 Hello? I can't hear you Jenny, sorry. Can't hear you, sorry. Sorry, Zoom classic. Okay, sorry about this everyone, we've got a slight problem with Jenny's sound. Bear with us one second while we try and resolve it. I think she's going to log back in. Sorry Emily, I won't leave you sitting there on your own. Well, thanks. How are you doing? How's things working with us? Doing great, thank you. Great, well I welcome everyone to the chat tonight. It's not gone off to the best of starts. You're not supposed to have actually seen my face. It's just supposed to have been Jenny and Emily talking, so apologies for that. But hopefully Jenny will rejoin us very shortly and we can crack on with things. Here she is again. Still got issues with her sound. Can you hear us Jenny? Oh my gosh, it's working. Here we go. Yeah, it came straight from the Zoom call and it's just like, you have to reboot the whole thing. I'll disappear, hello. Happy Women's Day, I can't use technology. Yeah, sorry Emily. Great, thank you, great. It's just your smiley face. Yeah, how's, how are you? I'm well, thanks. I'm in Squamish, BC right now. We've actually got sun for the first time in like two weeks. Amazing. So where are you right now? So I'm in Devon, right on the border with Cornwall and it is pitch black outside. I know. Yeah, time zones are fun. So tell me how you've been coping this year. What have you been up to so far? I know that you got big mountain plans around the corner, but how have you been preparing and keeping yourself sane and keeping yourself, Emily? So I'm quite lucky that I live pretty close to Dartmoor, so I can just, you know, my local walks involve getting straight out on the hills. So that's been a relief really. I don't know how I would have managed if I was living like in a flat or somewhere like that. I know. And are you actively training at the moment? Are you just, is it just kind of part of your lifestyle? Yeah, not really. I'm, I'm not really good at training for things to be honest. Like, I know that you're supposed to, but I've never been very good at actually like making a plan and going for the plan. I don't know about you. No, I'm the exact same. Like running is a pillar of my life. If I didn't do it, I wouldn't be a person worth being around, trust me. So yeah, and I'm just, I'm really lazy, and I know that doesn't make sense for the stuff that I do, but I am just really lazy. Like, if I didn't like running, I think the stuff that I do would actually be inspiring because I would find it really hard. But actually, like, like, I just really want to go running in really long distances is just what I do for fun. So no, I don't do a training plan. Maybe now that I'm in my 30s, I should start thinking about that kind of stuff and like taking care of my body. But yeah, no, I, I don't, I mean, so I want to, I want to get straight into it with your Spanish 3000s, because I, I do have a lot of questions about that adventure. But just for people who are listening, do you want to introduce us to that trip, Jenny? Sure. So in August last year, which feels like a complete lifetime ago, I spent a week in the Sierra Nevada mountains in Spain, and tried to get a Guinness World Record. So I, I set out trying to do 25 mountains, about 3000 meters in a week, ended up only doing 13, but that was still almost double the record. Win-win, I guess. That's so cool. And how, like, when you came up with this idea, did you already know that there was a world record to be had? This is just what Emily wants to do for fun. Yeah, so I kind of, it seems so weird now having had the year that we've had. But if you imagine in November 2019, I was sitting around thinking, what can I do with my annual leave? What might be fun to do with my annual leave? And I thought, oh, it might be quite fun to do Guinness World Record. I wonder if that's even possible. So that's when I started looking into it. And then because of things like, how long your annual leave is, I thought I have to fix something that's quite short. And I have to fix something either to do with mountains or cycling, because those are the kind of things I'm, I'm all right at. And then it just kind of developed from there, really, I started looking for things. And then I found the 3000 meter mountains one and thought, I could probably ever crack it up. And then it was a case of finding the mountains, right? Because if I was going to do it on my own, I needed to find something that wasn't too technical, didn't have snow in the summer, that kind of thing. And it all sort of grew from there. So when I first set out on my biggest ever world first, the run across Kyrgyzstan, it was really funny when I started telling people I was going to do it. People said things to me like, but you know what, even if you fail, it'll be a really great story. You'll learn something. And I'd be like, oh, thanks. So did you feel comfortable? Like, did you tell everyone in your circle that you were going to do this? And what did people think? And how did, what questions did people ask? What weird things did people say to you when you were like, I'm going to go set this world record in Spain. So to be 100% honest, I didn't tell anyone it was a world record until afterwards. Because I thought by saying it was, everyone's panic levels would just do this. Yeah. So no one's done it. Then why do you get to be the one that does it? Exactly. Right. Somehow by it being impossible, it makes it so much more of a big deal. Whereas actually, if I just told people it was me going on a trip in the mountains for a week, that seemed so much more reasonable. So now you're just off on a hiking holiday. Yeah. A really grim, grim hiking holiday. And did you camp out the entire time? Yeah. So I was, yeah, no, I actually have a tent. I'm new to bibbing, Jenny. You have to tell me how it all works. I've only ever been once. But just lie down and sleep wherever you are. That's all it is. Yeah. On your face. That's it. Yeah. Okay. So now I brought a really lightweight tent and