Anna DeMonte is a mountain athlete in every sense of the word. Her athletic background started in competitive swimming, and has slowly progressed to primarily large, backcountry mountain adventures. In this episode, Anna joins us to discuss her most recent endeavor- an attempt on the women's FKT (fastest known time) for Mount Blanc. Coming in 4minutes shy of the women's FKT and taking home the title of "Ski FKT" for the route, her story is inspiring and entertaining. Tune in to hear Anna DeMonte share firsthand insights into her preparation, mindset, and the thrilling highs and challenging lows of pursuing records in one on one of the world's most coveted FKT's.
Below is the podcast transcribed with AI. We apologize for any errors and encourage you to visit us on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts to watch or listen to the full episode.
0:07
all right welcome to the a lane podcast thank you today we have Anna with us why
0:13
don't you give us a little introduction about who you are and what you do wow
0:19
okay well my name is Anna Damonte I am from an Arbor Michigan
0:25
originally and I moved to Salt Lake in 2020 and and I grew up as a college
0:32
swimmer so I was a swimmer for most of my life always in athletics and then a
0:38
Competitive Cyclist uh but then I had a pretty bad spine injury was that from cycling
0:46
or it it's kind of unclear it might have been from heavy lifting in college heavy
0:52
weightlifting um cuz swimming is a non-impact sport and we were lifting kind of heavy Olympic like deadlifts and
0:59
things like that um but the big bulge
1:04
that ruptured happened during cycling okay and I lost all feeling in my right leg within like a couple hours yeah it
1:12
was really intense and at the time I was hoping to move to a UCI team like become
1:18
a pro cyclist and that's when I lived in North Carolina um but after that I had
1:24
the surgery I had a couple bad complications I had to lay on my back
1:29
for for a month straight I had a cerebros spinal fluid leak from the surgery I know this is all as an athlete
1:36
that's like yes the worst thing you can hear is like lay on your back for a month it was really really hard but um
1:45
and I my body changed a lot in the month I did nothing and then after that
1:50
month I really struggled because I just started walking and that was in
1:56
2017 um and then in
2:01
2019 I thought I might be happier somewhere in the mountains because I
2:07
wasn't able to compete anymore like my swimming career was over cycling kind of was not an option because of my back
2:13
surgery and I liked mountain biking like that was something I could do uh but I
2:18
didn't really ski at all I didn't run at all I just thought I think I'd be
2:24
happier in the mountain so I moved to Salt Lake in 2020 and did you have like connections with Sal like before like
2:30
had you been out here okay yes I have some family here actually my aunt is Caroline GL oh cool you might know her
2:38
yeah so she uh when I first moved here was super helpful uh she helped me learn
2:44
how to ski a lot and showed me some of like the easier ski tours and um so I
2:51
did know people here but I was kind of considering here and like Boulder but I had some family here so
2:57
soic was an easy choice I feel like I like Salt Lake more than I do too it's
3:03
just I don't know the access I mean everyone says the access but it's true it is better so yeah but I love it I
3:08
love Salt Lake yeah so your transition from like swim to Mountain athlete is
3:14
crazy like I want to get into that a little bit later but I want to start out the podcast just talking about your
Ski Fkt
3:20
recent ski fkt of Mount Blan yay
3:25
congratulations that's such a huge accomplishment thank you you I'm still
3:31
like uh I am still surprised by the whole thing it was just like a big a big
3:39
project and it took months and I still feel like I'm working on it even though it's over like I still think I'm going
3:45
up the trail it's like still going through yeah it just it yeah it was but
3:51
it was really fun like now that it's over I appreciate the body of work that it took to make it happen it was cool so
3:59
maybe start by explaining like what the route looks like to everyone who's listening because there are lots of like
The Route
4:05
Transitions and like crazy technical aspects that you wouldn't think of and then we can get into like what the
4:12
planning looked like how you started to tackle it okay yes so the route is
4:18
pretty iconic it starts from the town in Shaman at the church it's this beautiful church
4:26
right at the center of town and you run through the town up a trail about 3,000
4:34
feet like a thousand meters if you want to be European I still talk in feet even
4:40
though I've been told I need to switch to meters but I'm still speaking in feet it's like 3,000 feet um on trail and
4:48
then there's kind of like a cut through how many miles is that little piece from the church to I have no idea you're like
4:54
I'm I'm talking vertical feet here okay I know it's like I think it took me an
5:00
hour to get to Snow Line okay um so maybe like 3ish maybe a little
5:09
under okay I all I was thinking about was running up it as fast as I could so
5:16
uh yeah it's like about maybe three miles and the trail is kind of it's got
5:22
switched back it's kind of wet Rudy and then this cut through to get onto the glacier is kind of exposed there some
5:29
videos of it um it's not very well traveled like it's not the common way
5:35
people go it's very much I think I think it was previously part of maybe like a a
5:42
resort where people used to ski in that area but now the glacier is like very receded but it's kind of like a little
5:47
break uh that that gets to the glacier and from there uh you take off your
5:55
backpack you put your skis on you put your shoes away and you start skinning over the glacier H so yeah I guess it's
6:03
on the glacier at that point but uh it's it's it's not for a little while until
6:09
you get to the very carass Zone okay okay so you I think
6:15
it's oh I wish I knew exactly you're like I can see it I can yeah it's 3,000
6:21
ft to get to the the cut through and then I think it's another 5,000 ft of
6:28
skinning to get to the Grand Malay Hut okay um but before that I could be a
6:34
little bit off with the vert but before that you have to cross what's called The Junction uh and that is where these two
6:41
glaciers that that are on Mon Blanc and for those people who don't know mon Blanc I didn't know anything about it when I went there to be honest uh it's
6:50
very glaciated there are SX you can hear falling all the time I think that was
6:56
