October 25, 2023 • 35 mins
In this episode, I’m sharing about my recent solo adventure to Yosemite National Park where I climbed the iconic Half Dome.
This climb terrified me and I almost didn’t go through with it. Listen to this episode to learn how I conquered my fears and reached the summit.
You’ll also learn about the lessons I learned from pushing myself out of my comfort zone and doing it scared.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey friends.
And welcome back to real, braveand unstoppable for episode
number 117.
I hope you're settling into thefall routine back to school.
Shorter days, cooler temps.
And all that stuff.
I'm just looking forward toliving in my Uggs again.
I love those things.
(00:20):
Uh, yeah.
So if you follow me on socialmedia, you may have seen little
snippets of my recent trip toYosemite national park.
I did another like bucket list,solo trip.
It was kind of a short one.
I went over a long weekend, butI had the opportunity to camp in
Yosemite.
And climb half dome.
So.
I decided to make it happen.
(00:42):
It was really an epic trip.
Too quick.
It was a total whirlwind, but itwas really amazing.
And just like my wildernessbackpacking trip to Colorado in
July, as I mentioned, I did thisone solo as well.
If you've never been toYosemite, Half Dome rises about
5,000 or so feet above theYosemite valley floor.
(01:02):
And it's at about 8,800 feetabove sea level.
So just a little bit of history.
Cause I think after him was socool.
Despite an 1865.
Like the year, 1865 reportdeclaring that halftone was
quote unquote, perfectly exinaccessible being probably the
only one of the prominent pointsabout the Yosemite.
(01:23):
Which has never been and neverwill be tried.
And by him and foot, I took thisoff the national park website.
I just thought that wasinteresting that they said that
nobody would ever get to the topof it.
Guy named George Andersonreached the summit in 1875.
In the process, he laid thepredecessor to today's cable
route, which I'll talk about ina minute.
(01:43):
So some people hike up to halfdome from the valley floor in
one day, which is about 14 to 16miles round trip, depending on
your route.
And on top of that, like you'reclimbing like the 400 foot
summit part of half dome, andthis whole thing is super
strenuous.
I broke it up over two days.
I decided to backpack in andcamp at little yosemite valley
(02:05):
campground.
It's a backpackers campground...
so I was able to get up earlyand hike up to Half Dome before
the crowds arrived.
I'm not a crowd person.
So, yeah, that appealed to me alot.
It shortened my day down toabout 12 ish miles, which isn't
a ton, but it made a bigdifference in the crowds at half
dome.
So the most famous part it's totalk about half dome, a little
(02:26):
bit more.
The most famous part of the HalfDome hike is the ascent up the
cables.
So to tell you what that is.
And since I don't have likepictures to show you here, go
Google half dome cables just toget a sense of what I'm talking
about.
There are, so there are twometal cables that are like
(02:47):
staircase railings almost, butyou know, so they're like
cables, there's no steps.
It's very steep, but the cablesallow hikers to climb up this
last 400 feet to the summitwithout like rock climbing
equipment.
I almost feel like I'd ratherrock climb it.
Because I'd be tied in with arope or secured with a rope in
case of falling and this wasnot.
(03:09):
Since, uh, it's a little morehistory since 19 19, relatively
few people have fallen and diedon the cables.
But injuries aren't uncommon ifpeople are not being
responsible.
This climb is no joke.
Like, it's not it's it wasscarier than I thought it even
was going to be.
Even if you're actingresponsible and happen to have
(03:31):
like a little misstep, that'slike, it can be really
dangerous.
So more on that later.
Also, Half Dome really hard toget a permit to climb an
advance.
Um, there's a lottery you canenter in the spring and it's
super competitive.
A lot of people apply forpermits.
I forget how many they give outa day, but if you don't get a
lottery spot, you can watch forcancellations on the
(03:52):
recreation.gov website, try tosnag last minute slots a week in
advance, or you can show up theday of, actually the permits for
halftime or a few days.
I think it's two days inadvance.
Or you can show up at the dayof, on a, at a wilderness
station in Yosemite and try tograb one that wasn't used.
So if you're camping and you cansnag a wilderness permit, you
(04:14):
also have the option to add onhalf dome.
So it can be a little confusingto navigate all this.
And if you are a backpacker andyou're interested in going to
somebody and doing this, pleaseemail me and we can chat about
it cause I don't want to getbeyond the scope of what I'm
really meaning to talk abouthere today.
but yeah, that was my firsthurdle.
Figuring out the permit system.
Um, and since I had missed thelottery window, like back in.
(04:36):
It was March or April, figuringout what my options were.
It was a little confusing, but Ifigured that out and, I was able
to snag a back country permit aweek before my trip.
Uh, right when they werereleased on recreation.gov.
So I had already booked flights,so I had back up plans and all
that stuff.
Again, if you need any tips for,if you're interested in getting
into backpacking and you are,you know, wanting to figure out,
(04:59):
like, how do I plan thesethings?
Just hit me up and we can chat.
But i had all these backup plansin case i didn't get the back
country or Half Dome permits.
But the real reason why i'mtalking about this today is to
tell you a little bit about theactual experience backpacking
and climbing half dome and theni will share with you some of
(05:19):
the great takeaways I had fromdoing this epic adventure.
So hopefully for some of you,this trip recap might be more
information than you really careabout.
The lessons might be really morewhat you care about, but I'm
going to talk about the tripanyway, because I know some of
you listening, like areinterested in, you know, doing
(05:40):
adventure type things.
And so I do want to share thatpart of the experience as well.
Yeah, I'll tell you a little bitabout the experience.
So I had grand plans of gettingto Yosemite around like 4:00 PM.
And my initial plan was to camp.
Long story why decided not to dothat, but, it's a good thing
because my flight.
Uh, it was delayed.
(06:01):
My connecting flight wasdelayed, so I didn't actually
get to Yosemite till like 9:30PM.
So anyway, I got to Yosemite,had to drive through a lot of
those roads in the dark, whichwas a little, little unnerving.
But got there, got settled.
And then, since I didn't getthere early enough, I wasn't
able to pick up my back countrypermit.
(06:21):
And half don't permit, becausethe ranger stations were closed.
So I had to do that the nextmorning, which was ended up
being fine because my first dayof backpacking wasn't really
that long.
It was only like about fivemiles.
So, that all worked out.
So I'll spare you all thedetails of just getting up to
half dome.
Except it was like five miles toget to my campsite.
(06:45):
And then I camped overnight.
I, as usual, I slept reallyterrible.
The sky was beautiful.
Amazing.
But the next morning I woke upreally early and I had it up to.
To do that scary climb.
Yeah, so.
Here we go talking about thatpart of it.
It's only about three and a halfmiles from camp to Half Dome and
(07:08):
it's a relatively gentle climb.
But it's all uphill.
So there really was no breakfrom up from the moment I
started hiking.
The day before, too.
But anyway, the way Half Domeworks is you, you know, in the
trees in the woods, it's kind ofan easy a nice path.
(07:30):
And then you get to, this.
This, uh, it's called the subdome.
And so in the sub dome, it'sRocky and it's above the tree
line.
It's very steep.
And they've like carved stepsout of the stone.
So you at least have like thatto climb, but they're like
switchbacks.
So it's really strenuous.
Thankfully, I was able to leavemy heavy pack at my camp.
(07:52):
So I just had a little day pack.
And I don't even know how far itis with that part of it, but
it's very steep.
