Keep Going: Climbing, Friendship, Grit, and the Adventure of a Lifetime

In this inspiring episode of The Limitless Podcast, Rod and Kerry sit down with three remarkable mountaineers and lifelong adventurers: Jim, Eileen, and Faye. Together, they share stories from decades of climbing, exploring, failing, returning, laughing, suffering, and finding meaning in the mountains. 

Faye, who has climbed thousands of peaks and completed major Washington mountain lists, reflects on a life shaped by perseverance, curiosity, and the simple drive to keep going. Jim and Eileen add their own powerful perspective on trust, partnership, planning, risk, humor, and the kind of friendship that is forged through shared challenge. 

This conversation is about much more than climbing. It is about resilience, aging with purpose, adapting when life changes, building relationships you can trust, and discovering that adventure does not end just because the route looks different. Whether you are a climber, hiker, outdoor enthusiast, or someone looking for motivation to keep moving forward, this episode is a reminder that we are capable of more than we think, and we do not have to climb alone. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:04

Welcome to Limitless, the podcast where Peak Performance meets unstoppable growth. Each week we explore powerful strategies to elevate your mind, body, and relationships, breaking through barriers and unlocking your potential. Whether you're striving for personal excellence or deeper connection, this is your space for transformation. Just a reminder that this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any mental health or medical condition. Or is it a substitute for professional advice? Always consult a licensed healthcare or mental health professional for your own needs. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, text or call 988. And if you need medical attention, dial 911 from your phone. Now let's get started with living a life without limits.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Hi everyone. Just want to welcome you to our show, The Limitless Podcast. We are so excited here, here with Rod Price. And today we've got Jim and Eileen Brisbane back with us. They've been on our show before. We've been so lucky to have them. Please feel free to go check out their past episode. It's wonderful. We learned so much from Jim and Eileen. And today we have Jim and Eileen back, and we are really fortunate to have with us Faye Poland. So lucky that we have this incredible team before us. So Faye has been, she's also an expert climber, just like Jim and Eileen. And they are also climbed together, so they have really powerful relationship and team teamwork skills together that we'll hear about today. So we're really fortunate to hear that. So Faye's been climbing for many years, and it sounds like you're climbing really picked up after the age of 60. And also, Faye has um graduated from the University of Washington. She's a has a PhD in chemistry. Very impressive, amazing. Um, so we just celebrate you, Faye, and your brilliance. And also just Faye is incredible accomplishments that we hope to hear more about today. Um, she has climbed the Bulger list.

SPEAKER_05 2:20

Bulger Bulger.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

Thank you so much for correcting me. Um quite impressive and would love to hear more about that. And that's not the you've and there have been other ones as well, is what I is that correct?

SPEAKER_05 2:33

Or is that uh list that you've well there there's been over a hundred people who have climbed the bulger list. But uh I guess the one I'm most pleased with is the top 200, which is the Bulger is the top hundred. Yeah, it was a lot harder, took me a lot longer to do that. So there aren't as many of who have finished that list.

SPEAKER_04 2:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Just so impressive. And and Faye, we've been talking about something called growth mindset, which is spoken about by Carol Deck, and also grit by Angela Duckworth. And when I think about these two things, I think about you as somebody who really embodies these really incredible attributes of having uh you know being able to press through, persevere, have grit, go through hard things, and also just having a growth mindset. Sometimes people have a fixed mindset where they're pretty stuck and they put a lot of limitations on themselves. And just everything I've read and heard about you, you really embody those things. So we feel really fortunate to be here with you today and um to learn more about your experiences. So thank you for being with us. Jim and Eileen, is would you be able to tell us a little bit more about your relationship with Faye? Jim, why don't you go first?

SPEAKER_06 3:56

Since Yeah, how do you know each other?

SPEAKER_05 3:58

Yes. Jim and I knew each other first.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yeah. Uh just through the climbing community, it's kind of small. And back in the what, the early 2000s, I learned of Faye through her trip reports in a magazine. There's a local magazine. And at some point we got on each other's email distribution list, and I think that's the key. And let's see, it was what 2004, I think, when I emailed you and asked you if you wanted to do a client. I remember that boy. The client was bandit peak.

SPEAKER_05 4:35

Oh, yeah, I remember bandit peak.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

It's not a well-known peak, but it's something I'd been wanting to do. I didn't think Faye had done it, so I I just tossed it out there and she immediately accepted.

SPEAKER_05 4:47

Well, why wouldn't I? I did a lot of solo up to that point.

SPEAKER_06 4:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 4:55

I had trouble finding partners because I'm very small, I'm very weak, I'm not very talented, technically wise, but I have a lot of perseverance and I don't give up.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

That's that great. It's just powerful.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yeah. It was, yeah, it was pretty well known that uh Faye had as much grit as 20 average men.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 5:18

Well, it sure sounds like it, yeah. Reading some of those stories, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

So impressive. And and for me, I met both of them at the exact same minute. Um I remember it.

SPEAKER_05 5:30

I remember I remember that meeting well. It was on a ski, we were going on a ski trip, and Jim had just uh invited Eileen.

SPEAKER_04 5:38

The strange woman.

SPEAKER_05 5:39

And all I can say is is the moment that Eileen entered the car, I didn't exist. They connected immediately. I remember that vividly.

SPEAKER_06 5:52

Faye, how many climbs did you have under your belt uh when you all met?

SPEAKER_05 5:57

Oh, geez, I don't know. What year was that?

SPEAKER_00 6:01

2004.

SPEAKER_05 6:03

Well, you met in the four.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

We met in 2006.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Two years later is when you met Eileen.

SPEAKER_05 6:11

That's hard to say. Uh I I'm actually working on my life list, which is not an easy thing because I didn't keep good records on a computer. They're all handwritten. I have every climb I've ever climbed, but they're all handwritten in notebooks and not easily some of them uh are in hieroglyphics. Yes. But I would guess maybe at that time fift somewhere between 1500 and 2000 P.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 6:44

I don't know. Amazing. Up to 4,000 now.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Yeah. So how old were you when you met Jim? Were you 60 yet? Yes.

SPEAKER_05 6:58

Did I meet you after my husband died?

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Yes, shortly shortly after. Like a year or two after Kent died.

SPEAKER_05 7:06

Yes. So that that yeah, I was I was sixty.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

She was in her sixty.

SPEAKER_05 7:11

That's that's when I my climbing career. I climbed all my life, but I had two kids. And uh um i i my feeling was you know, there there were three things I could do in this life. I could be a mother, I could have a career, or I could climb mountains, but I couldn't do all three.

SPEAKER_04 7:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:33

So my career suffered. But I didn't need to have a career because my husband had a good job.

unknown 7:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:38

But anyways, then then he passed away in in um when was it? 2002? 2002, somewhere around there. And then that's when my climbing career took off. Because you know it partially it was uh just um it's good therapy.

SPEAKER_06 7:57

Therapy. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:58

Yes. But I my whole life was climbing. I climbed practically every day.

SPEAKER_06 8:03

Oh, that's great. So when you you said after your husband died, you jumped in, you really jumped back into climbing and you said that said that was part of your therapy. Was there was there a kind of a moment in time that you remember where you, you know, that defining moment where you decided, you know what? I'm not getting any younger. I have this bucket list, I want to do these things. I mean, is can you remember that moment where you just decide, okay, I'm gonna start doing this?

SPEAKER_05 8:34

I think it just kind of grew organically. I I don't think I have had a particular moment. I you know, I've been interested in mountains my whole life.

unknown 8:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:42

As a kid, uh, you know, I was always climbing to a high point.

SPEAKER_04 8:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:46

And then it became mountains and then it became lists. Uh but I I can't remember a specific moment where it it it took off. It you know, it was just kind of always there in the background.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, multiplying. How how does trusting someone with your life on a mountain change the way you work together on the mountain? Meaning there has to be a lot of trust in your team, and you guys have done a lot of climbing together. Can you guys speak to that part of your climbing?

SPEAKER_05 9:16

Well, I can say that these two are the most trustworthy climbers I've ever climbed with. It got to a point where I didn't want to climb with anybody else because I didn't trust them.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

And what's really interesting is for me, I didn't I really didn't have a relationship with Faye yet. We had skied together, but we hadn't climbed together because I wasn't a climber at first. But I got to know her skiing and I got to know through trip reports her. And as much as Faye weighs half what Jim weighs, no, not quite that. Pretty close. You're exactly I mean Faye is not a big person, you know. And I always from the I mean, when before I really started climbing that much, I trusted Faye and Jim together more than anybody else. There's just sort of a down deep trust that you know, some of that's gut, and some of it is watching what people do or listening to them, um listening to conversations through other groups. But yeah, I trusted Jim to tie to Faye before anybody else, even though she's just a little person. I just trusted, they were so good at, you know, neither of them turn around, but they were so good at deciding that they just had the same risk level sort of thing. And I guess I had the same one too, where they would decide together that we're done and they would come back together. You know, they were they were always about climbing, you know, climbing for another day. We were reasonable, yes.