I camped out every night in the mountains, which was great. I learned a few things about the mountains up there in Spain. It was very, very windy. So I learned fairly quickly where to and where not to pitch my tent. And because it's all very rocky up there, you have to sort of pin things out with rocks rather than 10 pegs. Oh, I hate that. Yeah. But it was, it was really stunning. I'm really glad I did get to camp out there. And I don't know if it was because of, because of everything, but it was very, very empty in the mountains. So I really felt like I was completely on my own for several days. Did you like that or was it intimidating? I love that actually. I feel much more comfortable completely alone in the mountains than I do in like a city. So five minutes ago, I was on a Q&A and a woman asked me a question about the most dangerous country I'd ever been to and the most dangerous place I've ever run. I think she wanted me to give her some gnarly country that she'd have to look up on a map. And I was really stunned by that question because of course, for us as women who go into the hills by ourselves, we've been told since, I mean, for me since I was a teenager, not to do this stuff at night, not to do it alone, not to, you know, there are all these steps that I had to take. So I was really stumped by the question because no matter where you are, even if you leave from your front door as a woman, you are thinking about safety. So that doesn't change when you're abroad. And I was wondering, do you have that kind of same sense? Or when you go abroad, are you a little bit more like, more nervous about this? I think, I think it depends. It depends completely on where you are, doesn't it? Because like in the mountains, you've got all different sorts of risks. And it's sort of being aware of the risks. And just like managing them, I suppose. You're more in control of them, aren't you? Yeah, or at least trying to be. We do have a question from the audience of how long did this 3000 strips take you? So I had seven days to do it, and that was part of the record conditions. So it's seven consecutive days worth of time, right? So I actually took eight days, but only started when I got up into the mountains and then did my seven days and walked right down again very slowly afterwards. I was going to say, if you didn't train for that, that's pretty mega. I was going so slowly and I had so much kit because you have to do all this like record keeping, not record keeping, like wetting and like recording and altimeters and all sorts of stuff for the to actually officially get the world record. So I was very heavily laden with stuff. I felt like a tortoise most of the time. That's a spirit animal I go for when I'm running as well. But I've got like this big backpack and I know I'm going really slow and I look ridiculous. Like I'm telling myself this is a run, but like reality is. You think it's like, when I've seen your videos, you look like you're going for it? Yeah, I don't feel that way. And to be fair, I know that the camera's on. There's a time between the cameras where you're like, oh, just let this go a little bit. And so do you want to talk briefly about what your kit was for this? Because I think you are a bit, you do know your gear and you've tried it all. So you obviously did pick the right stuff for this trip. What was your kit set up? Was there anything you would have done differently if you did the scan? Are you going to do this again? So I had a 60 liter rucksack. A lot of the kit I brought is actually just the kit I have really. I was trying to go as lightweight as I could, but lightweight stuff is really expensive. So I was really just working with what I had and what I could get. I was trying out some, so a lightweight tent and a lightweight sleeping mat for X bed. And I really absolutely loved the sleeping mat. That's my go-to now. But otherwise, I mean, most of the weight was food probably. Because you have to be self-sufficient. My stove broke halfway round. So I had dehydrated meals. So I was having to put cold water in, sit there for ages, waiting for sort of rehydrate. I mean, I don't want to give you my entire kit list because I'll be pretty boring. But hiking stuff, really. I have actually seen a lot of people who do ultralight because obviously I've researched the Bejesus out of ultralight to be able to run with a backpack. But true at ultralight, folks go without a stove and they just say like, you know, yeah, you just leave your stuff to soak for eight hours and then your food's ready to eat. And I'm always just looking at this like, why would you go that kind of distance without any coffee? I just this is meant to be fun. Isn't this like what we do for pleasure? I'll never understand. And also, I do think a stove is a really good safety feature. You know, if you do get rained on or you fall on a river crossing or whatever happens that you've got hypothermia, you know, your stove is the best shot. It's the best way to sterilize water out of all the methods. Yeah, I'm a really big fan of a stove. I've got it for you that yours broke. Yeah, it was kind of a classic. But I don't understand how people who don't take stoves survive waiting for their dinner to rehydrate because I have to sit there and like eat biscuits while I wait for it to cook. Did you just stare at it? Is it like that proverb you'll watch in the kettle boil thing, except probably yeah, I'm bad with that with real stoves, never mind in the mountains. Yeah, I know what you mean. So when I was reading about you, I think there's a word that comes up a lot and that's bravery and being brave. How do you feel about the use of that term? I mean, it's Women's Day, so you can put it in the context of you are this professionally brave woman who is a role model for a lot of people and what it means to be brave. I'm just leaving that as a really open, not even a question, just letting you talk to us about your bravery. Yeah. So brave started to bother me, really, because I would go