The Steep Stuff Podcast
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The Steep Stuff Podcast
#184 - Karina Andersen
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Karina Andersen’s season doesn’t start with a perfect training block, it starts with a hard reset. After closing out her track era at Colorado School of Mines, she steps away from school for breathing room, takes on Denali, and then spends months living in Chamonix to see what a true mountain town feels like day to day. We talk about the real pressure that can come with places like Chamonix and Boulder, where it’s easy to feel like you have to “earn” your time there with constant vert, big objectives, and public training proof.
Then the comeback gets loud. Karina spends the winter going all-in on ski mountaineering with almost zero running, and still shows up in Asia to race the Penang Sky Race in Malaysia and the Ueda Sky Race in Japan, taking 4th and 8th. We break down what heat and humidity do to pacing, why concrete downhills can shred your quads, how mud changes risk and speed, and why uphill fitness can return faster than downhill durability when you’ve been on skis for months.
The most important part is the mental side. Karina shares what it’s like to carry a tough DNF and panic mid-race, then rebuild confidence by changing the goal from “place” to “stay present.” We also get into her 2026-focused skyrunning plans, thoughts on UTMB and Golden Trail, and a wild new skill: learning to paraglide in Annecy, with a long-term dream of hike-and-fly racing like Red Bull X-Alps.
If you’re into skyrunning, trail running, mountain racing, ski mountaineering, or just figuring out the next chapter, this one hits. Subscribe, share it with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.
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Welcome Back Karina Anderson
SPEAKER_01What's up, everybody? So excited to welcome Karina Anderson back to the show. Karina was most recently eighth at the Ueda Sky Race in Japan and also got a fourth place finish at the Penang Sky Race. She has been on an absolute heater, and uh can't wait to see what she's gonna do with the rest of her season as uh she seems to be really good at this whole sky racing thing. Um very excited to see what her future holds on the sport. So I hope you guys enjoyed this one. We talked about a whole lot of stuff. She was kind enough to join me uh from one of her European adventures where she was doing some uh I think it was bass jumping she was learning how to do. Um just an absolute adrenaline junkie and an extremely talented athlete in our sport. So I hope you guys enjoy this one. Without further ado, Karina Anderson.
unknownHey!
SPEAKER_01This is the Steepstuff Podcast! Interrupting
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Dropping School And Finding Direction
SPEAKER_01Karina Anderson, welcome to the Steep Stuff Podcast. How's it going?
SPEAKER_00Good, how are you?
SPEAKER_01Good. Stoked to catch up. It's been a minute, and uh it's been so fun kind of following your your adventures over the last few months, uh, you know, from from Malaysia to Japan, and now you know you're in Europe and lots of fun stuff to talk about. So how how are you doing?
SPEAKER_00Um, I'm doing pretty good. Um it's definitely been I think last time we talked, I was still running for mine, so it's definitely been quite a change since then. So um I think good for sure, figuring things out, you know.
SPEAKER_01Catch me up. What have you so since since you uh you know you're you're kind of on this new journey adventure now over the last like six months to a year, I think it's been about a year since we've chatted. Um yeah, catch me up on on what you've been up to.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, so I finished out my track season at mines last year, and then I just dropped out of school. Um, I didn't finish my bachelor's degree. Um I am starting back actually this summer, um, just to finish that up there. Um, but yeah, I just needed some time away. So I took time off school. I oh, I I went to Denali um last May, June. I like forgot about that. Um that was definitely an adventure and it kind of knocked me out the rest of the summer running-wise. Um, but I did a few races last summer. Um nothing that went terribly well. I lived in Chamony for almost three months.
