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Surviving Switzerland
22 Plays4 hours ago
In this thrilling episode of the Uncommon Wealth Podcast, host Phillip Ramsey takes listeners on a journey through the heart of Switzerland, where he and his guest, Jon Shiplett, undertook a remarkable adventure. Phillip, motivated by a desire to challenge himself out of his comfort zone, explores the captivating world of Via Ferrata – a protected climbing route that promises breathtaking views and a test of nerve. As they navigate the iron paths of Switzerland, both Phillip and Jon discover profound life lessons and parallels between their daring climb and life's challenges.
Embark on this gripping tale of exploration, where Phillip and Jon recount their experiences, from unexpected snowstorms on Swiss mountains to the adrenaline rush of paragliding. Key themes include the importance of preparation, confronting physical and mental challenges, and translating adventure lessons into business and personal growth. Whether you are an adventure seeker or someone looking for inspiration to step outside your comfort zone, this episode offers insightful reflections interwoven with exhilarating accounts of scaling new heights.
Key Takeaways:
- Adaptability and Overcoming Challenges: The unpredictability of the weather on their climb emphasized the importance of adapting and pushing through challenges.
- The Value of Preparation: Proper equipment and research are crucial when embarking on a physical challenge, underscoring the value of preparation in all life areas.
- Physical Challenges as a Microcosm for Life: Engaging in physically demanding activities can offer valuable insights and motivation applicable to daily life and business.
- The Importance of Partnership: Sharing challenges and adventures with others enhances the experience and provides mutual support and motivation.
- Pushing Comfort Zones: By stepping out into unfamiliar and demanding situations, individuals can uncover personal strengths and foster growth.
Notable Quotes:
- "It's the quickest way to sort of get yourself back to that willpower wall." – Jon Shiplett
- "No matter how bad it gets, you can't quit." – Jon Shiplett
- "Remember that you wanted to do this in the first place." – Phillip Ramsey
- "When you know you're on the right path, you've got to start pushing hard." – Jon Shiplett
- "These challenges get you, like, the things that bubble up, they bubble up quicker." – Phillip Ramsey
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Transcript
Introduction to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Everyone dreams of living an uncommon life. And the best asset you have to achieve your dreams is you. Welcome to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast. We're going to
Purpose and Tools for Unique Paths
00:00:13
Speaker
introduce you the people who are living uncommonly. We're also going to give you some tools and strategies for building wealth and for pursuing an uncommon path that is uniquely right for you.
00:00:26
Speaker
Hello,
Teasing an Adventurous Trip
00:00:27
Speaker
and welcome, everybody, to another episode of the Uncommon Wealth Podcast, where I'm your host, Philip Ramsey. And today, we're talking about a amazing trip that I just went on with my good buddy, John Shiplett. And so we're going to give you kind of the backstory of how we got to this thing, what this trip was called, or what what we did in this trip. We're going to talk about our itinerary, things that we learned, things that we thought God taught us in the process. It's going to be awesome.
Inspiration for Via Ferrata Adventure
00:00:50
Speaker
Welcome to show John Shiplett. Hello.
00:00:55
Speaker
Happy to be here. Oh, yeah. Okay. So first off, we should probably give people the backstory and it kind of starts with me. So I was at this peer group that a lot of business owners, I think they're, you can only be business owners of this thing. One of my friends, I asked him, what is he doing this weekend? and He was like, I'm taking my family to Colorado and doing this thing called a via frata. And I'm like, what is that?
00:01:17
Speaker
and
Explaining Via Ferrata
00:01:18
Speaker
he's then began to explain to me what a Via Ferrata was and that is you get a rock climbing equipment um harness and then on that harness is two I would say rock climbing ropes that are attached to two carabiners those carabiners are attached to a mountain or a iron cable on a mountain that's bolted into the mountain and the Via Ferrata is translated the iron path or iron way and then you go up these Like rock climbing, I guess, hikes. Hikes and like climbing is kind of what I would say. But instead of having them hike extreme hikes, there you go. That's an even better way. See, that's why John's on the show here, everybody. He's here to clarify. But extreme hikes and a lot of times are very open and exposed, but you're connected to this cable on the mountain. The reason why you have two cables is because at some point those cables have to be attached to the mountain.
00:02:11
Speaker
So you take one of the carabiners and you put it over the attached bolt and then you are always connected and then you swing over the other one. But as soon as I saw this, I was i was intrigued and I thought,
00:02:23
Speaker
I need to do this.
Choosing the Adventure Location
00:02:24
Speaker
Now that's that story, but there's another story that kind of made me want to do this. And it was about a year ago, if you're a long time listener, you'll understand this. I interviewed a gentleman named Brad Meckley. He was 60 years old and he was feeling like he was kind of complacent in life. And he decided to shake things up a bit, push himself out of his comfort zone. And he scheduled a bear hunt. We have him on the show. You guys have to listen to that. One of my favorite podcasts, because at some point he's like whispering in the microphone Cause he's going on a bear hunt. It is so good. But while I was interviewing him, I was like, I want to go on a bear hunt or something like a bear hunt. I'm not a hunter. Honestly, Brad wasn't either, but he pushed himself out of his comfort zone. And like, I constantly was kind of thinking like, what could be my bear hunt? So when this gentleman was talking about his Via Ferrata, I was like, this could be my bear hunt. So as anybody knows of me, I go home and I do the most logical thing, which is what is the world's best? I Google, what is the world's best Via Ferrata?
00:03:23
Speaker
which happens to be, this is a true story in China. And so I was like, well, we can't get to, I can't get to China ever. Like that seems like a really hard obstacle to pass and I don't want to do all that work. The second one was in Switzerland. And I was like, huh, not only was the second one in Switzerland, I started doing a little bit more Google research and there was a video that she showed this guy doing this via frata. And I was glued to my screen. Like I couldn't stop watching it. It's 12 minutes long. We should probably put that in the show notes so you could watch it. It's the most amazing video ever. And instantly I was hooked.
Planning the Switzerland Trip
00:03:57
Speaker
Couldn't stop thinking about it.
00:03:59
Speaker
And so, but in the back of my head, I was like, this is a bucket list thing. This probably won't happen soon. Um, and then I don't know what happened, but I couldn't stop thinking about, so I just quickly looked for flights, how much flights were. And that's when things got really interesting because the flights were only $500 round trip from Des Moines to Zurich, which was like, okay, here we go. Okay.
00:04:20
Speaker
But I knew I wasn't going to do it alone because this is something that like you don't, I mean, we're from Iowa. The closest mountain is like, what, eight hours away? We don't really have those. And so I started kind of like thinking, okay, who would I do this? And, uh,
00:04:35
Speaker
you and I had a meeting, we were hanging out and and I showed you the video and about three minutes in the video, you were like, or maybe like 30 seconds, you were like, I would do this with you. And I was like, don't tease me. Don't you tease me here. And you were like, no, I love this kind of stuff. And I was like, so, you know, it's like super funny about that video.
