Changes

It’s funny how life takes you on a journey that you often have no control over. When it does, you have two choices. You can fight it and try to take a different path at whatever cost. Or you can choose to roll with it, see every twist and turn as a new adventure, seek the positives and accept it as an opportunity. It may not be exactly what you had planned but that’s what keeps life interesting right? We have come into this situation many times over the last 2 or so years and while some kinks in our plan have been easy to accept, there have been a few that have tested me personally both emotionally and physically. 

A couple of years ago I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thryroiditis. Quasimodo what, you say? Well, Quasimodo isn’t too far from the truth. Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease that creates an under-active thyroid which means that I had little to no control over my hormones or metabolism. I called it the ‘Fat Dragon’ disease as I was working out like a demon, eating next to nothing and still putting on weight. In addition, I would find myself in the car on the side of the road bawling my eyes out for reasons that I didn’t even know. I was moody, cranky, would snap at nothing and cry at the drop of a pin. At the time I thought it was simply stress due to the fact that I was coming to terms with losing my business and that I would most likely have to fold. Alas, I hadn’t just become a fat mole all of a sudden, there was a much more deeply rooted problem. In fact, my cholesterol, blood pressure and cortisol levels had me one panic attack away from a full blown heart attack. At the time, I was a strict vegan who exercised daily, so things just didn’t add up. 

Being very anti-medication, I tried to heal myself through more holistic options like herbal medicine, nutrition, yoga and massage. This worked wonderfully for me emotionally and I generally did feel much better. Unfortunately my regular blood tests and body scans to monitor this treatment didn’t quite match my boosted spirit. Over the course of 4 months, my antibodies were still much too high as were hormone levels, and I had lost about 200g in bone density due to my slug-like metabolism. Once you have one autoimmune disease, you are unfortunately prone to developing others. Being that Rheumatoid Arthritis is one of those diseases and I was losing bone density, I decided to go on the lowest dose of medication that I could and keep up my holistic treatments in the hope that they would work with each other. A kink I had to accept and...Success! 

I was calmer, healthier, much more nice to talk to and the weight was slowly coming off. I was happy with the decision I had made about treatment and it also made me reevaluate what I wanted out of life. I decided that if we were going to make some big changes in our life, then now was the time to do it. Rich agreed. We were so sick of saying, “One day...” and just thought, “Today is that day!” The next day, we started selling up everything and made the plan to follow our dream of becoming dirtbag climbers in Europe. I paid all my suppliers with what little money I had and decided to walk away from Dynobars. That company was my baby and it was a very hard decision to make but I needed to concentrate on getting my health back and culling the stress from my life. A kink in my monetary future but definitely the right choice for my health. Within 3 months, we had booked tickets and soon were living the dream in the Fontainebleau Forest!

Being away was immensely positive for my health. I was sleeping better than I’ve ever slept, feeling ridiculously healthy both inside and out and was stupidly happy! I did have one little set back when my meds script was wrongly filled and I was taking 4 times my medication dose for 2 months but I got that sorted once we returned home thanks to the help of my amazing naturopath Amy. The only thing that did bother me was the fact that I often lost all feeling in my hands, to the point that they would burn and throb with pain, go yellow and purple and rock hard. This maybe happened a dozen or so times and so I had it checked out as soon as we got home. Another kink.... 
Along with Hashimoto’s, I now had a second autoimmune disease known as Raynaud’s Syndrome. Raynaud’s affects my circulation and causes an excessive reduction in blood flow to my extremities. It comes on quick and painful and can take up to an hour for my fingers to come back to normal feeling. Needless to say, working in the outdoor industry as a climbing and kayaking instructor has been a (painful) game of trial and error. I have more pairs of gloves than anyone would deem necessary living in Queensland, the Sunshine State, but as I have learnt it is better to be safe than sorry. 

On our first morning in the Bluies, I had a really severe attack that took me a long time to recover from. We stayed positive, went into town and waited until noon and full sunshine to go climbing. I got half way up my first climb and lost them again. I was devastated. We had planned to do as many multi-pitch climbs as we could whilst we were there and now had to make the call to not do any at all. Rich actually made that decision for me. I have a tendency to just think “She’ll be right.” As he explained, while I tried to deny anything was wrong, if we got half way up a multi-pitch and I lost my fingers, I would have no way of escaping anything as I literally lose all function in my hands. It would not be fair to either of us. So we chose our crags wisely for the rest of the week and stayed in the sun at all times and I wore gloves EVERYWHERE! 

Upon returning from the Bluies, I have done a bit more research into what I can do to help myself and have just spent another $350 on new gloves that I can wear while I sleep that help to repair the damage I have suffered in my tips. The scariest part about Raynaud’s is that if you have too many attacks (and I’ve had a lot) it can create ulcers under your skin which can go gangrene. So I have my new gloves, I have had to give up coffee (GASP!) and we have decided to concentrate more on bouldering so I can have a bit more control over keeping myself warm at all times, especially my hands and feet. 

This kink has been a super positive one. Rich and I are both super excited to throw ourselves back into bouldering as we haven’t done a lot since leaving the forest last year. We are training even harder and working to get even stronger. I’m so stoked that there is a still totally an option for me to keep climbing and more so, that Rich has been so unbelievably supportive and has embraced this change as something awesome too. My biggest problem now is the fact that I have had to switch to decaf which is heartbreaking. I almost feel less of a climber because of it. Many of you may be rolling your eyes right now thinking “Pffft, that’s not a real problem” and to that I would like to quote the late, great Wolfgang Güllich - “A man doesn't go to drink coffee after climbing, coffee is integral part of the climbing.” I rest my case....

