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It's Not Not Impossible - A Crossfit Coach's Attempt at the T5 · Off You Pop!

• 0:14
  Speaker 1: This is Off You Pop, the podcast for hikers and adventurers who want to be epic in just one day.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Today we're talking about one of the toughest single-day mountain challenges in America, the Tahoe Five Peaks Challenge, a 50-mile, 13,500-foot endurance push, linking Mount Rose, Granite Chief, Tilak, Thrill, and finally Genoa Peak.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: It's a challenge built on a simple idea big days, build big people.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: And our guest today embodies that spirit.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Alison Hardy is a trainer at Silver Strike CrossFit and Orange Theory in Carson City.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: And she's known for forging elite fitness and inspiring her athletes to take on hard things, not because they're easy, but because they change you.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: And earlier this month, Alison attempted completing the T5 in 24 hours, starting at midnight on Mount Rose and moving peak by peak around the Tahoe Basin, pushing through altitude, heat, and brutal winds that hammered the ridgelines.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: She made it all the way to peak five, and then deep into the long exposed approach towards Genoa, before the wind and accumulated fatigue finally forced her to stop just short of the fifth sonnet.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Today we're going to talk about that journey.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Not just the miles, but the mindset, the emotional arc of a 24-hour attempt, and how a near miss can sometimes be more powerful and more instructive and more inspiring than a perfect Phyllis.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: This is Alison Hardy, and this is Off You Pop.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Hi Alison.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to take on the T5.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: What was the why behind your attempt?
• 1:52
  Speaker: Somebody shared it with me, I can't even remember who.
• 1:55
  Speaker: I just I love Tahoe, born and raised from there, and I've hiked Tulac in Rose and I've skied granite and I ski all those mountains in the winter, and it just seemed like a really difficult challenge, and I really like to challenge myself.
• 2:07
  Speaker: And I think that something that sounds impossible is something I like to take on.
• 2:12
  Speaker: And so I kind of added all the positives up and the negatives, and the positives outweighed the negatives.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: So for listeners who don't know you yet, how would you describe your relationship with the mountains and with your CrossFit community?
• 2:27
  Speaker: I was originally a CrossFit instructor at CrossFit Avalanche up in North Lake Tahoe.
• 2:32
  Speaker: And like I said, I'm from North Lake Tahoe, born and raised.
• 2:35
  Speaker: I've been there for 43 years, and my family was there in the 70s, and my father was a ski patrol and a mountain climber up there as well.
• 2:43
  Speaker: He started in the Tetons and came here in the 70s, met my mom, and then they just always instilled in me the beauty of the mountains and being out there.
• 2:52
  Speaker: And I lost my family at a very young age.
• 2:55
  Speaker: And ever since then, I was an alcoholic for a long time until I was 30.
• 3:00
  Speaker: And then when I hit 30 and found CrossFit, I started to switch all of that trauma and all that grief and just all that heartache into being in the mountains.
• 3:11
  Speaker: And then I picked up a split board and I've just always had it in my bones and in my heart to be out in those mountains.
• 3:17
  Speaker: Their ashes are scattered among all of the Sierra.
• 3:20
  Speaker: I love the mountains so much.
• 3:23
  Speaker: I feel at home there.
• 3:24
  Speaker: It's my church.
• 3:25
  Speaker: I don't really think there's any other way to say that.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: That's amazing.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: A lot of the stories we hear from other folks who go out into the mountains and challenge themselves are really stories of how the mountains can help, you know, with recovery from grief and trauma.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: So that's a really, really inspiring story.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: So let's get on the trail.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: It's Mount Rose, it's midnight.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Tell us what it was like at the start line.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: What did it feel like stepping onto Rose in the dark and knowing you had 24 hours ahead of you?
• 3:51
  Speaker: It was, you know, I'm I'm very much an in-the-moment person.
• 3:54
  Speaker: So I had a friend join me because I'm I am a little bit afraid of mountain lions on the Carson Pass, Mount Rose, Genoa side of the lake.
• 4:02
  Speaker: I know they're probably everywhere, but really on Mount Rose and Genoa.
• 4:06
  Speaker: And so I had a friend join me and she had her dog and we had another friend who popped up last minute and it was super cold and windy, but it was dark and I was I was excited.
• 4:17
  Speaker: I was really stoked to start.
• 4:20
  Speaker: Once we started it, you know, started that clock, it was time to go.
• 4:23
  Speaker: And we had a great time.
• 4:25
  Speaker: The moon wasn't out, so it was dark.
• 4:26
  Speaker: The stars were popping and we actually saw some bird of prey was making noise in the trees.
• 4:32
  Speaker: I couldn't see what it was, but I saw his eyeballs.
• 4:34
  Speaker: Probably a hawk, I'm guessing.
• 4:36
  Speaker: I don't think it was an owl, but it was it was really cool.
