Have you ever wondered what it might be like to do a long thru-hike? Or what it might be like planning for such a trip? And are you starting to feel maybe just a little overwhelmed by everything that’s out there?

Well, don’t worry because in this episode, Episode 9 of We the Wild Ones, I had the chance to talk with just the person to put your fears at ease. Chris Denu, aka The Bold Nomad, has done a lot of hiking. And I’m not just talking day hikes here. Chris is from Vermont, like me, and has since moved out west to bigger mountains. He quit his job in 2016 and has been living nomadically since. Some of his big adventures include hiking the Continental Divide Trail in 2017, trekking to Mount Everest Base Camp, hitting 44 of the 50 state high points, and a lot of international travel.

It took us a few weeks, months, to finally catch up, a bit tricky since we are both living on the road and cell service can be a little spotty sometimes. But we finally made it happen!

Notable Points

• Best tips for getting into hiking
• Biggest things learned while on the CDT
• Managing life on the road
• Making family trips into adventures
• Getting outside your comfort zone and say yes

Questions:

What’s one non-essential item you can’t live without?

• Cell phone, although cell phones seem more essential now, Ipad for watching Netflix. Coffee.

If you could have one useless superpower, what would it be?

• Instant recovery, could do a big day and then another big day without feeling the effects. Then I could just keep going day after day.

What’s your best tip for living an adventurous life?

• Just say yes. Say yes to opportunities, figure out how to pay for things later, commit to it and figure out the details later. 

Resources:

The Bold Nomad

• Instagram @theboldnomad
• Website: www.theboldnomad.com
• Email: chris@theboldnomad.com

We The Wild Ones

• Instagram @we.thewildones
• Website: www.wethewildones.com

Hiking Info

• Continental Divide Trail website
• Highpointers Club website

This is part two of the Strong Like a Girl episode and I might be even more excited to share this one than I was the first. Kristine finishes her thoughts on climbing, and what it has given her, not just externally like friends and adventures, but internally and how it has made her a stronger person. Five or so other strong ladies also submitted their voices and stories, and they can probably tell you a lot better than I can paraphrase.

I know for me, strong like a girl means so many things. It’s about doing the thing, no matter what the thing is, even when people doubt you can do it, even if you doubt you can do it. It’s being scared but doing the thing anyway, it’s putting yourself out there and doing things that are uncomfortable. It’s changing plans when the plan doesn’t go the way you thought it would. It’s being kind and open to new ideas or different experiences. 

Climbing has made me stronger, physically, mentally, emotionally. I’m more confident in myself, more confident in my abilities, and more open to talking with people, whether that’s just chatting with someone at the crag or actually admitting to myself and others that I’ve got more than just surface problems. 

The ladies who shared their stories have different ways that climbing has changed them, what it has done for them. They come from different backgrounds, different cultures, different lifestyles, and yet we are all united by this one thing. By this one dumb sport.

Over the past winter, I finally found a girl gang I could climb with consistently at the gym. And it’s such a different feeling climbing with just women. We got to talk about all the girl things that maybe you might not talk about with a male partner. There was no feeling of competition against each other, only ourselves and so much encouragement. 

This experience over the winter, got me thinking about how cool it would be to have a podcast episode about all the strong climber lady crushers out there. So, I spammed the climbing Facebook forums I was a member of, pestered my friends for voice submissions, and repeated the process.

And the submissions I have gotten are amazing. So amazing that I’ve decided to split this episode into two parts. In part one, Kristine shares her struggles climbing with her male partner and how she learned to no longer try for his approval after a few cutting comments shook her confidence in herself. She struggled to have confidence in herself even after doing some tougher climbs with her partner. Kristine told her partner that she was submitting to this podcast and he took a moment to apologize for the comments he had made in the past. Sometimes, maybe more for us ladies than the men, words like that stick with us. One comment about how we can’t climb, how we aren’t strong, or whatever it may be, stick with us for a while. It’s like anything, one bad comment derails all the other good comments we might have gotten. 

And you’re not alone in this feeling. 

Thanks to Max Kerner for the music and Kayne for my logo!

Show Resources:

We The Wild Ones

• Instagram - @we.thewildones
• Website - www.wethewildones.com