It felt like a long time, but itwas pretty, so that was good.
So when I reached the top of thesub dome, There was half dome.
Like the top, the top of it.
And there I saw the cables thatI talked about earlier.
(08:16):
And I took one, look at thosethings and I was like, hell no.
There is no way I'm doing that.
I just, there was no, there wasno damn way.
I looked at that was like, no.
So I sat on a rock and I kind oflike, just looked at it, you
know, asking myself like, if I'dbe okay, I was so excited to get
this permit...
would I be okay if I chose notto complete that last 400 foot
(08:39):
climb to reach the summit.
I really thought that I'd beokay with it at that moment.
I was, and I was really preparedto recognize my limitations,
quote, unquote, and to reallylet myself off the hook.
So I sat and I contemplated itmore and more and more.
And the more I contemplated it,the more I felt comfortable not
(09:00):
doing it.
And then I talked to some otherpeople who were like, yeah, not
doing that.
I don't want to die today.
So I felt like, okay, that'sgood.
Like I feel validated and that'sall right.
And then as I sat there, I waslooking at this whole, just
taking it in, right.
I still, I was just feeling likeadrenaline, even though I wasn't
even doing it.
I started to just think like,okay, well, what if, what if I
(09:23):
could do that?
And this is much younger girlwho was sitting next to me,
asked me if I was going to doit, or if I was going to, if I
was waiting for someone to comeback down.
And so I shared with her that Ijust didn't think it was, I
didn't think it was going to doit.
It was a bit much for me.
And I was thinking I would justskip it today.
And then she shared with me thatshe had tried it, but there was
a point where the incline gotlike a little, well, a lot
(09:44):
steeper and she just didn't havethe upper body strength to pull
herself up anymore.
So she came back down.
So she said,"You could alwaysturn around if you don't like
it, maybe you should try it andsee if you like it." I'm like,
go look at you.
Coaching me.
But she did have a point, like Icould always turn around so I
could always, or I could youknow, I could give myself
(10:04):
permission to turn around if Iwas, felt like too much, or if I
didn't feel safe.
You know, and really if, when Ithought about it, one of my
favorite things to talk about isfailing ahead of time.
Like if you're, if you're notwilling to put yourself out of
your comfort zone, you're justreally failing ahead of time,
which isn't always a bad thing.
Like it's sometimes it's fine,but you know, you kind of have
to check in with yourself onyour reasons for not doing it.
(10:28):
So.
I don't know that I reallywanted to just fail ahead of
time.
I kind of, it was important tome to try.
So, you know, I weighed theoptions.
I'd come all this way I boughtspecial shoes.
I had hiked nearly four milesthat morning.
Just climb this damn thing.
The pictures I had seen from thetop looked EPIC phenomenal.
(10:48):
Wouldn't that be a greatfeeling?
Sure.
I checked in with some of myvalues, courage check.
Adventure, check.
Freedom.
Getting to the top of the domewould feel pretty amazing.
Check.
Growth.
This would stretch me more thanI've been stretched in a good
while.
So check.
Authenticity.
This is what I do.
I go big or I go home.
(11:09):
I, it would be an integrity withmyself to at least try it.
Check.
As I grabbed hold of thosecables for the first time I felt
this fear wash over me, like,nothing like it.
And I just took my first stepsanyway.
And I want to highlight thatlast thing.
I'm going to say it again.
I felt the fear wash over me andI took my first steps anyway.
(11:32):
So to give you an idea of whatthese cables look like.
Picture a stairway with cablesfor railings and then every 12
feet or so there are polesholding the cables up.
And then there's a wooden two byfour that forms like a step kind
of, and between those planks isjust plain old, granite.
Worn smooth by thousands of feetto have climbed this path before
(11:53):
me.
Climbing the cables was reallymostly an upper body phenomenon
an upper body adventure.
I was surprised how little mylower body was even involved.
I had great gloves I don't wantto say great, but I had gloves.
You have to have gloves forthat.
But anyway, I made it up alittle ways and I thought, okay,
(12:13):
well, this isn't so bad.
So I kept going.
Don't look up.
Don't look down.
And I knew exactly when Ireached the point that that girl
I talked to mentioned.
The climb was already steep, butoh my God, that this took it to
a new level.
I like, I just paused for a bitto kind of get my wits about me
managing the emotions I wasfeeling of sheer fear and
(12:35):
terror.
And the physical sensation ofthe adrenaline rush that's
typically not my friend.
I don't really like that feelingof an adrenaline rush.
But I made this final push.
My arms were like jello, myhands and fingers were tired.
Pushed to the top.
So the top of half dome is at8,800 feet and it's about 5,000
(12:56):
feet or so above the Yosemitevalley floor.
So, as you can imagine from thatvantage point, the view is
pretty epic.
You know, I celebrated with someother people at the top, took
time to drink a bunch of waterand refuel as I was completely
spent from that.
I was still shaking from theadrenaline of that experience.
(13:18):
So I spent some time taking inthe view and, and just the
accomplishment.
I was so proud of myself.
I did it when I was so scared.
And then I felt like, okay, it'stime to go back.
I've got to make it all the wayback to my car today.
It's time to go.
So I traded the terror I feltabout climbing up for the terror
of descending.
And in many ways, this feltscarier to me.
(13:39):
A lot of people were comingdown, going backwards.
So I started that way and feltlike this is, it's not so bad.
Just don't look down, I toldmyself.
By the time I was descendingthough, halftone was getting
pretty crowded.
And that meant that there were alot more people trying to come
up the cables at this point.
So there was a lot ofnegotiating getting around
people is it's not very wide andthe way up is the way down.
(14:01):
So at one point there was asection where there wasn't one
of those wooden two by fourplanks for quite a longer
stretch.
And there's this big step downin the granite.
And I've mentioned before thegranite it's, it's smooth.
It's not, you know, there's nota lot of like anything to grab
onto with your sole of yourshoe.
So the grippy shoes areimportant, but in this one spot,
(14:23):
it was a little more slippery.
And I was trying to negotiatearound all these other people.
It was a long line of like 15people, at least probably.
And I got a little flustered andthen my worst fear happened.
My foot...
I slipped and I fell on my buttand I kept sliding on my butt a
little bit until I was able tostop myself on one of the poles.
Like I'm straddling a pole.
(14:45):
It was super embarrassing.
There's a line, like I said,there's a line of like 15 people
watching me waiting to come up.
And I can't even begin toexplain like, oh my God, I was
like terrified, embarrassed.
I was an anxious for like tryingto get up.
Gratitude I wasn't dying.
I didn't like slide off the sideof this thing.
(15:06):
And then adrenaline, but likemostly I was just super
embarrassed.
I had thoughts like everyone'sprobably thinking, how oh my
God, that old lady up thereshouldn't be doing this what an
idiot.
Yeah.
Even coaches have inner meangirls.
But you know, I managed to getsituated.
And then this lady who was atthe front of this line of people
(15:26):
told me-she leaned over and shewas like, I'm amazed at how
remarkably calm you stayedthrough that whole thing.
And i was just like well what ididn't i didn't think it was
going to do much good to panicso i certainly didn't feel calm
but or maybe i did i reallydon't remember So anyway, I made
it back down took some time tocollect myself.
(15:47):
Made sure i didn't put my pantsjust kidding.
Have another snack and somewater and then I had a long hike
back down to my car.