• 4:38
  Speaker: It was exciting.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Fantastic.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Going into this, did you have like a pacing or some sort of emotional strategy to manage the early hours?
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Or you're really like you said, were you really focused?
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: So I'm staying in the present, like the here and the now.
• 4:52
  Speaker: In my head, I knew that if I walked like speed walked all the uphills and ran all the downhills, I had a really good chance of finishing within the 24 hours.
• 5:03
  Speaker: So that's on our first hill, that's I had established that amongst my two friends, and they were ready to let me go if I wanted to or if I took off on that.
• 5:11
  Speaker: So we started with a pretty good hiking pace uphill, and then literally any little downhill, we ran it and we got up to, you know, up to the top, and that part was a little slow, but we basically ran, yeah, ran the whole way back until the waterfall and then hiked a little there and ran all the downhill out of that.
• 5:30
  Speaker: So we did that in like three hours and 15 minutes, but the top of Mount Rose was probably like 50 mile per hour winds when we got there.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: That's pretty brutal.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: I think I sort of allude to that fact, like in the guide that we wrote for the T5, that if you can if you can maintain a pace about two and a half miles an hour, you should be able to do it.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: But the secret of that is you're probably going, you know, 1.5 to 2 when you're going uphill.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: So you've got to go like three and a half, four at least on the way down, which means there's gonna be a little bit of running or very fast hiking when you go back down the trail.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: So so you finished you finished rows and then you went over to Granite Chief.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: So this is where it sort of starts to feel a little bit real.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: You've you've got warmed up and the the sun is coming up.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: How how are you feeling?
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: How were your legs and your lungs as you started hitting peak two?
• 6:20
  Speaker: Peak two in the car, I was like, yeah, I I feel great.
• 6:22
  Speaker: And then once you start moving again, your body's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 6:26
  Speaker: I mean I thought we were done, we already did Mount Rose.
• 6:29
  Speaker: It was hard because the sun was rising.
• 6:31
  Speaker: We were joining the sunrise as well.
• 6:34
  Speaker: Also remembering, like, oh no, we I have a goal.
• 6:36
  Speaker: My friends were still with me, and I I definitely told them like my goal is to finish this, so we need to keep going.
• 6:42
  Speaker: But once that sun came up, it was much faster paced.
• 6:46
  Speaker: And then we made that wrong turn you warned me about before the fence posts.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 6:58
  Speaker: I'm like, he said no, it's cutting the trail, and but it's that I mean it didn't save us any time, but we did make that mistake and then got up to the top there.
• 7:06
  Speaker: And I think that took us about an two hours to get up that, but beautiful sunrise that morning.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: I I I can only imagine, and yeah, it's so easy to make that mistake because it looks like that's the way.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: So there is like trail up that way, and then you get up there, oh hold on a second, now I've got to bushwhack through all these rocks to get back on the trail.
• 7:28
  Speaker: Yeah, I was like, why didn't I look at my Gaia?
• 7:30
  Speaker: I know I should have looked at my Gaia.
• 7:32
  Speaker: I will do it different next time.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: The thing about Granite Chief, I recall, is it's it's pretty long.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: So, you know, on the way down, did you did you feel like you were still making good time?
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: Were there any like surprises in your your physicality and your ability to finish it that really shifted your expectations for the rest of the challenge?
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Or were you still feeling pretty good?
• 7:54
  Speaker: I was still feeling pretty good.
• 7:55
  Speaker: And that rundown is so super nice, that whole trail until you get to that little out rock cropping that looks over Shirley.
• 8:02
  Speaker: I was still feeling really good.
• 8:04
  Speaker: My team, my partners started to kind of fall back a little bit.
• 8:07
  Speaker: And they kind of were like, go ahead, go ahead.
• 8:10
  Speaker: We made it down.
• 8:11
  Speaker: That one was a little bit longer, like I said, because you know, people were taking photos and stuff.
• 8:15
  Speaker: If I were to do that by myself, I'd be like, nobody takes a camera out if I have someone with me.
• 8:20
  Speaker: We'll come back here another day and watch the sunrise.
• 8:22
  Speaker: We don't have time.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: It's kind of nice on the on the descent.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: You're on the PCT, so it's a little bit up and down on the PCT, but it's pretty general.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: And even like the the road, the run all the way back down to parking lot is pretty gentle, except that you're right.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: There's one big like flat rock out pop, and it's it's a little bit of steep step-off that you have to deal with.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: But apart from that, it's beautiful and it's it's a a lot in the forest, so it's kind of soft on the feet.
• 8:45
  Speaker: Yeah, it that run is really, really amazing coming down.
• 8:49
  Speaker: I saw a big old tarantula eating another spider.
• 8:52
  Speaker: That was pretty cool.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: That's pretty cool.
