May21

Finding Awesome

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Amy Christensen

Amy Christensen

Amy Christensen wants you to find your awesome. We all have one–a place where we can tap into our best selves, the goals most inline with that self we sometimes neglect. Life is pretty full of noise these days. If you’re anything like me, you might be wondering how to peel back some of that superfluous white noise and tap into that awesome place we found that one time way down in the depths of the Grand Canyon (or while on that long sailboat crossing, or on that multi-day backpacking trip, or that ski hut trip in BC you took a few years back, or even that yoga retreat you took last year). Hopefully you’ve tapped into your awesome already and know that it’s there. If you haven’t, that’s okay too. Because it’s waiting patiently for you to find it. (Hint: you’re not going to find it on Facebook or Tumblr or even Twitter. This is your true awesome, not the airbrushed one we sometimes like to portray).

Amy is a personal coach, and she encourages you to find your inner awesome by helping you push your boundaries. Her website, Expand Outdoors, offers a plethora of advice and encouragement to quiet the noise and find your best self.  She recently offered a contest for the reader that came up with the best name for her inner gremlin. That’s the little monster inside telling you that you can’t, that you’re not good enough, that no one is going to read your book or cares about your radio show. I named mine L’il Kim, because a) I’ve always wanted to use that moniker and b) because my little gremlin thinks she’s funny.

Amy also names our excuses–she calls them

Expand Outdoors

Expand Outdoors

Monday Morning Excuses–and offers advice on getting over the hump. Whenever you need a little jolt, these little snippets are like hearing the sound of the ice cream truck on a hot summer day. You didn’t even know you were craving a Captain Kool or Fudge Bomb Pop until you heard the faint sound of circus music echoing through your neighborhood. Then it’s like–Bam!–there’s the ice cream man and suddenly you’re licking the chocolate stream running down your arm and it’s nothing but pure awesome.

That’s what Amy helps you find again.

Click here

Click here

I’m talking with Amy this week on The Edge. Please stop by for a listen. The show goes live on Wednesday at 8 am Pacific, but you can click on the link anytime after it airs to listen to it anytime. Like right now. Just click the link now and catch up on old shows you might have missed. The show is still in pilot now, and soon will be up for renewal. The more listeners the better, so you get my drift. Just click the link.

May16

Chinook Pass Opens Tomorrow

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The WSDOT recently posted an update on Chinook Pass opening progress. Crews have been hard at work clearing the road and are planning to open at 10 a.m. tomorrow May 17th, “weather and conditions permitting.” If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to open this highway every year, check out the WSDOT blog for a little education on the process. First the avalanche crew use explosives to create slides, hopefully knocking as much snow as possible off the slopes above the road. Then the road crew must begin clearing the highway with up to forty feet of snow piled on top of it. As described on the WSDOT site, it’s much like peeling back an onion one layer at a time. Check out the video for more details and what it takes to get the highway open. I, for one, am looking forward to a little touring before all the snow melts.

 

May13

Do We Have An Adventure Gene?

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Cynthia Thomson testing her theories on Mont Blanc

Cynthia Thomson testing her theories on Mont Blanc

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Why do some athletes reach for the extreme while others enjoy safer, less thrilling pursuits? Is it nature, nurture or a combination of both? Ask most world-class extreme athletes and they’ll tell you some version of the same story. They’d always loved getting close to the edge, pushing themselves to their limits even as young children, driving their parents sick with worry. Once introduced to their chosen sport, they followed it passionately, stopping at nothing to pursue their dreams.

Do they possess an “adventure gene” driving them forward or is there something else going on? University of British Columbia PhD Cynthia Thomson set out to discover just what made these athletes tick. Her recent study of 500 skiers found surprising results. Turns out action sports athletes, like skiers, take up dopamine—one of the brain chemicals associated with reward—in a very different way. Dopamine, along with it’s sister reward drugs seratonin and norepinephrine, keep us humans on the path to seek rewards by doling out the good feelings associated with these chemicals. Ski a double black diamond run, get a hit of dopamine. Give a speech in front of a large crowd, get some seratonin. The brain wants us to push ourselves to be our best. Incidentally, this is the very same high drug users are seeking, but in an ironic twist, the more one uses drugs, the less thrill the body receives each time. Natural highs, on the other hand, act differently. 