I did 12 and a half miles thatday was exhausting.
Exhilarating but exhausting.
So now for the lessons this iswhat you've been waiting for
probably.
So many lessons i learned Inthis trip.
(16:09):
Mostly in the climbing of halfdome.
So I'm going to go through them.
Not in any particular order.
I'm not saving like the best onefor last or anything like that.
But, the first one is that.
There are lots of things in lifethat will scare you.
So just do it scared.
(16:31):
If you don't.
You'll stay small.
You might have a nice view whereyou're at.
It might be nice and comfy.
But what if you're missing outon something bigger?
So I do want to caveat this.
There's nothing wrong at allwith not being ready to take
that step.
Like, okay so when I was at thebase of half dome, looking at
(16:52):
those cables going, oh my God,hell no.
You know, if I wouldn't havefelt ready to take that step, if
I would've felt like, you know,maybe I wasn't strong enough or,
you know, maybe I didn't havethe right shoes on, or, you
know, if there was somethingthat legitimately was like,
yeah, I'm just not ready to gothere yet.
That's okay.
And you can give yourselfpermission to not do that.
(17:14):
But it is also worth consideringthat you know, you may learn
something from stepping outsideof your comfort zone.
You may find a better view.
I have a client I'm working withright now, who was working on,
leaving a relationship.
And the relationship was like,it was the love of her life, but
(17:35):
the situation was not servingher.
And for a long time, she justwasn't really ready to take the
step of leaving it.
Cause it was reallyuncomfortable and she, you know,
she knew that there might be abetter like, you know, view or a
better situation on the otherside of it, but she just wasn't
quite ready to take that step.
And then eventually, This pastweek, she came to a session and
(17:57):
told me that she just decidedthat it was time and she wants
more, she deserves more.
And so she took that step.
It was really scary.
For her that was kind of like mestepping onto those, you know,
to taking my first step up thosecables.
It was kind of scary and Ididn't really know if I was
going to be able to do it.
And I had no idea, I mean, Ikind of had an idea cause I'd
(18:20):
seen pictures, but I had no ideawhat that view at the top was
going to be like.
Did I know if it'd be worth it?
I didn't know.
Like, but you know, I thought,well, there's only one way to
find out.
So I was terrified, guys.
I was terrified.
I was just completely terrified.
I can't even communicate to youhow terrified I was.
(18:42):
But I just, I did it.
I just decided if I don't dothis, this, this is the only
thing standing between me anddoing it...
it's nothing safety related.
It's, it's all in my head.
So I think that's where you kindof have to be aware is what is
it that's stopping you fromtaking that step.
(19:03):
And you have to ask yourselfthose questions and you have to
get really honest with yourselfabout that.
So the second lesson is justreally in how much growth there
is in doing something that'sscary to you.
You know, doing it scared.
The growth that you canexperience in.
(19:23):
This is like a measurable.
You can come out of it, havinglearned so much about yourself
and what you're made of.
When I sat at the bottom of HalfDome.
The thing that initially wentthrough my brain was like, I
can't do that.
It's too scary.
(19:44):
It's too scary.
Have I mentioned how terrifyingit was.
I'm still just like amazed I didthat.
Anyway, but, in doing it scared,like you learn so much about
just like what kind of resourcesyou actually possess?
Right.
(20:04):
So I could have given up.
I could have been like, yeah,it's just way too scary.
I might hurt myself.
Whatever.
And that those are valid.
Those are totally valid concernsand reasons not to do something.
But one thing I learned, or onepart of the growth that I
experienced was really even justbuilding a little more
confidence in my ability to dosomething that was scary while
(20:26):
feeling terrified.
You know, I learned that I coulddo it.
I mean, I knew, you know, I'vedone the stuff like this before,
so I knew I probably had it inme, but it's just a little bit
more confidence towards thosethings that are so out of your
comfort zone.
And also, I don't know that Iwould climb half dome again.
(20:47):
I don't know, maybe I would.
But I don't really need to now,but, if I was going to say with
a group of people, maybe I woulddo it.
I'm not sure.
But it just like, it builds myconfidence in that...
okay, yeah.
When something is really scary,I do have the capability to
like, at least start it and thenmake a decision on whether or
not I can keep going.
(21:08):
I also learned what it felt liketo give myself that permission
to turn around if I didn't likeit.
Right.
So there are a lot of thingsthat I experienced that
contributed to the growth.
Part of the growth actually too,was in giving myself permission
to like, I'm going to use theword quit.
I don't like that word, but ingiving myself permission to turn
(21:29):
around and decide it wasn't forme that day, that's a big step
of growth for me also, becausethat's not something that's been
in my DNA for a very long time.
Like backing off of something tome would, would have felt like
failure several years ago.
So that too, like that growthand just saying, Hey, I can say,
(21:50):
no, not today.
And it's not a failure.
It just is.
It's a circumstance.
No big deal.
Along those lines, lesson numberthree is you're capable of way
more than you think you are.
So always remember that whenyou're afraid of something.
Sometimes fear is a really validthing.
And it is really protecting usfrom danger.
(22:13):
But a lot of times, and most ofthe time I would venture to say,
The fear that we have, it'sthoughts we have about a
situation, but it's the thoughtsthat we have based on the lens
we see the world through.
And that lens is made up of allthe stories and experiences and,
you know, things we've learnedthroughout our entire life.
So sometimes our brain is givingus false information there.
(22:36):
If you've ever heard that quotebefore, like it's a saying that
fear stands for false evidenceappearing real.
It's totally, that's what, whatfear is a lot of the time.
So like remembering that andjust knowing that okay, what I
can actually do is way more thanmy brain sometimes gives me
credit for.
It's a great lesson to keep inmind.
(22:58):
Okay.
So the fourth lesson.
And this is something that.
I mean, I've known this for along time and I, you know, say
this all the time, but you know,it's just really always just
think about putting one foot infront of the other.
You know, all you need is thenext right step.
You don't need to worry aboutthe whole.
(23:20):
You know, the whole climb.
You just need the next rightstep.
When I was on those cables, Imentioned at the beginning of
the episode that you know howthey're constructed.
So they're the cable railings.
And then those wooden two byfour planks that are like every
12 feet or so.
And so literally I was likegoing from plank to plank.
(23:42):
Like, I just need to get to thatplank.
And I kept telling myself, like,don't look down, don't look up.
Just get to the next plank.
So that was like the perfect wayto approach that.
Because it was such a small,manageable chunk.
Whereas if I had been looking upthe whole time, I think, I don't
(24:02):
know.
It was a been way morediscouraging and, and way more
like tiring, probably.
So, you know, bite off thosesmall chunks.
Don't, don't take the wholething.
Ask yourself what's my nextright step?
And something, and it can betiny.
The fifth lesson is similar.
(24:22):
It's related.
But that lesson is that smallsteps add up to big leaps.
A lot of times, we don't giveourselves enough credit for the
little steps that we're able totake.
But they all add up.
You know, it can be the tiniest,if you think about like, a
marathon, for example, I've donea marathon before, done lots of
(24:45):
half marathons.
A marathon is its own beast.
You know, or I've done a lot ofhalf iron man triathlons.
And with those long races likethat, like you can't think about
the whole thing at one time, youhave to just take, you know,
like the last lesson is takethose, you know, take it,
putting one foot in front of theother.
My third half iron mantriathlon, I think...
(25:06):
I got to the run and I had goneway too fast on the bike.