Travel Preparations and Expectations
00:04:53
Speaker
And I actually haven't told you this. Oh, this this great is great. So you only showed me like the first like 30 seconds, I think of that video. Yeah.
00:05:02
Speaker
And then you said, cause I think it was on your way out that you guys were leaving the house when you actually started to show me and he said, okay, just watch the rest of it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let me know. Yeah. You never watched the rest of it. So you've never seen the whole video. I had like skipped to the, like a couple of parts, but like, I didn't see the whole thing. And I only saw like basically the part where he's like clipping in in the very beginning. Oh yeah. And then like the end when he's like next to that cross. cross Yeah. And I was like, Oh, this looks good. Unbelievable. So even better because come to find out John was a beast on this mountain. Um, but anyway, so you said you would do it with me.
00:05:42
Speaker
without really having a lot of research or done, even seen the video, which even makes this story better. And so I looked at flights and by the time it worked out for both of us, the flights were only $800. So not crazy. I felt like very doable. And so we planned it. And this is a fun kind of like tidbit.
00:06:03
Speaker
John and I are pretty relaxed kind of people, but before I was like, okay, what does John, like, I don't know how he travels. we've I've never been out of the country. And I assumed John did. News flash, he hadn't either. I had one other time, yeah. But that wasn't like, but yeah not to Europe. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Okay, because i've I've been to like Cancun, but I don't count that. But you were kind of doing something different than that. Anyway, so I was like, okay, here we go. And so I was like, hey, let's have lunch.
00:06:32
Speaker
And at lunch, this was my question basically, I was trying to get the feel of, okay, do you want this to be like a full throttle like tour? Or do you want this to be like, Hey, we climbed the mountain. Let's relax. Let's sightsee. And like, let's be honest, there's a right answer here.
00:06:50
Speaker
John did say the right answer. He was like, Oh yeah, I want to, I want to do it if we're going to do it. And that was Aaron. Aaron's my wife. Um, that was her kind of thought is she wanted us to really do it. If we're going to do it, like don't,
00:07:02
Speaker
Don't hold back. Yeah, don't hold back, yeah. so um So anyway, that was kind of the conversation we had, and then I just asked, hey, what would be one thing that you'd like to do if we could do something? He'd be like, mountain bike. He said, mountain bike. So John said, okay, great. I've never mountain biked, and I've thought this house is a great place to start. So we kind of part so kind of part our ways, and that was like my marching orders, like let's go try to let's try to plan this trip. um Anyway, so... I don't know where you want to go from there, but I guess maybe from your perspective, like after our lunch, what did you think our trip was going to be? Like, did you have any expectations? I think the only thing I was thinking is like, how, how do I tell Hannah, yes you know, it's like, how do I make this sound like,
Arriving in Switzerland
00:07:54
Speaker
like truthful but not truthful. I'm giving her the the full picture. of Don't do too much research. right yeah right Exactly. I didn't show her actually any of the climb.
00:08:05
Speaker
beforehand, which I don't know. I still feel like it was wise. Yeah. And then she also thought we had a guide, which we didn't have a guy didn't ask me. I didn't, and she didn't ask me about that in beforehand. So you know I felt like we were talking about that in our, in our meeting, but I don't feel like we were like, Oh no, like we'll just do this by ourselves. I don't know if she just didn't hear that part, but I would remember saying like, well, we're three feet from the iron cable. Like, where are we going to go? We're not going to get lost. Yeah. Famous last words. Yeah. so um So here we go. Let me just tell you this. So we got a lot more to cover, but I'll tell you the itinerary that ended up being our like, this is our itinerary that we're going over to Switzerland to do. Okay, so we left on a Tuesday morning.
00:08:52
Speaker
And we didn't land until our, our time Tuesday evening. So I'm going to give you kind of two timeframe. So hang on. So we left at eight o'clock in the morning.
Navigating Swiss Transportation
00:09:02
Speaker
Um, and then we got there at 11 30, our time. So we were traveling.
00:09:15
Speaker
Hey, not sure what happened there. Sorry, Ben.
00:09:20
Speaker
Okay, so it was our time, eight o'clock, and then we we landed in Zurich at 11.30 p.m., our time. But their time was six in the morning. And so John and I tried to sleep, but really, we weren't that tired, and we just didn't sleep. Maybe 15 minutes, maybe. We rested our eyes. But again, we were pretty excited about being there. So we get to Switzerland at their six o'clock in the morning, but now it's our kind of midnight.
00:09:48
Speaker
and we we kind of go off and we we get our rental car. So we had a rental car we thought about because everybody was going to be like, why don't you do the train system? Great idea. But it's $800 for a week to do full access train rides. Yeah, i don't I don't know. Maybe it's amazing, but that seems like that would have been a nightmare.
00:10:05
Speaker
I agree because we had such a interesting schedule that I didn't want to like, when's the train leave?
Adjusting Plans and Unexpected Train Ride
00:10:11
Speaker
How do I get there? Is it the bus or whatever? And the place that we were going to go to is not like the most well sought after place in Switzerland. Lucre bad. Not much people go to Lucre bad to go to Switzerland. Yeah. Thermal baths. yeah They love it. Um, but so we get there, uh, Wednesday morning, uh, Switzerland.
00:10:32
Speaker
And John and I were like, okay, here's our options here. Like we can drive, try to do something, but we know it's going to hit us pretty quick. Like this whole jet lag thing. Neither one of us has experienced that, right? You've never experienced jet lag because you went south. yeah Okay. Um, so we, we get, uh, the rental car and right when I get the keys, I'm, I take the keys and I put them in my pocket and I tell the attendant that hurts or whatever. I'm like, okay, I got a couple of questions here.
00:11:00
Speaker
Now that I have the keys, like which side of the road do we drive on? it I don't know. It ended up being the same road that we travel over here. And then I was like, anything else we need to know, which fun fact, you can't turn right on red in Switzerland, which he told us. And then you have to pump and then you go pay. So there's your two things. But for the most part, it was fairly.
00:11:23
Speaker
we were kind of like doing the same thing. So we go out and we decide in our infinite wisdom that we're going to go mountain biking because we got an email or I got an email because I scheduled the the bikes, I rented bikes for Monday. And this was now what now it's Wednesday. So it's week, but he emailed me and said, Hey, the mountains is even open on Monday. You might want to change your plans. Good to know. So John and I thought we would go to this small little town and go mountain biking first while we haven't slept. Well, what a great idea.
00:11:54
Speaker
Luckily, God was looking out for us because why? Why, John? Well, first we couldn't really find it. That's true. That's true. And then, well, I forget, it was this is closed. It was yeah just closed that day. yeah yeah Yeah. Although we could have rented the bikes and then just biked up there, but like that would have lasted. The chairlift was closed. The chairlift was closed, yeah which I'm talking like, we I'm going to need chairlifts. And then after looking at this mountain, I was like, I'm super grateful this thing's closed. Cause like, this is gnarly. I think it would have been fine. Oh yeah. John's done it before.