SPEAKER_05 10:45

A lot of climbers are not reasonable.

SPEAKER_06 10:48

Yeah. You know, what you know, I hear what I think I hear now and and what I've heard, you know, previously talking with you, Jim and Eileen, is also trust in yourself. So trust in yourself first, so you trust yourself to a certain level to do the things you want to do. How does self-trust first play into then trusting others? I mean, any thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_05 11:14

Well, I think that's that's important. I always had a good sense of what I was capable of doing. As I said, I'm not a I'm not a great technical climber, but I always knew what I could do. And I could always find a way up. I would always look for the easiest way, but I could always find a better way. And a lot of the people, you know, they'd like to go straight up. I said, Oh, that's too hard. I can we can go around and it's much easier.

SPEAKER_06 11:35

Right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

It was like wisdom.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Do you want to answer that too, Jim? Do you have something for that?

SPEAKER_00 11:42

I I just what what Faye just said reminded me of something that I think this was the number one lesson I got from Faye over the years is persistence. You don't have to be the best climber or the fastest climber or the smartest climber, but you have to be persistent. And you can't you can't give up too soon. I mean, you there comes a time when you know, okay, we we gotta pull the plug. But it's it's really easy to look at something and say, Well, I don't think we can get up that so the climb's done. No, what what Faye taught me was, well, let's look around the corner, let's go left over here, and let's go right over here and see if maybe there's an easier way. And so often there is, but it's not the obvious way. You know, you just keep looking and you keep whittling, and little by little you find yourself on the summit.

SPEAKER_06 12:41

Yeah, I've heard people talk about that with their careers as well or lives, right? You know, there's some people just have this arc, this straight path, this arc, it seems like, but I think most people, you know, it's the path, the path is variable, right? And you get stopped, and instead of turning back, you look for a way around it.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

And yeah, I think that that's funny, Rod, because that was exactly what I was thinking when Jim was talking. Is boy, that's that's the way life is too. You know, if you want to be successful in life, you just keep you just gotta keep persevering.

SPEAKER_05 13:13

There's there's always alternatives.

SPEAKER_06 13:14

Yes, there's always alternatives for sure.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Okay, when thank you for sharing that. When things get terrifying or scary on a climb, how does how do you guys pull together? How do you problem solve? Can you speak to that?

SPEAKER_00 13:36

The first the first is just trust. The scarier things got, the more humor we would interject into the situation.

SPEAKER_05 13:49

Yeah, but it really helps to trust your partner, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

And I think I mean we got to the point where we all knew each other, each other's capabilities and each other's strengths and all that, and to just trust that. Yeah. I think in all cases, if one of us thought it was time to turn around, we all turned around.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Yeah, and agreed.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

And we all uh acted as a collective. We were a well-oiled machine working together. Yeah, there was there was just Yeah, I don't think we ever go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

I I can't I was trying to think of whether there was a climb where we disagreed on. I was just gonna ask that. Yeah, thank you. Whether to turn around or not. And I I can't think of one where we didn't pretty quickly all agree that it was it was time to turn back.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Yeah, as soon as one person verbalized it, and I think that was that's one of the things that made it, as me being the rookie climber, made it so comfortable for me to climb with them, is that I just always felt like if if I said I'm uncomfortable, they would either, you know, will a rope work, will this work, will that work? But you know, I just I never felt like I was I was that they were gonna haul me along even though I was scared to death and had to go back. You know, if I was scared to death, they all turned around.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

That's great.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

It's so important.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Yeah. I mean, I know both of them will do things way higher than me without me, but when I'm with them, they don't. It's um I don't know what you call that.

SPEAKER_06 15:23

That's just good. Yeah. Well it's yeah, it seems to me, and maybe you can speak to this in terms of you know, aligned value aligned values and shared values. Do you feel like that that was a part of your early coming together? Was you shared a lot of the same values, not just interests, but same values.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

I'm gonna let you two answer that. I I think it was.

SPEAKER_05 15:51

I think we It was kind of intuitive. I don't know if we really thought about it.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Yeah, we didn't. It wasn't something we ever talked about, but I think it just that's just how we kind of felt deep down. And it clicked good fortune, we all kind of clicked on that level. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Well, I think had we not all clicked at that level, we wouldn't all three clicked.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Yeah, right. That's true. That makes a lot of sense. Of course, how do you handle, you know, when you have to turn back, how do you handle the feelings of disappointment?

SPEAKER_00 16:26

I cry.

unknown 16:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 16:29

That's good. I look forward to coming back and doing it again.

SPEAKER_04 16:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:34

Great.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

That's a that's a growth mindset attitude for sure.

SPEAKER_05 16:38

In fact, it I mean, one of our hardest climbs, one of my most disappointing climbs was crooked thumb. Took me five tries to do crooked thumb. And of course, every time you fail, it's a whole year gone by because you can't go to the pickets more than once a year. It's it's over a week trip to get there. So it took five times. And then finally, uh J uh Eileen and I tried it several times and and didn't make it. Uh and then finally Jim came along and the three of us made it. And that was one of the most satisfying and yet sadly, I I don't know how to describe it. I was kind of sad. Because I didn't get to come back to the tickets again and try it.

SPEAKER_06 17:23

The chat the challenge was over, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:26

The challenge was over. That kept me going for five years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 17:31

I get it.

SPEAKER_02 17:32

Wow. Wow. How was that for all of you, uh Jim, Eileen, everyone?

SPEAKER_06 17:38

Yeah, tell us about that climb. Tell us about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

That was that was a highlight. And I think you guys have heard a little bit about it before. I think what was so neat about it was it was something that that Faye and I kind of that was my first trip that I ever went on without Jim. And I asked Faye, I mean, she's this high-end climber, and I asked her, could I go with you? Because I always wanted to go to the pickets. I'd always seen pictures. Jim told me that he did not think it was good for our marriage for him to be the first one to take me into the pickets. And to this day, he's never panned a picket trip, and it's one of my favorite places to go. But um, Faye said she would take me.

SPEAKER_05 18:14

Um I never looked at it that way. I was just pleased that you were agreed to go with me. You need so you need a trip like that. You can't do that solo.

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Yeah. And so we went in and we did some stuff, and I had so much fun. And then Faye and I decided the next year we're like, we can do this by ourselves. We'll go in the next year now that we know the peak a little better. And we ended up and Jim actually stayed home and worked, and he sent us weather reports. He was our ground guy. And yeah, we then we got to the point where we got into that and we had to turn around, do the weather. And then both Faye and I on the way home were like, I think we need Jim. And so the that took us two trips to Jim.

SPEAKER_05 18:51

And then we we had to make it the two trips with Jim. But that's because there were other people along. Why did it need to be just the three of us if we were gonna make this work?

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Yeah. And that's that's happened for several things that the three of us together, because I think because of what you said, that we we just keep we look around every corner. There's no we just kind of keep I don't know how to describe it. We work well together. Yeah, and we always said we sneak up on peaks, we don't, you know, conquer them, we just sort of sneak up.

SPEAKER_06 19:26

I like that. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

You know, um, but I think I felt the same way. When it was over, it was something the three of the three of us ended up, you know, it was just this project. You start out with project and then it's over. And um, the only joy I got out of that is because Jim went in that area and he climbed in that area. Jim looked at this thing called the picket traverse that I've always wanted to do. But Jim always said, we can't do the picket traverse, it's too hard.

SPEAKER_05 19:55

We did do that afterwards.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

And then Jim after that, when we came home, I think because we were all sad crooked thumb was over. Jim said, I think we can do the picket traverse. And then we all three of us got excited again.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Wow. And then you did that. Yeah. And how was that?

SPEAKER_05 20:11

Well, there there were other people on the mat, so it wasn't just the three of us, but it it was a very good trip.

SPEAKER_00 20:15

Yeah, it was hard. That was hard was amazing.

SPEAKER_05 20:19

That was at that point I was beginning to feel my age, let's put it that way. We were 75. And uh and so uh I had to have some help in carrying some of my gear. So that I uh that might have been my last really big it was.

SPEAKER_06 20:36

What year was that?

SPEAKER_05 20:37

Was there another one? No, I think that was what year?

SPEAKER_00 20:41

Uh that was that must have been right around 2018.