Baby Come on Home

We arrived home on my step-dad’s birthday and planned to surprise both my parents by showing up on their doorstep unannounced. Little did I know that my younger brother, who lives in Florida, had decided to do the same thing! So it was surprises left, right and center. An emotional blur of hugs, kisses, tears and cheers. It was such a wonderful experience to come home to!

The very next day we went to our local gym and had a chat with the bossman about what we wanted to do and what we felt we could offer. To be honest, I only half expected Rich to get some work let alone both of us walking away with solid employment. Our first month back was a whirlwind of training, study and exams; all whilst trying to catch up with mates we hadn’t seen in a year. 

Finally working solid hours, we moved out of my dads (we said we’d only be 2 weeks... thanks dad) and into a flat of our own. It’s a total dive but the location is perfect and it allows a slight feeling of dirt baggery, lacking only the convenience of mobility. And being that we’ve had mates crashing on our floor almost more often than not, it has been a great little ‘transitional’ flat for us.

We both really wanted to concentrate on getting super strong, climb fit and healthy this year. To learn as much as we can at work and to develop and solidify a strong skills set that we can take anywhere with us. Work wise, we wanted to bring some fun and new life into the gym and I do believe we have done that. Rich wrote a training template called ClimbFit which I teach weekly. It’s awesome to be able to combine my PT skills with climbing and see rad improvements week to week in our regular climbers.

Rich has put heaps of effort into developing himself as a route setter and the results have been awesome. To see the regulars frothing over his new routes is really inspiring. He’s tried to push some boundaries and get people out of their comfort zone. Not only that but it has pushed him to think more about his own climbing, what his strengths and weaknesses are and work harder at improving. He has been a training machine and the hard work has paid off. I’d like to say that I’ve put in even half his effort but I think even that would be a stretch. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve trained hard and have seen some great improvements and made some serious gains but if I trained like my demon husband, I’d be crushing!

With that said, now that our wedding is over and I’m done with that emotional roller-coaster, I’m really aiming to spend the next few months concentrating solidly on my own climbing. Our honeymoon in the Bluies was a real slap in the face as to how much climbing really does mean to me, mean to us both as a lifestyle that we don’t just want, we need. For me climbing and the lifestyle, the energy, the freedom that comes with it allows me to breathe. I love it. We love it. The fact that we get to do it together is just the icing on the cake. A passion shared is a passion that explodes out of both your beings. It grows and becomes a part of you like a hand or a foot and you just feel lost or empty without it. I am so blessed to do what I love with the one that I love. I pretty much hit the jackpot and I’m pretty darn stoked by it too…

Our Winter Wunderland...

So, it has been over a year since our last post and man what a year it has been! Last Christmas was spent with the Salmons skiing in Galtur, Austria. It was such an amazing experience, a seriously wonderful family holiday that we both still think about often and feel so blessed to have been a part of. The hotel we stayed at, Hotel Buentali was just gorgeous, the staff were super friendly and the food.... Ridiculous! A breakfast buffet that puts the Marriott to shame and a 7 course dinner made with only fresh local produce every night. It’s a good thing we were skiing everyday or I would have busted through my pants. 

We had ski lessons with the hilarious Willy! Not the most patient of instructors which was as funny as it was frustrating. Learning everything from the ‘snow pluff’ to stopping quickly by going ‘Dooooown and to the mountain. Down Lady, DOWN and to the mountain!” I only had one major stack which was a pretty epic fail.... just skied straight off the edge of a run.  I don’t actually even know how it happened but I properly had one of those mid-air, time slows down moments of “Oh Shit.... this is going to really hurt!” But nothing a Hot Chocolate with Stroh couldn’t fix. Stroh is this crazy Austrian rum that comes in both 40% and 80%. We made the mistake of buying the 80%. I’ve never actually drunk anything that literally took me breath away like Stroh did. It is firewater, so potent it actually gave Rich a nose bleed. As terrible as it was, we managed to almost finish the bottle over the course of  10 days. We had to leave the remainder behind though as we weren’t allowed to take it on the plane, there is actually a little ‘do not take on planes’ warning symbol on the back! 

Austria stole our hearts. Hiking in the woods through knee deep snow, exploring and getting lost in its beauty. We can not wait to go back and have more adventures in the spring, summer and autumn when the snow melts away and the boulders are exposed just begging to be climbed! Austria really has the mountain lifestyle that we crave. World class bouldering, epic sport climbing, trail running, skiing, beautiful people, amazing food. We would love to do a couple of seasons to really explore this beautiful country.

Heading back to Wales after Christmas, we had to really sit down and re-assess what our goals were, where we wanted to go and where we were actually heading. We decided that it might be worth looking into what work within the climbing/outdoor industry we could get back home. I emailed our local gym (there is only one on the GC) and asked about the possibility of training up and getting work. We received an email back saying that if we were to return home, to come in and we could definitely talk about some options. So with a glimmer of hope, we put the Van up for sale and planned to be home as soon as it sold. 

Within a week, we had a buyer. Unfortunately we took a massive loss on the sale but it wasn’t a good time to be selling so we simply had to cut our losses and roll with it. The guy who bought it wanted it for commercial purposes so we had to gut it before he came to pick it up. Tearing our life out of that van was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. Even losing my business and shutting the doors on that was less gut-wrenching. I cried, sobbed even, as we took apart our bed and pulled out the cupboards. To anyone walking past, I must have looked like a 4 year old that had been told to clean up their toys as punishment for being naughty. Tears streaming down my face, shallow sobs and whimpers as I made trip after trip in and out, carting amazing memories with every step. That Van was our first “Home”. It wasn’t much but it was ours and it was awesome. 

We booked our flights and a couple of days later, we were home.

My First Snowman!

The view from our Hotel room

The Lake at the bottom of one of the ski runs.