maybe the scariest so The Junction is where these
7:02
two Glaciers are kind of colliding and uh there's a lot of debris that's being
7:09
churned up and we had done the route many times throughout the year and it
7:15
always looked a little different every time so that section The Junction to cross it was kind of a Crux if you will
7:23
um and then from there you skin up past this Hut and then another Crux is uh you have
7:31
to skin under a very large Sak oh my gosh that's hor and there are a few ways
7:37
to the top of M Blanc but this route is called the Grand mle route and it's
7:42
typically the route that a lot of the ski records have been done um and the
7:49
route that I think Killian took and uh Pierre Jano and Stefan Bross back in
7:54
2003 they took the grand M and the it's called the petite Plateau this area
8:00
where there there is a big Sak and it's just notorious for shedding and I think
8:05
not last year but the year four maybe a couple people were killed there yes so
8:13
we really had to be well we can talk about this later but we had to be really careful about when we did that section
8:18
and got beta for it so once you're through the petite Plateau area you get
8:24
up to the Grand plateau and from there you you kind of Swing right and you hit
8:29
the Ridge and at the ridge you you put crampons on you put your skis on your back and you I think it's 1500 ft to get
8:38
to the top and that Ridge is not super safe either there's like kasses and the
8:45
first time we did it we had to protect a pitch with ice screws which like I can ice climb
8:50
but I don't know it was kind of intense so so then you ski all the way down from
8:55
the The North Face is kind of like the typical and how was the ski for you is that really technical is that something
9:01
that you were pretty comfortable with to be honest the ski was amazing it was so
9:07
fun it was like the snow was really good on the day we did it um there's like a
9:14
little birg strand you have to jump over on these little skios skis you feel really cool you're like on these tiny
9:20
like 154s for me that's like like the shortest ski you can get and I like went
9:25
over the Burk Shon and I was feeling really free rack uh but it was really fun and then um getting back to the um
9:35
cut through kind of sucks just cuz the snow at that point had been warmed up it's like very mushy and there's some
9:44
Glide cracks it's just like you have to be heads up to get back to where you're going to run down so and do you cut like
The Route Answer
9:52
you ski down do you cut back to kind of where you traversed the glacier or okay it was
9:58
like a complete out and back okay so you you go down well actually not complete
10:05
so you you go up the Ridge and then you ski directly down the north base but then from there you go back nor way so
10:12
that was kind of a long winded answer to the route question but so getting there
Getting There
10:17
you guys got there in February yes and what did you start doing I you stayed
10:23
you didn't stay in the town right no so my original
10:29
plan was to I was really interested in skiing some of the more technical ski lines
10:36
um but it proved pretty quickly that I you can't really have two objectives
10:41
when people are living in a van like you really kind of have to be on the same schedule
10:46
and the more I saw mon Blanc and how much culture it has in the town the more
10:54
I was interested in doing the time doing a record time um so what we kind of did with we got
11:00
there we weren't sure when this would go like what month we knew like some people
11:06
had done it in April we knew like Hillary gerardi I think did it in June running they had a pretty good snow year
11:13
up high and we were totally like we had no idea what we what what would happen
11:19
and originally we thought we would be doing the record in April is so we got
11:25
there very early in February and we spent our time in Shaman and then in
11:31
Jenia Italy and that's because Jenia is a little bit higher and so it was for
11:37
altitude I think it was a little higher than 7,000 ft and we would go there to
11:43
train and sleep High while shamon maybe wasn't didn't have the best weather okay
11:48
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off so you did lots of like conditioning training yes in Italy but then to kind
Scouting the route
12:43
of like Scout the route see practice the route too you win over yes and there's
12:51
like we went up into other areas in Shaman like the Argentia Basin there's
12:57
some amazing ski lines and in Shaman there's obviously like the
13:02
agidi which is the big lift that takes you up and then a lot of the terrain is
13:09
lift access oh cool but we didn't want to buy any tickets so we walked up
13:17
everything and I I really think that helped our fitness yeah because we would walk just to get to where most people
13:23
were starting their tours we had to walk like 3,000 ft all the time um so we
13:29
basically did a lot of Argent tier Basin and then a lot of scouting the grand mle
13:34
route like the bottom the middle the top like that's what we focused on in shamon
13:40
a lot and that took everything to do that like every bit of energy and focus
13:47
so which was the scare getting there which was the scariest part for you or what were you most nervous for on the
The scariest part
13:54
actual granday route yeah I think the
14:00
junction see Jack Jack said it really well he said on any given day that we
14:06
went up there there were like five things that could be the most scary and every time we went up there it was like
14:13
picked two from the bag and that's what was the worst that day so okay uh one of
14:18
either the junction the aret that was super icy like if you fell there you
14:23
were done like so was it just like so sheer that falling was like not an
14:30
option or on the ett part yeah so the first time we summited I think in
14:37
March we were like one of the only people there and we had to protect it
14:43
with ice so like ice put in ice screws and I bayed jack up uh and if you fell
14:49
even if you fell on one of those ice screws like you're falling down into The Ether and it's it's like an ice climb
14:55
it's ice and so even then when you un rope after that ice
15:01
section it's very exposed it's just you cannot fall my stomach like is sinking
15:07
right now thinking about that yes I that first time we did it was obviously very early in the
15:13
season but it actually really psyched us out because we thought there's like no
15:18
way we can do this fast like everything was scary and hard and uh but as the
15:24
season goes by and more tourists come there's a hut so more people put in the
15:30