SPEAKER_06 20:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:50

Yeah, that is that is a uh a a hazard or um what shall I say? See, they're younger than I am, so I failed. I I was meaning to fail before they were age-wise.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

And personally, I think that's been the saddest thing. Not the peaks that we finished, but when we would do something and we would think Faye would have loved this. Oh and we've come up with a couple things since then where we were able to do it together. Yes, they repeats.

SPEAKER_05 21:19

They coast me along on a few trips, but then I got to the point where I, you know, I think I I think it's time to hang it off.

unknown 21:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 21:28

Not not on the outdoors, but just in climbing.

SPEAKER_06 21:31

Sure.

SPEAKER_05 21:32

Just changing it up.

SPEAKER_06 21:35

Yeah, you know, how I mean, so how technical have some of your climbs together, the three of you? What what are the most a couple of the most technical climbs that you've done then?

SPEAKER_01 21:54

There's always this difference between, in my opinion, where there's a technical Spot right where you come to a spot and it's one thing and then it's one thing you gotta conquer and that's a technical spot.

SPEAKER_05 22:08

Then there's how the diff the difficulty.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

The difficulty of the climb.

SPEAKER_05 22:14

You know, continued difficulties, but nothing is really that technical.

SPEAKER_01 22:18

And then some yeah, and then there's some that you leave the parking lot. I mean, when we did Johannesburg together, that was I mean, pretty much you leave the parking lot, you hike about you know an hour and a half, and then from that point on there was no letting up. Right. For three days.

SPEAKER_06 22:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Nothing was really hard, but it was It was steep and exposed.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Steep and exposed. Three days. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Yeah. So the technical part, that's a that's a tough question in Mountaineering.

SPEAKER_05 22:46

Well, that I would say the most technical one is the one that they they treated me to on my 70th birthday, which is a guide. Yeah. You're right.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Uh North North early winter. Oh, yeah. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_05 23:06

Even with a guide, there were times when it was like a business.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

It was tricky. It it didn't help that it the temperature dropped below freezing as well. So we were we were close.

SPEAKER_05 23:19

It was for my birthday. My birthday's in September. So it was it was getting the end of the season.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Was that a pretty memorable climb? I'm sorry? Was that memorable? A special climb was on your birthday. It sounds like you do those on your birthday.

SPEAKER_05 23:36

Well, partially just because I thought it was so sweet.

unknown 23:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:41

What a birthday present.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

I mean, how many people get a what a birthday present. One thing I remember about that climb is I I bought this great big cupcake at the store before our climb, and it came in one of those kind of clear plastic, crunchy containers, you know, that you'd get leftovers in or something. And I had it in my rucksack. I think the last pitch of our climb was in a chimney. So I had my back pushed against the wall of the chimney, and I could hear that crissy plastic.

SPEAKER_04 24:13

Tasted just fine.

SPEAKER_05 24:15

I don't know what this cupcake's gonna look like, but even the guide, the guides started out, you know, all professional, you know, all distant, you know, business, yeah, just business. And then by the end of the climb, he was into it.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

He's telling us stories. That's great.

SPEAKER_02 24:35

Oh just a neat experience.

SPEAKER_05 24:38

Yeah, it's a very fun trip.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

Oh, so neat. Did you eat the cupcake? Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_05 24:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

Even the guy that ate the cupcake. Oh, that must have been really special. Is it at the top or yeah, yeah, yeah, on the summit?

SPEAKER_05 24:52

On the summit. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

Wow. And and Faye, do you celebrate birthdays sometimes climbing? It sounds like when somewhere I read, is that true?

SPEAKER_01 25:00

We celebrate a lot of birthdays together.

SPEAKER_05 25:02

Yes, yes, we've celebrated birthdays. Yes, my birthday. My son is is he's at much low lower level, but his birthday is in November, which is a real challenge. But I would take him on a very small peak. It i every every year I would take him out and come in November. In November.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

That's such a meaningful way to celebrate birthday.

SPEAKER_00 25:28

It helps that Faye's birthday is in September, which is the best month in the mountains. So that's pretty special. Almost always out on a trip on your birthday.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Yes, yes, pretty much. And we didn't even know when her birthday was until it was our second attempt on Triumph. I think it was our second attempt on Triumph. So we'd been together on one and we got weathered off. And so we came back and we're on the summit, and Faith says, It's my birthday today. And we're like, Why didn't you tell us? She goes, I didn't want to do the climb, but yeah, that was not the that was not the last time.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

That's really special. Can you guys tell us about your scariest moment? Do you have one on a climb that you feel comfortable talking about? What that was like for you.

unknown 26:12

Oh scary.

SPEAKER_05 26:14

Oh yeah. I can tell you. I thought I was gonna die. Is that scary enough for you? I mean, I understand. I don't know if you're thinking of the same one I'm thinking of. I was thinking of that one. But it was on Big Four. Oh. Just the two of them. I don't do that. Just the two of us were climbing it. Now, Big Four is kind of kind of a challenging peak anyway. Anyway, we we were going up a uh we had just barely started it and gotten to the serious part. Anyway, there's this gully. It's a big snow gully, and I was on one side and he was on the other side. And I thought I was safe. You know, we're we weren't in the gully, in the snow gully. Of course, there's lots of uh Seracs and stuff above us. But anyway, I'm climbing up all of us and I hear this crash, and I could see this this snow coming down. I said, Oh, I'm safe, I'm not in the gully. And it was a chunk of ice that came down. Oh wow. And it it it it was going down the gully and it bounced and it bounced right towards me and hit me in the thigh. Oh me backwards. We weren't roped, we were on the it wasn't really technical, that technical trait. We had cramp on ice. And and uh so I went head over heels backwards, sliding backwards. I said, I gotta I gotta self-arrest, I gotta self-arrest. I knew there were cliffs below me. If I don't self-rest self-arrest right away, I'm gonna die. Wow. And somehow I I ended up in the gully. Of course, that's where you go when you start sliding downhill. And I did self-arrest. And and I was just lying there. I can't imagine what Jim was thinking. Uh he he was probably petrified. He probably thought I was dead. I thought I was dead. But anyway, I had survived. A few a few other pieces of snow came down and I was just hunkering down. Anyway, I got up and uh fortunately there were no serious injuries, but it had paralyzed my left leg and I could no longer go uphill. So at that point we had to go downhill. And it was it was an effort getting out. I had no no lasting injuries from that, surprisingly. I I recovered in a few days or a week or something. But it wow it it just I don't know what it did. It it just must have paralyzed the muscle in that leg. They hit it so hard. I'm not even sure how to breathe. But anyway, you you can tell them what what uh watching that, what went through your mind.

SPEAKER_00 28:40

It was uh a bizarre experience because we were watching this. There was one ice chunk that was about the size of a small car tire. That was just rolling down the hill. It was going nowhere in in our direction. And then what forty feet before it got to Faye, it just angled over towards her. I mean, it was just like it had a mind of its own and it just it's just careened off at a 30-degree angle and and nailed her right in the leg. And I just I couldn't believe what I was seeing. And then when she goes upside down in this steep gully, yeah, it was really, really frightening.

unknown 29:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 29:24

That is probably one of my greatest regrets. Or maybe not. I'd never been back to climb big four. Okay, never made it up big four.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

Neither has Jim. It felt like the mountain just had it in for us. That was that was my third try on Big Four. And every time it's just it was telling us something.

SPEAKER_05 29:43

Yeah, you're not meant to be here.

SPEAKER_06 29:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 29:46

Yeah, I feel your pain. I had a similar incident on Athabasca with a rock, and it it was one of those rocks that came bouncing down. I would go right, it would go right. I'd go left, it would go left, you know. And and just following you, yeah. Oh, totally. It was aiming for me, yeah. Yeah. So the mountain's trying to tell you to go home. I wasn't smart enough to listen. Oh wow. Yeah. So so, but you recovered from that, and were you were you a little bit angry about it afterwards? How were what were your emotions like after?

SPEAKER_05 30:19

No, actually, I was established that I was alive.

SPEAKER_06 30:22

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:24

I really thought I was dead.

SPEAKER_06 30:26

Yeah. Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_05 30:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 30:27

And no residual damage.

SPEAKER_05 30:30

No, there was I don't even remember I had a bruise. I I can't remember. I should have had it, but I was considered younger then.

SPEAKER_06 30:41

You know, Faye, I was reading uh reading look reading up on you a little bit, and there was a story I saw, and I can't I can't remember which peak it was, but there was red where you you launched a sky hook. Is that what is that what it's called? Something like that. I was trying to remember what that was, but maybe I was reading.

SPEAKER_05 31:03

Yes, that's when I was still filming and yeah. Forgive me, I have many scenes.

SPEAKER_06 31:10

Was that pharmigan?

