What the trail teaches us about resilience

Have you ever found yourself questioning the allure of extreme endurance challenges? This episode takes you along on the raw and unfiltered journey of a hiker who's battling the elements, her own limitations, and the clock to set a fastest known time on a demanding trail. As she faces injury, sickness, and the scarcity of resources, we're invited to reflect on our own pursuits of voluntary discomfort and the historical inevitability of suffering. It's a narrative that probes the depths of human resilience and asks what it truly means to push ourselves beyond the boundaries of our comfort zones.

Join me as I draw parallels between her extraordinary quest and an adventure that resonates closer to home. Alongside a group of mom friends, I recall the daunting task of summiting four 14,000-foot peaks in a single day, an experience that brought us face to face with our own grit and resilience. As we unpack these stories, they become a larger conversation about the psychological drivers of extreme endeavors, the management of risk, and the invaluable lessons learned when we confront our fears head-on. This isn't just a recounting of arduous treks—it's an exploration of the indomitable human spirit.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Lately I've been following a popular hiker as she's been doing an unsupported through hike of a certain trail in an attempt to set a record for the fastest known time on that trail. So this means she's out essentially like racing the clock on a through hike and because it's unsupported she has to carry everything that she needs for the entire hike, the only exception being water that she finds and drinks along the way. Judging from what she's been posting on social media, her hike so far has been brutal. She got injured quite severely, she got sick. She's run out of food, she couldn't. Quite severely, she got sick, she's run out of food, she couldn't find water. And she's been very honest about her struggles on this trail, calling it in some cases the hardest thing that she's ever done. And she is no stranger to through hiking. She's no stranger to trying to attempt to set fastest known time records.

Speaker 1: 1:07

I've appreciated her honesty as she's talked about how difficult this trail has been, but I've also had mixed feelings as I've watched her hike from the comfort of my home. I thought what's the purpose of all that suffering just for a record? I've also thought about how weird it is that we live in a society where people voluntarily go out and seek discomfort. This is such a stark contrast to so many times in our history where discomfort and suffering were part of daily life. I've also wondered if she's felt like she had something to prove and, if she's felt that way, why. I've wondered about her ability to assess and mitigate and manage risk, and I've wondered if she sees what she's doing and what she's posting as risky and dangerous. I've also thought about what it is that pushes people to move so far beyond their comfort zone, and she definitely has skills that I don't. She can push beyond anything that I could ever do or want to do on the trails, and I think that in some ways, she probably enjoys pushing herself to the absolute limit. I've also thought that she must be someone who can really walk beside uncertainty and that she's someone who clearly has the ability to embrace fear. As I've watched her hike, two words have popped into my head. The first word that's come to my mind as I've been watching her struggle is grit, and grit is that ability to persevere, that ability to keep on going, that ability to overcome challenges because you're so focused on achieving them. And the second word that's come to my mind as I've been watching her hike has been resilience, or the ability to bounce back from difficulty. On this hike she's just been able to bounce back from all of these challenges. I'm a chubby 44-year-old woman and I'm not the kind of person to seek out any sort of athletic record, but I'm also the kind of person who likes to push myself. Now, not to the extent that this hiker is pushing herself, but I do like a good challenge and it got me thinking what does the trail teach us about resilience?

Speaker 1: 3:33

About a decade ago I got together with a group of my mom friends and we wanted to climb four 14ers, or 14,000 plus foot peaks in one day. At the time you could do this circuit it was Mount Democrat, cameron, lincoln and Bross in one day. So basically you could hike seven miles and get four 14ers. For me it was a no-brainer. It was like four 14ers for the price of one. Sign us up. So after work on a Friday, we loaded up a few cars, we drove to the trailhead. We learned that hundreds of other people had the same idea. So we got to this crowded trailhead. There wasn't any place to park, there wasn't any place to pitch our tents. It was dark, it was late. Finally, we were able to find a place to park, find a place to pitch our tents. We got a couple of hours of sleep.

Speaker 1: 4:26

The next morning we woke up at 5 am and we started hiking, along with half of the population of Colorado. On this hike we had seven miles to go and we had 3,368 feet to ascend and 3,371 feet to descend. So we got up high and we just kept going up and down, up and down, up and down to get those four peaks. Now, we started off strong, but as the day progressed we all started to get tired and, and by the time we hit that last peak, mount Bras, we were pretty pooped. And I remember climbing up this hill and my legs were burning and my lungs were hurting and I was just. I was just out of gas, I just didn't have any energy in the tank, and so I would take 10 steps and then I would let myself take a little break and breathe, and then I would take 10 more steps, I would stop and I would breathe, and I fell into this cadence of stepping and then resting, stepping and then resting. And here's what I learned about resilience that day on the trail.

Speaker 1: 5:47

That day on the trail. First, I learned that mindset is crucial. We did not even give ourselves the option of not making it to the summit of all four peaks. The weather was good, we were safe. Besides being tired, we were feeling good, so we didn't even think about quitting when things got tough. It was that kind of burn the boats mentality that we needed to get through the hike that day. Next, we acknowledged that what we were doing was hard. We joked, we laughed, we cried, we sang, we were miserable, we were happy. But acknowledging that it was difficult allowed us to feel like we had nothing to prove to each other or to ourselves individually, and that allowed us to feel like we had nothing to prove to each other or to ourselves individually, and that allowed us to work through the physical pain that we were feeling. Finally, we realized that resilience is like a muscle, and the more we practice it, the better we get at overcoming all of the difficult things in our lives. We were building our resilience muscles that day and as I look at the past decade of my life, I can see how that experience on the mountain that day stuck with me because it was such a hard day on the mountain, and I can see what I learned and the resilience muscle that grew because of it.

Speaker 1: 6:58

I'm not saying that you need to go out and try to set a record for the fastest known time on a trail. If that's your thing, go for it. I will watch you from Instagram. I'm also not going to sit here and tell you to go climb a 14er or to find four 14ers to climb in one day, but I am going to sit here and I am going to encourage you to try to find something that you can do to build your resiliency. And maybe, maybe that means that you book a trip to join us on Kilimanjaro next August. Maybe this means that you book a trip to hike the Salcante Trail in Peru with us in October. Maybe this means that you plan a big hike with a friend or a backpacking trip with your partner, or maybe it doesn't have to be that big at all. Maybe it can be something as simple as making the goal to get up a half an hour early tomorrow so you can do some yoga before you head into work now.

Speaker 1: 7:58

I'd love to know your thoughts on resiliency. Mostly, I would like to know what you are doing right now to build your resilient muscle, so let's chat about it. Leave a comment wherever you're listening or watching this, and if you wanna learn more about us here at Hike Like a Woman, you can find us at hikelikeawomancom, or you could reach out to my team. Hi at hikelikeawomancom. We always love to chat with you. We're happy to answer any of your questions about any of our upcoming guided trips or adventures. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks so much for hanging out with me. Thanks so much for being part of our Hike Like a Woman community. I will see you next week, same time, same channel. Bye for now.