00:12:26
Speaker
Philip hasn't. I would have ended our trip right there. No. Um, so anyway, we, we get to this little town, the
Preparing for the Mountain Climb
00:12:34
Speaker
GPS funny enough, put us to the top of the mountain. I don't know if I put it in wrong or whatever, but we're like driving around cows and like, we're not in Kansas anymore, but it's beautiful. Uh, and so then we decide, okay, this isn't going to work. So let's go to Luca bad. So we drive. And funny story about this one is I paid a troll, like a,
00:12:54
Speaker
I thought it was a toll. It was like 38 francs. And I was like, that seems like expensive, but what do I know? And we get to this point ah and we, I see like three different lanes to to be in and we go all the way to the right, which goes right up to the front.
00:13:11
Speaker
And then and over to the far left was trucks, and then there was, I think, some cars and motorcycles, and then John and Phillip's tiny little car, and then I noticed that people are getting out of their cars, and I'm like, John, why are people getting out of their cars? And we don't know, right? And then we're looking around because we're trying to figure out what's going on, and I don't know if, John, you saw the sign or something going on, but tell them what happened, because this is a fun story. Well, I think the first indication that we weren't in the right spot was the train that was pulling up with all the cars and with all the people or the drivers of those cars in that car. Yes, like this train pulls up and cars start driving off of this train. And John and I are like, oh no, like we got to get on that train, man. like
00:14:00
Speaker
I think that's a few years like, Philip, we got to get on that train. And I was like, Oh, we're not. No, no. Like I don't know what it is. Well, and just being first in line, of course. Well, then I was like, yeah, I was like, John, I was like, the only saving grace we have is like, if somebody else goes in front of us, yeah, no, no. The attendance looks straight at us was like, all right, come on, let's go. And I'm like, I don't even know what to do. I've never been so excited about having a small car in my life until we started like we had to drive on this train. And it was probably, I can't, I mean like,
00:14:31
Speaker
600 yards, 800 yards. It's pretty big. Yeah. And you had to just, I mean, just picture driving on a train and there's railings, but it was pretty narrow and driving all the way up and we didn't know where to stop. Do we pull up all the way to the engine? Do we pull back? And so both John and i are looking around, trying to read non-verbals of people like flipping us off or something. But, um, but we ended up We ended up doing it fine. No one yelled at us or haunted us, which I felt like was a huge win. Yeah, for sure. And that
Facing Climb Challenges
00:15:01
Speaker
train went through about five miles through mountain, which cut off about 45 minutes a time, which is the reason why our GPS.
00:15:09
Speaker
routed us there. Cause it was like a pitch black when we were going through that pitch black a little weird. Yeah. So we were in our car in park, turn it all the way off and moving. It was a really surreal experience. Yeah. So we get through this great. We actually stop on the other side of this mountain and have our first lunch, which I felt was good. We got sparkling water, which that's what you do over there. You'll love it.
00:15:35
Speaker
um which is fun. I thought that was our, I think my favorite pizza of the time. Um, so we do that and then, uh, then we get to Luke or bad. Then we have to find our Airbnb, which was not easy. And these roads I'm telling you are not like American roads. They're tiny. There's construction. We have to reverse. We're getting, it was kind of a mess, but we found it. We found our Airbnb ended up being great, but this was the first time we got to see the mountain we were going to climb. Yeah.
00:16:04
Speaker
What'd you think? Cause you hadn't seen the video by now, so you don't know. Yeah. Um, yeah, definitely intense. Definitely. a lot bigger than I had imagined. ah And I think I don't think I had imagined it. I would think I was picturing more like Colorado a little bit. And yeah these things are just like aggressive cliffs coming out of the ground. So I don't know. I don't think I was expecting quite yeah quite the climb that we were about to embark on.
00:16:35
Speaker
I think that's, that's, that's valid because I agree too. I wasn't really expecting that. And then not only do you have like a ah iron cable that you're hooked on, but there's lots of ladders and many times there's rebar that's slammed into the mountain that you're just putting one foot on this little rebar. Like it's pretty crazy that though too. I think I was totally underestimating how little of that there was. Right. I was like planning on this whole thing being you know, those iron pegs and ladders and stuff. And that's not the case. It was probably like an 80 20 split that 80% of it, you're just scrambling up. That's right. The cable, but yeah, I don't know. Yeah. So we start looking at the weather at this point. Like when's the best time to climb this thing? Cause I need to go back to the itinerary. The itinerary was this. So we get to Switzerland. We finally get to our Airbnb. We're just going to relax on Wednesday.
00:17:30
Speaker
which is great. Thursday would have been the best to climb the mountain if weather permitted. And when we were coming over, we were just looking at Switzerland like this isn't looking great. So that was ideally Thursday. Friday was gonna be a travel day that we were gonna go to Zurich, but it also could have been like our backup day to climb. Because when we were scheduling this, like you either schedule it and get things booked up or you have this like gaping hole and you just hope that things are planned or hope things are open. so So we had Thursday, that was gonna be our climbing day. Friday was gonna be our backup climbing day or travel to Zurich to relax. Saturday we had this thing called the canyoning. If you don't know what canyoning is, I'll tell ya. They cart you up to the top of the mountain and you follow a canyon down. So there's jumping off cliffs, there's repelling off waterfalls, and there's sliding down natural water slides. Super exciting. Both John and I were pretty pumped about this.
00:18:28
Speaker
Not like that is there was three different ones we could have booked. There was like the intro to canyoning, the like, hey, this is beautiful and you're going to do some things. And then there was like the full Monty, like you better know what you're doing, which that's the one John and I booked because we're from Iowa. We can do it, right? And like 30 foot cliffs you're jumping off of and a hundred foot waterfalls you're repelling off of and natural waterfall slides. I think there was one about 60 feet. So like really pretty awesome.
00:18:57
Speaker
Okay. That was on Saturday. And then Sunday we had planned paragliding in the morning and then Canyon swinging in the afternoon. And then Monday we had a scheduled mountain biking, but we already know that it got canceled because it wasn't open. So, all right, let's go back. So Wednesday night we decide to just grab dinner. I don't know where we grabbed dinner. Was it just at that little market? Yeah, I think we just had picked up some food. Well,
00:19:26
Speaker
so I honestly don't remember. I think we just picked up food. I don't either. Um, and just pretty delirious. Yeah, dude, we were not operating. Yeah. So right now it's like 12 o'clock Switzerland time, which ended up be probably our six o'clock in the morning.
Reaching the Summit and Descending
00:19:43
Speaker
our regular time, so we were trying hard. Then, I don't know whose idea was this. I think it was yours, John. He was like, let's just throw on a Netflix movie. hey let So we went to sleep at four o'clock in the afternoon.