track more people put in okay uh kind of steps on that ice section it became a
15:35
lot more digestible and uh but on the day of I
15:43
think the junction was all right it was just the I the day we actually did the fkt it was very icy and that was that
15:49
was very difficult it was icy like the whole way up and other times I had done
15:55
through rout it wasn't icy okay so was a little bit tough to be skinning up something so slow when I knew how much
16:03
better it had been but that's just mountains like I think you can't get everything right on on any given day
16:09
like the ski down was great but the way up was really terrible so I definitely learned that
16:16
especially with M Blanc I mean you start it's hot you're in the town you're running up like a trail and then all of
16:23
a sudden you're on this Alpine Glacier and it's like totally different so it's very it's it's a very um it's an
16:31
objective that has a lot of layers and that made it really challenging I think
16:36
and scary yeah did so I think I heard that you guys had
Attempting M Blanc
16:43
attempted before like in May or something there was an attempt tell me about that yes I wouldn't remember the
16:50
exact date I think but two weeks prior to the actual fkt
16:56
day we saw weather window and that I think was the weather was a big
17:02
challenge because it it was like there wasn't a
17:07
lot of sunny days and you really need a sunny day on Mon Blanc to do that record
17:14
um and so we were just looking at windows and it became very stressful and we saw this one decent day and it uh we
17:22
were like okay we're going to go for it Jack's parents were in town and so we both thought that would be the
17:29
and I actually did the whole thing from the church to the top but um it didn't
17:36
it was not great like I had to put the whole skin track in by myself and I was
17:42
the only person that skied the north base that day oh and I actually felt
17:48
that a little bit upset after because I don't think that was a great decision to
17:54
keep going for me I think there were a lot of risks being there alone putting in a track on a glacier by
18:01
yourself um and so after that first attempt Jack bailed like pretty early on what made
18:08
Jack Bale so this is very interesting he um there was not a refreeze that night
18:15
so the he he felt like the refreeze on the lower section of the mountain was
18:21
very important because um of like kass's opening up and things like that and if
18:27
it didn't refreeze it could be more dangerous also that cut through Section when you enter the glacier had some
18:34
Glide cracks but I started about an hour before him and so I think that when he
18:40
got there it had melted a little bit more than when I was there so I crossed that section earlier and I didn't think
18:46
it was that soft if that makes sense so by the time he got there I think it was
18:53
a little bit more slushy and he didn't feel good about it but I was already well past that
19:00
um but on my I totally saw what he was talking and I felt like I just need to
19:06
get through this as fast as possible and safely um so that's why he bailed and I
19:13
mean it was a good ski that day I just I don't know if it was worth the physical
19:20
output of an eight and a half hour effort yeah when we were going to do it again in two weeks because I don't think
19:26
I was totally recovered for for for sure no yeah but it was fun and it was cool
19:33
to have done the whole like put all the pieces together I just don't think it was the
19:39
right day to to go for it and um but I
19:45
learned a lot so did you change anything from that day to two weeks later like
Changes to M Blanc
19:51
you had someone put in skin tracks what so tell me about like your plan going
19:57
into this route what did you do what were your rules for yourself to make it like self-supported
20:04
or yeah so I I just like being
20:11
self-sufficient and I wanted to carry all my stuff and I wanted to be
20:20
unaccompanied on the route um there was like a film crew there there was one person um so and the
20:29
the route does have a lot of tourist or other climbers there that are guided so it's not like it was just Jack and I on
20:34
the mountain yeah um but as far as you're asking like how what I changed
20:40
from the first time to the second time was that what you asked yeah and then also just like the stipulations of I'm
20:45
going to carry everything type of deal the only big difference was the first time I just took the opposing Ridge
20:52
called the corridor to the top uh because we had talked to some people
20:58
people the who had done it the day before and they said that that there was a skin track in okay but the day I
21:05
actually went there it was so windy that there was no skin track and so I I went
21:11
up that way with pretty good confidence that there would be a track and uh Jack's plan was to do that
21:17
as well but then there wasn't it was just a faint kind of line and every turn
21:24
I kind of thought that there would be a track just over this next little section
21:29
like maybe this area got a little bit of wind but there was no track my go to the
21:35
top although I did catch up to some people on the ridge which was very heartwarming yeah so the day we did it
21:41
we took the more classic way which is the AET boss and that is the one where
21:47
you have to boot with crampons on so the first time I skinned the whole way um on
21:52
that other bridge but that's the only route change we made what did you prefer I I liked the classic way I mean
21:59
I think not having to transition the first time was really
22:04
nice but this aett to boss is like that's the way everyone's done it it's
22:10
really beautiful there's like these two humps that you have to walk over it's just it's just like more
22:17
aesthetically pleasing I think so I like that and also I like
22:22
technical I like the technical side of mountaineering skiing climbing running
22:29
and so I like having to put the crampons on and go up the ice like that is where I'm like yeah let's do it let's do this
22:35
and so I think maybe the other way was easier okay but I was more stoked about
22:41
the The Ice grandons yeah cool I will say um and then your second question
22:48
about the style right yeah um that was really just I wanted to carry all my gear from the start to the finish and I
22:54
didn't want to be roped up and I I think that's just because I saw other people
23:01
who had done that in the past with skis and I I just wanted to stay true to that
23:06
style and I just I felt like it was safe we both felt like it was safe to do because we
23:12