places, particularly on my own, and people would come up to me and be like, oh, you're so brave for doing this. And I'd be like, oh, that's odd. I don't feel brave. This is just me doing my thing. Particularly, one thing that comes to mind is a couple of years ago, I climbed Mount Triglav in Slovenia on my own, and it's sort of a Virforata route to the top. And I was going up it. It snowed a little bit because it was the beginning of November. And I was going up behind a chap who was doing it in trainers with a bike helmet on. And I know you're right. And I was there fully kitted out properly. And I was the one that everyone was stopping and saying, oh, that's really brave of you. Oh, where are your friends? And I was just like, why? You know, this isn't brave. This is just me doing me. Yeah. I mean, surely you must have been had been called brave as well. How do you feel about all that? Yeah, I mean, I think it's it is a really funny one. And you get asked all the time, aren't you afraid? And and that was one that I came up a lot in Bolivia. I always got asked by the locals, aren't you afraid? Aren't you afraid? And the truth is, I was I was deathly afraid. Like I was having a really hard time. So I was running across Bolivian Andes, never been done before. There was no route. And I was super, super scared. The weather was terrible. So I was getting hit by these thunderstorms at 5000 meters altitude. So that's not a place that you want a thunderstorm. The attitude towards gringas are really negative. There's a huge coca smuggling route. Like there was just there was a lot to be afraid of. It's one of the most violent countries against women in the whole world. And, you know, I just had all this stuff flew in my mind. I always get asked, aren't you afraid? Aren't you afraid? And I think for women like you and I in our careers, I think we're kind of expected to stand up on stages and say things about being fearless, because that's what our male colleagues kind of do. And I just want to really take an issue with that, because of course I'm afraid. And I don't think that's inappropriate. I think, you know, fear is a really important thing that your human brain does to keep you out of danger. It's why your legs wobble when you're close to a cliff edge because you could genuinely get hurt. So I think when people ask me if I'm afraid, I'm always like, yeah, but I can deal with it or I can have courage or but like, there's no denying that there's fear. There's no sense in being fearless. So yeah, I do think it's really funny that you get asked that all the time. I think that being told that I'm brave. I mean, I've been told that in my hometown, I've been told that I was brave for going for a jog. And I was like, yeah, it's, yeah, it's, it's hilarious the perceptions of of what we must go through as girls, being able to leave the front doors sometimes. Yeah, I feel like you have to deserve brave and that you have to do something big and completely out of your comfort zone to deserve brave. And a lot of the time when I'm being called brave, it doesn't feel like that at all. But you're right about fear, like there's definitely a useful sort of a fear, right, the one that keeps you safe and alive. We don't want to be getting rid of that. But then there's the irrational fear. There's that rustle outside your tent that keeps you up. I mean, it still keeps me up at night. And I've been camping since I was a baby. And still like, just get those irrational fears in your head and the more exhausted that you get, the more mountains you climb in a week. Like I just, I really do get them and I have to battle them. So what do you, if you're going along and you're completely alone and isolated in the mountains, and you're thinking to yourself, I don't feel brave right now, what do you do to harness that and keep going, even if things are going tits up, it started to rain or you're still broken. I have this rational voice in my head, right? This might sound completely strange, but when I get to the stage where I'm quite exhausted and things are maybe starting to go not very right, I have this other me in the back of my head that starts telling me what to do. If that makes sense, like, but you know, like, because I've explained this, and then people are looking at me like, oh, she talks to herself. Her voice is in her head. But that's what it is. I have the expedition buddy I wish I'd brought on my trip. And like, she's the good adult that comes in and goes, like, you know, that blisters only going to get bigger and you should stop and do something about it. Yeah, I like having, you know, saying to yourself, like noticing that when things are starting to go wrong, and having the voice in the back of your head saying, hang on a minute, you should stop and eat some food now. The reason you're so tired is because you haven't eaten anything. Or you know, you get into camp and you're too exhausted to put your tent up. But there's the voice in your head saying, no, hang on, you should do this now, because if you sit down now, you're never going to do it. And it's going to be really cold tonight, that kind of thing. I'm so pleased I do the exact same thing. Yeah, four or two of us. I'm going to turn us to some audience questions because we do have a few. One for both of us. How do you decide on the gear you use? Do you always go as light as possible? And second part of that question is the heaviest piece of kit that you have carried. So I will let you go first. How do you decide on the gear you use? And what's your heaviest bulk in your pack? Okay, so how do I decide what I use? Honestly, a lot of it is just what I have seriously. So I do quite a bit about directivities, but I wouldn't say I have several copies or versions of everything. So it's kind of balancing it between being able to afford a nice Gucci gear and just going really, you don't want to have to wait forever to be able to have the right perfect kit. You kind of just have to go sometimes. And the heaviest thing, probably