00:19:58
Speaker
oh There's no chance no chance at one point. I was looking at my phone It was like hitting my chest like hitting my face because I kept dropping it like I was falling asleep So we go to sleep. We both actually step decently. Yeah, surprisingly. Yeah, I slept real well Yeah, I mean it's not easy. There's not hard to do when you're exhausted So we get up the next morning and we both are like let's go climb this thing So the cool thing about the one that we did is there's a trolley that trolleys you up um and then you can hike a quarter of the way down and then you start your Via Ferrata and then you climb all the way up again.
00:20:35
Speaker
The interesting part was like, I don't know if I had missed the research on this, but like, I didn't know how to get to the Via Ferrata and I didn't know where to go. There was a few spots where we probably could have researched a little bit better. Hindsight's 2020, you know? Um, so we, we do get up to the to trolley, we get up and, uh, let's just have you describe what the weather is when we get all the way up there.
00:21:01
Speaker
So we were the first ones to take the the trolley up. The first and only. And the trolley. Probably the only ones of the day. I think you're right. And I think, I mean, I don't know what was the temperature probably in the town. It was probably like fifties. Yeah, a higher fifties I would say. Something like that. yeah And then, so we get to the top and It's like we go through a ah ah a little building, we offload from the trolley, walk outside, and it is like a white out blizzard. Yeah, dude, it's it's frosty at best. And cloudy. And really cold. And cold, yeah. Really windy. I'd say 40, low 40s. Yeah, but with the wind chill though. Yeah, colder. So then John and I have to go try to figure out like where do we start this thing.
00:21:53
Speaker
And I feel like at that moment, no, we didn't say anything in the moment, but I think both of us are like, what are we doing? yeah I'm just gonna not acknowledge the fact that it's like... Horrible. These these conditions are pretty rough. Yeah, I agree. And we're just gonna keep going. Yeah, I agree. And I kinda was hopeful that like the sun'll burn on this off, right? Like, no. It's mountain weather, it'll pass. Yeah, yeah, yeah. i know this I know this weather, just like back home. So we finally get to the the start of this vifarata. And to our credit, it was sunny and
00:22:29
Speaker
Yeah, we actually got to the start of it. It was really nice. Yeah. Yeah. So, but we were pretty pumped. Like we finally found this thing. Like that was probably the hardest thought hardest. I thought it was going to be. Um, and then, so what was our, it took us a while to get there, but finally when we got on this path, what was your initial like thought? Like as we were hiking and going to try to get to the part where we would now clip in, cause at this point we're just on little paths.
00:22:56
Speaker
Do you remember anything? I don't know. I mean, there was a few moments where I was like, this is kind of surreal that I'm like hiking in Switzerland. But um I don't know. I think I just was trying to, I don't know. like I think I didn't really know what to expect. I knew that like from the video, i because I ended up watching the video after I committed to. good And that got you more excited. And then, yeah, no, I was actually like, so I was like, Oh yeah, this was the right call. But, um, I think there was some moments in that video, like, so I recognize some spots on the trail, but there was so, there's so much that's cut out in between. You're just sort of like, like, I feel like.
00:23:45
Speaker
I don't know what to expect. yeah I hope that there's no point in this this whole thing where I'm like, dude, I don't know. What are we doing? I can't get past this point. Right. right now So I don't know. I think I was just kind of amped generally for that and wanting to make sure that we could actually do this thing. Yeah. So I would, I would say both of us were like, I thought there'd be more cables. Remember like there was no cables at the beginning. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. There was a few spots over definitely super sketch that we're just hiking. Good luck. there's Yeah. Yeah. So like little looser rocks, but there's definitely a path there. But like, if you ever were to slide up the path for any reason, like, I don't know, like you, up and you're it's going to be tough to stop. Like you're flailing around, like you're going to get hurt. Yeah.
00:24:29
Speaker
If not, you're going to die. You know, one of those things. So
Reflecting on the Climb
00:24:32
Speaker
both John and I were kind of like, Oh, like this is different, which I think made me think like, are we doing the right thing? But that's probably the reason why I wanted John. Cause I didn't want to just go with anybody that would just cop out and be like, I'm scared. I want to be done. Cause I'd be like, we'll see at the bottom or like I'm going, you know, but with John, I like you enough and respect you enough. If you were like, Hey man, this is too sketch. I'd be like, all right, I'm just going to listen to you and not push myself. Like, all right. so That's one of the reasons why I wanted John to go. And so we finally get to the point where we latch in and like it's it's just beautiful. that's That's how I'll say it. It's beautiful and like, okay, now we're latched in, we're ready to go. That literally lasted 20 feet. And there was no more things to lock into. yeah Cause I think it was just like, this is a little sketchier spot, but then it kind of got easier. I thought it was just going to be like, we're always going to be on this thing. That is not the case.
00:25:26
Speaker
far less getting up to it than I thought. Yeah. So, um, so it just was kind of like splotchy from the first part. Um, and then, but I was feeling great at this point. Like we did the right decision. I can't believe we're here all this time in preparation, which wasn't much. Um,
Exploring Zurich and Extreme Sports
00:25:42
Speaker
But we got here, and then we started climbing up. And this is when I was like, this is taxing, more taxing than I thought. And like you said, you've already mentioned this, but there was a lot more scrambling than I anticipated. And I'd say you're about right, like 80% scrambling, 20% ladder work. yeah And when we both thought of this, I was like, well, anybody can climb a ladder all day. like yeah ah But the problem was it had really good foot places for your feet, yeah but not great places for your hands. And you're probably thinking as a listener, like, what is like, how's that possible? Well, the places for your feet look kind of like an L so great for your feet. But if you tried to put your hand on there, like you're going to lose
00:26:25
Speaker
yeah strength pretty quickly because your hands just going to be cramped. So it's just not a great hold. So the way that you would do that is that you would grab the iron cable that's going now straight up and down and you would have to climb up that way, which takes a lot more energy.
00:26:41
Speaker
then, you know, so yeah, but the good news is we, we were climbing, we we're finally there. Weather was great. Yeah. It was cool enough. It's like a, yeah, it's like when you jump in to go swim laps, like you kind of want it cooler. That's how it was. That's how I describe it. Yeah. Nice weather. Um, I think at this point, I think I had my coat on the whole time. Maybe I didn't, I don't know, but we had backpacks, yeah food, water. Yeah. We were ready to go.
00:27:09
Speaker
Okay. Then there's this, uh, this is a fun story. So there is a iron Switzerland flag, like slammed to this mountain, like bolted to the mountain. That's right next to the ladder. The cool thing when we first showed up to Lucre bad, both John and I were like, I don't see this. I don't see the flag.
00:27:29
Speaker
And like, that was like how we could kind of measure how big this thing is. And so when we first drove to the town and we couldn't see this flag, I think that was when I was like, Oh dear, what did we, what did we get ourselves into? Yeah. Then we find it like, where's Waldo? And I was like, I think it might be that sure enough. We take a picture, zoom it in. It was, but the cool thing about the whole Via Ferrata thing, I think is what's weird about that is it's actually bigger.