had done the route so many times and there was a point actually a week before
23:19
we did the attempt that we crossed the junction and I said no I need to you
23:25
need to put a rope on we need to put a rope on for this like I don't feel comfortable because it was opening so much and I did
23:32
consider then like maybe I do need to be roped up here for this next week when we do this but um it changes so much like
23:40
this this mountain is moving the the weather is changing The Junction's changing and so we went back I think the
23:47
day before our fkt or two two days before just to look at the
23:53
junction and we were so nervous because we were thinking like maybe it's not I
23:58
mean we I mean if you think logically two weeks or a week later it probably
24:04
opened up more right um so that's what we were expecting but we went up there
24:09
with like full kit ropes like everything to figure out a way through we were ready to like Quest a different way so
24:17
we could make this happen and there was a nice way that you could go through
24:22
with boots on that was very safe and it was like that's so cool both of us the
24:28
relief was like we were like we're ready we can do this now so that's so cool
24:33
yeah it was fun it was a relief I think we went yeah so choosing like I bet it
Who was the most helpful
24:39
was super helpful to have jack with you CU you're both working on this project you kind of both have to figure out a
24:46
way up the mountain um it as quickly as possible yeah who do you think was the most
24:53
helpful in giving you advice or was it a lot of just fig figing it out yourself
25:00
oh that we did have a lot of help I think when we first got to France it was hard at first um but I the first I have
25:09
to say we stayed at the Grand mle Hut which is on the route and we stayed
25:14
there the first time and we were late to dinner because at these Huts they have
25:20
they have dinner at a certain time and I remember telling Jack I was like Jack these Huts we need to get there by 6 or
25:27
something and we had skied this like line that I wanted to ski with these three huge repels and we were late and I
25:33
dropped my phone we had to go back and get it and we got there and he was like no no no they're they're going to have
25:39
dinner and everyone was done eating dinner and it was a bad first impression I
25:46
think but it was really funny cuz then the next night we missed it again because they ask you like what time
25:53
would you like breakfast because a lot of parties go for the summit at like 2: a.m. 4 a.m.
25:58
and um I remember I told Jack I was like go tell them dinner at seven because I
26:04
thought but dinner's at six not seven and so we're sitting in our little cot
26:10
in the Hut and everyone else is eating dinner and I turned to him and I I said
26:15
why are we the only people not eating dinner and turns out we miss dinner again oh dang it so we were very
26:22
apologetic but the the Hut um Ben H Karen they are two people that they're
26:29
like the Hut Guardians we went back multiple times throughout the winter and
26:35
they were so helpful I mean they were encouraging like there were times we
26:41
were like it's not going to go the weather's been bad The Junction and they both once they found out we were both
26:47
going for the record they were so into it and they were on the mountain all the
26:52
time so they gave us a lot of beta and Jack would WhatsApp the Hut all the time
26:59
like how how's the conditions and so they were really helpful and then they also put out bottles for us oh that's so
27:05
nice so and that was so sweet and it's funny we after the fkt we had to go back
27:10
and get them from the Hut and seeing them again after we had tried it was so
27:16
therapeutic just like closing the loop both of us felt really happy we got to thank them for everything so I'd say the
27:24
the Hut Guardians at the Grand M they were really helpful and then um Colin Haley he's he uh he's a climber
27:34
very wellknown and uh he lives in Shaman and he is so funny Jack and I he'd
27:41
always run into us when we were in our we call it the depresso espresso and uh we would go up there
27:49
trying to find beta on the route and every time we run into Colin he'd be like no it's a great year for this you
27:57
guys have plenty of time and every time after we talked to him we were like yeah we got this and then he
28:05
where we parked our van and Shaman is right outside of his apartment and so sometimes he'd knock on the door and I
28:12
remember one time we open it and we were like Hey we're not really in a good mood
28:17
and he was like no you guys got this and and then we uh he'd leave and and we'd
28:23
both be like yeah we got this it's like your little Guardian Angel that's so cute gosh I I called him our Trail Angel
28:30
and he really was and he was very calm and uh
28:36
just he was really helpful to both of us and then on the day of the fkt he went
28:42
up and the idea was for him to put in a track though it was so icy there were no
28:48
tracks possible um but we knew he was up there uh and
28:54
so he was very helpful um shout out to Colin he was really nice
29:01
he's so nice and even after we were done we were all tired and he was like you guys should do this or that he was just
29:07
great so he I think actually was a huge help to us so those those people were
29:14
definitely the standouts and then I will say just people back home in Utah I had
29:21
been gone for a long time and I just I was overwhelmed with how
29:26
much people were checking in with me and I mean I guess that's not direct
29:32
beta about the route but that was really nice and helpful personally yeah just
Confidence
29:38
friends I mean a huge aspect of self-supported routes and doing things
29:44
alone is like believing in yourself and so like to have your friends and family
29:51
and the people close to like rallying from wherever they were and to be able to feel that out there yeah probably
29:58
gave you confidence to be able to do all the scary things that the day entailed
30:03
def definitely and we also met a couple guides um one of them is Named Gus and he was
30:11
so funny he was actually on the mountain the day of the route and he was like go
30:19
like he was cheering and we would ask him a lot cuz he he was on the route a lot with clients yeah and so he was
30:25
really helpful as well so we did actually meet quite a few people it just took being there and being on the
30:31
mountain a lot and being like actually we're here and we're trying this for real and I think we we gained a lot of
30:38
friends and then the people that helped film as well like uh I could name them
30:43
