All Snow Warrior-ess and Whatnot

Well, hello.  It's been a minute.  A cool year-and-a-half worth of minutes, actually.

So here I set up a blog to chronicle the trip of a lifetime.  My 13-month voyage around the globe, living out of a backpack, hopping from hostel to tent to couch to boat to villa to cockroach-infested mattress on the ground.  And chronicle I did.  I skimmed a couple of my past entries, and, holy shit.  I did some ridiculous stuff.  I think I need to wait another 5 years before fully re-living all of the memories, though.

In any case, I had intended to keep this blog going even after I returned from my trip.  Well, I was too busy re-adjusting to "normalcy" and being "funemployed" for 6 months.  I did a lot of surfing, hiking and climbing.  A very hectic schedule, yes.

Long story short, I landed a job at Red Bull, and have been working out of the North America headquarters in Santa Monica for the past year-ish.  Not gonna lie, Red Bull is a pretty rad place to work.  Case in point: they're sending me off on a 7-day backcountry ski tour in the Eastern Sierras.  I leave tomorrow. 

There's been a lot of build-up to this event they've named "Snow Warriors."  I've basically been freaking my shit out about it.  Partly because the application requirements for this thing were meant to scare most people off, and partly because I was physically and emotionally scarred from a raging blister encounter my first time ski touring.  And that was after 1 day.  Multiply that by 6, and I might end up rubbing my feet to bloody stumps.

Whatevs, I filled out my application and answered all the questions, despite not having all the requirements under my belt.  Clearly the experience I did have was good enough, and I was selected to join the "Trans Sierra Five"

The series of blog entries that will follow are those that I submitted to Red Bull’s employee fitness department, for them to broadcast back out to the company as a way of following along on our trials & tribulations in prepping for the big trip.  Ohhhh yes, and there were many stories that ensued.

3/7/13

Moral of the weekend:  it's a lot harder skiing uphill than it is downhill.  Ski touring brings a whole new meaning to "earning your turns."

When I saw that FFF was in search of a team for an epic trans-sierra ski expedition, I thought, "oh heck yeah."  I’ve spent many a family vacation on the slopes of the Rockies on skis, mastering my first pizza & french fries at age 4ish.  I have a solid ski background, but it never occurred to me to ski in any direction but downhill.

This past weekend in Utah was my first time ski touring.  Turns out ski touring is exactly like downhill skiing, except for the fact that all of the gear is different, you wear a pack 1/3 your body weight, and you’re going uphill.  So, in essence, the two sports are approximately 90% different.  As soon as we kitted up and set off on our initial ascent, I thought to myself, "well, this is going to be rather difficult."

Six hours, 2 raw blisters and 3,000ft later, I was sufficiently exhausted, yet enlightened to a whole new world of skiing that I could really see myself getting into. 

As far as the team goes, I was anxious to meet these gnarly dudes that I’d be hanging out with in the mountains for 6 days.  Being the token female on the trip, I had my fair share of concerns.  Could I hack it?  Would they be cool? Does this mean I have to buy a She-Wee?

Reading everyone’s bio ahead of time, it sounded like I was being thrown into a mix of what could be the cast of Rambo: Arctic. Not to mention the fact that this project’s pet-name is "Snow Warriors."  Hard core.  Thankfully, though, once Matt, Eric, Pete, Jordan and I all greeted each other in the parking lot just above Alta, I knew it was going to be a good crew.  As the weekend progressed, I was super impressed with how supportive, encouraging and positive everyone was. 

This will definitely make for a great trip.

And so, now begins the training.  Off to get all Snow Warrior-ess and whatnot.

3/27/13

Skiing in powder is like doing squat-thrusts down the side of a mountain for hours

Post-Utah, it was apparent that I’d have to set myself up on a solid training plan.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t put shoes on for a week after the trip due to a bit of a blister bonanza, plus I’ve been traveling quite a bit, so getting on a training schedule has been rough. 

Fortunately, I just spent a week up in Whistler and logged a few days skiing & riding.  Didn’t get any touring in, but successfully murdered my legs after 5 days downhilling in powder.  Skiing in powder is like doing squat-thrusts down the side of a mountain for hours.  By the end of the week my legs were blatantly starting to give out on me.  So I guess that counts as training.

Now that I’m back in Santa Monica, I plan to mountain bike up & aound Sullivan Canyon at least 2-3x/week, bike to work on days I’m not mountain biking, get some yoga back into my life, and perhaps start considering using some gym equipment.  I’m not a gym person whatsoever, so this in and of itself will be challenging.  I find much more enjoyment getting exercise from the activities I already love doing, whether surfing, climbing, skiing/snowboarding, etc.  I’m way more motivated by fun & being outdoors with exercise as the by-product, rather than exercise for the sake of exercise.  So, TBD on the whole "running on a conveyor belt while staring at a parking lot" thing :)

Outside of that, I plan to pop up to Mammoth this weekend to get at least 1 more day of touring in before the trip.  I’ll ultimately be renting my gear for the "real" trip from Mammoth Mountaineering, so they will be able to help me dial in my setup this weekend.

Fingers crossed some storms roll through in April, since it sounds like the sun has been baking away a lot of the snow up in the Sierras...hiking shoes may show up on my packing list if that keeps up!