00:27:53
Speaker
imper like when you're right write against it, it's massive. It's huge, she's massive. massive yeah But on the ground, barely can see it. yeah But what I think, i I like a lot of things about Villa Frata, but one thing I really like is that it doesn't take away from the aesthetics of the mountain. yeah Like you could barely see that huge iron for sure flag, but you sure as heaven couldn't see the ladders and all the cables that are you know draped around this mountain, which is cool.
Lessons and Future Adventures
00:28:19
Speaker
So it didn't take away from it the beauty of it.
00:28:22
Speaker
But yeah, so we both take a picture of it. John didn't get a great picture of it. I got a picture a little bit, but we've done our, we have our GoPros on who knows what that's going to look like. Both John and I are not editors. So who knows? Um, I'm sure it's going to be fine, but we get to the point where now it's over the flag and there's like this little resting spot. And by this time I'm not feeling great. Like I'm struggle busing for whatever reason, not sure. Um, but I do think that,
00:28:50
Speaker
I would just say it's a God thing because when we were back in town and we were getting kind of supplies to go hiking at one point I was like, Hey, let's just get some coconut water. That could be nice. So we both got one. I have a feeling that was a thing that like brought me back to life. So, um, that was kind of like the halfway point. And then at halfway point, you already kind of, it's like the first third. Yeah, right. yeah Yeah, that's a good one. But it was the time where now you can tap out. Like there's a, there's a route that you can tap out or you can go up again.
00:29:21
Speaker
And like there was no way I'd tapping out, mainly because I saw how steep the mountain was and I saw what we just came from. Like, I don't want that. I don't know what that is. I didn't do the research there. I did do the research going up. And so John ended up going first moving forward and I'll let you take it from there.
00:29:37
Speaker
Don't forget about the cave though. Cause that's the what the cave. Oh yeah. Yeah. Um, which is a bummer because I think neither of our GoPros was working, working on at that point or my battery died or whatever. But what would you say about the ladders? Cause that was, you said something profound and you're like, I thought the ladders were going to be a lot easier. Cause the carabiners themselves were i I feel like I got ah the right technique towards the end of the climb, but it is pretty awkward to try to hold yourself onto the ladder and then also swap over your carabiners between the anchor points. Yes. Um, I don't know. It it was, it was a little, uh, it was a little rough in the beginning, but yeah started to get it towards the end. So out of a 50 foot ladder, that was probably average. How many times would you have to take the carabiner over the stop points?
00:30:27
Speaker
Um, I think that was probably like five times or so, like every 10, every 10 feet or something,
Conclusion and Future Plans
00:30:34
Speaker
ah something like that. Yeah. Yeah. it's Good. Okay. So tell us, tell us about the rest of the hike.
00:30:41
Speaker
And so at this point, i I mean, for me, I, after that sort of rest, rest, uh, checkpoint, I think I was feeling like I was like, Oh man, this is like, I'm feeling good. The weather's nice. Like, let's do this. Yeah. Um,
00:30:58
Speaker
And so we started off and then I'm trying to remember what kind of what the next section was. I think it was a lot of scrambling. Um, there was some pegs and then we were coming up to the cable bridge. Yep. Yeah. So we had a little ways to go before the cable bridge, but, um, feeling good at that point. And then, and then yeah, we hit that cable bridge, which I don't really have an issue with heights, but I do remember being on that thing and being like,
00:31:28
Speaker
Man, this is, we're ah we're really up there. That is a long way down. Yeah, yeah I don't know. i It was was kind of intense. It was, it was. I don't know what the drop is there, but I mean it's... You wouldn't want to fall. No. You wouldn't want to fall. You've got a couple couple moments to think about the end of your life before you hit the ground. Yeah, right, right. So anyway.
00:31:53
Speaker
Uh, but no, I mean, that was, that was incredible. And then that ah like goes leads right into the cave from that cable bridge. And, um, I think actually, I think that was probably my favorite part. The Cape of the cave. Yeah. Okay. Why? Uh, I just like.
00:32:14
Speaker
I don't know, it was an interesting, I had never done anything like that. um It was the feeling of the wind kind of coming up through, like it was sort of updraft through that, yeah um where we had just come over that that bridge. um And then you had the waterfall on the other side, kind of happening at the same time. So it was like- So cool, lots of senses. Yeah, a lot of things were happening like at at that. and then we had And then we had to go to the the harder, more difficult route. harder route.
00:32:44
Speaker
Because, uh, the easier route had the waterfall kind of basically going right through it. So, yeah I mean, I didn't really feel like being soaked. So it's like, well, we'll try our hand at the harder route. Turned out to be a wise decision. Yeah. Yeah. And it really was, that probably wasn't the most difficult in terms of the climbing. That was probably the most difficult yeah part of it.
00:33:04
Speaker
Yeah. So when we were doing research, and there's a lot of maps on this, but then they give you like a a rating system. And in the cave, it did say that this one, the rating system got the hardest. Yeah. Kind of like inverted climbing a little bit. Now it's ladder work. So that's helpful, but yeah. I mean, any rock climber would be like, this this is easy. Yeah. We're from Iowa. hands But I mean, it, you know, you're, we're in Switzerland. Yeah. Come on, give us a break here. But, uh,
00:33:34
Speaker
And then I think as as soon as we start coming out of that cave is when it started to rain, I believe, or, uh, It was rain at first because I remember it being wet. Maybe that was partly from the waterfall. I think so. But then it started to snow though when we got to the top. I will say that I remember before we get to the ah the iron cave or the the bridge yeah that I was seeing, like I was like, oh, it's dust. like There's dust everywhere. No. Now that's snow, just very fine particles of snow. yeah But then we go into the cave. And so I don't think anything of it. But then when we get out of the cave,
00:34:14
Speaker
Yeah. So I mean, coming up that shoot, I think, I don't know, it was probably another 75 feet or so yeah out of the cave. And I think I got kind of, I got pretty wet from that. I think from the waterfall. Yep.
00:34:30
Speaker
Not too bad, but, um, and then it kind of, it flattens out for a second yep after that. And I remember I changed my GoPro battery and I was super bummed that I didn't get any of that footage going through the cave, but, yeah you know, your favorite part isn't how to, yeah.
00:34:46
Speaker
but uh, we didn't do a great job of that. The GoPro and John and I, we just didn't plan that well. Like we had two GoPros. We should have been like always want somebody's always on like hey I'm turning off and we're on. Okay. We never do that. Great. Yeah. Hindsight. I mean, I really wasn't focused on I just focus on getting through this thing yeah and behind tight now I'm like, Oh man, I wish I would have really like paid attention to. I would agree. Yeah. My, my number one focus was like stay present. Like I didn't want to be like, what are we doing and how are we doing it? And let's get the best shot. It was light at the top.
