Wednesday, December 13
Judy Armstrong - Alpine Challenge Podcast
I was listening to one of BobC's recent podcasts recently on Judy Armstrong's Alpine Challenge.
The way I approach podcasts is to download them to my MP3 player and cease some 'me' time by taking the dogs out onto the New Forest, listening as I wander. During particularly foul weather this can keep me covering far more distance than may have otherwise have been the case.
Either I know I will be interested in the topic, or after 5 minutes or so I'll start to skip through to see if there's anything to keep my interest. Cruel I know, after all the podcaster's hard work, but some of the topics can be repetitive or just not that relevant to me at the time, especially the US based ones talking about bear attacks and Trail Treks etc.
So back to Judy.
I know Bob's casts continue to maintain a high standard of entertainment and the guy is a natural, no doubt something that's taken many years of hard work to seem so easy. So I'm always prepared to give his offerings that little bit extra.
This cast started like so many others -I'm off for a long walk - yipee - but then veers off as Judy starts to get into her topic and what a challenge she's set herself - to hike around the entire Alpine mountain range covering 3,300 miles, and 320 miles of climbing and descent, which as she points out "No-one seems to have attempted before"
Not content with that she'll be mainly solo, a brave stance for a female especially, and also intends to produce a series of route guides for an area lacking anything substantial in the english language, or indeed in any language from what she reports.
Judy has made the ultimate break with her normal life, and proves very thoughtful when discussing her gear, approach and preparation. Much of her experience suggests she's been leading up to this point in her life for some time.
I'd highly recommend listening to this piece - there's plenty to learn both of a technical nature, but more importantly just about one person's positive attitude without becoming blasé or high risk about what's to be achieved.
And this is not a woman taking a gap year, or getting out of the rat race and running off to the countryside. There's much more of a sacrifice taking place here, despite her pedigree.
I've added a link to Judy's site, she'll be keeping a diary as she goes and I wish her well. A brave woman.
And blond too - bang goes another stereotype!
;-)
The way I approach podcasts is to download them to my MP3 player and cease some 'me' time by taking the dogs out onto the New Forest, listening as I wander. During particularly foul weather this can keep me covering far more distance than may have otherwise have been the case.
Either I know I will be interested in the topic, or after 5 minutes or so I'll start to skip through to see if there's anything to keep my interest. Cruel I know, after all the podcaster's hard work, but some of the topics can be repetitive or just not that relevant to me at the time, especially the US based ones talking about bear attacks and Trail Treks etc.
So back to Judy.
I know Bob's casts continue to maintain a high standard of entertainment and the guy is a natural, no doubt something that's taken many years of hard work to seem so easy. So I'm always prepared to give his offerings that little bit extra.
This cast started like so many others -I'm off for a long walk - yipee - but then veers off as Judy starts to get into her topic and what a challenge she's set herself - to hike around the entire Alpine mountain range covering 3,300 miles, and 320 miles of climbing and descent, which as she points out "No-one seems to have attempted before"
Not content with that she'll be mainly solo, a brave stance for a female especially, and also intends to produce a series of route guides for an area lacking anything substantial in the english language, or indeed in any language from what she reports.
Judy has made the ultimate break with her normal life, and proves very thoughtful when discussing her gear, approach and preparation. Much of her experience suggests she's been leading up to this point in her life for some time.
I'd highly recommend listening to this piece - there's plenty to learn both of a technical nature, but more importantly just about one person's positive attitude without becoming blasé or high risk about what's to be achieved.
And this is not a woman taking a gap year, or getting out of the rat race and running off to the countryside. There's much more of a sacrifice taking place here, despite her pedigree.
I've added a link to Judy's site, she'll be keeping a diary as she goes and I wish her well. A brave woman.
And blond too - bang goes another stereotype!
;-)
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