So my body was not in greatshape for the run.
It was hot.
And by mile three, I felt soawful.
I felt sick.
And, I remember my ex-husbandand my friends...
They were there cheering me onand they were at that mile
three.
Marker.
And they were like, you know,cheering and, you know, trying
(25:28):
to pump me up.
And I just remember saying, Idon't know if I can do this.
And literally that, that wholetime was putting one foot in
front of the other and thosesmall little steps.
At times they were reallyshuffled tiny steps.
They added up to 13.1 miles.
So, you know, there you go.
So just that, you know, keep atit.
(25:48):
Small steps.
The next lesson, lesson numbersix, the view from the top is
worth the climb.
So, you know, we always thinkwhat we have is so great.
Or a lot of times we do.
We have what we have is like,it's safe.
(26:09):
Right?
We know it, even if it's notreally that great, like our
brain wants to make it intosomething great because it's
comfy.
But the reality of it is that wedon't really know what the view
at the top is until we getthere.
So like you kind of have to askyourself and I'm a big fan of,
this is like, when your brainsays, I don't want to do that.
(26:29):
Because I'm just fine here.
You also have to ask yourself,well, what if I'm missing out on
something bigger?
It doesn't mean that you have todo it, but it is always great to
unhook from those feelings ofsafety and fear and then
actually be able to, you know,intentionally weigh, from a more
neutral standpoint, weigheverything.
(26:51):
Because that view at the top.
It might be way better.
You might like it more.
You know, or it might be justsuch an awe-inspiring
experience.
Like when I got to the top ofhalf dome.
I was like, oh my God, I can'tbelieve that I almost didn't do
this.
Because it was so amazing, likeit was, It, I can't even
(27:12):
describe to you.
It was just this expansive.
Like, I felt like I was on topof the world.
Really great experience, uh,just felt very freeing.
And I was also just so proud ofmyself for doing it.
So there was that part of it...
there's the visual view but alsolike just the, the mental view
in the physical view of like allof these things I almost didn't
(27:35):
experience because I was almosttoo afraid to do this.
Again, It would have been fineif I would have been too afraid.
It's okay.
That would have been okay.
So I just have to keep sayingthat it's not bad.
It's just like, if I would'velet my fear get the better of
me, I wouldn't have experiencedthis.
So it's always just a questionor something to consider when
(27:55):
you're on a journey that'sdifficult.
If you think about just, uh, youknow, uh, a hard journey in
life.
Like, so like this wholehalftone thing is a metaphor for
a lot of life things.
You know, if you think aboutyourself being on a journey like
emotionally or just evenphysically of, you know, you're
having a hard time...
(28:15):
Knowing that like, if I justkeep going, there's a better
view eventually.
There's a better view at acertain point.
Like the better view is worththe climb.
So lesson number seven ismistakes will happen.
Get up dust off your butt.
(28:36):
And begin again.
So I told you about my littleslip.
On half dome.
And I don't know that that wasnecessarily, I wouldn't
necessarily call it a mistake.
I should've been going downtotally backwards.
probably.
Although other people, a lot ofpeople were going down.
(28:57):
These cables backwards.
But not everybody was.
So I can't really call it amistake, but I did, you know, I
slipped.
That wasn't the plan.
So, you know, things won't goaccording to plan.
You just got to get up.
Just start again.
That was one of my favoritethings, one of my yoga teachers
in the past would always talkabout.
(29:18):
Falling out of a yoga pose.
And then you just begin again.
No big deal.
Like it's, it's that's, youknow, you get up against an
edge, you fall and you juststart again.
So it's important to justremember that.
That's always going to happen inlife.
There's no one that gets throughlife with no mistakes.
So the next one is this islesson number eight, and that
(29:40):
lesson is always give yourselfpermission to stop something
you've started.
Just starting it is courageous.
So that one, you know, I keepcaveating through all of these
things.
Like it's okay.
Not to follow through onsomething.
Either because you know, youjust don't have it in you to get
over that fear.
You know, you've tried it you'vestarted.
Or you're just not ready.
(30:01):
You know, maybe you're notequipped yet.
The point is you've unhookedfrom the feeling of fear.
So you're not, you're notletting fear, just, you know,
you're not letting your braingive you all sorts of false,
false evidence appearing real.
You're not letting your braindictate with all these thoughts
that just aren't true.
You're unhooking from it.
(30:22):
You're weighing all theevidence, you know, you're
looking at it objectivelysaying, yeah, you know what?
It's just not for me yet.
That's okay.
That's really okay.
Or the other thing too is maybe.
Like you start something andthen you stop it because, it's
just not really aligned for youanymore.
Like with your values and what'simportant to you.
Like that's okay.
(30:42):
So just always remember thatjust starting something as
courageous and it's never afailure to decide you're not,
you don't want to finish it.
It's okay to do that.
And then number nine.
The last one I have for youtoday.
Is, just do the thing life's tooshort not to that's my grandpa's
Swenson's quote by the way.
(31:03):
And, regrets, not something thatmost of us really like to have.
So, I really think that if I hadleft Half Dome without climbing
it, even though I said tomyself, You know, when I was
ready to walk away from it, eventhough I said, no, I think I'm
good with not doing it.
I really think I would haveregretted it.
I mean, I flew from Maryland toCalifornia.
(31:26):
I drove four hours to Yosemitefrom the airport.
And then, you know, I backpackedin to camp.
I camped, then I hiked up tohalf dome.
I looked at it.
That was a lot.
That was a long way to go, toget to the base of half dome to
not do it.
So I think I really would haveregretted that.
(31:48):
Again, if I would've felt, if Iwould've started that and I
would've felt like, yeah, I justdon't have the strength today to
do it, you know, I wasn'tfeeling safe, then I would have,
I would have had a good, solid,you know, unhooked from the
fear, reason that, that wasn't agood idea that day.
Or if I would have just decided,yeah, I don't really care about
it, that would have been okay.
(32:09):
But, you know, I think I reallywould've regretted it and I also
have, like, I talk about valuessometimes on the show and my
values.
It was just really aligned withall my values, adventure, you
know, Courage.
Freedom.
That feeling at the top was sojust freeing.
I felt like all my problems werejust like, they were laying at
(32:32):
the bottom of the valley floor,5,000 feet below me.
it's just, it felt it was anamazing feeling.
So just remembering that, likeyou have this one life and we
really have to be connected withwhat's important to us.
How we find meaning in life.
And we really need to findopportunities to align with
that.
Cause that like, that's whatgives us purpose.
(32:53):
You know, people talk aboutfinding, you know, what's my
purpose.
And that is where the answer tothat question lies Where do you
find meaning in your life?
Where do you feel alive?
And that's the stuff you got todo, even if it's scary.
So you've got to align yourselfwith the things that make you
(33:13):
feel purpose and feel alive.
Like you're actually living yourlife, not just existing.
So.
Go do that.
And go do it scared.
All right.
My friends, I hope that washelpful.
It was a longer episode for metoday, but I just really wanted
to share.
Details of the trip out therefor my fellow adventures and
(33:35):
also to share those greattakeaways that I had from
climbing half dome in Yosemite.
So, again, if you have anyquestions at all about
backpacking or just even hikingor camping, adventuring, it's
one of my passions.
So reach out.
I'd love to chat about it withyou.
I love chatting about that stuffwith anyone.
And finally, if you'd like tosupport the show, please go
(33:59):
leave me a review and afive-star rating.