00:35:18
Speaker
Yes. i haven't scarce Right. Because one of the things that I was the most excited about, because I think this is time to talk about it, was there was a cross at the top of this, this mountain. And when I pitched this to Aaron, I was like, Aaron, I'm either going to go see Jesus on the top of this mountain or I'm going to go see Jesus face to face. Either way, I'm pretty excited about it. Um, but like you said, like we pulled out of this like little hole, uh, and kind of Cave kind of thing that was my scariest moment I think I've told you this but you kind of had to whip your leg around and you were kind of crouched down and You were harnessed in like your carabiners were locked into the iron cable at this time But it was still kind of loose like the rope the three-foot rope between you and the carabiner and the iron cable was a little bit loose and you're kind of
00:36:05
Speaker
squatting down and you had to kind of pull your other leg out and over. And I was like, whoo. Cause like there was just straight drop, yeah but it started getting cloudier at that time. Like, yeah. And like we could tell like around this like corner, it's going to get pretty ugly. Like weather wise, how ugly we didn't know cause we could still do sun, but okay, go ahead. I think, yeah, that section was, um,
00:36:33
Speaker
extremely awkward you because you're like, you were saying you're crouched down and stuff. i so I remember I have video of this actually. I'm like starting to laugh because I'm like, this has to look at just ridiculous right now. I think I bumped in the GoPro into the garage like a bunch of times. I'm just like, Oh my gosh. But, uh, and yeah, you are very exposed on that side. I mean, right it's a,
00:36:56
Speaker
I mean, it's got to be at least a couple thousand foot drop. Oh, for sure. you know Right. I don't know. For sure. Um, I mean, we couldn't see super well, but you could see, you could see enough. You could see enough. You're exposed. yeah Um,
00:37:10
Speaker
But then, i so I think at the top of that, that ladder run is when it gets ugly. Oh man, that this is starting to turn. It wasn't, it wasn't snowing crazy, but it was the wind was picking up pretty good and we weren't super close to the top yet. So I'm just like, okay, well, this is going to be pretty rough from this point on. This is going to start getting really rough. Yeah, right.
00:37:33
Speaker
because again, it's sure enough. Yeah. Worse than we thought, but it was, it was getting snowy. So our footholds are now kind of snow covered. Like they're just not dry anymore. And then your cables also wet and cold. That was the point too, where I still don't even know at this point, like there's two different ways you can go. Oh, I, and we went to,
00:37:59
Speaker
the more exposed route? I don't even know. I don't know. We just picked one. I didn't even realize that. There was like, you could go right or left and we went right. because it You're right. duorn You're right. a name of the yeah I was like, I think this is right. Yeah. You're right. I'm not sure though. i That's funny.
00:38:19
Speaker
I think you're so right. I think there was an easier route and we did. We took the harder route. That sounds about right. I think it was the name of the that's right, but because it's the only thing I recognized on the sign, right? All right. Yeah, but I would say, okay, though, just let's paint the picture. We're now strapped to this mountain. You're not unstrapping yourself and Like there's really no going back. There's no going back. Yeah. Like there's only going up. And so that's comforting and also scary. It's scary and comforting. That's what I'll say first. Like it's scary to know like, okay, we're, we're doing this thing. yeah and There's nothing holding us back. Um, yeah, that's scary and comforting at all at the same time. Like we've got to, the only way we're going to get out of this thing is if we keep climbing. So,
00:39:03
Speaker
So we do, we just keep climbing and the weather just gets more and more gnarly. Yeah, for sure. And so now we're kind of like, I'd i'd say we're getting close, but we're both, John's now ahead of me cause I was tapping out for a while. I ended up feeling decent at this point. Like I'm good. I'm not a hundred percent, but also I think I was just jet lagging and tired and altitude maybe a little bit, but I was fine.
00:39:25
Speaker
But i I could tell John was like looking for the top. like And I knew that. And the best part about John and I is like we didn't have to climb like super close together. If I needed it, I could get his attention. If he needed me, he'd get my attention. But it was kind of like we were on this mountain together, but separate. you know It's not like you're carrying me up this thing.
00:39:46
Speaker
But I could tell like John's going to tell me when he sees the final ladder, guarantee. Like we didn't really have that conversation, but I knew it. You're going to tell me that. And I kept listening for it. It's not coming. Okay. Not coming. So I think that that was one thing too. I wasn't expecting, I think I expected the the final, uh, that final ladder soon, way sooner. Oh, for sure. It just was like,
00:40:10
Speaker
Yeah. It's kind of a classic, like you keep going over the next Ridge and you're like, Oh, there's another one. issue Exactly. And the video that we watched did a really good job. And the reason why we thought this preconceived notions was like, it was almost all ladder work for this guy that he posts on. So Okay. So that's really the line. Um, and so long, we'll, we'll just cut this story short. We get to the top surprise, surprise. Um, but it's really bad unless you want to add anything in between. I mean, the only thing like there was never a point on the climb that I felt like, Oh, we can't handle the climb itself or that I was even super sketched out of the Heights or anything like that. right the The only thing that was adding the
00:40:54
Speaker
The sketch factor was just the weather the weather because it was starting to snow real bad at the top. yeah Everything's now getting covered. It's super slick. yeah There's ice on the on the cable. yep um Yeah, icicles were forming on the cables that we were climbing. And that final ladder, even. Oh yeah. Pretty slick. Yeah. So by this time, our gloves are wet. Yeah. John has exposed tipped fingers. a Fingerless gloves. Fingerless gloves. I have full gloved fingers, which is, but our gloves were truly sticking to the ladder. You know, like when you stick your tongue out and something cold and it kind of like sticks. That's what, what our gloves are doing on the last ladder. Yeah. That's how ugly it was. And I stopped, I think.
00:41:33
Speaker
three times on that last ladder just to take a break, kind of like you know stretch out my forearms and like go again. But I was ready to be done. And it was crazy windy. Crazy windy. It was blowing pretty hard up there. Yeah. So we both get to the top, and immediately we're like, we got to abort mission on the cross. like Can't even see it. We can't even see it. So we'll just run into it. And then like the reason why I wanted to is because it's just beautiful view. Well, if you can't see the view, what's the point? So but both John and I are like, all right, let's get down.
00:42:03
Speaker
This is where our lack of research probably exposed us a little bit. We were super. We were excited to hike down because one thing that I was doing when I did a research of this was like, I don't want to go back and climb that back down. Like I don't want to do that. But the good news is about this via frata and many of them is you hike back down the other side of the mountain. So we don't have to do any more climbing. The problem with that is we don't really know exactly where the route is and it's now two and a half inches of snow. So any route that would have been kind of like paved in the, can't see it white.
00:42:38
Speaker
And both John and I are cold. We have no idea what we're doing. This is now five hours into our whole thing. we've We've been starting this about five hours ago. So what do you do? Like that was kind of dicey for me. I was like, I don't know how to get out of this mountain.