SPEAKER_05 31:11

No, no. It's prossic peak, and I sold that. That's not a peak you normally solo because you really need a peak, right?

SPEAKER_06 31:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:22

Self-play um technical climbing, which is makes it much more difficult because you have to climb each pitch twice. You have to anchor at the bottom, climb up, anchor at the top, repel down, and get your anchor, and then so you climb each pitch twice.

SPEAKER_04 31:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 31:38

But that was uh that was probably before I met Jim. Or he would have climbed it with me.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:47

I I I I hesitate to use the word desperate. I was so keen to climb these peaks, and nobody wanted to climb them with me. I I had to climb partners.

SPEAKER_06 31:57

How bold, how bold. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 31:59

I had solo. I sold, like, for example, the Bulger Peaks, a hundred of them, I sold seven 72 of them. I only had partners for the ones that required a partner, which is mostly glacier climbs. And glacier climbs, you have to have a partner, otherwise you're you're asking for it.

unknown 32:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Yeah. What was that like for you, solo climbing versus climbing with Jim and Eileen? I'm sure it's completely Oh, I much prefer climbing with Jim and Eileen.

SPEAKER_05 32:26

It's much more fun, much easier. You don't have to work as hard. But I must say it was if you're technically inclined, it just the technique, learning the technique, you and you have to be so focused.

unknown 32:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:40

You have to the only person you can depend on is yourself. So you have to make sure you do everything right. You have all your anchors in properly, et cetera, et cetera. So it's it's it's you know, it's very focusing. You don't think of anything else while you're doing it. The rest of the world disappears, and all you see is is your technique in the in the peak and getting up and down.

unknown 32:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

Wow, yes. Super present.

SPEAKER_06 33:04

I I know, you know, from talking with Jim and Eileen before and just reading, you know, reading a lot of things from your you know, your your websites, but your meticulous planners. I I learned that about you. But the three of you, how is your planning process when you when you take on a project, you decide you're going to climb it together, you know, in the past? How how does that planning go and how does it look with the three of you? How does it work?

SPEAKER_01 33:33

I think more than anything, it's it's you know, one of us launches the idea out and throws it on a calendar, and then as we get closer, everybody sort of brings beta. So we might discuss, these two especially might discuss which direction, you know, north side, east, west side, you know, which direction. I always defer to them on which side we're gonna go in. But I think a lot of it happens in route, believe it or not. I mean, they bring stuff with them, but a lot happens, you know, they find beta or they dig stuff, or we've done stuff where there's not a lot of beta. And um, you know, when we did Crooked Thumb, there was a little bit of beta, but not a lot.

SPEAKER_05 34:18

It hadn't been climbed that often, really.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

No, and especially when we went out and did Phantom. And so there's a lot of in route, I guess is the best way to put it. We bring stuff with us, but a lot of it is discussed in route. Gives you something to talk about in camp.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_06 34:35

And a lot of route finding along the way.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

But we all have we love that.

SPEAKER_05 34:44

I call it explorer, Gene. Yes, finding the way up a peak is almost as much fun as getting to the top of a peak. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:50

For the three of us, we totally feel that way. So it's not having a lot of information. We want to be in the right spot, but not having a lot of how you gotta climb it is okay, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

A metaphor for life, yeah, for sure. Yeah. There's there's a great satisfaction in coming to a you know, like a head wall that you cannot climb. You look around the corner and there's this ledge that just takes you around the head wall and on up the mountain. And it's just it's like that that is such a good feeling that you took the time to find that.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

We like Jim said or face it at some point, we climbed a lot of things because we gave ourselves time. And I think that is a nice metaphor for not. I mean, we never had it scheduled so tight that we didn't have time to geek be lost.

SPEAKER_04 35:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

We always gave ourselves enough time to be lost and try and figure out where the heck we were going next. There's a kitty for you.

SPEAKER_05 35:49

That that's an that's another thing, though. There are some people who I will mention no names. Who will go into an area and want to climb every peak in sight before they leave. We weren't that way.

unknown 36:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:02

We want to focus on one peak and enjoy that peak and get it, you know, and really experience it. And then if we need to, we'll come back and get the rest of the peaks.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

And we loved coming back. Oh yeah, coming back to it. It was like uh, you know, we're gonna go back to an old friend. Yeah, we get there's five more peaks, and we get to make five more trips into this beautiful area before we're we're done.

SPEAKER_01 36:27

Except for Book Beck and Buck Indian Mish.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

Yeah, that was one that we had to climb both of those because we never wanted to climb back.

SPEAKER_05 36:36

Oh, yeah. Well, there are some. So that's not you. You gotta if there's a peak right next to it, you gotta get it there, or you you know you'll never be back.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

I mean, I mean, we chose to sleep in the cold so that we didn't have to come back. Yes, yeah, we just had a bivwhack in the cold. It was so bad, and we're so cold. But you know, that was our choice, so we never had to come back to that area.

SPEAKER_06 36:58

Yeah, I'd be glad you did.

SPEAKER_04 37:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 37:02

Gonna finish this because I'm never coming back to this one.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

It's like really embracing. So when you you guys think about peak performance or just performing at your best, or however you want to frame it, what do you think mountaineering helps enhance or helps induce that? Or what are your thoughts about that? What have you learned that helps you really with performance when you're climbing? I mean performance or like performance, like when you're performing kind of at your um physically? Yes, and mentally. I guess it's both, right? Because it would it would take mental skills and physical skills. So when you think about kind of performing at your best, what what do you feel like mountaineering teaches you? I mean, there's so many opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Oh, I mean I think the number one thing that it taught me was just like Jim said earlier. I mean, we started running around with this this concept of you gotta touch the rock, you know, don't turn around in life until the you know go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

Yeah, that that was kind of our uh the mantra for all three of us. It you know, you're coming up on a mountain and it looks terrifying. You know, because of foreshortening. They're always very scary as you approach them. But our mantra is you can't make a decision until you touch the mountain. You have to go up and touch the rock and really see, you know, what you're working with before you Oh, I love that.

SPEAKER_05 38:34

Well, one of my one of my mantras, which it uh it which applies to life in general from climbing mountains, is there is always a false summit.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 38:46

Always. Always you just have to be prepared for it. Yeah.

unknown 38:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 38:57

Yes, maybe more than one.

SPEAKER_06 38:58

Sometimes there's multiple.

SPEAKER_01 39:03

Because I started late in life. I started climbing. I mean, Faye Faye did a lot of her climbing late in life, but I physically started late. I'd hiked, but I had never climbed um until I was 45, I think, or 42, something like that, when I climbed for the first time. Um is that it you know, there's you're you're capable of so much more than you give yourself credit for. And the mountains truly teach you that because you know, there's there's times you have to get back to camp. There's times, I mean, when Faye was hit by the snow thing and her leg's numb, you gotta get out. You know, there's just and you're capable of so much, you're ready to quit, but you can take one more step. And I think that was a big thing that that I've taken towards regular life. It's just that you you're capable of a lot more than you think you are, both mentally and physically.

unknown 39:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 39:59

I you know, this happened, this happened when we were talking with you, Jim and Faye, last time. I'm so flippant inspired right now. I'm so motivated. It's like, I'm like, can't wait for this. I just want to go climb stuff, you know. And that's I mean, seriously, I just love your attitudes and your, you know, how you look at life and how you just look at I, you know that and I and Faye, I realize physically, you know, you that there's challenges now, but how you've really overcome you know, up to this point, the the idea that I mean seriously, I was sort of looking at, well, I'm entering the third season of my life. I should probably tone it down a little bit. And then I talk with people like you. I'm like, heck no, I'm gonna keep going. I mean, I mean, that's so it's so great to to just speak to people and hear from people who are just looking at challenges like it's one more thing to do.

SPEAKER_05 40:56

You have to change your perception and change your uh you can just ratchet it down. Like I I can't climb the big peaks anymore, but now I get the same satisfaction in climbing dinky peaks or even just any close contour anyway, anywhere. I just want to get to a high point. I mean I'm kind of programmed to go to a high point, even at this point in my life.

SPEAKER_06 41:17

Amen. Amen. That's great. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 41:21

Oh that is so great. And you're um, I agree. With everything Rod said, so inspiring. And do you guys still climb together or hike?

SPEAKER_01 41:32

What we do is we try and do a a Faye does a lot of her stuff in trailers now, in a trailer now. Yeah. I don't know how many lot more years I'm sleeping on the ground, but I know Faye's chosen, she's done. Um we try and do once a year, we try and do a trailer trip and go. So we've been to Cooley. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:52

We do a lot of hiking and hiking hiking and scrambling. That's that's the way I still get outdoors. I can't carry a heavy pack anymore.