• 8:57
  Speaker: It was naturing was naturing pretty hard that day.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: So so then you've got the long, probably the longest drive of the day.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: We got a drive from from the uh Olympic Valley there all the way down to Freel Peak.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Any issues with with traffic, go you were good.
• 9:12
  Speaker: We actually ended up with an accident in Emerald Bay.
• 9:15
  Speaker: Somebody drove their car off the side of the road.
• 9:18
  Speaker: Oh my gosh.
• 9:18
  Speaker: And yeah, we saw the sign, and so then I'm like, of course, like it's I had to do it on a Saturday because I only have weekends off.
• 9:26
  Speaker: Um and that's kind of why I waited till September, because I knew that Emerald Bay was gonna be kind of like the make or break on that one.
• 9:32
  Speaker: Um, like if we did it in Labor Day, we would have never made it there.
• 9:35
  Speaker: When we found out there was an accident, we kind of were like, well, there's no other way to go.
• 9:39
  Speaker: So we got there and we ended up being there, like stopped for like probably five minutes.
• 9:44
  Speaker: We lucked out and they let us go through.
• 9:46
  Speaker: We were probably 25, 30 cars back.
• 9:49
  Speaker: But then the south face, the southbound traffic or northbound traffic was stopped so far.
• 9:54
  Speaker: So I'm so glad that it was stopped on the other side and not our side.
• 9:59
  Speaker: But that that was like a little bit of a stop, but not much.
• 10:03
  Speaker: But yeah, that Emerald Bay could make or break your game for sure.
• 10:06
  Speaker: And then there's no road construction right now either.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I I had the challenge of road construction when I attempted it back in like right before July 4th weekend.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: It was must have been like five or six roadblocks on the way down.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: It really sucked the time.
• 10:20
  Speaker: Yeah, I think I think if anyone were wanting to attempt this and like actually have a good chance to do the 24 hours, you really have to do it after the construction stops.
• 10:28
  Speaker: Like there's really no way because there's so many different it in West Shore is gonna start up.
• 10:33
  Speaker: It just there's so many stops.
• 10:34
  Speaker: It could be five to six stops easily, and each one takes 20 minutes, some take like 45 minutes.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Because it's like like two-lane traffic, like they like stop the traffic.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: There's a long road work and they wait for a pilot car to go back and forth.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: So really it's not like there's a light where you can quickly go in.
• 10:53
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 10:53
  Speaker: So again, I that's why I waited until September because I was taught I talked about it all summer.
• 10:59
  Speaker: I was like, God, September will be cooler and there won't be road construction.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: So so Tallac is is the middle point.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: For me, it's really like a psychologically punishing peak.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: It's a big climb.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: It's actually the biggest elevation gain of the five.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: It's got big views, it's got big heat, but it's got rock.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: And I I was kind of following you throughout the day and I saw your first post on on Talak and I thought, oh my god, she's not gonna do it.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Cause I you were sort of coming up to that big wall of of granite about halfway up, and you were I think you were gonna gonna swear is what I remember from the video.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: So what what was it like for you, that whole Talak experience?
• 11:39
  Speaker: I've done Tallac before, so I knew that that was gonna be uh probably my hardest Tallac climb ever.
• 11:47
  Speaker: I usually try and do it once a year.
• 11:49
  Speaker: So I I know the trail pretty well and I know what to expect.
• 11:52
  Speaker: The hardest part was actually from Cathedral Lake, from Cathedral until that rock part, I was like, oh gosh, this is brutal.
• 12:01
  Speaker: It's so hot.
• 12:02
  Speaker: And then when I saw the rock, I got nervous, and that's I still had a buddy with me at that point, but I was like taking off on him.
• 12:09
  Speaker: I kept turning around and kind of waiting, but I'm like, I can't wait.
• 12:13
  Speaker: Like, I got I have a goal.
• 12:14
  Speaker: So we get to that part, and I was like, oh, it's not even that steep because it's not that it's that steep, it's just that it's very cumbersome.
• 12:22
  Speaker: So I kind of just took off on that part and I kept looking back and gaining on him, and and we got to the top of that.
• 12:29
  Speaker: I I was actually pleasantly surprised.
• 12:32
  Speaker: Maybe I was just delirious at that point that it wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be on that rock part.
• 12:39
  Speaker: It wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be.
• 12:42
  Speaker: Plus, it's the first time you're seeing people, so everybody's walking down, and you're like, I've already there are like two more couple more steps, and you're like, I've already hiked two peaks.
• 12:50
  Speaker: It's easy.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: I I recall when we got when we got to Tallac, like exactly what you said, the day starts heating up.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: There wasn't any wind like at the lower part of the mountain, and now you're starting to feel the heat as well as the fatigue come in.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: And as you're saying, just past Cathedral Lake, you started to absorb all the heat, and you're climbing still after Cathedral Lake, and then you see that big that big wall of of rock that you have to climb up.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: You you've done it before.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: I hadn't done it before, so I didn't know where I was going and how I was gonna get up there.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: It's not easy to follow the trail, you have to be kind of keen.
