Skiing Solo to The South Pole (yeah, seriously) with Jacob "Valhalla" Myers

Join Glen and I on this special, rare episode of Walking and Talking! Glen is a an "engineer, entrepreneur, author, sought-after speaker, and dishwasher/philanthropist." In 1998 he founded Gossamer Gear. He's humble, funny, and dedicated.  *I apolgize for the poor audio quality on my mic. I've been out of the podcast game for awhile so I had my settings messed up. Thankfully, Glen is crisp and clear - he's more intersting to listen to anyway. Glen's  book Take Less. Do More: Surprising Life Lessons in Generosity. Gratitude, and Curiosty from an Ultralight Backpacker is available on April 16th. Find it at the links below.  All profits on the book will be donated to the Pacific Crest Trail Association. https://bookshop.org/p/books/take-less-do-more-surprising-life-lessons-in-generosity-gratitude-and-curiosity-from-an-ultralight-backpacker-glen-van-peski/20974984   https://www.porchlightbooks.com/product/take-less.-do-more.-surprising-life-lessons-in-generosity-gratitude-and-curiosity-from-an-ultralig--glen-van-peski/isbn/9781637632895   https://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/book/9781637632895   https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/take-less-do-more-glen-van-peski/1144473893;jsessionid=1511F01807AFAF67447724E441D107B0.prodny_store01-atgap04   https://www.amazon.com/Take-Less-More-Surprising-Generosity/dp/1637632894   Visit Glen's website to learn more https://www.glenvanpeski.com/                

My friend is about to do something insane! Jacob is attempting to become the youngest person in HISTORY to ski solo to The South Pole.  Join us for this conversation about running 100s of miles through the mountains, living on a glacier, setting world records, planting trees in Austrialia, and much more!   DONATE TO THIS PROJECT! IndieGoGo: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/traq-23/x/30565548#/   Venmo: @MyersJG1   CHECK OUT HIS BLOG!   My Website: www.ValhallaHikes.Com   FOLLOW THE SOCIALS! IG: @YoungestToPoleProject IG: @ClimateForce.360   LEARN MORE ABOUT THE UNITY BLAZE! https://www.blackfolkscamptoo.com/

Lightshow and I met two weeks into my thru-hike when the world was shutting down due to COVID. He completed the southern half of the AT last year. This year he plans to start at Katahdin and head south. He joins me this week to talk about his unique approach to hiking the trail, why you should take the blue-blazes, his time working at Standing Bear Farm, and so much more! Lots of love and lessons in this one.       Connect with Walking and Talking! All Things Walking and Talking: https://ryanschlosser.com/   Links to Listen: https://ryanschlosser.com/podcasts/   Donate: https://ryanschlosser.com/donate/   Contact: https://ryanschlosser.com/contact/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walkingtalkingpod   New Episodes every other Wednesday at Noon EST!     

Hey everyone! My mom, Mary Schlosser, joins me this week to reminisce about her experience with the AT in 2020. No intro or outro today. Audacity keeps crashing whenever I try to edit, so it’s all interview this time around. Join us for a conversation about putting on a brave face, learning lessons from the woods, eating cold oatmeal, apple cider festivals, and so much more!   If you’d like to listen to other episodes with Mary, check out episodes 1 & 8       Connect with Walking and Talking! All Things Walking and Talking: https://ryanschlosser.com/   Links to Listen: https://ryanschlosser.com/podcasts/   Donate: https://ryanschlosser.com/donate/   Contact: https://ryanschlosser.com/contact/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walkingtalkingpod   New Episodes every other Wednesday at Noon EST!     

On this one-year anniversary episode I’m joined again by Chase Bontemps (Shotgun). Shotgun is a 23 year-old West Virginia University grad who now works as a civil engineer in Washington DC. He’s one of my best friends from the trail and we hiked the northern half together. Today’s episode is a relaxed conversation in which we reflect on the one-year anniversary of our start dates. If you’d like to hear Shotgun’s backstory, I recommend first listening to episodes 11 and 19. If you’ve already heard those episodes, or if you just want to dive into this episode, welcome aboard!   **I was riddled with technical difficulties while recording and editing this episode. I tried my best to make everything sound as normal as possible   Thank you to everyone who has listened to the show over this past year! You all rock!    Connect with Walking and Talking! All Things Walking and Talking: https://ryanschlosser.com/   Links to Listen: https://ryanschlosser.com/podcasts/   Donate: https://ryanschlosser.com/donate/   Contact: https://ryanschlosser.com/contact/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walkingtalkingpod   New Episodes every other Wednesday at Noon EST!     

