Our climbing adventure up Ha Ling Peak (7,897ft) actually began at 8pm. Laurie Skreslet and Sharon Wood, the first Canadian and the first North American woman to summit Mt. Everest spoke to the B2ten gang and sparked our adventurous side. They were able to reach the top of one of the most mystical places on earth by surmounting their fears. Well, the four of us, Patrick, Jenny, Helen and I certainly had to face a little bit of fear the following day to reach the top of our more humbling peak.

My partner in crime for the day, Patrick and I climbed the pitch together, of course led by a guide. Patrick had me laughing the entire way up the ten-pitch climb that took over six hours to complete. The climbing was certainly exciting and challenging. I was surprised by how small of a crack I could balance on. There was one moment on a difficult pitch where my heart was in my stomach and I felt as though I was hanging from the side of a giant rock face. Oh wait a minute, I was! The best part wasn’t climbing, it wasn’t reaching the top but was when we were resting on a little ledge all roped in, eating our lunch and hanging off the rock face enjoying the view, the solitude and of course Patrick’s jokes.

Cheers,
Jenn

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Being an Olympic athlete is often very exciting but to fully live and prepare for those moments there needs to be a dedication to the routine. The routine is necessary, repetitive and sometimes dreary so when it came time to break the routine and head to Banff for the B2ten retreat I was running for the exit.

The B2ten retreat brought together sixteen amazing Olympic athletes, many of Canada’s best sport experts including trainers, osteopaths, physiotherapists, coaches, sport psychologists, and massage therapists. Just imagine the energy that comes out of putting all of these people in a room together. It was electric.

Some of Canada’s biggest sport journalists and TV personalities took the time to do one-on-one mock interviews and help prepare us for what we will be facing this winter. I have come a long way from my first interview at sixteen years old, where the entirety of my answer was “yes.” But even with all of that experience I learned a lot.

All of these incredible experts in their field donated their valuable time to be there with us. We were all touched by their generosity.

There were great training sessions, presentations, and a lot of learning, not to mention an incredible dance-off last night. I was certainly happy to have done all of that cardio training to keep up.

Breaking the routine, hanging and learning from a group of incredible people has left me energized to get back to work.

Cheers,
Jenn