• 13:22
  Speaker: No.
• 13:22
  Speaker: Yeah, it is definitely uh you have to kind of keep your eyes on where you're going.
• 13:27
  Speaker: The old trail was much better.
• 13:29
  Speaker: I wish it was still the old trail, but you know, once you get that part done, you're over halfway.
• 13:33
  Speaker: But it was nice seeing people, and I would never ever ever start hiking anywhere around here at nine in the morning.
• 13:40
  Speaker: So I always start at 6 a.m.
• 13:42
  Speaker: when it's cold.
• 13:43
  Speaker: So I was like, this is insane.
• 13:44
  Speaker: This is so hot.
• 13:45
  Speaker: And it was windy, so it wasn't that hot, but it was hot.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: You get such a beautiful view of the lake from the top there, though.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: It's spectacular.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's the best of the five.
• 13:55
  Speaker: Yeah, oh, for sure.
• 13:57
  Speaker: I had a little four and a half pound chihuahua that used to hike Tallac with me.
• 14:01
  Speaker: She would walk that whole thing and people would be like, Oh, did you carry her?
• 14:05
  Speaker: I'm like, nope, she walked it.
• 14:06
  Speaker: So her uh her asses are actually spread at the top of that mountain.
• 14:10
  Speaker: I call it Mimi Mountain now because her name was Mary and I used to call her Mimi.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Would you say this was sort of the first time that the fatigue started setting in, or are you still feeling pretty strong when you came off the mountain?
• 14:22
  Speaker: I started feeling a little fatigued, but I think I was just like so pumped that it was done.
• 14:28
  Speaker: Cause that's like, you know, in CrossFit, I'm always like, oh, only one more round, even if there's two more.
• 14:33
  Speaker: And people are like, no, there's two more.
• 14:35
  Speaker: I'm like, but we already started.
• 14:36
  Speaker: So technically there's only like being over halfway, I felt like really pumped.
• 14:42
  Speaker: But I also knew because my buddy, I had waited for him a little bit.
• 14:46
  Speaker: We got to the top, and I kinda and he was not there yet.
• 14:48
  Speaker: I had already headed down, and I was like telling him, like, no, I'll see you at the end.
• 14:53
  Speaker: And he's like, get the car.
• 14:54
  Speaker: I was like, no, at the end.
• 14:55
  Speaker: I came down those rocks, I ran down all those rocks like a crazy person.
• 15:00
  Speaker: And I turned around and he was nowhere to be seen.
• 15:02
  Speaker: So I was like, at this point, he's probably 30 to 40 minutes behind me.
• 15:06
  Speaker: So I I told him, like, this, this is something I really want to do, and I really want to accomplish it.
• 15:12
  Speaker: And I think at that point I had already lost some time.
• 15:15
  Speaker: You know, you have people in your group and it adds a half hour for every person in your adventures.
• 15:21
  Speaker: So I was like, I need to make up some time to get to Genoa early enough to not not complete it.
• 15:28
  Speaker: I came out of that.
• 15:29
  Speaker: I did say to my friend when I came out, I'll never hike that, I'll be okay never hiking that mountain again.
• 15:34
  Speaker: I didn't plan my water very well.
• 15:38
  Speaker: So I was actually out of water and my throat was getting dry from breathing so much for 24 hours of heavy breathing, or at this point, you know, 15 hours of heavy breathing.
• 15:48
  Speaker: And I did find some some people on the trail that had a camel back and not just a water bottle.
• 15:53
  Speaker: And I asked them if I could if they had any water to spare, and it ended up actually being some friends of mine that I knew from North Lake Tahoe, my friend Lorelei.
• 16:01
  Speaker: She's like, Yeah, we have water, but I also know you.
• 16:04
  Speaker: And I was like, Okay.
• 16:06
  Speaker: And it like got out of my delirium.
• 16:08
  Speaker: I was like, Oh yeah, Lorelei.
• 16:10
  Speaker: And they gave me water and I chugged it in front of them, and then they gave me more, and I was I had water to finish.
• 16:14
  Speaker: But I think the worst part of Tallac for me is core that that ridgeline above Fallen Leaf Lake.
• 16:20
  Speaker: All those little Oh, I hate that part.
• 16:23
  Speaker: I hate it so much.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: I I bet it's because it's like really rocky, and so you end up like tripping a bunch of rocks, and it it seems to just go on forever.
• 16:32
  Speaker: Forever.
• 16:32
  Speaker: I I I picked up a couple rocks and threw them.
• 16:35
  Speaker: Sometimes I walked by them with a bucket and a shirt that said easily amused by rocks, and I wanted to be like, take them all.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: So what time of you did you get off of um Tillec?
• 16:46
  Speaker: I did it in 5.05, and I think that was like two that we got off.