camera related things that I would normally take. I've actually carried a Christmas tree up a hill once before, but that's a very long story and it was not known as a Christmas. It was for new years, actually, but yeah. We're going to be taking the trees down then, aren't we? Yeah, it's a very long, silly story, but that was probably the heaviest thing, but you know, that's not normal. It's pretty good. So for me, yeah, you're always kind of between that there's comfort and safety and then there's being really light. I mean, the lighter your kit is the further you can go and the further you can go is actually a safe feature as well, because it means that you can get out on time. So I do like pushing it with my ultra light and getting rid of comfort. And that's kind of because I go if I'm on a solo trip, I go to level where I'm not actually spending time at the campsite. So I don't need a folding chair and all that stuff. You know, I'm just going to sleep in a bivvy. I usually bring a tarp. My tarp is like this big when it's folded up. And that's if it does rain or whatever, I do actually have some hope. So yeah, I do push it really hard on the ultra light, but I never cross my line of safety. Like I always know that if the weather changes, I mean, especially that I do mountain trips and you know, in the mountains, you can have every season a day. It doesn't matter what time of year it is, you could get snowed on and you have to be prepared for that. And if like, I will never, ever, I will die before I'm the mountain rescue case that wasn't wearing the right jacket. Like that's just, you know, here in BC, we get that all the time people go out in a cotton t-shirt and then a snowstorm comes in the middle of July and and they need rescued and that for me is just unacceptable. So as light as possible, but never crossing the safety line. Yeah, seems a good good idea really. We have got a question here about how do you stay motivated to train? And since we're both kind of like anti-training programs, this could be a disappointing answer for everyone. I mean, it's a good idea to have a real reason behind the thing you're doing, right? I suppose in that sense motivation. I don't know if it motivates me to go out and physically make a training plan, but you know, having really wanting to achieve the thing can help, I suppose. Yeah, I'm kind of the same that I know I get so much pleasure from these journeys and I'll have a lot more pleasure if I'm not crying in pain while I'm doing them. And I really like living my lifestyle in a way that if someone's just like, Hey, do you want to try that really big round on those mountains today? Or like, do you want to do it this weekend? But like, my legs are just ready to go. Like I love keeping myself at a level that I can pretty much always take the opportunity if the weather's really good and there's a window to go out and do fun stuff. I mean, this is partially pre-lockdown world where like there could be spur of the moment adventures. But that for me is the biggest motivation that I know that if I'm always healthy, then I always have access and I don't want to be at a point where I can't get up into the mountains whenever strikes my fancy to be able to run up a mountain. Yeah, I think I've heard someone describe it as training for life. You don't have anything in particular in mind. You just want to be ready when it comes. Yeah, totally. I love that. It just it feels good to be healthy and strong. And yeah, we've got a question that I really love. It's going to be a big question. What are the best and worst aspects of solo adventuring for each of you? Oh, that is a big question. So some of the best things, I think I find it far less complicated going alone. Because as lovely as other people are, the more people you add to a trip, the more complicated it gets and harder to organize and just there are too many. You want to go fast, go alone. That's how the phrase goes. Yeah, exactly. So there's a lot of freedom by going solo and you can also change things without like at the drop of a hat if you need to. A bad thing, I suppose. Well, maybe not bad, but just, you know, when you see people doing like these FKTs and big supported events, when you're going alone, you can't push yourself to that level. You've always got to have this like 20% just in case something goes wrong. And then you're able to deal with it because you've got no one else to catch you. And I find that sometimes I'm long, particularly exhausting solo expeditions where I just wanted someone else to be able to just navigate for just an hour so that I can stop pacing in my head, you know, just someone else to take the reins for a little bit so that can be quite exhausting, negative about going solo. I started going solo when I was quite young. I guess my biggest trip I was 21, but I, you know, I started with smaller trips when I was younger than that. But I remember when I went out for my first, it was a bike trip and I was 21. I decided to cycle to the UConn and I didn't know how to cycle. I didn't know how to fix a bike. And the biggest thing for me was when I first got out of phone signal and the bike did break and I was in remote northern Alberta where like you can't go to the next train station and go home. Like it's just, you know, you're in northern Alberta. And realizing that I was like the only one around that could fix these problems. I couldn't even phone my dad and ask him how to fix the bike because I didn't have phone signal. I'm in the Canadian wilderness. It's the most hopeless place in the world. And I realized it was the first time in my life, my whole life, that I'd ever been that alone that I actually did have to fix. I mean, up until then your parents have given you exercises where you pretend that you're the adult and they're not going to help you. But really, if things go badly, you can always call them. And then for the first time at 21 year old girl, like, I actually had to take full responsibility for myself. And it was really scary. And