4/10/13

Easter weekend.  Mammoth.  Hot, epic mess.

Long story short:

I decided to take advantage of the 3-day Easter weekend and headed up to Mammoth for some friend bonding and touring training.

At around 9am Friday morning, I loaded up and set off.  Seven hours and $1,000 later, I had a juicy speeding ticket, a broken-down car and wonderment of “is the universe trying to tell me something?”  But I made it to Mammoth. 

After dropping my hoopty off at the mechanic, I made my way over to Mammoth Mountaineering to sort out the touring setup I’d be renting for the “real” trip.   Once everything was dialed in, I told them to hang onto my gear as I went across the street to grab a bite and wait for my friends to come scoop me up. 

By the time I returned 1.5hrs later, someone at the shop had put my gear away.  One of the employees quickly ran to get it and they sent me on my way.

The next morning I met up with a local friend of mine to skin up the Sherwins.  As we arrived at the trailhead and began to gear up, I realized that the rental shop had given me two left boots.  WTF.  Seriously?  So we packed up, drove back to Mammoth Mountaineering, got the right boots, and headed back to the trailhead.

The skin up was kind of a bitch.  The snow cover was minimal and the conditions were soft, slushy and slippery.  It took us twice as long as it should have to get to the summit.  But, alas, we made it.  Hiked the ridge a bit, and found a nice chute to drop in on. 

We began to transition our gear to downhill mode by stripping the skins off our skis, setting our boots to ski mode, and clipping into our bindings.  But, wait.  Wait.  No.  Wait.  Are you effing kidding me???  My bindings were set completely wrong.  There was a solid 3-inch gap between the back of my boot and the binding.  There was no chance I was clipping in.  There was no chance I was skiing down.

So, yeah. I ended up sledding down the Sherwins on a frickin’ avalanche shovel.  It sounds like a lot of fun in theory, but the grade was only steep enough for the first 1/8^th of the way down, and hiking/walking was not an option.  It was as if Mother Nature set up trap-door booby-traps all along the mountain so that every 3^rd step you took the ground gave out below you and your leg would sink up to your waist in deep snow. Hence, I essentially scooted, crawled, rolled and face-planted 2,000ft the rest of the way off the mountain. 

>:0

Needless to say, I got the entire weekend of gear rental for free.  What a bunch of jabronis.

Silver lining: I found the boots I’ll be renting for the trip. 

Natalie Michal from Fit for Flight on Vimeo.

4/17/13

I’m sick.  So that’s nice.  Blargh!

Just slugging back shots of Robitussin this week and attempting to train through it.  Sorting out my gear is super high priority with such little time left, so I plan to hit REI pretty hard this weekend.  The countdown is on!  Holy sheet....

4/25/13

I have planned my final meal which includes copious amounts of pepperoni pineapple pizza, donuts and gummi bears.

AAAHHHH!  Final countdown!!!

I’m treating this last week of prep as if I am on death row.  I have paid off all my debts, I have come clean with all of my confessions, and I have planned my final meal which includes copious amounts of pepperoni pineapple pizza, donuts and gummi bears.

I keed, I keed, I’m probably not going to die.  I’m, like, 70% sure of it.   Although there sure have been A LOT of signs…no, warnings….omens….that I have actively been trying to ignore & rise above.  Who knew so much would go wrong before the trip even started?  I guess I'm just getting it all out of the way now so the trip will be smooth sailing!

So remember a few blog posts ago about my trip to Mammoth?  Where a bunch of shitty stuff happened and that the silver lining coming out of the whole cluster-F weekend was the fact that I found the gear I’d be renting for the trip?

Well, I called the rental shop on Monday to confirm the logistics of getting my gear delivered to Bishop before the start of the trip.   Yeah, about that.  They sold off my setup at an end-of-season sale.

I’m sorry, what?  WHAT?!

First, you guys set me up, and as I step out of the shop for an hour, you put everything back and reset all the settings.  Then, you give me 2 left boots, which I don't discover until I get to the trailhead.  Then, you set my bindings incorrectly so I have to sled down a mountain on a shovel.  And now you’re now telling me you’ve sold off all the gear I had lined up for this huge-ass trip??  Mammoth Mountaineering, eff you.  Tell your friends, tell your family, hide your kids, hide your wife.  This place SUCKS.  Unfortunately, they are the only shop in a 500-mile radius that rents alpine touring gear, so my hands are tied and I’m forced to continue doing business with them. 

In any case, I have decided on a backup plan, which involves trying on 4 more pairs of boots the day before we launch to determine which pair is least likely to rub my feet into raw, bloody stumps.  I cannot stress enough the importance of proper, fitted boots for long trips like this. 

I have since emerged from this latest frenzy in a state of positivity, knowing that everything will work out totally fine.  This trip is going to be a journey of epic proportions, out of which I will have stories I will be telling to my grandkids.  And my baby's mamas. Mamas mamas, baby mamas mamas.  Wait, that's an Outkast song...

Aaaanyway, I'm anxiously awaiting Saturday morning!!!  We drive up to meet the team in Bishop, spend the afternoon finalizing our packs, shuttling cars and doing final-final prep.  Sunday morning we take a flight over the mountains, get dumped off in the wilderness somewhere, and thus begins a week of frolicking up, down and around some snowy peaks!!!  Let’s do this!!!