SPEAKER_01Um so cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I kind of wanted to experience living in France to kind of test that out because I might do that in the future permanently. Um so yeah, I did that for three months, um, met a lot of cool people, had a lot of fun experiences, wasn't racing well though. Um I just had a lot going on, figuring things out. So that was cool. And then came back to Colorado, um, kind of impulse, decided to move up to Summit County um and lived in Breckenridge the whole winter. Um, I was a ski instructor and uh ski tech up in Breckenridge. Um, and I'll be ski patrolling at Keystone next winter. Um yeah, I did ski mo all winter. Um I just pretty much stopped running in November and switched entirely to scheme. Not even running to like maintain running fitness. It was like every time I was out, I was on my skis. Um and yeah, I did not run a step for over three months, which was crazy. Um did scheme, had some fun with it. Um yeah, I have a big year planned now. Um I'm yeah, still living up in Summit County when I get back, I think. Um and then yeah, see where I go from there. Um a lot of races on the schedule this year. I think I like originally had like 20 um all kinds of like hard races too, not like Shorel, but like all like sky races like on my schedule. I don't think they're all gonna happen, but like as I get tired, I think I'll cut some things out at the end of the season. Um, but yeah, I'm like a lot more stoked to be running again and feeling a lot better and racing mentally. So I'm really happy about that um and excited to see where it goes this season, especially after the break from running, too. I think coming back is like kind of helping me break through a like plateau I had for a really long time.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, sometimes athletes need that. The time away can be really beneficial. And schemo, I mean, you develop you just you build an enormous base anyway, or continue to build on the enormous base that you already have, and you get super strong from it. So it's not like you're just sitting on the couch for for a bunch of months.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I feel like my uphill fitness is really great. Um, it's just uh the downhill specific aspect. Coming back to that is definitely a challenge. Um, something I'm still working, working with right now, running wise, just that and efficiency on the downhills. You kind of lose that when you're not running downhill. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Fair enough. Yeah, I mean you're banging the bones. It's gotta it's gotta be weird, like a totally weird movement after taking so much time off and then coming back.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I kind of just threw myself into it. Like the sky race in Penang in Malaysia two weeks ago was the most vert I had done in a run in seven months by far, like by twice as much. Um, so I just like threw myself into it. There was a lot of concrete downhills in that too. Um, it was weird. Um, and then the Japan race was like 10,000 feet, so it was like three times the amount of vert I had done in like seven years.
SPEAKER_01Holy, holy. That's crazy.
SPEAKER_00Um, but you know, right back into it now.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, yeah, you're doing the thing now.
Living In Chamonix And Mountain Culture
SPEAKER_01I want to rewind a little bit. I just want to ask you about like your time in Shamani and like living there. What was it like being because it's one thing to go and visit. I know a lot of athletes that listen to this podcast have either been there for UTMB week or or been there for one reason or another, but it's a whole nother thing to like immerse yourself into the culture and and actually live there for the three months. It's funny, I actually just had an athlete on yesterday, Simon, uh Simon Kearns. I don't know if you've met him, but he yeah, he just was living there as well. So it's interesting that uh cool to see so many athletes kind of going back and forth and getting to see what that's all about.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, Chamonix is really cool. Um that's funny. I the first time I met Simon, I think we ran up Mont Blanc together with um another guy in Boulder. Um that was like three years ago. So um, yeah, um we uh Chamonix was really cool living there. Um it's it just feels kind of like I don't know, it feels like another home, which is really nice. Um and it's fun to see it in the quiet season after like August is the really busy month for Chamini. Everyone's like August is hectic because of UTMB. Um and then September quiets, it's really quiet. And yeah, it was really fun, like building a community. I was doing a lot of climbing, um more chill kind of climbing, not like attacking things like Denali because I needed a break after that. Um yeah, just having fun with that, meeting a lot of new people. Um and I kind of did it because I'm like thinking about a move to this, the house of region in the future. Um, and I kind of wanted to get it vibe, and it's it is hard. Like I was really bad at French. Um I mean Shamney's nice because everyone speaks English in Chamney. The my instructors right now, they're like Chamney is the English colony of France. Um but it um it was still like hard not like knowing the language, but it's definitely really easy to integrate. There's a lot of people there who just love the mountains. So um yeah, it's really fun being there.
SPEAKER_01It's interesting to me because like you've you've obviously spent time in Boulder. Boulder is like our American impromptu mecca, if you will, with so many professional athletes from the trail scene, the ski scene, scenes all over the place.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Dichotomy though, from like pressure to get out and do shit, like it did is it two different worlds? Or is like Shamini more laid back or like heart more hardcore than Boulder?