• 16:52
  Speaker: I think I could have done it if I didn't have my friend with me.
• 16:56
  Speaker: I think I could have done that in 4:30, 440.
• 16:59
  Speaker: I think I could have made that much faster.
• 17:01
  Speaker: But yeah, I think we got I think I got off of it too because then we had to make our way over to Freel.
• 17:08
  Speaker: Yeah, I think that's about what time we got off.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: I I think it took me about five hours too, because like the fatigue is getting to you at this point.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: And so I I was also with people who were dragging dragging the seat a little bit.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: But I I think, yeah, if you could you can probably make up a little bit of time on Rose and probably Genoa, but I would allow a little bit of extra time the standard four hours just because it's a little bit brutal getting up there, and it's gonna probably gonna be a little bit harder.
• 17:33
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:34
  Speaker: Talk was definitely it said four forty-five on your little pamphlet that you sent.
• 17:40
  Speaker: And so I was like, if I could finish it in four forty-five, my goal was to finish everything that you had set by like at least ten to twenty minutes before, and then it would have given me plenty of plenty of time.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: I think I think four and a half hours is doable, but you have to come off of uh Talak just a little bit.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: You can't just walk off of Talak, you do have to get a bit of a bit of a pace going.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: So Frill is the is the tallest peak in the basin.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: And often it feels like it's the most draining.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: What what was it like for you climbing that physically, especially like the the the top of it?
• 18:10
  Speaker: The drive in made me really annoyed.
• 18:13
  Speaker: That drive is so that off-road is I'm like, this is a trailhead and this is what the road is like.
• 18:18
  Speaker: And my friend's like, people like off-roading, Alice.
• 18:20
  Speaker: And I'm like, I know, but I just want to get there.
• 18:23
  Speaker: And then I started it, I think we I think I started that one at like four o'clock, I wanna say.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're pushing against the time limit now.
• 18:33
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:34
  Speaker: So I knew I was going into that one pushing the time, and some guys were coming off of it, and I started like jogging up, started with a running pace, very slow running pace, but I was still running.
• 18:45
  Speaker: And these guys asked, Oh, where are you going?
• 18:47
  Speaker: I was like, Freel peak, and their the voice was, Oh, really?
• 18:50
  Speaker: Like they were shocked I was starting that late, but I made it up that first section to the TRT, and then you know, that that whole TRT part's pretty chill.
• 19:01
  Speaker: I just speed walked it, and then any little downhill, I'd run the downhill, but I I just walked as fast as my little legs could carry me.
• 19:09
  Speaker: I got to the cutoff for Freel Peak in an hour and 15 minutes, I want to say, an hour and 10 minutes.
• 19:17
  Speaker: And then that top section of Freel, I think might have been one of the worst climbs probably ever had.
• 19:24
  Speaker: It was terrible.
• 19:25
  Speaker: It was so windy.
• 19:26
  Speaker: My then the fatigue like really was like grinding.
• 19:30
  Speaker: And I was all by myself at that point.
• 19:32
  Speaker: I also forgot my pepper spray and my knife.
• 19:36
  Speaker: So I was very kind of it was sun, the sun was setting, so I was very kind of nervous of an animal.
• 19:43
  Speaker: I was kind of hoping that the wind was keeping them in their dens.
• 19:47
  Speaker: But I do know that that whole zone is mountain lion territory.
• 19:51
  Speaker: I don't know.
• 19:51
  Speaker: I I've you know, you never hear of people getting attacked by a mountain lion, but any rock, any noise, any chirp of a bird, you're like, what's that?
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I will say the only time I've really seen a bear around Lake Tahoe was actually at the TRT when you come out of that parking lot and I was I was relieving myself against a tree and I see a big bear lumbering behind me.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's it's real.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: You should definitely make sure you're you're being cautious and aware of where you're traveling.
• 20:16
  Speaker: Bears don't like they're not grizzlies here, so they're not trying to eat you.
• 20:20
  Speaker: I think that you could essentially, as long as you keep moving away from them and you're not like, oh, let me take a picture with the bear, they're not gonna chase you down.
• 20:29
  Speaker: I would much rather see 20 bears than one mountain lion.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: That's for sure.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Exactly where you said like the TRT ends and then the the frill peak trailhead begins.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: It's a a big drop-off right there.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: So you have to be careful, especially if you're now getting into twilight or in the dark, you're trying to do it a little bit later in the season.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: And I think that section, at least the first section from that trailhead, as you get up onto the mountain, is the most dangerous in terms of like steep drop-offs.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: And it's really confusing when you're trying to get up there.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: There's lots lots of rocks and all side trails and stuff.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: So I would say if people are doing this, try not to go too far left when you're going up on that hill.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Otherwise, you're getting real close to some big drop-offs.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Try and keep a little bit more to the right and up in the bushes a little bit more.