Thomson found that natural highs, however, are not the same for everyone. Those that seek more thrills, might actually be getting a smaller high every time, thereby skiing the extremes in order to get the same reward others would get on the bunny slopes. Thomson found that the dopamine receptor DRD4 has a variant in the -521 C/T polymorphism. Those with this variant tend to be sensation seekers. Some are even calling this gene variant the “adventure gene.” Thomson claims, however, that thrill seeking is a polygenic activity, or one that brings several genes into play. Furthermore, one’s upbringing can have a major impact on their choice of sport. I was raised in a skiing family (thank God); but had my parent’s been bowlers, I may have followed their path. 

Kircher-show-descriptionThis week on The Edge, I’m talking to Dr. Thomson about skiing, sensation seeking and the “adventure gene.” Don’t miss this show, Wednesday at 8 a.m. Pacific, when Dr. Thomson explains the implications of this ground-breaking research.

May10

High-Five Report: Shirley Sundt

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Shirley Sundt is my hero. She came to skiing later in life, but once she started, she never stopped. Now she’s in her 80′s, has battled cancer three times, and most recently she wouldn’t stop for chemo to save her last breast because she’d already bought her season’s pass. Instead, she told the doctor to, “just lop it off.” She didn’t want to miss a season at Crystal Mountain.

I recently wrote a story about Shirley for Powder Magazine. Check it out here, and see if you don’t just feel a little more inspired. I dare you.

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May6

Getting GNAR With Robb Gaffney

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Robb Land of the Lost

Robb Gaffney dropping in

Imagine telling a professional athlete, “I can’t believe you’re a pro. I’m so much better than you.” That’s exactly what the game of G.N.A.R., played at ski areas around the West, encourages participants to do. Meant to showcase the good-natured part of the sport of skiing, G.N.A.R points can be scored anytime, anywhere.

In 2003, Robb Gaffney wrote the book “Squallywood“, a guidebook to the most exposed lines at Squaw Valley. Legendary skier Shane McConkey added the chapter “G.N.A.R”, which stands for Gaffney’s Numeric Assessment of Radness, poking fun at those on the slopes taking themselves a bit too seriously.

Skiing certain lines at Squaw, where the game originated, score a certain number of points. But there are ways to improve the score. You get extra credit for skiing a difficult line while also talking to your mom on your cell phone. If you really want to up the fear factor a notch, try skiing the line BN, short for Butt Naked. That provides an extra 5,000 points for men and 10,000 points for women. (I suppose that extra 5,000 points is a either a consideration of how we women actually have more to show or perhaps a way of encouraging us to show it off more often.)

In fact, rumor has it that a certain female ski patroller scored 10,000 G.N.A.R. points for an after-hours naked ski run at Crystal Mountain recently. She even tried to call her mom on her cell phone at the same time, but her mom didn’t answer. Certainly leaving a message for your mom while skiing Discovery Chair butt naked deserves a few extra credit points. But I digress.

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Robb Gaffney topping out

rob-gaffney-drops-into-north-couloir-of-gilbert

Robb Gaffney takes a look

Robb Gaffney is no stranger to extreme skiing. He lives with his wife Andrea and two children in Tahoe City and works as a psychiatrist in Squaw Valley. Starting in 1990, and continuing through medical school and residency, Robb helped his brother Scott produce numerous ski films including the most recent and probably the most popular, “G.N.A.R. The Movie“. He skied in most of his brother’s movies and has had several segments in Matchstick Productions films.

Currently Robb’s interest lies in backcountry skiing all over the Sierra Nevada and sharing some of these excursions with his kids. He has also founded a project called Sportgevity, with the goal of increasing the lifespans and physical health of athletes in action and mainstream sports.

Kircher-show-descriptionThis week on The Edge Radio, Gaffney will talk to us about playing the game of G.N.A.R, the late McConkey and how to get close enough to the edge without going over it. So often big skiing has been filled with big egos and bigger checkbooks. But Robb Gaffney reminds us of our roots. Sometimes the biggest risk is to throw away the rules and just have fun. Robb Gaffney is the man that knows how to do that.

Apr29

Ingrid Backstrom: Girl on Fire

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Ingrid Backstrom in Chamonix

Ingrid Backstrom in Chamonix

Ingrid Backstrom is one of the most influential skiers in the world. But you would never know it if you met her.

Kind, humble and exploding with integrity, Ingrid never boasts or brags.

In fact, if you ran into her at the bar after a day on the slopes, you’d never know she probably spent the day ripping the biggest, gnarliest lines on the hill.

Her professional ski career started unassumingly. After ski bumming for a year out of college, Ingrid entered a freeskiing contest at Kirkwood, and placed a very respectable third place. She realized people were actually getting paid to ski, and she wanted to be a part of it.