It's really the best way to letother people know about the
show.
And, that's what we want.
Right.
So, again, hope this was helpfulfriends and I will see you next
time.
Hey friends.
And welcome back to real, braveand unstoppable for episode
number 117.
I hope you're settling into thefall routine back to school.
Shorter days, cooler temps.
And all that stuff.
I'm just looking forward toliving in my Uggs again.
I love those things.
(00:20):
Uh, yeah.
So if you follow me on socialmedia, you may have seen little
snippets of my recent trip toYosemite national park.
I did another like bucket list,solo trip.
It was kind of a short one.
I went over a long weekend, butI had the opportunity to camp in
Yosemite.
And climb half dome.
So.
I decided to make it happen.
(00:42):
It was really an epic trip.
Too quick.
It was a total whirlwind, but itwas really amazing.
And just like my wildernessbackpacking trip to Colorado in
July, as I mentioned, I did thisone solo as well.
If you've never been toYosemite, Half Dome rises about
5,000 or so feet above theYosemite valley floor.
(01:02):
And it's at about 8,800 feetabove sea level.
So just a little bit of history.
Cause I think after him was socool.
Despite an 1865.
Like the year, 1865 reportdeclaring that halftone was
quote unquote, perfectly exinaccessible being probably the
only one of the prominent pointsabout the Yosemite.
(01:23):
Which has never been and neverwill be tried.
And by him and foot, I took thisoff the national park website.
I just thought that wasinteresting that they said that
nobody would ever get to the topof it.
Guy named George Andersonreached the summit in 1875.
In the process, he laid thepredecessor to today's cable
route, which I'll talk about ina minute.
(01:43):
So some people hike up to halfdome from the valley floor in
one day, which is about 14 to 16miles round trip, depending on
your route.
And on top of that, like you'reclimbing like the 400 foot
summit part of half dome, andthis whole thing is super
strenuous.
I broke it up over two days.
I decided to backpack in andcamp at little yosemite valley
(02:05):
campground.
It's a backpackers campground...
so I was able to get up earlyand hike up to Half Dome before
the crowds arrived.
I'm not a crowd person.
So, yeah, that appealed to me alot.
It shortened my day down toabout 12 ish miles, which isn't
a ton, but it made a bigdifference in the crowds at half
dome.
So the most famous part it's totalk about half dome, a little
(02:26):
bit more.
The most famous part of the HalfDome hike is the ascent up the
cables.
So to tell you what that is.
And since I don't have likepictures to show you here, go
Google half dome cables just toget a sense of what I'm talking
about.
There are, so there are twometal cables that are like
(02:47):
staircase railings almost, butyou know, so they're like
cables, there's no steps.
It's very steep, but the cablesallow hikers to climb up this
last 400 feet to the summitwithout like rock climbing
equipment.
I almost feel like I'd ratherrock climb it.
Because I'd be tied in with arope or secured with a rope in
case of falling and this wasnot.
(03:09):
Since, uh, it's a little morehistory since 19 19, relatively
few people have fallen and diedon the cables.
But injuries aren't uncommon ifpeople are not being
responsible.
This climb is no joke.
Like, it's not it's it wasscarier than I thought it even
was going to be.
Even if you're actingresponsible and happen to have
(03:31):
like a little misstep, that'slike, it can be really
dangerous.
So more on that later.
Also, Half Dome really hard toget a permit to climb an
advance.
Um, there's a lottery you canenter in the spring and it's
super competitive.
A lot of people apply forpermits.
I forget how many they give outa day, but if you don't get a
lottery spot, you can watch forcancellations on the
(03:52):
recreation.gov website, try tosnag last minute slots a week in
advance, or you can show up theday of, actually the permits for
halftime or a few days.
I think it's two days inadvance.
Or you can show up at the dayof, on a, at a wilderness
station in Yosemite and try tograb one that wasn't used.
So if you're camping and you cansnag a wilderness permit, you
(04:14):
also have the option to add onhalf dome.
So it can be a little confusingto navigate all this.
And if you are a backpacker andyou're interested in going to
somebody and doing this, pleaseemail me and we can chat about
it cause I don't want to getbeyond the scope of what I'm
really meaning to talk abouthere today.
but yeah, that was my firsthurdle.
Figuring out the permit system.
Um, and since I had missed thelottery window, like back in.
(04:36):
It was March or April, figuringout what my options were.
It was a little confusing, but Ifigured that out and, I was able
to snag a back country permit aweek before my trip.
Uh, right when they werereleased on recreation.gov.
So I had already booked flights,so I had back up plans and all
that stuff.
Again, if you need any tips for,if you're interested in getting
into backpacking and you are,you know, wanting to figure out,
(04:59):
like, how do I plan thesethings?
Just hit me up and we can chat.
But i had all these backup plansin case i didn't get the back
country or Half Dome permits.
But the real reason why i'mtalking about this today is to
tell you a little bit about theactual experience backpacking
and climbing half dome and theni will share with you some of
(05:19):
the great takeaways I had fromdoing this epic adventure.
So hopefully for some of you,this trip recap might be more
information than you really careabout.
The lessons might be really morewhat you care about, but I'm
going to talk about the tripanyway, because I know some of
you listening, like areinterested in, you know, doing
(05:40):
adventure type things.
And so I do want to share thatpart of the experience as well.
Yeah, I'll tell you a little bitabout the experience.
So I had grand plans of gettingto Yosemite around like 4:00 PM.
And my initial plan was to camp.
Long story why decided not to dothat, but, it's a good thing
because my flight.
Uh, it was delayed.
(06:01):
My connecting flight wasdelayed, so I didn't actually
get to Yosemite till like 9:30PM.
So anyway, I got to Yosemite,had to drive through a lot of
those roads in the dark, whichwas a little, little unnerving.
But got there, got settled.
And then, since I didn't getthere early enough, I wasn't
able to pick up my back countrypermit.
(06:21):
And half don't permit, becausethe ranger stations were closed.
So I had to do that the nextmorning, which was ended up
being fine because my first dayof backpacking wasn't really
that long.
It was only like about fivemiles.
So, that all worked out.
So I'll spare you all thedetails of just getting up to
half dome.
Except it was like five miles toget to my campsite.
(06:45):
And then I camped overnight.
I, as usual, I slept reallyterrible.
The sky was beautiful.
Amazing.
But the next morning I woke upreally early and I had it up to.
To do that scary climb.
Yeah, so.
Here we go talking about thatpart of it.
It's only about three and a halfmiles from camp to Half Dome and
(07:08):
it's a relatively gentle climb.
But it's all uphill.
So there really was no breakfrom up from the moment I
started hiking.
The day before, too.
But anyway, the way Half Domeworks is you, you know, in the
trees in the woods, it's kind ofan easy a nice path.
(07:30):
And then you get to, this.
This, uh, it's called the subdome.
And so in the sub dome, it'sRocky and it's above the tree
line.
It's very steep.
And they've like carved stepsout of the stone.
So you at least have like thatto climb, but they're like
switchbacks.
So it's really strenuous.
Thankfully, I was able to leavemy heavy pack at my camp.
(07:52):
So I just had a little day pack.
And I don't even know how far itis with that part of it, but
it's very steep.
It felt like a long time, but itwas pretty, so that was good.
So when I reached the top of thesub dome, There was half dome.
Like the top, the top of it.