all but they were really great too but they were more kind of coming in at the end but yeah it was a and then I I guess
30:51
I have to say Jack I mean having each other I think really helped both of us because it is such a
30:59
big undertaking this this objective in my opinion um and there are so many
31:05
parts that are scary so just having each other to commiserate with when things were hard
31:12
and then to get pumped up when we were going to do it and to go up like The
31:18
Junction the day we went and we saw was good just like I think we really fed off each
31:24
other and having someone there that you were training with and also
31:31
even though we did it separately like we were with each other that's cheesy but
31:37
like when I saw Jacki down on the day I cried just because I was like I don't know if this is going to go very well
31:43
this skinning is sucks yeah but I saw him ski down cuz he he passed me and I
31:48
saw him ski down he was laughing like skiing crazy like he always does and I
31:54
just like I just was so proud of him mhm and I think he probably felt the same
32:00
about me and you know it takes a lot just to go up there we're the only people up there by ourselves it's
32:07
like it's a lot but you know I could not have done that without him and I I don't
32:13
think we could have done that without each other yeah the photos of you coming in and like touching the church and then
Touching the Church
32:20
just like being with Jack like tell me how you like what did that feel like I guess well you know that was a tough
32:28
situation because at the final transition I was looking at my watch and I was like I was like I don't this is
32:35
going to be really close I kind of took a little long in the transition uh I I wasn't super positive
32:43
that it was G to that it would even be as close as it was oh just because running with skis on your back hurts
32:50
like it's hard and I I didn't have a lot of time but I knew I'd be kind of close
32:55
um and I ran as fast fast as I could like I barrel down this trail with these
33:01
skis with this helmet like I mean people in the town when I was running looked like they thought I
33:08
was crazy and it she late for her I know and we didn't we're not from there so uh
33:16
we didn't have like the big crowds of people like yeah that you might see in some other kinds of FK te attempts so
33:24
Samy uh was one of the photographers and she was on her bike and trying to like get people out of the way but I'm like
33:31
looking really like rough like running um and initially when I touched the
33:37
church I was kind of disappointed because it was a little bit slower than I wanted but I was still at the same
33:44
time like wow I actually went really fast and when I saw
33:52
Jack I I was overwhelmed with more positive feelings than negative
33:58
like the fact that we completed this was like I could cry even just now it was
34:04
just like a really special thing sorry yeah no that is it's like such an
34:12
insane accomplishment to like work toward for months and then to be able to
34:17
do it with someone that you love so much is crazy yeah I think it's just like
34:24
there were so many ups and downs like we thought about calling it off so many times because of the weather the
34:31
conditions we didn't know if people would help we didn't know if people if
34:36
it was there was a lot of questions and then there were really great days too
34:41
but the stress it was very stressful and just it was just a release I think and
34:48
I'm just I'm was just so proud of him too yeah so so did you know I mean when did you find out cuz he missed his
When did you find out
34:55
record by 3 minutes you missed yours by before you guys were like right there I know I know I kills me cuz like both of
35:03
us the thing is we it's so funny we are both like very type A and like thinking
35:09
about things what and the second he sat down we both were just like well I could have done better here like I think we
35:14
could have gone faster with this we were already scheming about like what could have done better and he was so
35:20
interested what did you think about this that so it looks like this very it it was a very emotional Embrace but very
35:26
quickly after were like scheming about what to do next which is so it's so nice
35:32
to have someone like that because that's how I am um but what was the question
35:38
what was your question again I don't remember it was emot you guys were both so close yeah it was just nice to be
35:45
with him and at the church I think we were just we were like
35:50
we're going to have to come back and I think we will go back so yeah so like
Transitions
35:56
namely your transition you said could have been like a lot quicker
36:01
M would you have gone faster on the transitions had you known how close you
36:06
were going to be yes okay that sucks it's like uh it kills me a little bit
36:12
actually the day afterwards I kind of had a bit of a moment where I was very upset about this
36:19
because I was a swimmer growing up and everything in swimming is detail like
36:25
like the way you put your hand in the water the way you breathe like all these little details are so important and
36:33
that's I I know how to do that but then on this record I kind of took my time a
36:39
little bit with some of the some of the Transitions and Jack was like no you cannot do that like it's going to come
36:46
like he he's very methodical and I mean I've never really attempted an fkt like
36:51
this before so little things like where exactly your crampons are in your
36:58
backpack where exactly your skis are like those are all details that I hadn't
37:04
really considered before and I did I did
37:09
pretty good transitions but I definitely a couple things I probably would not have had a
37:15
GoPro I I took a a little bit of GoPro video I definitely think that wasted
37:20
more than four minutes um uh the transition into crampons m
37:28
that was very slow and on purpose just cuz you were not on purpose but like I I think
37:35
it was as fast as I thought I could go but if someone was sitting there and they were like you're going to be four minutes slower I would have been like oh
37:43
oh like I I would have like sped it up a little bit so to me and at the time I
37:48
was like I'm I'm I'm doing this right I'm going to get it right um you know I'd rather do it right than have the
37:55
crampon fall off in 2 minutes or I'd rather get the ski on the backpack
38:00
so that it stays and I don't to fix it which is definitely a good point but if
38:05
someone was like hey you're going to miss this by four minutes I mean I did set the ski record but you know if I
38:13