SPEAKER_03 41:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:00

My main goal is I I I've been to every state park in the state, in Camp State Park. And so uh and state parks, there I probably know state parks better than anybody in the state.

SPEAKER_06 42:15

Get that book written. Get that book written.

SPEAKER_05 42:17

Yes, staying in a state park. And you know, I went to have the comfort of the trailer. Uh I don't have to carry a pack, I can just go out on a day hike, but I but I still get out. Any outdoors? I still I still find uh occasionally a new peak. I mean, uh a true peak, the definition being that it has 400 feet of prominence. And I still occasionally will find an odd one here and there that I can still get up.

SPEAKER_04 42:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:42

Well, and it is funny because the three of us kind of always, like I said, we like getting lost. You know, we we tend to, I don't know, go someplace that we're probably not supposed to be. Even like the first trailer trip we did, they wanted to go out and explore this little area, and we're like, okay. And so pretty soon we're sitting having a snack, and one of them, I don't know which one of us said, Wow, it looks like if we go across, we could climb that chute and we could go over here and we could come across this way because we we all like loops, we don't like one-way directions, and we get ourselves in trouble all the time. We can't help ourselves, so it's great. Even at this point, we're still doing that. I mean, that was two years ago that we got in the cooley where we were doing that.

SPEAKER_06 43:24

And so where where were you at? You say cooley, like Grand Coulee, or where at?

SPEAKER_05 43:29

Grand Coulee.

SPEAKER_06 43:31

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:32

Which which one we're at? Steamboat Rock?

SPEAKER_06 43:34

Steamboat Rock. Steamboat, yeah. I was just gonna ask you about Steamboat Rock.

SPEAKER_05 43:39

I say at the state parks in the off season because there aren't as many people there.

SPEAKER_06 43:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:44

And so because I'm a senior, I get special discount rates.

unknown 43:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:50

Very cheap to have hookups there. So that's the reason the state parks. I don't have anything against well, I never stayed in an RV park. I I I can't stand it. But I will occasionally stay in a forest service park, but you know, there's no hookup, so that's that's a little more roughing it.

SPEAKER_06 44:07

If you haven't done it yet and you go back there, if you do the you can go, do you know where the caves are over on the just down the highway, the Banks Lake, their lava tubes?

SPEAKER_05 44:18

Lenore Caves?

SPEAKER_06 44:19

What's that?

SPEAKER_05 44:20

The Lenore Caves?

SPEAKER_06 44:22

Yeah, the Lenore Caves, yeah, Lake Lenore Caves, yeah. And then you if you you go up and you go over the top of the coolie, the edge of the rock, there's a there's a trail that takes you back into this hidden coolie back there, and there's like there's great hiking, and there's uh petroglyphs back there and the whole thing, so it's pretty cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:42

Well, that's from Sunbanks.

SPEAKER_06 44:44

What's that?

SPEAKER_05 44:46

That would be Sun Banks. I mean, uh Dry Lakes, Sun Banks. I'm not sure. Yeah, the dry lakes area too.

SPEAKER_06 44:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:52

Whatever it is. Dry falls, dry falls. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 44:57

So much to do, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

Um in fact, I'd like to go back there.

unknown 45:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:03

No, that could be this year's trip. Yeah. That's great.

SPEAKER_06 45:05

That's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

That's great. What is one thing that you wished everyone knew about the outdoors could do for them? Like something you would like to share with listeners about the power of the outdoors. What's something you would say? All of you.

SPEAKER_04 45:25

That's a question. Kind of an open-ended question.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

Yes. Very open. Just that if if you there's a lot of error. Yes. There's a lot of people that don't think they can do it. You know, there's a lot of people that don't think I'm I'm not fit enough, I'm not strong enough, I'm not.

SPEAKER_05 45:42

And the other thing is that it seems like, well, particularly I'm sensitive to women. I I always try to uh encourage women to get out and do things. And also on their own without a boyfriend or whatever. Nothing against boyfriends, but some of them are they're petrified of of the outdoors. They say, oh, there's snakes, there's bears, there's cougars. I see, those aren't the things you have to worry about. Not to not to warn them too much about that. But I I try to encourage, I would encourage them to get out that you know they have some some unfounded fears.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

Yeah, everybody's scared of of what's out there. Yes. Or they think they can't do it. Yeah. We're always shocked at the people that say, aren't you scared of of mountain lions? Or bears.

SPEAKER_05 46:35

I've been climbing for what? It's going on 60 years now. I've never had a bad bear encounter. Or a cougar. I've never even seen a cougar. None of us have. I would love to see a lot of things. I've seen plenty of snakes, but the snakes never bother me. They they they just slither away. Yeah. So I you know, I I it it it's they're just unfounded fears. Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

Yes. You know, Jim, what about you?

SPEAKER_00 47:00

Uh you know, I would say that this time of year, you know, people tend to get really depressed, you know, that there's not a lot of sun, there's a lot of rain here. Yes. A lot of cloudy days. Well, you just just go up in the hills, go up to the pass, or go up somewhere and get in the snow. And even on a cloudy day, there's so much light that it's just uh, you know, it's invigorating and therapeutic. And you get out in the cold. Yeah, it's cold when you step out of the car, but you warm up pretty quickly. And just I think it makes it turns a dreary, long, dreary winter into this really fun winter that just goes by so fast you're not ready for it to end. Oh take up snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, anything to get out in the doors, outdoors in the winter time.

SPEAKER_01 47:56

Yes. And I thought he was gonna say you got to get better rain gear. Anybody that starts doing things at the gym goes and buys better rain gear. Yes. Anybody that lives in the Pacific Northwest, you should just have rain gear. And then life is possible.

SPEAKER_04 48:14

Yeah. Yeah. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 48:16

Yes, well, there there is that that to be said. And I say, you know, I always feel so much better. If I just go out for a walk somewhere, I mean it doesn't have to be that serious. Just get out, just get it in the outdoors.

SPEAKER_02 48:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 48:31

That a lot of people think that they have to do something serious. And it doesn't have to be serious. It can be, you know, a two-mile hike. It's just you know, it has something to offer whether you're doing a two-mile walk to the lake or you're, you know, climbing a mountain. The outdoors has everything to offer.

SPEAKER_02 48:49

Yes. It's like force bathing, just getting outside. It's awesome. Rob, were you guys say something?

SPEAKER_06 48:56

You know, it seems to me that all of you epitomize the idea of embracing discomfort in order to get to the next level. You know, and I, you know, Carrie and I've talked about this a lot, right? Embracing the suck, you know, you know, like you've learned to enjoy suffering to a certain extent. So maybe you can talk a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_05 49:20

I I have a different perspective.

SPEAKER_06 49:22

Okay, I want to hear this.

SPEAKER_05 49:25

In order to be a mountain climber, you have to have a bad memory. So true of the trimminess trip. Otherwise, you wouldn't go out again.

SPEAKER_06 49:34

So true. So true.

SPEAKER_01 49:37

See, but I also interested to hear what you have to say. Because on the flip of that, the trips we talk about the most are the trips that had suck in them.

SPEAKER_04 49:47

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:49

So I mean, those are the ones that always come to the I mean, Carrie, we've climbed several things, you know, we've hiked things and climbed several things, but you'll never forget the sucky goalie gully that we had to do.

SPEAKER_02 50:01

No, I won't.

SPEAKER_01 50:02

Right? That's right. You probably tell everybody when they're talking about constant, you're like, oh my god, this rock wall goalie. And that's she does it with a smile though. Yeah, it's the story music to tell. Yeah. Right. You know, and those aren't the ones that stick with you. So what are you gonna say? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 50:24

Yeah, I I I concur that it's sometimes the the most miserable occasions in the mountains are are the ones that you just remember so fondly.

SPEAKER_05 50:35

Yes, but yeah. Again, I think time yeah, time time soothes over the oh yeah, and don't remember that it really sucked. That's right.

SPEAKER_06 50:50

One of my best friends, the guy that got me into mountaineering a long time ago, on our very first, our very first climb was with scouts. You know, we took a bunch of scouts on Mount Adams. And at the trailhead when we got started, he said, okay, everybody, let's get together for a photo. And he says, We call this When You Still Liked Troy. And then everybody's happy and ready to go. You know, so so what so then what has all of this, I think, from a from the perspective of, you know, Carrie and I are constantly trying to figure out how do we help help people, you know, you know, help themselves in growing, right? You know, you know, find, you know, create a vision for themselves, and from that vision, start to create a plan and take action toward, you know, improving their performance, improving their life, whatever it is. And so how do you see climbing, mountaineering, alpinism as a path or a way for achieving those things, right, in life? I call, you know, mountaineering is a metaphor for life, but from in that perspective, how has it helped you or how have you seen it help others?