And there I saw the cables thatI talked about earlier.
(08:16):
And I took one, look at thosethings and I was like, hell no.
There is no way I'm doing that.
I just, there was no, there wasno damn way.
I looked at that was like, no.
So I sat on a rock and I kind oflike, just looked at it, you
know, asking myself like, if I'dbe okay, I was so excited to get
this permit...
would I be okay if I chose notto complete that last 400 foot
(08:39):
climb to reach the summit.
I really thought that I'd beokay with it at that moment.
I was, and I was really preparedto recognize my limitations,
quote, unquote, and to reallylet myself off the hook.
So I sat and I contemplated itmore and more and more.
And the more I contemplated it,the more I felt comfortable not
(09:00):
doing it.
And then I talked to some otherpeople who were like, yeah, not
doing that.
I don't want to die today.
So I felt like, okay, that'sgood.
Like I feel validated and that'sall right.
And then as I sat there, I waslooking at this whole, just
taking it in, right.
I still, I was just feeling likeadrenaline, even though I wasn't
even doing it.
I started to just think like,okay, well, what if, what if I
(09:23):
could do that?
And this is much younger girlwho was sitting next to me,
asked me if I was going to doit, or if I was going to, if I
was waiting for someone to comeback down.
And so I shared with her that Ijust didn't think it was, I
didn't think it was going to doit.
It was a bit much for me.
And I was thinking I would justskip it today.
And then she shared with me thatshe had tried it, but there was
a point where the incline gotlike a little, well, a lot
(09:44):
steeper and she just didn't havethe upper body strength to pull
herself up anymore.
So she came back down.
So she said,"You could alwaysturn around if you don't like
it, maybe you should try it andsee if you like it." I'm like,
go look at you.
Coaching me.
But she did have a point, like Icould always turn around so I
could always, or I could youknow, I could give myself
(10:04):
permission to turn around if Iwas, felt like too much, or if I
didn't feel safe.
You know, and really if, when Ithought about it, one of my
favorite things to talk about isfailing ahead of time.
Like if you're, if you're notwilling to put yourself out of
your comfort zone, you're justreally failing ahead of time,
which isn't always a bad thing.
Like it's sometimes it's fine,but you know, you kind of have
to check in with yourself onyour reasons for not doing it.
(10:28):
So.
I don't know that I reallywanted to just fail ahead of
time.
I kind of, it was important tome to try.
So, you know, I weighed theoptions.
I'd come all this way I boughtspecial shoes.
I had hiked nearly four milesthat morning.
Just climb this damn thing.
The pictures I had seen from thetop looked EPIC phenomenal.
(10:48):
Wouldn't that be a greatfeeling?
Sure.
I checked in with some of myvalues, courage check.
Adventure, check.
Freedom.
Getting to the top of the domewould feel pretty amazing.
Check.
Growth.
This would stretch me more thanI've been stretched in a good
while.
So check.
Authenticity.
This is what I do.
I go big or I go home.
(11:09):
I, it would be an integrity withmyself to at least try it.
Check.
As I grabbed hold of thosecables for the first time I felt
this fear wash over me, like,nothing like it.
And I just took my first stepsanyway.
And I want to highlight thatlast thing.
I'm going to say it again.
I felt the fear wash over me andI took my first steps anyway.
(11:32):
So to give you an idea of whatthese cables look like.
Picture a stairway with cablesfor railings and then every 12
feet or so there are polesholding the cables up.
And then there's a wooden two byfour that forms like a step kind
of, and between those planks isjust plain old, granite.
Worn smooth by thousands of feetto have climbed this path before
(11:53):
me.
Climbing the cables was reallymostly an upper body phenomenon
an upper body adventure.
I was surprised how little mylower body was even involved.
I had great gloves I don't wantto say great, but I had gloves.
You have to have gloves forthat.
But anyway, I made it up alittle ways and I thought, okay,
(12:13):
well, this isn't so bad.
So I kept going.
Don't look up.
Don't look down.
And I knew exactly when Ireached the point that that girl
I talked to mentioned.
The climb was already steep, butoh my God, that this took it to
a new level.
I like, I just paused for a bitto kind of get my wits about me
managing the emotions I wasfeeling of sheer fear and
(12:35):
terror.
And the physical sensation ofthe adrenaline rush that's
typically not my friend.
I don't really like that feelingof an adrenaline rush.
But I made this final push.
My arms were like jello, myhands and fingers were tired.
Pushed to the top.
So the top of half dome is at8,800 feet and it's about 5,000
(12:56):
feet or so above the Yosemitevalley floor.
So, as you can imagine from thatvantage point, the view is
pretty epic.
You know, I celebrated with someother people at the top, took
time to drink a bunch of waterand refuel as I was completely
spent from that.
I was still shaking from theadrenaline of that experience.
(13:18):
So I spent some time taking inthe view and, and just the
accomplishment.
I was so proud of myself.
I did it when I was so scared.
And then I felt like, okay, it'stime to go back.
I've got to make it all the wayback to my car today.
It's time to go.
So I traded the terror I feltabout climbing up for the terror
of descending.
And in many ways, this feltscarier to me.
(13:39):
A lot of people were comingdown, going backwards.
So I started that way and feltlike this is, it's not so bad.
Just don't look down, I toldmyself.
By the time I was descendingthough, halftone was getting
pretty crowded.
And that meant that there were alot more people trying to come
up the cables at this point.
So there was a lot ofnegotiating getting around
people is it's not very wide andthe way up is the way down.
(14:01):
So at one point there was asection where there wasn't one
of those wooden two by fourplanks for quite a longer
stretch.
And there's this big step downin the granite.
And I've mentioned before thegranite it's, it's smooth.
It's not, you know, there's nota lot of like anything to grab
onto with your sole of yourshoe.
So the grippy shoes areimportant, but in this one spot,
(14:23):
it was a little more slippery.
And I was trying to negotiatearound all these other people.
It was a long line of like 15people, at least probably.
And I got a little flustered andthen my worst fear happened.
My foot...
I slipped and I fell on my buttand I kept sliding on my butt a
little bit until I was able tostop myself on one of the poles.
Like I'm straddling a pole.
(14:45):
It was super embarrassing.
There's a line, like I said,there's a line of like 15 people
watching me waiting to come up.
And I can't even begin toexplain like, oh my God, I was
like terrified, embarrassed.
I was an anxious for like tryingto get up.
Gratitude I wasn't dying.
I didn't like slide off the sideof this thing.
(15:06):
And then adrenaline, but likemostly I was just super
embarrassed.
I had thoughts like everyone'sprobably thinking, how oh my
God, that old lady up thereshouldn't be doing this what an
idiot.
Yeah.
Even coaches have inner meangirls.
But you know, I managed to getsituated.
And then this lady who was atthe front of this line of people
(15:26):
told me-she leaned over and shewas like, I'm amazed at how
remarkably calm you stayedthrough that whole thing.
And i was just like well what ididn't i didn't think it was
going to do much good to panicso i certainly didn't feel calm
but or maybe i did i reallydon't remember So anyway, I made
it back down took some time tocollect myself.
(15:47):
Made sure i didn't put my pantsjust kidding.
Have another snack and somewater and then I had a long hike
back down to my car.
I did 12 and a half miles thatday was exhausting.
Exhilarating but exhausting.
So now for the lessons this iswhat you've been waiting for
probably.
So many lessons i learned Inthis trip.