knew it was four four minutes I think maybe yeah that would have been helpful but I still think that's the
38:20
beauty of it all like there's things to fix and I I actually am in like inspired to go back and fix them yeah so just to
Skiing Record
38:28
yeah for our viewers to be clear you set the fkt ski record for Mount Blanc
38:33
missed the overall record by four minutes yes and that's a run yes and I think this is interesting because in
38:41
Jack's case there was an pre-existing men's ski record which he beat there was
38:47
no women's ski record and so I really used the running Hillary's running
38:53
record as a benchmark um so
38:59
um yeah I think it's considered it it's considered the women's ski fkt but I
39:05
think I would like to go back and beat the overall fkt with skis on so it was a
39:12
success in that way but I still think there's more to do there yeah yeah it's so cool it's such a crazy cool
39:18
accomplishment congratulations thank you and I will say at first I was kind of not that
39:25
interested in doing it because I there was no women ski time and you know Jack had Killian and
39:32
Mato Killian had the running record Mato had the skiing record and that is so I
39:38
think I was almost a little jealous that there was a ski record to beat ah because to me I was like I don't want to
39:43
have the okt the only known T yeah ok you know like to me I was kind of like a
39:48
little bit more like that's an OK T like I I I didn't really think it was as
39:56
notable to do yeah because there wasn't a time and I've really changed how I I feel
40:02
about that because someone needs to put up a time for it to become something
40:08
that more women do yeah and there are a lot of mountains that a lot more men
40:14
have these
40:26
fktsgi lot of opportunity for women and so I definitely swung while we were on
40:31
the trip from I don't think that I want to do it to I definitely want to put up a time even if there's not something to
40:38
beat on skiing like I want it to be competitive and I want it to be close to
40:43
to the overall time so yeah that I think that's worth mentioning yeah something I
Girls can do it too
40:50
thought was really cool too I can't remember if it was in like the Scott piece they wrote on you wherever it was
40:55
you had said that part of the reason you chose to do things the way that you did like Traverse the glacier alone was
41:02
because that's how boys did it yeah and girls can do it too oh my gosh did they
41:08
write that that's so funny um I did say that so like talk to me about women in
Why is it important
41:17
this mountain sport like right now it's like kind of heavily swung to men
41:24
probably because like men are fast like they've got Fast Times to put up on mountains but like where is our spot as
41:31
women and why is it important that people like you are talking about these
41:37
big attempts wow that's a there a lot hug question to think about with
41:44
that H why is it important I think it's important
41:51
because women I don't think need extra help to do the same kinds of things and
41:57
and I also think women are very good athletes like there are some women I know that are amazing
42:03
athletes and from my experience I feel like at least on these
42:09
big mountains and I could be wrong so I'm just speaking from my own experience
42:14
but it's just been more there's more culture around men like racing each other for the time and I don't know why
42:24
there haven't been as many women but I think there's just opportunity that is
42:29
missed if there's not women in the sport and
42:34
so I think it's important to open
42:39
doors and Inspire women to and also really like to make sure that we know we
42:47
can do the same kinds of things yeah uh and yeah I think that alone is like
42:54
one reason um and also
43:00
like I want to put this the right way but I think women are allowed to be
43:06
competitive with each other and maybe it's been
43:12
more male dominated to compete against each other uh for things like these
43:18
fktsgi [Music]
43:27
and I'm inspired by that so I think there's room for for that that maybe has
43:34
there hasn't been room before and I'd like there to be more room so I think
43:40
that's maybe how I'd answer that yeah totally I think too like something I'm
Kelly and Jen
43:46
just thinking of now is like growing up just like being out fishing or on the
43:52
mountains or hiking like I remember being praised as like oh you're a girl out here doing this like just being
43:59
there was special because I was a girl but I think it's like more important that we realize like looking to people
44:07
like you and Kelly Halen and Jen Denton I love like there you guys are amazing
44:12
mountain athletes and it isn't just enough to be up on the mountain like we
44:19
have the capacity to also be competitive and to go after competitive times it's
44:25
cool it's very inspiring and I think I'd also add to that
44:30
like even the the the women you named Kelly and Jen when I think about them
44:36
they are not just runners or or you know they are mountain like they're very
44:43
well-rounded like Jen can put in a ski Booter like you've never seen and she
44:48
can climb up some ice and I think that all around like Mountain athlete is
44:55
really cool to see women and just like you said uh
45:00
just I think there again I think there's space for that I think that is very inspiring to me when I see people like
45:06
that so yeah I would agree with what you said about the fishing I I empathize so like
45:15
yeah um so talk to me a little bit about like your background in swim and how
Annas swimming background
45:21
like that competitive nature that you developed there both has hindered or helped you in
45:28
this mountain sport World great question I so I grew up
45:34
swimming and I was I was I played a lot of sports growing up but swimming I just
45:40
flocked to it I was good at it it was very uh I liked how detailed it was and
45:49
it was very very regimen it like it was very strict like the practices and I
45:55
really think I like liked that actually um but when I got to college I swam in
46:00
college and I went to the Olympic trials in 2012 and I qualified for them in 2016 but I did not go in 2016 because my
46:09
relationship with the sport had kind of like dwindled and I think a lot of that
46:14
has to do with the competition aspect of it um in college I Love College swimming
46:21
I those are my best friends to this day my College swimming friends but it was so Cutthroat like m i
46:30
remember I remember for our relay there was a 200 medley relay and
46:37
there were three of us that could have been on the relay and one of them was one of my best friends and my roommate