SPEAKER_05 52:10

Well, it's been the focus of my whole life. I don't know. It's great.

SPEAKER_00 52:15

It it definitely can can help you gain confidence because you you will discover that you're capable of more than you you thought you were and and capable withstanding more suffering than you thought you could. You know, just just on down the line.

SPEAKER_05 52:30

So Yeah, I can't imagine my life without having been to the mountains or just in the outdoors uh now. And you know, I look at people who never get out of the city and I actually I feel sorry for them.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 52:47

Go ahead. No, I I was just gonna say, so I'm a great advocate of of preserving these these outdoor areas where people can get and also urban areas.

SPEAKER_02 52:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 52:56

I'm becoming more and more interested in those as I can't get in, I can't get as far into the mountains as I would like. So uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:06

Well well, and and I think for me it's there's different times that I've I've thought about if I'd never met Jim. You know, besides our our life, you know, that that expansion and what how would that have impacted me as a human being? And and I I think I learned to really I don't know, it's a weird way to say it, but appreciate and be calmer in daily life because you know, the these other things are so hard. I mean they are, they're physically hard. I mean, there's no one's gonna tell you that this is not physically hard sport. You can also die, don't you? You could die doing that's right. It is a suck fest. I mean, it does it's definitely not pleasant or anything like that. But I think you start to realize that this is gonna kill you, but this is not. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 54:05

Perspective.

SPEAKER_01 54:07

The perspective on the whole thing definitely changes because of this, you know, yeah, that was hard, but that was not as hard as when we did, you know, you know, yeah, work was difficult today, but it could have been a whole lot work, you know, that whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 54:21

Yeah, if you you know, if you've been through some like 22-hour climbing trips where you're on the move the whole time. You know, having to work two extra hours at the office doesn't seem like a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 54:34

You know, you don't feel like you're being abused by you end up in a bad hotel because you know, you something happened, your car broke down, and you're in a crappy hotel. You're like, well, this is better than no hotel.

SPEAKER_04 54:45

You know, I mean, yes.

SPEAKER_01 54:47

So yeah, I think it just changes the perspective for me, because I came to it again late in line, that I think it changes your perspective.

SPEAKER_03 54:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:57

Yeah. And confidence, as you as you were saying, feeling more increased confidence. And does the suffering buy you know connect to you? Do you feel like can you say a little bit about how it connects? I mean, relationally.

SPEAKER_01 55:11

Oh, yeah. Yeah, and I mean, I think that's why Jim said that he because of relational relationships, he was not gonna take me into the pickets. Right because he he just he was scared that that would be too much for a relationship, and I think he was right.

SPEAKER_04 55:29

How perception?

SPEAKER_01 55:30

I mean, it is an incredibly difficult place to go, but incredibly beautiful. I mean, it's my favorite area we went went all the time when we were climbing. And um so there's definitely a relationship issue in there.

SPEAKER_00 55:46

Yeah, from from my perspective, I knew she was capable. Yeah, but I knew it would be very difficult and there would be a lot of unpleasantries, and I didn't want her to blame me.

SPEAKER_04 55:57

Okay, you know, she could blame me.

SPEAKER_00 56:00

Where did you get me into? If I make her plan the trip, I'll go along, and then anything that bad that happens, she has to blame herself.

SPEAKER_01 56:12

And that that's yeah, so that's that's a that's a big way of how it affects relationships, is is being dragged in versus going going willing to, you know.

SPEAKER_00 56:21

Becoming responsible for your own decisions.

SPEAKER_05 56:24

Yeah, that that is a common error that many couples make. The guy is really good at it and he drags his girlfriend along and then she hates it. And hates him.

SPEAKER_04 56:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:37

Right. Yeah, sure. That makes a lot of sense. Um, and then do you feel like those memories, you know, going through something really hard connects you too through telling the story, revisiting, or does that make sense? Oh yeah, going through something hard, surviving it together.

SPEAKER_00 56:55

We still talk about just we'd laugh about some of the worst times we've had out in the mountains, you know, like the snowstorm at ice lakes, you know, where it broke our tents, ripped fabric, and you know, none of us slept a wink that night. It was just an awful night, and we would we wouldn't give that up for the world. Right.

SPEAKER_05 57:16

And Jim made the rounds of the tents to make sure, make sure everybody was okay. There were there were a number of us on that trip, all camped at a different spot.

SPEAKER_04 57:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:27

Wow. Yeah, you survived that really hard night. Yes, barely.

SPEAKER_04 57:32

All our tents didn't. Our tents had gone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 57:35

We destroyed like three or four tents.

SPEAKER_04 57:37

All of our bust.

SPEAKER_02 57:41

Wow. That sounds really rough.

SPEAKER_01 57:43

And then you just got up and left or and the next day you have to hike on no sleep. Oh, right. You know, not like you're sleeping in that, you know, so you're up at the first light. I mean, as soon as it was light at all, we were up and on the move because you know, you were miserable. You gotta get out. Yeah, and you gotta get out.

SPEAKER_05 58:01

We spent we didn't spend another night. No, we actually just we left. Well, I think we were within a day of yeah of it.

SPEAKER_00 58:08

Yeah, it was a day to get out. You know, we we have a bunch of those horrible experiences that we we would just we would never give that up. We never if we could go back in time, we would not do it any differently.

SPEAKER_01 58:23

But if somebody told you that this is what's gonna happen, you wouldn't go.

SPEAKER_00 58:29

You don't want to know if you if you survive it and then you look back and you think that that happened to us.

SPEAKER_01 58:37

I mean, we had amazing camps on the Picket Traverse. I mean, that's a nine-day trip, we did a 10-day trip. We had an amazing camp. And I think that one of the camps I remember the most is this crappy camp in a fog bank where we had three tents and all three tents were touching each other.

SPEAKER_00 58:56

I mean, they were so little, bro.

SPEAKER_01 58:58

Top of each other, we had to position the tent so at least somebody could you could get out of your tent.

SPEAKER_05 59:02

There was no place else to put them.

SPEAKER_01 59:03

But there was there's no place else to put them. We had to camp, and here we are on this little, you know, we're just you're just all crammed on top of each other. I mean sardines. Truly, our doors were facing each other, you know. I mean, it's just yeah, but well, it made for good conversation.

SPEAKER_02 59:19

We could all talk to each other that we can light in the tents. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 59:24

You wouldn't you wouldn't wish that. It's not like you recommend that camp to anybody else.

SPEAKER_02 59:28

Right, right. But it was a good memory now, or a memory that you always remember and cherish as you look back. Yeah. And helps you feel connected. Is there any like is there a climb or anything that still haunts you? I know you already just talked about one, the big four, or anything else that stands out to you guys, um, or what you've learned from that experience?

SPEAKER_00 59:53

I've got one that I I really regret the three of us didn't try when we were a little younger. Mount Splessy in Canada. It's it's right on the border, the Canadian border. Famous mountain, scary as all get out. But by the easy route, I think the three of us could have managed to get up that. And I just I wish we would have tried.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:15

Yeah, we talked about it from different times, and then it would get pushed off, and then stuff happens.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:21

Stuff happens. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:23

But it's yeah, I what mountain?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:27

Mount Slefsey. Oh. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:31

Is it technical or is it what is it?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:33

Yeah, very technical.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:35

Like a alpine climb or oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:38

Yeah. It's a big mountain. Long, it'd be a long climb.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:42

Multi-pitch or yeah, well.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:45

And we'd be going up the down route. Okay. You know, we're not we're not that kind of technical climbers. We're not none of us are that kind of technical climbers.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:56

And and will you guys do it or no?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:00

None of us have even touched the rock.

unknown 1:01:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:03

And I were gonna go one year and we did a lot of research, and then we decided we need a gym.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:09

Yeah, and then it just never happened. I yeah, I if I go back in time, I would have made that a higher priority on our list.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:18

Would you guys go and touch the rock even if you or is that not?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:22

I like to call it the sun is set for me.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:25

I know to the rock. Jim's the only one that the sun is on the horizon. The rest of us, the sun has set on that. Yeah, the sun has set.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:35

And can you guys say a little bit more about how you guys I you talked about a little bit, but do you still set goals together? It sounds like you do you by planning trips together or um or just about the concept of setting goals.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:49

I we just try and make sure that we do something together. You know, I mean we we we typically I've been injured, but we typically, you know, through the winter, we'll do little hikes and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:00

I'm just happy when they agree to go out with me, even on a simple hike. If they haven't forgotten me.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:06