SPEAKER_00I think like the like amount of people like out there and doing shit is really similar. The like Wong Wong Massif is just like huge compared to the like in terms of climbing and skiing stuff. You can do some hardcore climbing and skiing stuff in Colorado, but it's it's still not like the stuff around Chamonix, um, per se. So in those regards, it's a little more extreme. Trail running, I mean, yeah, you have like like the vertical gain. Like I come to Chamonix and I'm like, oh, it's so easy for me to run up like 5,000 feet. Whereas in Boulder, I'm like, where am I gonna get 5,000 feet in five miles? I don't exactly know. Um, so it is like you have like more options for like bigger running, but it feels like similar the trail scene. It feels like there's less of a trail community there, I would say. It's bigger for like the mountain skiing and climbing kind of stuff. Um, whereas Boulder has like so many teams for running. Um that is like definitely one difference I see there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Interesting. Yeah, it's uh yeah, because I always I don't know. I have obviously we we all do. I have a lot of friends that live in Boulder. And the the question that I always bring up is like, do you ever feel like especially for the professional athletes, like I've asked Kyle Richardson this a couple times. I'm like, do you ever feel pressure to like have to go do stuff or put stuff on your Instagram or your um more so Strava to keep all that stuff public and what you're doing? And I would just feel an immense amount of pressure living there just because it's I mean, obviously Great Trails, it's world class, but there's just so much going on that you you always there's always something to do, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I kind of felt like I needed to be like out there like climbing shit and running shit every day. Like you do feel that pressure for sure, and I'm like, I need to make the most of my time here because I'm only here for three months on the Schengen, whatever. So, like, yeah, you definitely feel that pressure there too. Um, but I mean there's a lot of opportunity to just get out there and get after it, which is really cool. Um very cool.
SPEAKER_01So, all right, let's uh let's shift gears a little bit.
Racing Malaysia And Japan For The First Time
SPEAKER_01Want to get into your racing, uh, two giant sky races that you've had success at just right off the bat, fourth at Penyang and eighth at Ueda in Japan. Yeah, how was it getting to see some of these new countries? Like obviously getting to see Malaysia and then Japan. Uh as far as both events go, uh how would you rate it? Was it was it super fun? Uh did you have a good time, bad time? Like how would you and then we'll talk about performance and stuff like that too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, totally. Um it was I definitely I chose these races because I've never been to Asia before, so I really wanted to check it out. Um, and I I saw this like post on Facebook five or six weeks ago with someone like in this really sick location climbing in Thailand. I was like, I want to go there. So I was like, I'm gonna plan this into my whole like racing schedule in Southeast Asia here. So Malaysia was super cool. I mean Penong is a Penang is one of the richest areas in Southeast Asia. Um, so it is a very nice city, and the park where the race is at was really nice. I really like the rainforest courses a lot. It's super fun, it's really different, um really hot and humid, um, which was a change from Colorado. I didn't do a ton of heat training going into this race, but I tend to do well in the hot, humid races, so I wasn't super concerned. I kind of enjoyed it. I like not being cold. Um so that was really nice, and that race was really well um, really well marked, really well organized, really fun event. Um, I definitely recommend it. The course I didn't expect it to have a lot of concrete. A lot of the trails were kind of like these super narrow like roads almost. I passed this like dirt biker trying to go up one of them. It was like almost a road, almost a trail. It was a lot of that. So it was a lot of like slamming on the downhills. Um but still like super fun course, um, really nice people, great food in Penang as well.
SPEAKER_01Um really talk about that. Kind of what what what what's the cuisine like?