there were totally tears as I figured out how to fix my bike. But then I did it. And I always will now just hold on to that being like a really empowering experience of I would give that advice to all young people, especially, is to go on a solo adventure. And maybe it doesn't have to be that scary, but like get to a place where you're fully responsible for yourself, and you're completely in the driver's seat, no one else is make calling the shots, you can decide everything, and you can fix everything. And I just think that's the most empowering thing to go through. So yeah, that for me was always the really good thing about solo adventures was that there's no other exercise like that in your life where you're just fully in control and fully responsible. And it's so intimidating. But feels really good if you survive. Yeah, you're right. It's so empowering once you've got through that. You know, you've got this trust in yourself. Yeah, exactly. And especially as a woman in my early 20s, that was really important for me to build that confidence. Because yeah, I'd never had it up until then. People had always helped me fix my stuff up until then. Yeah, I think they still would if I'd never put myself in those positions. And bad thing. Yeah, I guess it's kind of similar to you that there there isn't anyone else there to catch you. And you know, and that does mean that you just have to be double responsible at all times, like you have to take your safety way more seriously. Like you said, you have to have that reserve of energy. You have to be ready to self rescue at all times, you have to you have to be the only adults in the room. And and yeah, of course, that's that's a really intimidating thing. Sometimes when the task is really daunting, or when you're not doing so well, either you're in a bad mood, or you have actually hurt yourself or broken your bike, whatever it is. Yeah, there are those moments where you just like, I just wish it's always like what's wishing for a rescue, which is the worst thing for a woman to say, like, you just wish someone would come along and fix this right now. Yeah, exactly. Like I just need someone to talk through this problem with at least. Yeah. Yeah. Do you find you do that with the camera sometimes? I found occasionally, if I get in a, well, not quite dangerous spot, but a bit of a spot, I'll get the camera out and explain what's going on. And somehow that makes it make sense when you're explaining it to someone else. Yeah, it is a bit of the Wilson. And then sometimes you can hear yourself say your problems out loud and just realize that your problems aren't very real. Yeah. Like, I think I was once complaining about my bike. I would, I'd really hurt myself because I get my, when my clip pedals came loose and, and was twisted. And I just, I listened to myself complaining or not even complaining, just like saying, this is the situation. And just realizing like these problems are just not even interesting. Like just my knee hurts a little bit. Like, and I, and I just heard myself and I just thought, right, these, this is a total solvable thing. And just saying it out loud just made me realize that I was taking something that wasn't super important or interesting. And just because it was the only thing I had going on at the time, you know, I'm just out in the wilderness. And I just blew it up as this big event when really like it was fine. So the camera does, yeah, it is that kind of Wilson that you chat things out with and, and then go, right, okay, actually, I can fix that. Now that I've heard myself say it, I can, I can sort this out. Yeah. I don't see someone to share it with as well, isn't it? Like, exactly. Yeah, or you hear yourself say things that just sound completely ridiculous. And you're like, actually, no, that's completely ridiculous. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do something sense with them instead. Do you have any good examples? Yeah. So what I'm thinking of is when I was doing, I did an all the tours challenge a few years ago, going to all the tours on Dartmoor in one go. And I was, I had a day where it was so foggy that I was having to do bearings and casings to just find the tours. And I really wasn't expecting that. And I was, I came across a tour that was quite near another tour and had decided in my head that it was like the opposite to the tour I thought it was because I recognized a hollow in the rock that I thought I'd sat in like the Christmas before and made mulled wine. And I said this out loud and was like, what? You're just full of the bearing here, Emily. Like it's most likely not the thing you think. That's so funny. Yeah. That leads really well into the next audience question we have, which is about navigation and wondering whether you and I both just grew up with navigation that we had a lot of practice or if we had to learn. You go first. Yeah. So I'm very old school with navigation. I completely have no idea how to use a GPS, but love a map and map and campus. And I can't really remember learning the basics of navigation. But like, I did my mountain leader training when I was a first year at uni. And that completely like blew my mind about how micro and have works. And since then I really haven't looked back. So I guess, yeah, that's how I got into it seriously was doing my MLT. I'm kind of the opposite. I was never officially trained. I mean, I was lucky that I grew up in the Rockies. So I guess like the Rockies are so different from Europe when you go hiking because the wilderness is just way more vast and pristine that they're just it tends to be harder to navigate. So maybe I was exposed. But I mean, also my friends, if they see me drive or cycle in the city, they're always like, are you really allowed to run across mountain ranges by yourself? You're terrible at this because I cannot navigate the city. Like I'm just like for eight years. And I still like if you ask me for directions, I'm like, oh, like go down the like the one with the red sign in the