00:42:54
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. No, that was sketch. And it's not like our GPS was working. Um, but luckily we just keep kind of trudging down this thing. I, I tripped one time, went down and I could have, I think saved it, but it's one of those things like either I'm going to go down on my terms or I'm going to try to save it and go down on somebody else's terms. Like I'm just going to go down and stop. So, um, but I was fine. It could have been really bad, which could have been really bad. Yeah. Cause if you had gotten hurt right there, we're about two and a half hours away from that would been bad real bad.
00:43:25
Speaker
Praise the Lord. Didn't get that hurt. um And we finally found like one sign. It was a white, red, white. It looked like a sandwich, white bread, red meat, whatever you want to call it. It was like, like so it was like manna from heaven. It was like, what is that? We're following it. Oh, turns out that was the right way. Yeah. Turns out the right way.
00:43:47
Speaker
So that was good over the next two and a half hours, we just hike down this mountain. And then we start looking at our clock and like, Hey, that trolley goes down and it stops at five o'clock and it's getting, it's going to be close. Like, yeah so we start jogging at the bottom of this thing. And luckily we now can see It's still kind of overcast, cloudy, but when you look up at the mountain, it's white out still. like yeah um And we only saw one other person on this whole thing and he was like running. yeah I don't know where he was running to or how he got there, but um running, which was super humbling. yeah um But so we get to, we get close. ah John's probably, I don't know, 50 yards ahead of me. um And so you can tell him about this. So you're now at the trolley and they've locked the door. Yeah, I mean I basically just All I had you know left in the tank to get back to that Yeah, that little building and it's like I couldn't see anyone because it was so you know That was storming so bad, right? But I will say that there is a path that goes all the way down to the town from the top of the mountain
00:44:53
Speaker
But John nor I want to do any of that. Like now it's getting to the point where like now it's getting icy on the path. Like it's not going to be great. So that's why like we kind of have to get down to spent. And at that point, I mean, we're eight hours in. Yeah, basically yes hours in. And that would have been an at least another three hours, something like that. Yeah. Easy. Yeah. So not great. Neither of us wanted to do that. So I get to the glass, try to open the door and it's all locked. So I just started slamming the door banging on it and hoping for the best and sure enough, some angry Switzerland guy. What are you doing? Yeah. Well, and then charged us a little extra go down on the last one. Cause it technically it was the last, but who cares? Who cares? Yeah, we paid it fine. Take our money. Um, we get down, had a great story to tell. We have a fun dinner at the end. And so that was kind of our via frata.
00:45:49
Speaker
experience. I think now looking back as much as I would have rather, i I don't know if I would have rather so had it like be beautiful or what we had, like it made it more for Epic trip. Yeah. I mean, I still want to see that cross and what that looks like, but I'm good with it. Yeah. I would take what we had over what a clear day. Yeah, for sure. So then the next day we sleep that night, we go to Zurich, we traveled to Zurich. Um,
00:46:16
Speaker
and then we we we get a call that the Canyoning gets canceled because of snow. Surprise, surprise. Great thing that we were most excited about. yeah um So I'll just cut the story. We're super disappointed, but we ended up going on a really fun hike that day. I think it was about an eight and a half mile hike.
00:46:35
Speaker
up that mountain and back down. yeah But we did it straight out of our our Airbnb. We just walked out and went and then we came back, um which was really fun. And then after we got home after we got back to our Airbnb, I remember this is when I was like, oh man, John and I just were traveling really well together. is we traveled We probably walked probably eight and a half miles, even more maybe.
00:46:56
Speaker
Probably more if you think about how to get to that earth. No, I think it was 10 miles total. Okay, yeah we had our garments. 10 miles that we just traveled and walked, and we get done, we take showers, and he's like, all right, you ready to go for dinner? And we walk to dinner. like That's just what we do. But I think anybody else would be like, no, we're driving. like No, not John and I, we walk. We had fondue that night, which has its own stories. Some stories are better just left alone. But fondue was fun.
00:47:25
Speaker
Uh, and then the next day we i went paragliding in Zurich. What'd you think about that? Uh, that was awesome. I could see why people get into it. I actually was thinking in the very beginning, I was like, Oh man, this is kind of boring boring. Yeah. Like it's like the most chill extreme sport.
00:47:43
Speaker
um but it wasn't until like I had asked if we could do some of the the roller coasters or whatever they call it. And um then I was like, okay, now no I get it. I get why people are into this. That's right was right. That was incredible. And it felt exactly like a roller coaster. It was interesting. It was it was really fun. And then we landed like right in the middle of Zurich. yeah And then at the evening we did a canyon swing, which is probably about 90 meters. You just free fall and then your your swing kind of catches up.
00:48:11
Speaker
I like that. That was fun was fun. I'll tell you one story about that. So the guide, we had probably, I think 10 people that were going up there. John and I were the last ones, but the guide ah before us were telling the two girls like, oh, they're they're on like some trip. And they're like, he, they said, yeah the guy said, you should do a Via Ferrata to the girls. And they were like, what's that? And so he told them. And so when John and I got up, we told him, hey, we've done a Via Ferrata. And he's like, really? Did you do the, some other one?
00:48:40
Speaker
And we were like, no, we did the double horn. He's like, no way. like It was like instant credibility. And he's like, who did you tell you did it? like And we were like, what? like You tell people you do that? He's like, amateurs or something. Well, yeah. No, he's like, did you tell anyone that you guys were going up there? Yeah. And we're like, no. Who are we going to tell? He's like, ah amateurs. He was like, oh, shoot.
00:49:02
Speaker
Cheers. You got it right. Idiots. I'm going to go back to a Lucrebad one, because the next morning, I forgot about this one. oh yeah yeah There's thermal baths there, like geothermal. You can kind of swim. They're like hot springs-ish. Anyway, there's two ones that you could go to. We just picked this one. The other one was a nude one. so But we didn't know that. But anyway, it wasn't. So it was actually kind of fun. Yeah. OK, so now we we're back into the swing. The next morning, we go to, um We go back to Zurich, which is super fun. like Zurich is a great place. Yeah, it's cool. I would say the overall feeling both John and I got was it was a clean it's a clean country. Yeah, super clean. And like it was a great one for us to go to, I thought. Yeah. OK, so before, and you guys know this, before I go on any trips, I usually have a journal. ah Here are the questions in the journal. What are you hoping to get out of this trip? So what were you hoping to get out of this trip, John?
00:49:59
Speaker
um
00:50:02
Speaker
I think for me, um so I like these these challenges like every once in a while in my life. yeah And I feel like when you do a challenge that is physical, that it's sort of like this microcosm of for life. yes like And it's the quickest way to sort of get yourself back ah to that um willpower wall. yeah you right you're And like, are you gonna be, able are you like strong enough to keep going? right you know
00:50:33
Speaker
And it's good I really enjoy those types of challenges. um I like it because it keeps me it almost sort of, um, amps me up for the rest of my life, like, or, or the, the things that I've got going on in my life in this moment, you know, so I get pretty charged or recharged by doing things like this. So that that's what I was, um, I think mostly yeah looking for, right? I i think to, to kind of piggyback off that, like these challenges and these experiences,
00:51:09
Speaker
gets you like the things that bubble up. They bubble up quicker, the things that like in life that you could, that God might be trying to teach you. This is just kind of a microcosm of just trying to bubble those up to the surface as fast as you can. And for me, they did. So my thought was just to push our so push myself beyond my comfort zone, conquer a mountain.