SPEAKER_00They don't have like I feel like they don't have their own cuisine, but they have a lot of really good, like all different Asian cuisines there. It's kind of like the food capital of Malaysia. So like had really good hot pot, really good Indian food there. Um, some really good noodles. Yeah, it was like a really good, like really good just like from everywhere in that area for sure. Um and I didn't spend much time there. I got there two days before the race and left the day after. So I went to Thailand to go take a boat out to the islands to go climb it. It's a place I saw on Facebook, which was super fucking cool. Um sorry. Um it was really fun to go out there and just like see the like classic Thailand beach in real life. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm climbing here. And the feels like temperature was 110. Um off season there now because it's so hot, but super fun. Um, and then I went over to Japan, nice temperature there finally. Um Japan was different than the rest of Southeast Asia. Obviously, Japan's up there, totally different like country economy, whatever. Um, it was my first time in Japan too, so um, that was also a super cool experience. Um a lot more calm. I was very over overstimulated. Um Malaysia and Thailand, but then Japan was like, okay, calm. Um the race was the course for the race there was very honestly like similar to some of the trails here, um, down low in terms of like the forest um steepness and stuff. Um and yeah, the culture is really fun experience. Great sushi. Um went down to Kyoto after the race. Um got a tour from one of the other U20 or one of the U-23 Skyrunners um showed me around, which is cool, who lived there. Um, and yeah, also a lot of cool people I met on that one. That race is super fun because afterwards um they like invite you to an Izakaya um bar, and then we all go to karaoke, and it's really fun. I think I was out to like 1 a.m. there it was it was a super fun night after that race. The Japanese are really fun.
SPEAKER_01So that's awesome. Yeah, I've heard Japan's incredible. I I have to get over there one of these years to do a race or just to just to see it because I've heard just amazing. Like everything from the food. Apparently, the second best pizza place on planet Earth is in Japan. Yeah, it's like I think it's in what the Mandarin Hotel. I can't be in the Mandarin Hotel in Tokyo. Um, it's supposed to be super legit.
SPEAKER_00But uh there's like good prices, great sushi. I had I was like, I'm gonna get mercury poisoning this week, but it's fine.
SPEAKER_01Does it interest you to go back and because I've heard the skiing in Japan, like northern Japan's insane.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would love to. I think all my friends went to Japan this year to ski because the snow was so bad in Colorado, and I was like, I don't have the money for this, but yeah, I would want to get out there um and ski sometime in the future. It'd be super cool. The powder, I need to get better at powder skiing, but I hear that's like their main thing here. There.
SPEAKER_01It's so interesting because when people think of Japan, I think they more folks think of like more uh subtropical, warm kind of you know, like more humid. People don't think of uh skiing when it comes to Japan or grizzly bears. Apparently they have grizzly bears up there too, like in the north. Yeah, people are getting like it's like I just read a whole article about like people getting sucked up by grizzly bears up there. It's pretty wild. So yeah. What did you think as far as uh performance-wise?
Results, Recovery, And Race Day Nerves
SPEAKER_01Where you I mean you've had a fourth place at Pinyang, eighth place at UAD uh, two incredible results, especially coming off just a full ski season where you're kind of re-immersing yourself back into running again. Uh, you gotta be really stoked on those results.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, going into it, I was like with Penong, I was like, I just need to finish this race and not have like a mental breakdown during it. Um, my last race, uh UTMB whistler, I did not finish. I like had a panic attack mid-race, I freaked out, and I was super far from an aid station, which was bad, and it was super cold, really bad conditions. So wasn't a good time. Um, so I was like, I just need to get through Penong, have a good race, like mentally stay in it. And like my result does not matter. I was like telling myself that I'm like, I'm just here, I'm just running, I'm just having fun. This is really cool. Result doesn't matter. Um, so I kind of just went into that race doing my own thing. I was like, okay, there goes Eleanor, like, bye. Um, like letting everyone do whatever they want. Um, and then I was running pretty well. I was running in third before up through the giant steps. There's like 2,500 feet of steps, and like the second climb, you just all the way up this hill in steps. So I was running in third through that point. Um, and then a girl passed me and I was like, darn, I'm in fourth. And I was like, I kind of want to race now. Um, so yeah, I was I was pretty happy with that. I couldn't catch her because I got like hit with the heat, and I was like, uh, whatever. But um the downhills were really getting me by the end of that, just banging on my quads. I was like jogging on these downhills because I'm like, I can't usually I'm like the type to stand the downhills. Like that was my specialty in sky running two years ago, is like just hucking myself. I couldn't like my leg muscles aren't there for that right now, but I was super happy with fourth there. Um I was worried going into Ueda that I wouldn't be recovered from that. Um and I basically did not run much. My coach wanted me to do some vertical running between Penang and Ueda, but I was so knocked out from Penong that I like really couldn't do much at all that week. Um and I was still feeling it two days before Ueda. Um I think I did feel it a bit during Ueda as well. Um but still pretty happy with that performance. Um I didn't expect it to be so long. The course this year for Ueda was um really muddy, and it's not usually like that, and so that slowed people down a bit. Um it was kind of like a slip and slide for a lot of it, and pretty scary, like going uphill, like it would be so muddy and so steep you'd like slide back, and you're just like clawing into the mud to like not like slide back. Like you got slick mud on like a 40% grade going up. It's like, oh shoot. Um, but yeah, it was it was still a super fun race. I tried to like hut the downhills a little more and was kind of like trying to race it, um, but also just trying to survive because I knew that would be a long time out there, and then I could feel it after like three and a half, four hours. Um, kind of where I crossed that like the elevation gain of Penong was like 7,000 feet. And when I like crossed that you with UIO and was like, oh my god, I still have another 3,000 feet to like climb and descend. I was like, I'm just gonna have to like cross his finish line right now. So yeah, I definitely died off after that, but survived, and I was pretty happy with that for like not having much running under me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, two amazing results. I mean, enough, like you're probably already like right in the mix. Obviously, you'll get an invite for the final, and you know, you're right in the mix for you know, probably top, I don't know, top three, top two in the rankings, maybe four. I don't know, somewhere.
