.com slash adventuresports podcast.
• 30:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: link is in the show notes.
• 30:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: And also if you have an idea of who could be a good guest for the show, we're always looking for people to tell their story about the outdoors or adventure.
• 31:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: So if you know someone, please reach out, email us at infoedadventuresportspodcast.com.
• 31:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: And until then, get out there and have some fun.