• 21:12
  Speaker: Sun hadn't set yet.
• 21:14
  Speaker: It was just starting.
• 21:15
  Speaker: It was like probably, I think I had like an hour.
• 21:18
  Speaker: It took me an hour to get from that trail cut off to the peak.
• 21:22
  Speaker: So the sun set like pretty much halfway back down that.
• 21:26
  Speaker: So I could kind of see where I was going.
• 21:28
  Speaker: But if you can't see where you're going, I would say towards the trees.
• 21:31
  Speaker: The hardest part is that there's a lot of people just go a different way.
• 21:34
  Speaker: And then you're like, no, that's not the trail, because there is an established trail.
• 21:38
  Speaker: But yeah, there it that trail goes right next to those drop offs.
• 21:41
  Speaker: So coming back down, I was very cautious.
• 21:44
  Speaker: You know, you're so tired at that point.
• 21:46
  Speaker: I had a good cry at the top of Freel.
• 21:48
  Speaker: I called my fiance bawling, and I was like, you don't need to call 911.
• 21:52
  Speaker: I'm fine, but I'm I'm fatigued.
• 21:55
  Speaker: I'm exhausted.
• 21:56
  Speaker: This is this is really hard.
• 21:57
  Speaker: I'd never done freel, so I was.
• 21:59
  Speaker: not ready for that last mile.
• 22:02
  Speaker: That's the slowest.
• 22:03
  Speaker: I'll call that the slowest mile right there.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that that's that's fair.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: I mean you you're probably high 30, low 40 mile into this at this point.
• 22:13
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 22:13
  Speaker: And you're at elevation, right?
• 22:15
  Speaker: You're at above 10,000.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: So that's just that's your you know so you mentioned the wind, how how big of an effect did that begin to play, especially as the day rolled on?
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Was it slowly building or was it really becoming a an immediate problem?
• 22:29
  Speaker: Granite and Tallac, the wind was there, but it wasn't as prevalent.
• 22:33
  Speaker: It was definitely nice to have it because it was warm.
• 22:35
  Speaker: But Freel then again felt like Mount Rose.
• 22:39
  Speaker: So I think it was probably 50 miles or or greater.
• 22:42
  Speaker: I'm not good in wind.
• 22:43
  Speaker: I admire hikers that can go out in the wind.
• 22:46
  Speaker: I'd rather have it rain and I absolutely hate wind.
• 22:49
  Speaker: I've been on Shasta and Lassen when it's been 80 mile per hour winds and it's not it just makes it so hard and loud and just hard to work through.
• 22:58
  Speaker: So I was definitely over the wind I might have cussed at nature a couple times and just said stop.
• 23:04
  Speaker: But then once you get back down in those trees it wasn't so bad and I ran the entire way all the way back to Freel and I finished Freel in three hours and 46 minutes.
• 23:12
  Speaker: When I could see that I could do it under four hours I started to pick up my pace.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: So so you made it four peaks and you you drive over to Genoa and talk us through a little bit that last approach to Genoa peak.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: When did you realize that the wind was really becoming an issue?
• 23:28
  Speaker: Genoa, that road is so steep.
• 23:31
  Speaker: I thought it was going to be like this nice little oh I was like okay it's just gonna be a little like zigzaggy road.
• 23:38
  Speaker: It is so steep.
• 23:39
  Speaker: I was so over it by that point.
• 23:41
  Speaker: But I had a friend meet me because again now I'm in the dark and we do have mountain lines that come down from Genoa into Carson Valley down in Genoa Canyon.
• 23:50
  Speaker: And so I really didn't want to be alone on that.
• 23:52
  Speaker: So she met me and she was all chipper and happy and I was like yeah you're great I love you so much but I'm gonna punch you in the face it was great.
• 23:59
  Speaker: I needed her I needed her so bad and she kept me on a pretty good pace.
• 24:03
  Speaker: We were we had discussed that if we wanted to make it within the time so we started that at like 845.
• 24:10
  Speaker: We were way too late on that one to make it within the 24 hours and the wind really picked up I was sweaty and cold I'd changed my pants to long pants and I had my windbreaker on but if I if and when I do it again or if anyone were to do that, I would suggest bringing like a micro puff and maybe even a pair of Belong Johns just in case because it does at least with me with the wind blowing and especially being September it was it was pretty brutal cold up there.
• 24:38
  Speaker: And then we got to that last half mile where the road changes and it gets steep and it's just rocks again and I had I don't think I had fueled enough in between because you know your body gets to a point where it stops wanting food.
• 24:51
  Speaker: She tried to give me an applesauce I drank some water I took four steps I looked at her I was like I can't do this Sarah and then I took four more because I did not want to quit I was so close but and I was like even if we get up there it's the winds were definitely in the set 60s to 70s by that point.
• 25:07
  Speaker: It was ripping.