46:44
and then another one was also a good friend and they put the three of us in the pool and in front of the whole team
46:49
and we had to race each other for the spot M and it was so anxiety inducing
46:57
and it felt like so much pressure and it
47:02
just I remember kind of hoping they didn't do very well so that I could get
47:07
on the relay and that is not a great place to be if
47:14
you're like hoping someone doesn't do well uh or if you you doing well and
47:20
someone doing better having a better time takes away from you like that's not I in my opinion that's that was really
47:27
unhealthy for me and I just didn't have a lot of joy and competition anymore
47:34
um so I think after College swimming
47:40
I I really struggled with like who I was outside of swimming and I still had a
47:48
bit of an unhealthy competition relationship with competition
47:53
um and I don't know I don't know why that was was
47:58
like it was just like wanting to be the best and it was all about like being the best and who could get their hand on the
48:04
wall I mean swimming is so is so cut and dry like it's hundreds
48:10
of a second between Glory or Devastation and there were times when like my
48:15
parents probably would say this like it was the difference of like point1 seconds whether Anna was going to
48:23
be elated or a a wreck and just attaching myself to my worth to that is
48:32
was just it was not good and I think that was really hard to grow out of and
48:38
and I really had to think about that for a long time and I still have to think
48:44
about it to this day even with the fkt like when I finished I said I was kind of disappointed because it wasn't
48:51
like the exact time I wanted but it was so liberating to be like no no it's the
48:57
body of work that we put into this that is amazing and like I put myself out there and I enjoyed it and that
49:04
transition I think is one of the best things that's ever happened to me like being able to
49:11
transition from mindset one to to now so it kind of
Why Mountain Sports
49:16
sounds like you changed your kind of putting yourself worth instead of putting your self worth in like the
49:23
outcome it was more of like I'm placing self work worth in this body of work
49:29
that I just completed and the experience that I've just had type of thing yeah yeah I definitely think so and
49:35
especially with these Mountain Sports I mean I arrived in Utah I didn't know anything like I took
49:42
my ABY one I didn't have a lot of friends um I
49:49
remember I got to The Climbing Gym the first time and I had never been to a
49:55
Climbing gym I didn't know that you had to follow like the colors in 2020 yeah you're like blue red and I remember I
50:03
saw a girl climbing like something that was harder than me that I couldn't get up and I had this Wave Wash over me that
50:09
reminded me of swimming that was like why is she climbing harder than me like why um you
50:16
know I look stronger or like I I think I I I should be better
50:23
and I really hated that I thought that um but I remember someone told to
50:30
me or said to me you just you need to do these things more like you need to practice you need to learn and I think
50:38
sports that always maybe come easy to me like just being athletic in general and
50:43
since 2020 till now I have put so much time and effort into
50:49
learning and I've been humbled and I have realized how much I don't know and
50:56
how much much there is to learn and how much you'll how you'll never know everything about everything yeah
51:01
especially when it comes to mountains and and risk and things like the
51:07
technical aspects of M Blanc like for me being able to lead that section of ice the first time we did Mont Blanc was a
51:14
huge like growth for me because I didn't know how to do that when I moved here
51:20
and it wasn't hard ice like I'm sure an ice climber would be like that's nothing but it's things like that that I think
51:27
have drawn me into Mountain Sports it's like you have so much to learn and you
51:32
always will and I think that's something to be proud
51:38
of like different skills and
51:43
um I don't think I had that in swimming quite as much so like there's still so
51:49
much to learn and I'm so excited about that yeah and I think Mountain Sports
Competition and Performance
51:54
tend to lend themselves to that mindset too just because it does fill your cup
51:59
enough to just have a fun day in the mountains um and so bringing the aspect
52:07
of competition and like performance into it almost just feels like a little bonus
52:13
yes so there's also kind of that aspect to Mountain Sports that maybe makes it a
52:18
little bit more healthy yeah actually to be honest I was really
52:23
not sure about doing the FK because I I wanted to protect the the progress I had made with
52:31
my selfworth and not attaching it to a time or or some accomplishment that other
52:38
people was were impressed with um and I think I actually had been doing
52:45
that for the last couple years like I think a little part of me have has wanted to be competitive again because I
52:52
remember me when I was a kid how much I love to compete and how much like it was just fun and I
53:00
think I think there was a lot of like mourning the loss of that after college like the loss of the joy of competition
53:07
and so in Utah learning the Mountain Sports I kind of was like oh I I don't
53:12
want to compete I'm not going to enter a race I'm not I don't do that and I think part of it was protecting my
53:19
own ego from getting let down like from that pain of
53:25
disappointment that I felt so much in swimming and so yes Mountain Sports are really fun it's fun to go out with your
53:32
friends obviously the people you're with are what matters more than anything and those experiences are most important but
53:39
it's okay to want to compete and doing this monblanc fkt I think has shown me
53:45
that there is room for competition in my Mountain uh my eclectic Mountain
53:52
collection of things that um that I do want to pursue
53:58
and I think I can do that in a more healthy way now but um but even today like I just
54:06
you know people have asked me like oh what do you want to do next and I just want to be really careful
54:12
with my own like heart and make sure
54:18
that no accomplishment defines me or anyone and it's like the work and the
54:26
journey to get there it sounds so cliche but that is what I'm most proud of and that's just a happier place to be I
54:33
think yeah so maybe for people who are listening who kind of identify with my
Moving from an unhealthy place
54:39
selfworth kind of lies in my performance how did you make this switch