house. And like, I'm just I'm terrible in a city, but mountains, I do find a bit more intuitive. But I never I never took a real course. I just self taught, which is not what I would recommend to anyone at all. Like, you should learn how to navigate properly. But I just didn't because I was a cheap student when I started. So I was like, oh, I can do this. So I do really like technology, because that is what I had and was really obvious and easy to me. And I've learned how to read a map since and I can map navigate. But I didn't take the course. It was just, you know, the more you go out and practice. So like I was asked about the official routes in the UK and which ones I've done. And I've done very few of the official routes. Because I think it's a really good training exercise for me to look at a map and say, right, I want to see these three things. Now I'm going to have to figure out how to go see them rather than just blindly follow a trail. I mean, we're so lucky in the UK, the big routes that we have, like the West Island Way and the Great Glen Way and the all the waves and the rounds and all that, we're so lucky to have them. They're really cool. If you want to get into these sports, it's a good place to start. But you need to practice your navigation. And the best way to do that is to just get off of those and pick some challenges and pick some directions and mess it up a few times. Yeah, definitely. Go with a group of friends and go off and beat and path a little bit and see how you get on. Yeah. So since you are the real map one, we do have a question just for you. Which maps do you like best? Well, just that's a very strange question. Ornate survey, harvies. So I tend to use Ornate Survey 1 to 25 simply because they give you the most detail. But I can use a 1 to 50 and I've used a harvies. I think harvies are good for when you kind of know where you're going already, like a good sunny day when you just sort of want to get an overview of where you're going. But yeah, I'm not particular about any map. Any map will do. You have the same guilty pleasure as me that you just sometimes look at maps when like you should be working and then you just go daydreaming and you end up on like some country that you know I've been to and going like, oh, I wonder what. Yeah. Oh yeah. And you just like imagine your bike in your mind going like, I bet you I could ride that like. Yes. Very dangerous thing to do looking at maps. Don't know what you might end up. That's funny. I like it. We have a question about planning trips, whether you spend a lot of time doing research, reading books, the internet, do you just ask people or do you just bombs away and go for it? How do you like when you come up in your mind, like write Emily Time for Adventure, a book two weeks off, then what do you do? What's next? So it depends what it is. Again, like how much I know about the thing I'm doing. Like if it's a big thing, like going off to Spain and doing some crazy records, then I'll, I've got this sort of framework that I work through of like building out all the logistics and stuff. But for more of a, just, you know, going up to the Lake District or whatever, I'll just, I might not even look too much. I might just go and see, go and see what I want to do when I get up there. Because the weather can be a big deal as well. Like if you've got a set two weeks, I've spent so much time in Scotland in winter waiting for a weather window. And that's just silly way to do about it. No, Scotland is just Gore-Tex up and deal with it kind of winter. Just learn to embrace it finally. Yeah, I kind of, I go between that sometimes I, sometimes I plan, like if I'm doing something where I know I've raised the bar way beyond my own abilities, then having a plan will just give me a little bit of confidence. Like if I've got, if I know that I've researched this to death, then that gives me confidence going into it. But I'm a really bad researcher because if I start doing research, I start to get way too excited about the adventure and I get like frustrated that I'm not there. So like my next big challenge would be to run across the Caucasus, if COVID would let me go do that. And so I'm always asked, how are the plans coming along? And I'm like, I can't start planning that until a week before I leave. Because if I'm planning that right now, and it's March and BC, since there's snowing outside, and like I'm just going to get like frustrated, like I don't, I don't like that planning phase as much as I like the doing. So I prefer to, to just go jump with both feet. I don't know, I just, I think the more confident I get as well with my own abilities, the less planned I am, because I'm like, I know it'll be fine. I know how to speak to locals and ask for directions. I know that I know that for sure, whatever plan I make, I will throw it out by day three. And things will have changed anyways. So like, I'm just wasting my own time making a plan. So yeah, I'm just, I'm a bit more nonchalant about it now. I like to read the books. I really do love, I mean, as always, that's like my phone for me on a trip has so many purposes, you know, it's a camera, it's a diary, it's a phone, it's a GPS. But I always love to have books. So going ultra late, I'll just read books on my phone. I always do try to look for local literature, either by a local author or set in a local area or something like that. And that, I find that really is, is a nice thing for me to connect with the place through the culture a little bit, especially if you're doing like a solo mountain thing where there are going to be plenty of days where you don't engage with the culture because you're in the wilderness. I've always liked doing that bit. So the million dollar question, of course, you have to answer Emily, is what's next? I don't know. I don't know. I thought I knew and now I'm completely uncertain about what I'm going to be doing this year. I've got a few ideas of things sort of brewing around some things involving bagging a lot of mountains