• 25:09
  Speaker: So we turned around that last half mile and and and at that point my body had shut down.
• 25:15
  Speaker: It's I think to me the lesson learned I've never had to listen to my body before like I always turned around by wind or other things but that's the longest I've ever run in 24 hours or run walked in 24 hours and the most amount of mountains I've climbed in 24 hours.
• 25:32
  Speaker: So when we turned around it it was really for me it was very not humbling.
• 25:38
  Speaker: I was disappointed in myself I really wanted to finish I was so close we were like I said a half a mile away I called my fiancee I said I I can't do this and he said I knew you would be back and I was like I'm never doing this again.
• 25:50
  Speaker: No I'm never coming back like I can't do this.
• 25:53
  Speaker: And so we did turn around and on the way out I actually had to have my friend friend come pick me up because we were about a mile and a half away and I was just going so slow because my body was just like we're done we're we you know I was like I was telling my friend this is I could see how people get hypothermia or get you know I've never been that close but I was shivering she had to give me her jacket.
• 26:15
  Speaker: I think I was just I would had hit the wall like complete exha exhaustion.
• 26:20
  Speaker: So she did come pick me up because I if I walked out that other mile and a half it might have taken me over an hour.
• 26:26
  Speaker: And I do think that hypothermia to me was something that I did not want to have happen and I did not want to call search and rescue.
• 26:36
  Speaker: Like I never ever want to call search and rescue if unless I absolutely have to they could have come and got me on a road right but I I really didn't want to depend on them if I didn't have to.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: So I do a lot of mountain hiking as well and sometimes I I don't make it the top and you know I had that disappointment as well and I always tell myself the mountain's going to be there tomorrow right so I think it's right you made the right decision for you in the moment but you must be you you didn't quite make it but you must realize you did something absolutely amazing.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: You must have you must have hit 50 miles.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: You must have got more than 13000 feet.
• 27:13
  Speaker: On my well if you don't count her picking me up on my Gaia it said it got 4924 and then 11,401 feet.
• 27:22
  Speaker: That's the most I've ever done and I know that I don't think there's very many people who have who've done four peaks in the basin at all.
• 27:31
  Speaker: So I I know what I did was amazing.
• 27:34
  Speaker: I'm very proud of myself but I definitely I only didn't want to do it for like 12 hours and then I think Sunday I already discussed how I'm gonna do it again.
• 27:43
  Speaker: My uncle I told him and he was just flabbergasted he's like why don't you tell me I was like I did not want you to be worried about me because I know that this is crazy.
• 27:50
  Speaker: And he said well now you know exactly what you need to do to finish it.
• 27:54
  Speaker: That was your trial run and same with my fiance he said the same thing.
• 27:57
  Speaker: This is your trial run.
• 27:58
  Speaker: Now you need to you know get the tweaks out and know what you need to do to finish it and make sure you drink enough make sure I think my food was fine.
• 28:06
  Speaker: I think you know water is just so hard to take down that much water.
• 28:11
  Speaker: I don't think I hydrated enough.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Still think you did something absolutely amazing.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: I mean the hardest other hike in America is 22 miles 11,000 feet.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: I mean you did 44 miles and you I mean you crushed it.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: So you should be proud even though you just just didn't quite do it but it was such an amazing effort.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: So so you coach athletes every day in in CrossFit and Orange Theory.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: So how would you say attempting something like the T5 shape the way that you inspire people to do hard things endurance is crazy.
• 28:44
  Speaker: Your brain wants to be comfortable and it wants to be sitting on the couch.
• 28:47
  Speaker: I love my couch and I always ask that in Orange Theory who here loves their couch?
• 28:51
  Speaker: Yeah me too nothing changes on your couch except your your TV channels right so endurance is being able to acknowledge that your brain is wanting to be comfortable but that your body is so much more capable.
• 29:04
  Speaker: And so as a coach I always just remind people you can do one more rep.
• 29:08
  Speaker: Have the capacity to do so much more than you think you can.
• 29:12
  Speaker: On Freel I said to myself man this really hurts but it doesn't hurt it hurt as bad as not having a family and and then on on Genoa I said nope this this hurts worse than not having a family but I always tie it back to the things that you go through in your life and that's why I think trauma people or people that have dealt with gnarly depression or anxiety if they tap into that endurance athleticism that they can push past it.
• 29:36
  Speaker: And it is it's just telling your brain I'm not listening to you you know my feet can keep going my lungs can keep breathing the hardest breath was the last one you know I told Doste from Alpenglow that I was doing this and he had not heard of it and I was like you guys are trailrunners like are you crazy?
• 29:54
  Speaker: This is you guys should have done this a long time ago but I think that once the word gets out people are going to start seeing that this is possible and that that it is not not impossible.
• 30:03
  Speaker: Chad Wilkins the Chad workout the thousand box step ups I'd rather do this than that I feel so bad for Chad I'm like dude you're so you guys are so mean.