Yeah. Well, and there was a year that Jim had a severe injury, and when he was recovering, his it was in his back. So the recovery was he couldn't carry a pack and he couldn't do this, and he had all these requirements. And so it was just it was several years back, and you know, Faye, of course, was a few more years younger, and so we just thought this is something maybe we all want to try together, you know, these different things while Jim's recuperating. We had a blast. So I guess there is in my mind that that when we come up with different things, and I think, and I think you're the same way with the trailer trips, is you think they would really like this. So I think we're still looking for things that they would really like, you know, when we're thinking about the rest of us. So that we always because that's that's the saddest part to me is that the three of us don't climb anymore. Very sad. Yeah, it was a very special time in life.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:59

Yeah, what a legacy though. Yeah, what a legacy.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:03

Many, many, many memories, and so important, right? All those memories and experiences. And and Faye, you were saying, well, what something about like what will your life be like without the mountains? Like, because it's been such a central part.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:17

Well, I I actually think about that now because you know, I'm in the twilight of my life. And my goal is to stay upright to the end. Yes, yeah. And it wouldn't bother me at all to just fall off a trail somewhere and end it all. That would be much more appealing than end up in a nursing home.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:37

Yeah, just yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:39

Well, and you you talk about, you know, what the mountains have taught us or what you know the relationship or whatever you want to, you know, us climbing together and stuff like that. Jim and I have talked a lot and we really admire the way Faye has consistently found a way to keep it in her life. Yeah. And I think a lot of people just stop.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:02

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:03

Oh, yeah. I I agree. Faye, Faye is just, you know, she achieves her her goals get less and less lofty, but the the motivation is still there. And uh the adventure still.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:19

You'd be surprised. I can make make an adventure out of a two-mile hike. I really can't.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:23

So love that. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:26

You know, people would think that maybe we wouldn't enjoy these, do you know, when we go and spend a week in our trailer with her. But the two of us really enjoy it. You know, we get to spend time with her, we get to do stuff, but it's also, you know, we definitely go, oh, let's go there. And we all, okay. You know, is it a good idea? I don't know, let's just do it, you know, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:48

Yeah, still doing it, exploring, adventuring with a lot of flexibility.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:54

So you you don't get yeah, that's that's the main goal. I mean, my goals in the past were always summits. And and I you know, I still love summits if I can get to a summit. But actually, the main goal is just have an adventure.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:08

Yeah, yeah. Yes, yeah, and you can have a venture in all kinds of ways. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:13

Well, and I think to me, Faye, that what's interesting is that's that's another thing that people think you're gonna get into mountaineering, and it's all about all these climbs, right? I mean, that's what people think. I'm gonna climb Rainier, I'm gonna climb this. I hated climbing Rainier, by the way. Uh wasn't my favorite either.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:29

Because the other ones are more interesting. Don't get me wrong, Rainier is beautiful looking. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:35

So people think that those are your goals, and those are, you know, it's only fun if you summit. It's only this if you summit. And Faye and I, the second time we went in for crooked thumb, it was just the two of us. I think that was our first solo trip, the two of us. And we didn't climb a thing. We got stymied because of the weather at one point, we got tent bound for a day. We we we're on our way out and we hadn't climbed a thing. And we both still to this day remember it as one of our favorite trips ever.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:10

We had adventures. We had adventures.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:13

But it's not it doesn't have to be. And we found the route up critical dog. And we did. So when we took Jim, we knew the route. We knew how to get there. We just couldn't do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:24

And so I think that people think that it has to be, you know, people were shocked when Faye said it was one of her favorite trips, and people are like, you didn't climb anything. You know, she's known for all the mountains she climbs and all the peaks and all the, you know. And it's I guess, I guess it's celebrating the little things, you know, it's just about enjoying life. It doesn't have to be I climbed Mount Rainier. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:48

Yeah. Because if you just climb with people you don't know, right? Or maybe you'll meet talk to people or you don't, but that that relational component wouldn't maybe be there. But what you are describing is so beautiful because you're talking about your relationship, the adventure, the experiences. Is that correct? Do I have that correct? Yeah. This journey. But you're still living into that adventure. Is that correct? Yeah, it was an adventure. And and that's so mean it sounds really meaningful. And what are your favorite memories?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:17

We could is I don't think either of us knew that we could the two of us do an eight-day trip with technical climbing gear. I mean, that's a lot of weight, very devotion.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:30

But we both carried one of those two. Yeah. That's right. Neither of which are are high-end climbers. You know, we we we got into the heart of the pickets all by ourselves.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:45

Yeah. So impressive.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:47

Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:49

So strong. It's really remarkable. You're capable a lot more than you think you are.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:54

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:56

So so awesome. Um, what do you hope that as you guys are sharing will inspire others about the outdoors? Your any hopes that you have for people?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:12

I just want them to go out. I think Jim summed it up earlier where I think your hope is that people would just get outside in the winter in the Pacific Northwest.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:23

I think that's a great way.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:25

I mean, he's constantly encouraging people just to go.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:28

And and just enjoy the experience and not just go after this might sound strange coming from me since I've done so many lists. Just don't go after lists, just lists. Right. I mean, they're they're a good way to come up with ideas, but it just seems like lately the focus has been on completing lists, completing them farther faster than anybody else, completing them, you know, in times when nobody else which I think is a prescription for disaster.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:00

Mm-hmm. Right. But yeah, you just and I think that's what shocked people about how much Faye liked our pick our crooked thumb, is you know, they're all like, well, she's after lists, and it's like, no, she's after just so it's just about being outside.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:15

I mean, I do I have completed a lot of lists, but what I my point is that they just gave me ideas of where to go. It wasn't the lists themselves I was after.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:24

Yeah, and you were after kind of can you say more about is it the experience, the adventure phase?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:31

Well, I I mean I can't be dishonest. I I do like getting to summits. Sure. Yeah, why of course that's a good thing. Yeah, right. And by the way, I will climb a mountain twice. There are some people who will not, they absolutely refuse. Once they've climbed it, it's you they're done. I say, but you can go up a different route, you can do it a different time of year. It's a whole different experience. Yeah. No, once you've climbed it, it's done.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:00

And and I will say that again is something that the three of us share. Because I mean, there's a lot of people that won't climb the same mountain twice. Or they're only climbing the same mountains. I mean, there's people that well, there's that too. This is what they know, so this is what they do.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:17

They never do anything else.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:18

Yeah, they don't they don't branch out. Where yeah, the three of us definitely we share that. That we'll we'll go climb the same thing twice if it's different people, if it's different experience.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:27

However, that being said, there are some peaks I will never climb again.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:30

Yeah. We still can't believe you climbed American border with us.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:34

She climbed it twice because I climbed it only to be with Jim and Eileen.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:39

Oh wow, really?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:42

What was it like to climb with them and without them?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:47

I'm sorry?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:48

Like, so you climbed it without them and then you climbed it with Jim and Eileen.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:51

Well, I climbed it previously with well, I didn't that one I didn't solo, I did it with someone else. But it was successful. And it it's not a very fun peak, really. It's it's kind of crappy. But then they were gonna do it. And you know, I just wanted the experience of climbing it with them and being with them.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:09

Yeah, creating those memories.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:11

And it's a it's um very convoluted peak, so it really helped to have somebody that had done, you know, absolutely. Even though you would think going back, you know, I've done something, you're going back, you would think it would be easier to route find. It's almost worse because you think you remember how to go and you get there and you don't.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:30

Is that up in the Baker range?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:32

Is that yeah, it's it's east of not Baker, it's right it's right on the border with Canada. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:39

Oh wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:40

Yeah, it's right on the border.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:44

Yeah. And is there anything else that you guys I know it's not about just making reaching the summit, but is there anything else you would say about what it's like for you in your experience when you reach a summit?

SPEAKER_05 1:11:55

I would say it uh I uh i as much as I've disparaged just climbing to get to the summit.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:02

Right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:04

And I have the same feeling, almost the same feeling, not quite the same, because I have to separate out some peaks like crooked thumb is really great to get to the summit. But I get the same feeling when I climb any summit, even even a dumpster when I get to the tall. You know, I there's there's no you can't get any higher.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:23

Yeah than your surroundings. Right. And what is that feeling? Is it just what does it feel like if you were to describe it? I know it's always different, but what would you say?

SPEAKER_05 1:12:35

Well, fork and relief. Yes, pork. Now I have to get down.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:40

Right, right. It's not over.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:43

Frequently the hardest part is getting down.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:45

Yes, yes, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:47

So question is if you were to look back and look and you were going to give the three of you when you first got together and started doing this, and you were gonna give like one piece of advice, like knowing what you know now, you know, and you were gonna look back at your younger selves when you met and said, that if you don't do anything else, or if you, you know, what is the one piece of advice you would give your younger selves when you started this together?