SPEAKER_00Oh no, I'm definitely I feel like I feel like I'm probably I'm definitely in the top 20 in the rankings, but I don't know. Some people have done like four races already, three or four races, I think. But yeah. Or like Sarah Alonso won both the races. I think I'd be I think I'd be somewhere maybe around definitely top twenty for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely top. But for you for U23, you're definitely like top. Oh top three. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because they're U23 separate. So I chose to do the senior series this year. Um, I put it on U23 because I turned twenty-three this year. Um And like you can still do it if you turn twenty-three that year, but I wanted to do longer races, so I just do the senior ones instead.
SPEAKER_01I think it's better, in my opinion. It's better, especially if you're doing this well at them.
SPEAKER_00It's like why would you do the two when you can spoil them? I'm I'm not fast enough for the 23 ones, so um I'll let the let the kids run fast. But yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's funny. Um shift gears a little
The Season Plan And Dream Races
SPEAKER_01bit. I want to talk about some plans for the upcoming season. I know I saw in your ultra sign up you'll be going back to Broken Arrow. You'll be at Beast of Big Creek, Whiteface. Um, I know we talked a little bit about it, and you said you had a ton of races planned, but uh, I'd say like of the races that you're gonna be doing, what has you the most excited? Like what's uh of the most interest?
SPEAKER_00Um, I'm really trying to get into chema. Um I don't know everyone everyone wants to get into chema and like talking to other skyrunners. They're like, I said I wanted to go to chema, but I haven't heard anything because like everyone wants to do it, so I don't think they're gonna let everyone in. Um my goal would be to do like really well in that, and I would like probably like center this next block of my season on doing really well at chema. Um, and that would have me really excited, but like pending whether I get in. So um I'm definitely more excited about stuff at the end of the season. Um chema is one of the things. Um doing world sky running championships. Um, I'm doing the VK sky race for the US and La Gomera. Um, so I am excited about that. I think that'll be super cool. Um yeah, I'm not super excited about broken arrow because I looked at the signup list.
SPEAKER_01I was gonna ask you about that.
SPEAKER_00I looked at the sign-up list and I'm like, oh my god, everyone is in that race. I've never run well at the Broken Arrow 23K. Um I wish I could run well there, but I don't know. It's it's very fast.
SPEAKER_01Um I was gonna say it's not a real sky. I mean, listen, like I really like broken arrow, like I'll be there. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01In terms of sky racing, it's not really a real sky race, it's just a course in America.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you climb up a ladder. Um, like it's yeah, so it's it's just like a fast race. And I'm like, oh gosh, and then I see the sign-up list, and I'm like, I hope I get 50th. Um, but yeah, I think try to PR um run faster than last year, which shouldn't be asking for much because last year I ran that like coming off Denali. Um, so yeah, just PR and have a good race and catch up with everyone there at Broken Arrow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um yeah, it's Broken Arrow is a funny one because it's like uh it's more of a big meeting of friends than it is like anybody caring. Like obviously the races are important and fun.