Her big break came in 2003 when she filmed Yearbook, a Matchstick Productions movie, which launched her career into the stratosphere. Since then, Ingrid has been on a tear, slashing huge lines, appearing in countless ski movies and raking in the awards. At the 2013 Powder Magazine Awards, Ingrid won her 8th Reader Poll award. She has also taken the Best Female Performance Award 6 times, and, in 2005, took away the Breakthrough Performance award, an honor most often given to a man.

Kircher-show-descriptionDon’t miss my guest on The Edge Radio this week, Ingrid Backstrom, as we talk about big mountain skiing, pushing the edge and the ingredients of a perfect day. Her skiing defies logic, and her low-key attitude demonstrates her humility and grace. Tune in Wednesday May 1st on The Edge.

Apr26

Getting over the Fear Factor

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Action sports offer more than just an adrenaline rush–they help us face our fears. While life gets safer every day, our search for adventure and challenge remains strong. We seek thrills, push our limits and search for transcendence through outdoor sports. 

Today’s guest poster, Olivia Golding, an aspiring writer from the UK, shares with us her experience with fear and pushing her limits through climbing. She is a 22 year-old barmaid living in Manchester. (Sounds like the making of a future ski bum, if you ask me!) She first started rock climbing two years ago during “Freshers Week” at University (according to Olivia, that’s “basically the week where it’s ‘no holds barred’ and everyone goes a bit mental”). Her philosophy is simple: try everything once. She hopes that if just one person takes up rock climbing because she shared her experience, then her work is done. Take it away Olivia!

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Indoor rock climbing is the conventional starting point for novices (unless you’re particularly daring!) (photo courtesy of Flickr)

If you’re not even a little bit concerned when staring up at the rock face and contemplating leading off on your first climb then you’ve either got nerves of steel, or there’s probably something wrong with you. That sense of butterflies in the stomach, the feeling that this isn’t really the safest pastime that you could have chosen, that perhaps it would be better to walk the long way round after all rather than go straight up – these are all natural reactions. And as long as that fear doesn’t paralyse you, then you’ll be OK.

For me it was that fear of putting your life into the hands of someone else, the belayer – that was one of the hardest parts of learning the basics of rock climbing. Falling off is something that you expect to happen when you’re getting into the sport – the major concern is that the person on the other end of the rope will catch you when you do.

Having a good teacher is key to building up your confidence. You need someone who will guide you through the basics of how to put on a harness properly, how to tie in and what checks and calls to make before leaving the ground. Safety always has to be a huge part of rock climbing due to the nature of the sport and it’s those basic checks, the first things you learn, that help to give you the strength to start up a wall. Have you checked the straps on your harness have been doubled back? Is the stopper knot on the rope good enough? Is your belay partner ready for you to start? “Ready?” “Ready!” “Climbing!”

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This will hopefully give you some perspective of the heights you could reach, though despite however prepared you think you are, it still won’t get rid of the butterflies in your stomach. (photo courtesy of Flickr)

Like most people, I started climbing indoors using a fixed top rope. As a beginner, having a rope that has already been passed through a carabiner at the top of the wall ensures that if you do come off, you’re unlikely to fall far. And while it might sound strange, falling off and being caught quickly can actually do a lot to boost your confidence. If you know that there is someone on the ground that’s keeping a close eye on you and is ready to act should you slip, you’ll find you’re far more inclined to take calculated risks and push yourself that bit further when a handhold appears to be just out of reach.

Once you’ve got some experience of top-roped climbs, then leading your first pitch – ie taking the rope up with you and clipping it into carabiners at intervals to protect you in the event of a fall – is the next step. If you do come off the wall then there’s usually further to fall, but as long as you have a good belaying partner you’ll be fine. In many climbing situations, a little bit of encouragement can go a long way. Having someone push you to try a move after you’ve been stationary on the wall for five minutes, unsure that you can make it, can be all it takes. There’s nothing more satisfying than being lowered down from a climb having made it to the top in that situation. It’s when that sense of fear or trepidation is replaced by a sense of achievement that you really start to get the bug for the sport. Bring in the stunning views you can find when you take your climbing outdoors and it won’t be long before you’re well and truly hooked!

Author bio

This post was contributed by Olivia Golding, an amateur but keen outdoor sports enthusiast and writer. When not subjected to indoor constraints, she loves to be outside with nature and its beauty. She strives to be as organised as she can, and can do so with the help of camping stoves and tents from GoOutdoors.co.uk, amongst other essentials.