54:44
like tangibly you can't list all of the steps that you made but like where is
54:50
someplace you can start to kind of move your mindset over
54:56
H that's hard I
55:03
think I need to think obviously I was in a very
55:09
unhealthy place after swimming so I think taking some time away from that and this it might be hard to relate to
55:16
but after that back surgery I that identity I had of myself being an
55:22
athlete was gone like I I was told I was not going going to be walking quite as
55:28
much I had a doctor tell me ask me if I was okay not moving my calf muscle again oh what yeah I know and what did you
55:36
even say I said no I'm going to be using a different surgeon I remember looking at him and I
55:42
was like I'm an I what I was like I'm not like your average patient here buddy like also like why does the average
55:49
person just like palet that though they're just like oh never move my calf again well I mean I think you would just
55:55
lose a little bit like I know after people get their acl's they have to take a hamstring sometimes and I think that H
56:02
like that that ham that leg is not as strong okay so maybe there would be like a little but to me I was like absolutely
56:08
not yeah so I went with another surgeon but there was like a period of time where that identity of an athlete was
56:15
taken away from me and I I was actually kind of forced to rethink life in
56:22
general and what like what I was without Sport
56:30
and I think now I would say I'm someone that like if if you took Sports away
56:35
from me I would be all in on something else like I'm just someone who needs to have a
56:40
passion um that I'm working on and I I enjoy that um and I
56:46
think what I learned is uh one your your Athletics can be taken
56:53
away from you very easily but as far as like Steps to to move from like an unhealthy place to now um is I was
57:02
talking to my dad I think a couple a year a year ago maybe or maybe it was my
57:08
mom I don't know which one sorry Mom and Dad and they told me that they tried to
57:13
make sure when we were kids that they always prided us or told us they were
57:18
proud of us for our effort not for the outcome and that just really stuck with
57:24
me uh and I'm like why you tell me this like a few years ago um and I don't know
57:31
why I think about that all the time it's like the effort that you put in not the outcome and so even if you don't win or
57:39
even if you're not climbing the hardest grade or you don't get the
57:44
time there's something so amazing about about being like I put everything
57:51
of myself into this yeah and that is so so much like like that if
57:58
if you can try to get there I think that's that's a good
58:04
start um that's kind of like a big a big thing I don't know if I have like little
58:10
tips but I I think just like every time you're down on yourself I guess I do have a tip
58:17
actually so every time I start to kind of like slide into that mindset of like
58:23
why like why did they go faster than me you're like you you know I need I need to be this
58:28
good uh I ask myself why I'm feeling like that and a
58:35
lot of times I can talk myself back into to reminding myself like that's not me and
58:44
it's just the fact that I'm out here trying is what matters and so I I think I have to a lot of therapy probably I suggest
58:52
um aot a good therapist um but like any kind of like negative self thought especially when it
58:58
relates to like Athletics I think it's really important in your own head to have a dialogue and
59:04
challenge it and ask like where is that coming from and why and a lot of times
59:10
you can kind of realize that it's it's not it's not a real thing and you're
59:17
still amazing and worthy worthy and uh
59:23
valuable with or without any accolade and I think that has made competition
59:28
more fun for me because it's like I'm going to try as hard as I can and if it
59:33
ends up great amazing and if it doesn't I'm proud that I tried and that's a lot more like how I
59:40
was when I was really young as a kid so I think that's my tip that's my
59:47
armchair psychologist tip yeah I think it's important too cuz like keeping the sanctity of your own competition allows
59:54
you to like feel the commity community that like competition brings too cuz like races are fun because you have 100
1:00:02
people doing it with you or fkt is like physically Jack wasn't there physically
1:00:08
like the girl that did like the round trip fkt wasn't there with you but there was probably a sense of community and
1:00:15
like oh we're trying this so yeah yeah that's a really good point I I I'm I'm
1:00:22
mad at myself for not mentioning that too because like none of these things can be done without other people
1:00:29
and just like there like all the times you
1:00:34
went out with your friends or whatever like that that is more important you
1:00:40
know like and it's so easy to forget that um so I just think reminding reminding
1:00:47
myself of that is important too because a lot of times I I tend to do things by myself like I I'm a little bit in I'm an
1:00:54
introverted extrovert I'd say uh like I recharge by myself I I usually like to
1:01:00
go out at my own pace and things like that but I every time I go with a friend
1:01:05
or something I wish I did did it more and so I think doing that kind of thing
1:01:12
also is very important to remind you that there's a lot more to life and you
1:01:17
and your life than your sport and yourself yeah like in your your own
1:01:22
goals like yeah so that's a good point yeah
1:01:28
well thank you so much for coming I want to be respectful of your time so if anyone is looking to kind of follow
1:01:35
whatever your next like race or fkt attempt or even just like Mountain Adventure is where can they find you oh
1:01:42
my gosh you can find me on Instagram it's anna. demoner like my last name is Deonte so
1:01:51
it's d e m o n s t e r demoner I'm basically Instagram that's like where I
1:01:57
am I don't do like anything else so cool yeah and I have some funny Tik toks if
1:02:02
you find me on Tik Tok I'll link both of those Below in the description it's not
1:02:08
it's not a great Tik Tok but I'm working on it Tik Tok is actually so hard yeah
1:02:13
it's so hard hard but I'm excited I'm like I'm going back over to Europe and I
1:02:18
think there's some exciting things so if anyone listening to this is in Europe
1:02:25
I'd love to meet up cool and make friends but thank you for having me yes thank you so much for coming I'm so
1:02:31
excited about this episode I'm like I want to drop it like tomorrow I'm so stoked about this
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