• 30:14
  Speaker: Why'd you make this workout after him?
• 30:16
  Speaker: But we do Chad once a year and I'm like ah I hate this I would much rather do five weeks than Chad sorry Chad I have to ask you just fell shy are you gonna try again yep my next attempt is going to be October 4th or 5th depending on who I can get to join me on it.
• 30:37
  Speaker: And if it only took me a day to recover two full days to recover and I was back in CrossFit three days later doing you'll have to let me know if you do I might meet you at the top of Genoa and make sure you get there.
• 30:48
  Speaker: That's gonna be mental I wish that I if I could figure out how to time it to where you could do the TRT.
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: The TRT is just like a mile longer right yeah I mean I left that open for for folks if they were going to do the more casual one.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: I think it ends up might being a couple more miles longer.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: I mean if you've got time and you want to the TRT is going to be a much more pleasant experience just because it's more scenic.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: It's not on that horrible dusty OHV road but I felt like if I build it into the challenge it was going to be too much.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: It's pushing like 52 53 miles so it's really tight.
• 31:21
  Speaker: You already experienced how tight the time was yeah I think or like if you're going up that and down the road maybe yeah yeah maybe yeah because you're gonna have that rocky ascent on the OHV like right at the end there.
• 31:34
  Speaker: God that road is just dog I was so over it.
• 31:38
  Speaker: And it's only so dark that when my friend came to pick us up I drove us out because it was my truck so of course I'm like I don't want her to you know mess it up and my friend and I that were hiking we're like was this road this bad when we came up because all we saw was like in front of us with our headlamp.
• 31:54
  Speaker: It was a gnarly road so we're driving she's like my other friend who picked me up was like yeah I was very surprised that you were letting me drive the car up this up this road I'm like I had no idea that this road was this bad so so for someone who's listening who's afraid to really start something big like this what would your what would your takeaway message be?
• 32:15
  Speaker: Just start you can always turn around you can always I can't do it.
• 32:20
  Speaker: I turned around I made it this far make a a note I made it this far I can make it farther next time but you're never gonna know what you're capable of until you start.
• 32:29
  Speaker: I say that in Orange Theory and CrossFit all the time.
• 32:32
  Speaker: You don't know what you can do until you start and so even if you need a friend because you're worried about animals or you know I think just start it and see how far you can get maybe next year you get farther and I definitely think it's a doable feat for many, many people and that's why I'm gonna do it on October 4th because I don't I wanted to be the first woman to do it.
• 32:54
  Speaker: I really really wanted to be the first woman to do it.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: I mean you were so close the first time I can't I can't see you not doing it especially with your determination.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: Well thank you Alison for being up I really appreciate you bringing this awareness to this challenge because I'm really hoping we can make this like the destination the US challenge that people have to do right here in Tahoe in our backyards.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: I think people don't understand just how beautiful and spectacular this place is I think it's really the one of the most iconic places in the US for especially for hiking and and being outdoors.
• 33:29
  Speaker: Those four I I'm not a fan of Genoa yet but those those five peaks and being able to see the sunrise and I saw a hawk I saw some other bird of prey on the trail on Freel all that I didn't know what it was.
• 33:40
  Speaker: I just saw his green eyes I mean just you get so it's it's nature injected into your veins in the biggest of ways.
• 33:48
  Speaker: It's a very awesome challenge and I don't think people you know they finish it they're gonna be so proud of themselves and even if they only get four done and and don't that's still a huge feat and you got to watch the sunrise on granite and the sunset on freelan that's pretty dang cool.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: Fantastic well thanks Alison so if you're a CrossFit athlete here's the takeaway from Alison's Tahoe 5 peaks attempt you already know how to suffer in short bursts with woads and emons and heavy days conditioning pieces that make you question your life choices but mountain challenges like the T5 force you into a different kind of discomfort fatigue that doesn't let up decisions made under stress and hours of effort while your brain is louder than your legs.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: That's why this matters Alison didn't go out there to collect peaks.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: She went out there to test her mental resiliency.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: The same thing you train every time you pick up a barbell when you're tired or push through the last minute of a workout when your lungs are burning the T5 just stretches that mindset across an entire day and here's the truth stopping short of Genoa doesn't mean she failed it means she found the edge and finding the edge is where growth actually happens.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: So if you're listening to this and you're a crossfeet athlete considering this challenge if you're not ready for the T5 it will be here next year.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: But in the meantime pick something outside the gym that forces you to manage fatigue stay calm under pressure and keep moving when your body is done negotiating.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: A long hike a big climb a local peak you've always avoided something that requires patience pacing and grip the same qualities that you build every day in the gym because mental resiliency isn't built in perfect conditions.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: It's built when the wind is bad when your legs are cooked and you still choose to move forward.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: Alison showed what that looks like now it's yours turn to find your version of hard now off you pop