(16:09):
Mostly in the climbing of halfdome.
So I'm going to go through them.
Not in any particular order.
I'm not saving like the best onefor last or anything like that.
But, the first one is that.
There are lots of things in lifethat will scare you.
So just do it scared.
(16:31):
If you don't.
You'll stay small.
You might have a nice view whereyou're at.
It might be nice and comfy.
But what if you're missing outon something bigger?
So I do want to caveat this.
There's nothing wrong at allwith not being ready to take
that step.
Like, okay so when I was at thebase of half dome, looking at
(16:52):
those cables going, oh my God,hell no.
You know, if I wouldn't havefelt ready to take that step, if
I would've felt like, you know,maybe I wasn't strong enough or,
you know, maybe I didn't havethe right shoes on, or, you
know, if there was somethingthat legitimately was like,
yeah, I'm just not ready to gothere yet.
That's okay.
And you can give yourselfpermission to not do that.
(17:14):
But it is also worth consideringthat you know, you may learn
something from stepping outsideof your comfort zone.
You may find a better view.
I have a client I'm working withright now, who was working on,
leaving a relationship.
And the relationship was like,it was the love of her life, but
(17:35):
the situation was not servingher.
And for a long time, she justwasn't really ready to take the
step of leaving it.
Cause it was reallyuncomfortable and she, you know,
she knew that there might be abetter like, you know, view or a
better situation on the otherside of it, but she just wasn't
quite ready to take that step.
And then eventually, This pastweek, she came to a session and
(17:57):
told me that she just decidedthat it was time and she wants
more, she deserves more.
And so she took that step.
It was really scary.
For her that was kind of like mestepping onto those, you know,
to taking my first step up thosecables.
It was kind of scary and Ididn't really know if I was
going to be able to do it.
And I had no idea, I mean, Ikind of had an idea cause I'd
(18:20):
seen pictures, but I had no ideawhat that view at the top was
going to be like.
Did I know if it'd be worth it?
I didn't know.
Like, but you know, I thought,well, there's only one way to
find out.
So I was terrified, guys.
I was terrified.
I was just completely terrified.
I can't even communicate to youhow terrified I was.
(18:42):
But I just, I did it.
I just decided if I don't dothis, this, this is the only
thing standing between me anddoing it...
it's nothing safety related.
It's, it's all in my head.
So I think that's where you kindof have to be aware is what is
it that's stopping you fromtaking that step.
(19:03):
And you have to ask yourselfthose questions and you have to
get really honest with yourselfabout that.
So the second lesson is justreally in how much growth there
is in doing something that'sscary to you.
You know, doing it scared.
The growth that you canexperience in.
(19:23):
This is like a measurable.
You can come out of it, havinglearned so much about yourself
and what you're made of.
When I sat at the bottom of HalfDome.
The thing that initially wentthrough my brain was like, I
can't do that.
It's too scary.
(19:44):
It's too scary.
Have I mentioned how terrifyingit was.
I'm still just like amazed I didthat.
Anyway, but, in doing it scared,like you learn so much about
just like what kind of resourcesyou actually possess?
Right.
(20:04):
So I could have given up.
I could have been like, yeah,it's just way too scary.
I might hurt myself.
Whatever.
And that those are valid.
Those are totally valid concernsand reasons not to do something.
But one thing I learned, or onepart of the growth that I
experienced was really even justbuilding a little more
confidence in my ability to dosomething that was scary while
(20:26):
feeling terrified.
You know, I learned that I coulddo it.
I mean, I knew, you know, I'vedone the stuff like this before,
so I knew I probably had it inme, but it's just a little bit
more confidence towards thosethings that are so out of your
comfort zone.
And also, I don't know that Iwould climb half dome again.
(20:47):
I don't know, maybe I would.
But I don't really need to now,but, if I was going to say with
a group of people, maybe I woulddo it.
I'm not sure.
But it just like, it builds myconfidence in that...
okay, yeah.
When something is really scary,I do have the capability to
like, at least start it and thenmake a decision on whether or
not I can keep going.
(21:08):
I also learned what it felt liketo give myself that permission
to turn around if I didn't likeit.
Right.
So there are a lot of thingsthat I experienced that
contributed to the growth.
Part of the growth actually too,was in giving myself permission
to like, I'm going to use theword quit.
I don't like that word, but ingiving myself permission to turn
(21:29):
around and decide it wasn't forme that day, that's a big step
of growth for me also, becausethat's not something that's been
in my DNA for a very long time.
Like backing off of something tome would, would have felt like
failure several years ago.
So that too, like that growthand just saying, Hey, I can say,
(21:50):
no, not today.
And it's not a failure.
It just is.
It's a circumstance.
No big deal.
Along those lines, lesson numberthree is you're capable of way
more than you think you are.
So always remember that whenyou're afraid of something.
Sometimes fear is a really validthing.
And it is really protecting usfrom danger.
(22:13):
But a lot of times, and most ofthe time I would venture to say,
The fear that we have, it'sthoughts we have about a
situation, but it's the thoughtsthat we have based on the lens
we see the world through.
And that lens is made up of allthe stories and experiences and,
you know, things we've learnedthroughout our entire life.
So sometimes our brain is givingus false information there.
(22:36):
If you've ever heard that quotebefore, like it's a saying that
fear stands for false evidenceappearing real.
It's totally, that's what, whatfear is a lot of the time.
So like remembering that andjust knowing that okay, what I
can actually do is way more thanmy brain sometimes gives me
credit for.
It's a great lesson to keep inmind.
(22:58):
Okay.
So the fourth lesson.
And this is something that.
I mean, I've known this for along time and I, you know, say
this all the time, but you know,it's just really always just
think about putting one foot infront of the other.
You know, all you need is thenext right step.
You don't need to worry aboutthe whole.
(23:20):
You know, the whole climb.
You just need the next rightstep.
When I was on those cables, Imentioned at the beginning of
the episode that you know howthey're constructed.
So they're the cable railings.
And then those wooden two byfour planks that are like every
12 feet or so.
And so literally I was likegoing from plank to plank.
(23:42):
Like, I just need to get to thatplank.
And I kept telling myself, like,don't look down, don't look up.
Just get to the next plank.
So that was like the perfect wayto approach that.
Because it was such a small,manageable chunk.
Whereas if I had been looking upthe whole time, I think, I don't
(24:02):
know.
It was a been way morediscouraging and, and way more
like tiring, probably.
So, you know, bite off thosesmall chunks.
Don't, don't take the wholething.
Ask yourself what's my nextright step?
And something, and it can betiny.
The fifth lesson is similar.
(24:22):
It's related.
But that lesson is that smallsteps add up to big leaps.
A lot of times, we don't giveourselves enough credit for the
little steps that we're able totake.
But they all add up.
You know, it can be the tiniest,if you think about like, a
marathon, for example, I've donea marathon before, done lots of
(24:45):
half marathons.
A marathon is its own beast.
You know, or I've done a lot ofhalf iron man triathlons.
And with those long races likethat, like you can't think about
the whole thing at one time, youhave to just take, you know,
like the last lesson is takethose, you know, take it,
putting one foot in front of theother.
My third half iron mantriathlon, I think...
(25:06):
I got to the run and I had goneway too fast on the bike.
So my body was not in greatshape for the run.
It was hot.
And by mile three, I felt soawful.
I felt sick.
And, I remember my ex-husbandand my friends...