and some things involving cycling because I haven't done a bike trip in a couple of years now. But I'm afraid I can't commit to anything. Sorry, guys. Yeah, I'm the same. I'm taking this whole, you know, I've found the parallels between living in a pandemic and going on long solo adventures to be just kind of like endless parallels. And one of the big ones on a long solo adventure is it's just really overwhelming to try and look to your finish line sometimes. And I have a phrase on my long runs, which is that I can always run a 10 K because that's actually a phrase that I just have my day to day life. Like that's the level of fitness I like to keep myself on is that I can always run a 10 K. So when I'm on these big mountain runs and I know I've got 800 kilometers left, and that is a horrible number to think about because you like your legs will just start to wither at the thought of it. And then I just say I'm just doing this 10 K at a time like I'm just going to run 10 K and then I'll see what's up when that 10 K is done, but I'm not going to think beyond it. So that's kind of my attitude to the world right now is just like week on week. Like this week, I hope to do a really big ride because it's starting to be a bigger daylight hours here in DC. And that's all I have to say, like, you know, I know that I'd like to do big adventures this summer, but I don't know what worlds I will live in this summer. So at the moment, I'm just like week on week, just take her as she comes and yeah, every now and again, I take a dive into a whole load of like we're just talking about a whole load of maps and plan a million things, but I've no idea when I'm going to get to do them. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so I'll just I'll break my own heart if I look to do that. Like it does. I mean, I am coping really well, but I said to a friend the other day, she was asking like, oh, as an adventure, how are you coping? And I just said it feels like I'm in a breakup. Like it does. Like I do actually feel a heartache for travel. Like, so I just that's the level at which I miss it. And I'm okay because I live in a place that I get to ride my bikes every day and I get to go skiing all the time. And like, I'm good. And I'm definitely one of the luckiest people on all this. But yeah, sitting around looking at maps and plans for me right now is just like looking at your ex's photos like I miss you. I just feel like we've been on one extreme solo expedition for this entire past year. Like it's been really long and really quite quite difficult. But yeah, exactly how it feels. We do have a question because it's International Women's Day. Which women have inspired you? Oh, gosh, I should have thought about this beforehand, shouldn't I? We didn't plant the questions, we don't know. So I think rather than say one person in particular, I'm going to say lots of little people in little ways. Like just, there are so many, I don't even know how to say this, like every time anyone just sort of goes and does something. So I run a magazine, a women and adventure magazine. And I see so many, either pitches or just people who come into my radar who are doing things out of their comfort zone in a small way. And I just find that really inspiring, that there are actually loads of people doing really great things. And they're not necessarily shouting about it loads or crossing oceans or cycling around the world. But there's this big force of lots of little people doing little things. I think that's, I find that very inspiring. You know, my answer's always been the exact same. Oh no. I always get asked like growing up who was your role model. And you know what, who was on TV when we were growing up that looks like us? You know, like there's still who's on TV that looks like us. So I think, I think that was a big thing that motivated me to go from just being someone who adventure to being someone who adventures in a very public way was, you know, I can sit back and complain that I don't see the female demographic in this world, or I could just do something about it. And the easiest thing for me to do about it was to just like put my own hand up. So a lot of my motivation is that I lacked the role model. But yeah, on the same as you, it's like ordinary women that I've met in my life, especially on the runs that I do, like a few of them I did in developing countries where women just don't have anywhere near the level of freedom and rights and things that I have. And I would meet these women and just think they're so incredibly strong. And, you know, I'm the one who gets all this glory because I ran a thousand kilometers across our country. But actually, like, that's just so backwards because their life is so different. Like one example, I was on the Atlas Mountain Race a year ago, I was cycling around Morocco in a race with like other people, if you remember that, I know, different life. And in the middle of the race, and this race was hugely male dominant, and I was a leading woman, and then I got my period. And it was like the worst time to get my period, because you can't get a period in North Africa because you can't buy tampons in North Africa. Like they're just, they're not acceptable to the culture, so you can't get them. And I wasn't expecting a period. I wasn't prepared. And it was just this absolute disaster. I'm in the middle of a bike race with all these men, and we're competing for only one podium. And I'm thinking, oh, and it would have been so easy to complain. Like this was discussed, like I just had to like ride through it and just deal with the fact that this was happening. And my heat regulation was way offcycling in the desert when you have your period is just not something you ever want to do. Like I was feeling really sick, everything was just gross. And then I just, before I would complain, I would look around me and they're just women, the Berber women working outside under the same hot sun that I was trying to work under. And I'm thinking, well, they've never