SPEAKER_02Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um but it's I think even the community aspect of it's probably to me at least a little bit more fun, you know?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and I was trying to do like some golden trail stuff this year, but it didn't quite work out them requiring like four races now. Um and then with whatever happened, them not having like another North American race, um, that made it really tricky. So I'm doing Ledro Sky Race next week. Um I'm not like part of the Golden Trail part of it. I didn't ask. I didn't really, I was like, I don't I don't know if I want like they kind of intimidate me in the golden trail like section. I'm like, I'll just like start with the rest of the people and run fast, I guess. Like um, but yeah, I'm doing that. Otherwise, I was like thinking about doing trying to do the Asian Golden Trail races in September, but I don't think I will. But yeah. Be cool. So Kima would be really cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm in it, but yeah, no, I was gonna say Kima's amazing. I mean, that's it especially for 2026. Like, this is you know, the fact that it only comes around every other year obviously makes it a little more exciting, plus the fact that it's like I don't know, the kind of the sky race of sky races in a lot of ways. Like it's just iconic ores.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, totally.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the helmet thing. That kind of throws me off as having to wear a helmet the whole time, but still kind of neat. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Um, what's your take on uh us having a a sky race in the United States now with beast at Big Creek? Does that is that exciting and enticing or yeah, I mean it is really exciting.
SPEAKER_00I hadn't heard about the race before that was like a thing. Um but it is it is nice that they brought it. I think the fact that they have like the whole Skyrunner US series this year is really cool. Um the Alaskan race looks really cool. I wish I could do that, but if I was doing uh that would be like uh like marathon and 14,000 feet, and then the next weekend would be Alaska race, which is almost a marathon and like 12,000 feet of gain or something. I'm like, I don't think I can do that. Um even with like training. Um so but yeah, it's real I think it's really cool just that they have the whole series back in the US. I know it was like a huge thing 10 years ago. Um I don't I don't know much about the history of skyrunning in the US. I'm like I feel like Morgan Elliott knows like was mentioning like how it was like a big thing um or used to be a big thing and then like isn't anymore. But it'll be cool to see and like having the top three from that series go to skyrunning um the finals, Marito Dels Dements, um would be is super cool. So I'm just stoked on that. Um beast of big creature.
SPEAKER_01Heard it here first, by the way. That's that hasn't that's not public yet.
SPEAKER_00So yeah.
SPEAKER_01I'm glad someone put it out there.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I I saw it somewhere publicly, I thought the that the first top three.
SPEAKER_01At least I I I dude they haven't even announced the final yet. The final is supposed to be at uh Kismet. You also hear it, heard it here first. Um but yeah, it's uh I there's a few things they haven't announced yet.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay. Yeah. Um I don't know where that. Um so yeah, that that is super cool. I'm super stoked about the Be Civic Creek race. I like the Cascades. Um I was gonna work up there that this summer, but decided not to. Um But yeah, I've heard the course like it's a little bit faster for a sky race, um, but it should be fun to see. Definitely won't be like 10,000 feet of gain like Weda, which might be nice. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01No, for sure. It's uh it is definitely gonna be unique. I I don't know I just um I'm happy the fact that we have like an actual, especially with Golden Trail not being uh you know present in the US this year. Yeah, it's uh just a different dynamic, something for people to do, you know.
SPEAKER_02Totally, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Very cool. Oh very cool. It's uh yeah, I gotta ask you for you know looking at your kind of your background, stuff you'll be racing, like specifically sky running and these mountain races. I noticed you're not doing any UTMB races. I kind of like that. It's something different. I don't really done any UTMB races.