They were there cheering me onand they were at that mile
three.
Marker.
And they were like, you know,cheering and, you know, trying
(25:28):
to pump me up.
And I just remember saying, Idon't know if I can do this.
And literally that, that wholetime was putting one foot in
front of the other and thosesmall little steps.
At times they were reallyshuffled tiny steps.
They added up to 13.1 miles.
So, you know, there you go.
So just that, you know, keep atit.
(25:48):
Small steps.
The next lesson, lesson numbersix, the view from the top is
worth the climb.
So, you know, we always thinkwhat we have is so great.
Or a lot of times we do.
We have what we have is like,it's safe.
(26:09):
Right?
We know it, even if it's notreally that great, like our
brain wants to make it intosomething great because it's
comfy.
But the reality of it is that wedon't really know what the view
at the top is until we getthere.
So like you kind of have to askyourself and I'm a big fan of,
this is like, when your brainsays, I don't want to do that.
(26:29):
Because I'm just fine here.
You also have to ask yourself,well, what if I'm missing out on
something bigger?
It doesn't mean that you have todo it, but it is always great to
unhook from those feelings ofsafety and fear and then
actually be able to, you know,intentionally weigh, from a more
neutral standpoint, weigheverything.
(26:51):
Because that view at the top.
It might be way better.
You might like it more.
You know, or it might be justsuch an awe-inspiring
experience.
Like when I got to the top ofhalf dome.
I was like, oh my God, I can'tbelieve that I almost didn't do
this.
Because it was so amazing, likeit was, It, I can't even
(27:12):
describe to you.
It was just this expansive.
Like, I felt like I was on topof the world.
Really great experience, uh,just felt very freeing.
And I was also just so proud ofmyself for doing it.
So there was that part of it...
there's the visual view but alsolike just the, the mental view
in the physical view of like allof these things I almost didn't
(27:35):
experience because I was almosttoo afraid to do this.
Again, It would have been fineif I would have been too afraid.
It's okay.
That would have been okay.
So I just have to keep sayingthat it's not bad.
It's just like, if I would'velet my fear get the better of
me, I wouldn't have experiencedthis.
So it's always just a questionor something to consider when
(27:55):
you're on a journey that'sdifficult.
If you think about just, uh, youknow, uh, a hard journey in
life.
Like, so like this wholehalftone thing is a metaphor for
a lot of life things.
You know, if you think aboutyourself being on a journey like
emotionally or just evenphysically of, you know, you're
having a hard time...
(28:15):
Knowing that like, if I justkeep going, there's a better
view eventually.
There's a better view at acertain point.
Like the better view is worththe climb.
So lesson number seven ismistakes will happen.
Get up dust off your butt.
(28:36):
And begin again.
So I told you about my littleslip.
On half dome.
And I don't know that that wasnecessarily, I wouldn't
necessarily call it a mistake.
I should've been going downtotally backwards.
probably.
Although other people, a lot ofpeople were going down.
(28:57):
These cables backwards.
But not everybody was.
So I can't really call it amistake, but I did, you know, I
slipped.
That wasn't the plan.
So, you know, things won't goaccording to plan.
You just got to get up.
Just start again.
That was one of my favoritethings, one of my yoga teachers
in the past would always talkabout.
(29:18):
Falling out of a yoga pose.
And then you just begin again.
No big deal.
Like it's, it's that's, youknow, you get up against an
edge, you fall and you juststart again.
So it's important to justremember that.
That's always going to happen inlife.
There's no one that gets throughlife with no mistakes.
So the next one is this islesson number eight, and that
(29:40):
lesson is always give yourselfpermission to stop something
you've started.
Just starting it is courageous.
So that one, you know, I keepcaveating through all of these
things.
Like it's okay.
Not to follow through onsomething.
Either because you know, youjust don't have it in you to get
over that fear.
You know, you've tried it you'vestarted.
Or you're just not ready.
(30:01):
You know, maybe you're notequipped yet.
The point is you've unhookedfrom the feeling of fear.
So you're not, you're notletting fear, just, you know,
you're not letting your braingive you all sorts of false,
false evidence appearing real.
You're not letting your braindictate with all these thoughts
that just aren't true.
You're unhooking from it.
(30:22):
You're weighing all theevidence, you know, you're
looking at it objectivelysaying, yeah, you know what?
It's just not for me yet.
That's okay.
That's really okay.
Or the other thing too is maybe.
Like you start something andthen you stop it because, it's
just not really aligned for youanymore.
Like with your values and what'simportant to you.
Like that's okay.
(30:42):
So just always remember thatjust starting something as
courageous and it's never afailure to decide you're not,
you don't want to finish it.
It's okay to do that.
And then number nine.
The last one I have for youtoday.
Is, just do the thing life's tooshort not to that's my grandpa's
Swenson's quote by the way.
(31:03):
And, regrets, not something thatmost of us really like to have.
So, I really think that if I hadleft Half Dome without climbing
it, even though I said tomyself, You know, when I was
ready to walk away from it, eventhough I said, no, I think I'm
good with not doing it.
I really think I would haveregretted it.
I mean, I flew from Maryland toCalifornia.
(31:26):
I drove four hours to Yosemitefrom the airport.
And then, you know, I backpackedin to camp.
I camped, then I hiked up tohalf dome.
I looked at it.
That was a lot.
That was a long way to go, toget to the base of half dome to
not do it.
So I think I really would haveregretted that.
(31:48):
Again, if I would've felt, if Iwould've started that and I
would've felt like, yeah, I justdon't have the strength today to
do it, you know, I wasn'tfeeling safe, then I would have,
I would have had a good, solid,you know, unhooked from the
fear, reason that, that wasn't agood idea that day.
Or if I would have just decided,yeah, I don't really care about
it, that would have been okay.
(32:09):
But, you know, I think I reallywould've regretted it and I also
have, like, I talk about valuessometimes on the show and my
values.
It was just really aligned withall my values, adventure, you
know, Courage.
Freedom.
That feeling at the top was sojust freeing.
I felt like all my problems werejust like, they were laying at
(32:32):
the bottom of the valley floor,5,000 feet below me.
it's just, it felt it was anamazing feeling.
So just remembering that, likeyou have this one life and we
really have to be connected withwhat's important to us.
How we find meaning in life.
And we really need to findopportunities to align with
that.
Cause that like, that's whatgives us purpose.
(32:53):
You know, people talk aboutfinding, you know, what's my
purpose.
And that is where the answer tothat question lies Where do you
find meaning in your life?
Where do you feel alive?
And that's the stuff you got todo, even if it's scary.
So you've got to align yourselfwith the things that make you
(33:13):
feel purpose and feel alive.
Like you're actually living yourlife, not just existing.
So.
Go do that.
And go do it scared.
All right.
My friends, I hope that washelpful.
It was a longer episode for metoday, but I just really wanted
to share.
Details of the trip out therefor my fellow adventures and
(33:35):
also to share those greattakeaways that I had from
climbing half dome in Yosemite.
So, again, if you have anyquestions at all about
backpacking or just even hikingor camping, adventuring, it's
one of my passions.
So reach out.
I'd love to chat about it withyou.
I love chatting about that stuffwith anyone.
And finally, if you'd like tosupport the show, please go
(33:59):
leave me a review and afive-star rating.
It's really the best way to letother people know about the
show.
And, that's what we want.
Right.
So, again, hope this was helpfulfriends and I will see you next
time.
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