had a tampon in their whole lives. Like when they get their periods, this is their life. They don't have different products. They can't talk about it the same way that I feel embarrassed to tell my male competitors who are from like, you know, Germany and America and stuff. I'm embarrassed to tell them what I'm going through. They live in the same, but they live in these conditions. And that, to me, I would like look at those women and just without even having a conversation with them decide I was inspired by their lives because their lives are just way harder than mine was. And I had no right to complain that I had my period in the middle of an international sporting event because like, it just felt like the definition of personal problems at that time. And I just, yeah, just took so much strength from the women of Morocco without even asking them for it. I was just like, wow. Give it a perspective, doesn't it? Yeah. And that always helps, doesn't it? Just doing that gratitude. Even if you don't feel like, I mean, if I'm on my period, I don't feel like being grateful for anything because I'm really grumpy, but that was definitely my coping mechanism was like, just practice some gratitude, have some perspective and yeah. We've got a question leading on to from the woman's day topic, whether either of us have experienced any sexism or assumptions based on your gender, I will just bang the desk and say yes, but then let you actually give your full answer. Yeah. So yes, definitely. But I quite like one, not making a deal about it and two, just demonstrating that they're completely wrong in their assumption. I kind of like to sort of just quietly be the opposite of what they're expecting. And then that eventually sort of changes their entire perspective and they realize they're just being sexist. Yeah, I think the funny thing with it is that there's more subtle, I mean, it depends on where you are in the world and this is happening, but I think there's a lot of subtle sexism, like this kind of like assumptions that this isn't your thing or you've got a boyfriend who's going to come help you or like you're not going to do this at the level of the real athletes because you're a girl, so you're probably just not into that. It's not even outwardly sexist in your face. It's just an assumption that you know, that this isn't a thing that girls like to do, that you're not going to be okay bibbing or sleeping in a tent because you're a girl, you probably just want to get to the spot and stuff like that. Yeah, I think that's part of the problem I have with the word well, people calling me brave is that in some of those situations, I actually, I hear that as what are you doing here? That's not necessarily what they mean, but that's sometimes how I think I interpret it. Yeah, I remember this memory just came to me. I got the top of a climb in, I want to say last year, not sure, the top of a hill and a guy said, like, you're just chatting to this guy and then he kind of looks around and realized my boyfriend hasn't caught up yet and realizes don't have a boyfriend and he goes, hang on, are you alone? And I was like, yeah, and he's like, good for you. That's so cool. And then I just looked back to him and said, are you alone? And he went, yeah. Good for you, that's so cool. I was just like, I know we do live on different standards, but like, what? Yeah, I've had people ask me where my friends are, things like that, that's a bit awkward. Sorry, I don't have any, is that a problem? Yeah, I know. And yeah, and you just kind of have these stammering moments where you try to come up with something clever to say about how women are allowed to do stuff on their own now. But it's just, it's so obvious to me that I don't know how to formulate in a way that's not going to make me sound like the raging feminist that everyone runs away from. Although the older I get, the more comfortable I am with being a raging feminist that everyone runs away from. I kind of enjoy that a little, if I'm honest. That was actually our last question from the audience. So, but let's just finish with, I wanted to ask you about Intrepid Magazine and what the future is for you in, you know, you made a career out of lifting other women up and sharing women's stories and just asking how that's going and what's next for you in that pursuit. Okay, so with Intrepid, we are, we used to be a print magazine a while ago, but obviously that's, that's kind of had to stop. So we're, we're going forward as a sort of online newsletter sort of publication. So it's a weekly, weekly emails. There's going to be monthly like news as much because people say there is, you know, there aren't any women in adventure and you can't find them and all this stuff. So we have a news bulletin once a month with everything we can possibly find that's going on. Please send us stuff. And then there are going to be articles. I really want to champion publishing stories that wouldn't necessarily be published elsewhere. So typically sort of first person stories, bi women kind of we call it cutting out the middleman, but that sounds like a cheesy pun. But yeah, articles every week. And some sort of discussion thread things. So again, it's really hard. Like Google doesn't help you if you're a small writer or creator or podcast or whatever. So having places to collect all the podcasts, all the people's websites, all that kind of stuff. We'll be doing, doing that as well. But yeah, hoping to grow it as much as we can spread the word. Yeah, I love seeing that. I think the most important thing we can all be doing right now on something the older I get and the more I travel, the more aware I am of the fact that women the best we can do is to help each other and build each other up. And so I love that you've taken it to the extreme level that you've taken it to and wish you all success with growing that. And I just want to say thanks a million to all the people who tuned in tonight and happy International Women's Day to all of you. Good to talk to you.