SPEAKER_05 1:13:18

Pick good companions. Yeah, people you trust.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:21

That's something else.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:22

I'm gonna say climb Slessie, but that's the advice I would give is you know, whatever whatever you think you want to climb, start with the harder ones. Don't save those into your sunset years.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:38

Yeah, that's wise, wise advice. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:42

So so Slessie is the one that if the three of you could climb together, you would do that. Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:50

Well, I I think actually it, you know, it Slessie was I was aware of Slessie, and it would have been a nice uh nice peak to get up. But I I think Jim is more Jim and I got more obsessed about it than Ben. Disappointed. Yeah, Jim and Eileen are more disappointed than I am. I tried to check it out. Obviously, I can live with it.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:09

Is there one for you, Faye? That's what I think.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:12

No, the only one was was Big Four. I love that. I w really would have liked to have gotten up big four.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:18

Me too.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:19

Yeah. It sounds like do do people a lot of people climb that? Is that pretty that's in Grant Mountain Loop Highway area? Uh huh. Yeah, it's a flat loop, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:27

Yeah, it doesn't get very many climbs.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:32

And it and it's it's hazardous. The objective hazards are high. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:40

Yeah. And Rod, what's interesting about that question is I kind of looked at it like, you know, what for the three of us, you know, I think a lot of people might say start earlier, you know, anything like that. But I think the way the three of us came together, um, I think it it it happened the way it needed to happen. You know, you can't push me as a learner any faster. You know, um, I couldn't build my confidence any sooner. The three of us climbed a lot. So we I mean, if I was progressing as fast as I could progress. And I think as soon as I was able, we started ramping up. You know, it was it was never one of those things where, yeah, we should have started earlier, yes, we should have done this. I mean, there was several years in there where it was the three of us, you know, and it wasn't when it was early, it wasn't like it was could have happened earlier, I guess, is the whole thing. I think we played that out about as good as you can play it out.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:41

Three of us.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:42

Wow. What a friendship. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:45

Yes, cherished friendship and how important it is. And in the United States, they talk about being a loneliness epidemic, so which is pretty sad. But your bond and your friendship is really evident, and also that you've had so many incredible adventures together and memories that just I just it's really remarkable and it's very touching to hear. And I hope it's very inspiring to people to connect with other people, build those relationships, and go outside in the winter and in the summer, get outside. Yes, get outside. Like REI says, get outside.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:27

I've seen I've seen so many relationships blossom, friendships, marriages, you know, I've married people on mountains that where they met in mountain school, or you know, and friend, you know, some of my you know, my best friends I've made since I joined the climbing community, and and they're just there's there's this bond that you've you've described so well that forms when you're a you you you meet with similar interests and then you you train together, you work together, and you know, you you do things together, so your values are aligned, and and you you know how the other person thinks a little bit, and that's important. And I think that in climbing, right? That's when I was in mountain school, that's what they said. They said when you go through mountain school, you're probably going to continue to climb with these same people a lot because you've been trained the same way, you know, you've learned the same things the same way, but you've built this relationship of trust with each other. And I think that that's that's what you've demonstrated so well here and you know, throughout your lives together, is just this bond of the love about you know, through the love of out the outdoors, through this trust that you've created, and and my gosh, just this this bold spirit to just go do stuff and try stuff and keep going. I mean, like I said, it's it's for an old guy like me, it's very motivating to to hear that, you know, and and inspiring. So it's this is such a such an inspiring life, you three have led.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:06

Yes, and and Ron, I'm gonna speak to what you just said because I thought it was very interesting. That you know, there was a lot of people that always felt like the three of us were lucky, you know, or Faye might be lucky because she found us to and we could haul more gear, you know. Or, you know, I mean we'd we'd find other club climbers and they'd be like, Oh, you guys are just lucky. You're just lucky. And it's like people just don't take the time. I mean, Faye took the time to climb a what I could climb. You know, neither of them have ever taken me on something that I couldn't climb. You know, if if I couldn't climb it, they would go with just the two of them and I would stay behind. And I think that that's not the way so many people get so goal-oriented, they're gonna run over or leave people behind. And I think when you don't take the time to build relationships, and it's the same with life, you don't take that time to build this relationship, you can't do what the three of us did. Yes, and it's not about the fact that we're the same, three of us are the same skill level, yeah, or the same strength, or the same. I mean, that has nothing to do with it. It had to be with the the taking the time to build the relationship.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:17

Yeah, yeah. So for whatever reason, we we developed a synergy. I think we we made each other better.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:25

Well, it sure made me better.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:26

Yeah, that's so impressive. Well, this is like the power of friendship, the power of relationship. Better together, right? It's easier versus and uh of course, Vay, you've done remarkable work solo, which is so inspiration to women. I mean, such so inspiring, but you have both.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:48

Why I'm not pushing going solo. It was either that or stay home, and I wasn't I understand, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:19:59

Because of the time and trying to connect, find people, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:20:02

This at that time that just being really, and you know, I found others, but none of them like this.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:07

Yeah. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:11

Well, I think we're near our the end of our time, and yeah, I just can't gush about you anymore. But you know, before we Carrie takes us out, is there anything else that you know you want us or our listeners to to know about you or you know what's next in your lives?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:33

We're just gonna keep I'm just gonna keep going as long as I can.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:37

Yeah, that's the whole idea. Yeah, I can't imagine a life without the outdoors. We're just trying to keep keep going.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:45

We're all tapering down, but we're not stopping.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:48

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:48

Love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:49

We're just trying to find the next, you know, what is the next normal yeah? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:54

Yeah. Yeah. Great way to put it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:57

Um, it's not over, it's just gonna be different.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:00

Yeah. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:02

Right, right. And you're speaking about flexibility in some ways, like you know, just still going outside, still having adventure, still having relationship and connection, but being flexible with it. Is that right? I mean, that's what I'm hearing. Exactly. Maintaining all of that with flexibility, like onward till whenever our ends are, right? Which is so inspiring. Um, you okay, so Jim, you've got your website. Eileen, you've got your website. Fake. Do you have a website?

SPEAKER_05 1:21:32

Or I just want to make sure people, however, just just last week, people have been pushing me to get my life list on peakbagger.com. Good. I've always resisted because I'm not organized. Way back when I had a an Excel uh uh uh spreadsheet.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:49

Spreadsheet.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:50

Spreadsheet. Uh but that only went to 1971, I think. Is that right? Boy, that's a long time ago. Don't quote me on that. But anyways, but recently uh uh uh a fellow climber volunteered to put that spreadsheet on PPA. So it's on there, but it's it's only my early climbs.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:17

That's great. It's okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:19

That makes more sense. Anyway, but uh my later climbs, which are the which include all the the better climbs. You know, I I started climbing when I moved here in in 1964, which I think is when I climb out or near. Everybody climbs out nearly near 64. But ever since then I've I've gotten lazy and uh I have every climb documented, but they're handwritten in notebooks. And so it would be it would take an awful lot of time to transcribe them.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:51

But maybe AI AI will do it for you.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:59

Yes, AI will scan it and try last week on speak bagger.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:04

Yes, AI can help you. You can use AI, you scan it, AI will transcribe it for you and put it in there. It's pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:13

You can't screw transcribe my handwritten.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:19

I don't know. I figure I figure if I can read some of Fred Becky's uh scribbles, uh, you know.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:26

You have a point there.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:28

So and uh Eileen, what's your website, Jim? Your website again?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:35

Jim's is the one we've been working the most on, and that's trailcatgym.com. Mindside adventures.com. Yes, we've been spending the most time on gyms. Yeah, okay, great.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:47

And it's and for our listeners, we'll put it up on the website as well. TrailcatGym.com is I mean, it's so detailed. If you really, I mean, if you really want to know about a climb, it is so the detail is so great. Yeah, and it's fun to read through and and get inspired by that as well. So we'll make sure we get it up on the website too.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:09

So yeah, yeah. And Jim, that's a gift. And Eileen, all of you that you've given to everyone to kindly freely share all of that with everyone. It's such a gift, your websites. So thank you so much. It is such an honor, such a privilege to be with you, the three of you. You're like the stalplying expert, incredible team. We are so lucky. Just I feel privileged to be able to be with you in this conversation. I've learned so much from you. I am confident that people will be inspired to get outside, just like REI talks about, in whatever form fashion that they can, and also build the relationships and really get connected with people, build trusting relationships while being outside. Yeah, whether it be on a peak or in the park or wherever. And so thank you so much for your inspiration. It's been a real gift and um a joy to work with you and talk with you guys today.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:10

Well, thank you for having us.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:12

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:13

Thank you. All right, look forward to talking with you again. Okay, bye, bye.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:18

Bye bye.