SPEAKER_00I'm like pending, thinking about maybe signing up for Speed Goat if there's still even spots in the 50k. Um I didn't even look. I don't have any UTMB. That's also like the end of my year is kind of up in the air, so I might try to throw one in in November or December or something to qualify for next year. OCC. Um yeah, I mean I like I'm not not obsessed with UTMB, so I'm definitely like I kind of want to focus on the mountain side of things, and I was gonna do Sierra's and all this year, but then I was like, uh well, I I kind of missed the like registration thing for the elite entries, so it was like kind of my fault. It sent it to my other email, I didn't see it. Um but I'm like, oh maybe I'll like try to do the Matterhorn FKT instead. Um like actually go for that, maybe just focus more on like the technical mountain side of things. So and speak of it's is like a cool UTMB race, so it's pretty technical for a 50k hard lots of elevation gains, so that could be cool, it's just why I'm thinking about it. It would be hard um just being a week before Beast of Big Creek, though. So yeah, yeah, yeah. It would be fun to be part of the UTMB, like all that hype uh next year. Um yeah, I I like am thinking about making a move over here in like a year and a half, two years, so like maybe that next year or something, but yeah, it would be super cool.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, very, very
Learning Paragliding In Annecy
SPEAKER_01cool. Uh what's how are you liking Annecy where you're at right now? Um cool town, cool fun things to do, or I've been around.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I'm here um because I'm learning how to paralyde. Um so I'm taking a introductory course. I did my first flight today solo, um, which was super cool, jumping off cliff um and like flying in the air. Yeah, I was like kind of scared, but then you get up there and you're like, wow, this is so cool. And now I don't have to run downhill all the time. I can just run up there and like fly off. So um, super cool. Um Annecy is a really sweet town, especially when you get out of the town and you like go farther down the lake. Um, all the villages are really nice and the mountains are really nice. My workout today was super fun. Um going up. They've got some some super cool stuff. Definitely underrated. There's a lot more to France, the French Alps, than like Chamony for sure. Um and I like NCM like looking at the university here too. So yeah, super nice town. Good area. I know Salamon like centers here too. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, quite a few brands have their uh kind of their their HQ there, which is neat.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Sweet.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. It's uh talk to me about this, the paragliding. Like what what is it like trying to learn? Like, especially being like brand new with us. Do you people people like are you strapped to someone or are you are you on your own?
SPEAKER_00You're on your own. Last year when I was in Chamney, like when you go to Chamney, you see all the paragliders in the air. Like, there's sometimes there's hundreds of them when you get a day with like low wind and stuff. And I was like, wow, I like kind of want to do that. I used to think like I was like, no, paragliding injured, and then like living there last year, I was like, I kind of want to do that, but then I didn't like I didn't have the money and I didn't have the time, so I was like, let me just save up and think about doing it. And then I had this free week in Europe this week, and I was like, well, French is the birthplace of pair, France is the birthplace of paragraping, so I might as well do it this week while I'm here. Um and yeah, I you do like an introductory course. I think there are self-taught people, but I don't recommend that at all. Um and um the school I'm doing with it with is super good. You start like you get your harness and you have your wing. Um you start with just like learning the details of those, and then you do ground training, so you learn how to inflate the wing. Um and then what you're supposed to do, like break it, and then you learn how to run forward. The takeoff's a really important part. It's where you can mess up a lot of things with beginner gear. So you can't really mess up as much in the air as a beginner if you're flying in safe conditions, which is what you should be doing um when you're starting off. Um it's just practicing the takeoff, is what you learn. So you practice, practice, practice on the beginner hill. You don't take off, you just practice running, and the instructors are like constantly giving you feedback. Um and you learn about flying, you learn about the meteorological conditions you should be flying in with like your skill level, which is like very limited just to like nice, calm conditions. Um, and yeah, this is we kind of flew pretty early because the weather's bad tomorrow and Friday. Um, but this is the third day of the course, and this morning it was super calm. So we did a couple like practice runs on the ground, and our instructors were like, You're ready to jump. So we went up there and we ran off the cliff, and I like I was in the air for a lot longer than we expected because I caught like a thermal, which kind of pushes you up a little, and we didn't expect that, so it's a little scary, but super fun. And then they did take us on a tandem after we did our solo flight, we did a tandem flight because the conditions got kind of rough. Um, and like we weren't able to handle that condition, just not having flown before. Um, they took us on a tandem flight to show us what we shouldn't be flying in right now, and like I think they intentionally try to scare you so they would like go really close to the cliff. Um kind of tell you like what you should be doing as a beginner. So yeah, kind of just really practicing that groundwork. Um and then the next step is kind of just like fly a lot in safe conditions, do some flights like with the school, and then you can take like an intermediate course as well um to learn more about like what you should be flying in, how to use those thermals, how to control your glider in rougher conditions. But yeah, something I might do next year. I still don't have my own like gear. I'm just using the school's gear, so kind of the next step, and it's not as big in the US for sure, so definitely a little bit harder to learn over there. And they don't even I don't think we really have any races in the US. It's the huge thing in Europe to like fly like hike and fly races here, um, but not in the US. So it would be cool if they had those.