00:51:28
Speaker
And basically, this was kind of like my bear hunting moment. like i want I wanted to see what God would do and what he would reveal to me when I've got myself out of my comfort zone. But there is, I think, a lot of truth to... um
00:51:44
Speaker
just the via ferrata in and of itself, like a symbol of my faith, right? Like just lock into Jesus and take the next step of faith. And I think what he's revealed to me, and this is other questions, like what did you learn from the via ferrata, because I want to know yours too, um is like I don't challenge myself enough in my business. And I do in my personal life, because it doesn't affect anybody else. like it move And I guess if I fell off the mountain, it would affect a couple people. but But like I wanted to do a better job of challenging myself in the business because when we did step on that core, like we stepped on that mountain, we didn't really know what to expect, but we were locked in and ready to go. Like we, we were going to adapt and overcome no matter what, like that's kind of, that was like the comfort part of it. Like no matter what we get thrown, we're going to figure this out.
00:52:32
Speaker
And that was what the main thing I think I learned in this whole thing is how about you take a challenge in your business and it probably won't go as planned, but you're going to adapt and overcome, right? So that's kind of like the microcosm that it kind of revealed to me of, I don't do any of this stuff in my business. I'm very conservative in my business, but when it comes to me personally, I, I take some risks. So yeah, I think like what I like about that too is.
00:52:56
Speaker
um I like doing these like certain challenges that are like, I really not sure if I can actually do this. yeah There's definitely things that's like, go run a 5K. It's like, I know I can do that. yeah it's like that's yeah There's no sort of uncomfortable that's right feeling that comes along with that. But I think with doing things that are uncertain,
00:53:18
Speaker
um and where you're on a path that's like, there is no turning back. I mean, we're burning the boats. It's like, we gotta keep going. That's right. There's no choice. And I think what that also does, um I mean, you were talking about your relationship with the Lord. I think that it, it For me, for sure, it there is a dependency that is built you know on that. It's like, well, I can only do so much on this and I can control storms and and the stuff that comes along. But, you know, he gets me through it. We've got to get figured out. Right. Right. So here's, so we took some time and then how can you take the lessons learned from the viforata and apply it to your life? So this was ah one of the journal questions. We both kind of took some time and thought about this. So this is both John and I's answer. It's going to take longer than expected. That's a really good lesson for me. Like Philip, stop trying to cut corners or try to like make this go faster. Like it's going to take longer than expected. Uh, it's, it's going to be more challenging than you anticipated. Okay. Deal. Deal. And like somebody, I will go back because people were like, how are you going to train for that? I'm like, how do you train for that man? Like, I don't know. So we just do a bunch of ladders. Yeah, we didn't really train. Like that's kind of the truth. I rode more and you ran. So yeah. All right, it's not gonna go as planned. Getting the proper equipment is key. So fun fact about V of Rata, it's free. It's free. like Anybody can do this. Just with no guide. With no guide, it's free. But as long as you had your own equipment. um But equipment's key because I would say that was fun. John, you got a Petzl stuff and I got like black rock stuff. Black diamond. Black diamond, thank you. Yeah.
00:54:58
Speaker
and I liked your stuff better, which is interesting. We thought about maybe doing another thing about just critiquing other things like that. That would be fun. Okay. No matter how bad it gets, you can't quit. Like that's a, that's a great life lesson. That's right. For me. Uh, the harder it is, the more memorable it's going to be in rewarding at the end. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
00:55:21
Speaker
enjoyed It's enjoyable to do things shoulder to shoulder with somebody um that's going through the same thing. like I knew that I could, John could relate to me, I could relate to him. It's not great weather, but also it wasn't great weather when we got off that trolley and we still got, we just did it. like yeah We didn't didn't talk about it, we just did it. remember what Remember that you wanted to do this in the first place. like There was one point where I put my head on the mountain and I was like, oh my gosh.
00:55:49
Speaker
and Towards the end and I just had to remember like I was the one who got us here like taking ownership. I guess is really what that is. um Trusting the equipment that you're safe. That was fun. ah Changing the plan isn't failure and the changing the plan was when we didn't go see the cross of the top like that was just wise. Yeah.
00:56:12
Speaker
Follow the path even when you're questioning the end. That was done when we were going and hiking at the end. There was this long path that we could see, and it was going away from the trolley. They were like, there's no way this is it. But we just trusted. We just kept going on that mountain, falling the path, falling our white, red, white signs. Burn the boats. That was yours. We burned the boats as soon as we clipped into that thing.
00:56:35
Speaker
ah And when you know you're in the right path, you gotta start pushing hard. So that was when we were in the bottom of the mountain and we knew it was gonna be close to that trolley. The time that was gonna close and we just had to go fast. yeah ah Sometimes you have to knock on doors and ask, that's John hammering on that trolley door and it worked. It's always going to be hardest at the end. So those are their takeaways from our trip. Hopefully you could live vicariously through us. If I would say, if you were planning on something like that, you can always reach out, but I would say do it like, yeah, I'm so grateful we did that. Yeah, for sure. Me too. So what's the next thing we're going to do?
00:57:17
Speaker
I don't know what's kind of crazy. Like I had never heard of a via Ferrada, but I'm like, that was so fun. It was gotta be other stuff like this too. Yes. Yes. Yes. That aren't necessarily via Ferrada's, but there's got to be some other genre. So if, I guess if anyone's got suggestions, throw it out there. We'll do it. We'll do it for you and we'll let you know how it goes. Um, next week I'm going to the grand canyon. I'm going to hike rim to rim, which I'm excited about. And, uh, there has been some talk. It's very hot right now. Like on.
00:57:47
Speaker
or heard of hot in this season. ends best Probably the worst time to go, but the best time because again, things are going to go according to plan and we're going to have to figure it out. And so ah that's our, that's my next adventure. John and I are going to try to figure out something to do, but we'll keep you posted. Thank you so much for listening. How does this, I, this is my last thing. How does this relate to your finances or uncommon path?
00:58:11
Speaker
I would say that sometimes it's so nice to just get yourself out of the comfort zone. And so you can like lock into life or when you come back into like just your regular day to day, you can take some of those things and you can apply those principles that you learned or lessons that you learned. So that's how I felt like I kind of applied it, but deal. All right. You've been listening on Commonwealth podcast. I've been your host Philip Ramsey. Thank you, John, for being on the show and looking forward to our next adventure.
00:58:47
Speaker
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