SPEAKER_01That's interesting. I didn't know there was races for this.
SPEAKER_00That's wild. Have you heard of um Red Bull X Alps? It's like it's traverse the whole Alps, um, it's hike and fly. So you traverse the whole Alps with your flying gear, you roughly follow the course, but you like choose which mountains you ascend, and then you try to fly as far as you can before you land, and then up, ascent, like so it's like a lot of strategy um and endurance. Um I say like my goal is to be the like Rachel Entrichin of Red Bull X Alps and like win it. I don't think a woman has ever won it, but I think that'd be super cool and something a woman could win because it's such a long endurance event and has a lot of like other things like strategy um and like skill with flying too. So I'm like maybe in 15 years focus on that and do that.
SPEAKER_01Fuck yeah, that's amazing. Absolutely go for it, that would be sick.
SPEAKER_00There are, yeah, yeah. Usually looking at the I can hike and fly stuff is super cool up here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. In c I'm I'm down in the springs in in Colorado, and like every now and then I do see like a paraglider, like someone jumping off like a something I would never jump off, but I'm like, holy shit, that's wild.
SPEAKER_00Like, yeah, what is this guy doing? Yeah, it's kind of hard. I haven't even looked at them for back in the states. It's just a lot more chill in France or like whatever. Just have the third-party insurance for like roof.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's actually funny you say
Europe Vs US Rules And Following Zagama
SPEAKER_01that. I was just thinking about that on my run earlier today. Like, and it's not even just for paragliding, but like just running in general. Like, we're so goofy with uh like uh private property and stuff in the states. Like I feel like in Europe everything is like so much more laid back. Like you can most courses like kind of run through people's property and people are kind of chill with it. But here, dude, I'll get shot if I go on private property.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. We're talking about how like in Europe you can kind of like take, at least in skyrunning, you can like kind of cut courses like a bit, like you can take the shortcuts, but in America, they're like, no, you have to stay on the trail even if it's a zigzag, and like a lot of Europe's the irises are just like do whatever, kind of follow the course. Like it's just interesting how right.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, yeah. And if you dude, if you cut a course in America, like you're gonna end up on Instagram and they're gonna they're gonna come for you. They're not fucking around. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. Um what's your take on Zagama this week? You excited you're gonna follow along or no? Do you do you like following sports super hardcore?
SPEAKER_00I I kind of do. I was like, I kind of wanted to do Zagama if I was gonna do Olden Trail series this year, but um I was like, that's a lot of racing. Um but yeah, it doesn't it seems like a really cool race. Um, I think it'll be really cool to see how um Tobey does in the women's race. Because I know there are people who were like, is Tobey gonna break four hours at Zagama? Um that would be really cool. She's an athlete. Um her performances are insane. So definitely excited to follow that race. I don't follow the men's side as much, so I don't know much about that. Um, but yeah, I am super stoked to see how the women's race plays out there. And like Sarah Alan, so I know that's like a super important race for her. So yeah. Totally.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I that's what I was gonna say was like the women, I think the women's race actually is gonna be more interesting, in my opinion. I think it's uh with Tovey, Sarah, um, Mainland. There's just it's the the women's uh field is just super deep this year. Um it's gonna be interesting. And yeah, will it be Tove or will it be Sarah? I don't know. Especially because Sarah's a Sarah's a champion. You know, she's done before. So I don't know. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Super interesting. All
Wrap Up And Next Time
SPEAKER_01right, well, we're at about 40 minutes. I uh I think we covered everything. Let's uh let's let's we'll link back up. If you do Whiteface, let me know. I know you're signed up for it. Yeah, um, I'll be out there uh doing both uh racing and commentating. So I'll cover it after the racing. Uh so looking forward to seeing you out there. And uh yeah, we'll definitely be in touch. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Sounds good.