This week I’m joined by Scott “Hell Yeah Jesus” Hughes. He’s the host of his own podcast I Just Wanna Be Hiker Trash (link below). Scott was 1,400 miles into a sobo AT thruhike attempt in 2016 when he made the decision to get off trail for the year. He returned Katahdin in 2018 and set off again – this time successfully making it all the way to Springer Mountain. Anyone who hikes 3,500+ miles on the AT comes away with some great stories. Lucky for me, all those stories make for a great interview! Join us for a conversation about determination, crazy trail names, podcasting, lessons the trail teaches, and so much more!   Check out I Just Wanna Be Hiker Trash here https://ijustwannabehikertrash.com/   or on FaceBook https://m.facebook.com/justwannabehikertrashpod/     Connect with Walking and Talking! All Things Walking and Talking: https://ryanschlosser.com/   Links to Listen: https://ryanschlosser.com/podcasts/   Donate: https://ryanschlosser.com/donate/   Contact: https://ryanschlosser.com/contact/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walkingtalkingpod   New Episodes every other Wednesday at Noon EST!    

This week I step away from the normal interview format and instead bring you some recordings from the trail in early April 2020. I had stopped releasing podcasts at this point due to COVID. Hopefully this episode shines some light on the difficulty of the hike at that point and my thoughts as I debated whether or not to continue my hike.     Connect with Walking and Talking! All Things Walking and Talking: https://ryanschlosser.com/   Links to Listen: https://ryanschlosser.com/podcasts/   Donate: https://ryanschlosser.com/donate/   Contact: https://ryanschlosser.com/contact/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walkingtalkingpod   New Episodes every other Wednesday at Noon EST!    

This week we head to a different trail – Vermont’s Long Trail! This trail stretches 273 miles through Vermont from the Massachusetts border to Canada. Natalie Muskin joins me to recount her 2018 thru-hike and her experience the following summer as a backcountry caretaker! Join us for a conversation about the naturalness of hiking, persevering through injury, the assumptions people too often make when a woman hikes alone, everything coming full-circle, and so much more!       Learn more about Green Mountain Club Backcountry Caretakers! https://www.greenmountainclub.org/looking-back-50-years-how-the-caretaker-program-began/   Connect with Walking and Talking! All Things Walking and Talking: https://ryanschlosser.com/   Links to Listen: https://ryanschlosser.com/podcasts/   Donate: https://ryanschlosser.com/donate/   Contact: https://ryanschlosser.com/contact/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walkingtalkingpod   New Episodes every other Wednesday at Noon EST!  

This week I’m joined by Laura Bee, aka Neck Knife. She was living in California when she decided to come back home east for a 2020 AT flip-flop thruhike. She felt the trail was approachable and could fulfill nostalgic goals, as she grew up in New Hampshire. Join us for a conversation about how the AT can bring families closer together, encouraging women to thruhike alone, why the AT can be a great place for people with opposing viewpoints to have respectful conversation with each other, how moving slower can make you happier, and so much more!   Check out Laura’s great AT blog! https://www.tobeeaflipflop.com/   Follow her on Instagram: @laurabee0   Bonus episode once I reach 100 ratings and reviews on Apple Podcasts!    Happy 2021 Everyone!   Connect with Walking and Talking! All Things Walking and Talking: https://ryanschlosser.com/   Links to Listen: https://ryanschlosser.com/podcasts/   Donate: https://ryanschlosser.com/donate/   Contact: https://ryanschlosser.com/contact/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walkingtalkingpod   New Episodes every other Wednesday at Noon EST!  

This week, I’m joined by Phill Toomasian, aka Flamingo. He is a triple-crowner, having hiked the 2,650-mile-long Pacific Crest Trail in 2018 and the 2,200-mile-long Appalachian Trail and the 3,000-mile-long Continental Divide Trail in 2020. That’s over 7,000 miles of hiking on those trails alone! (about the distance from Denver to Hong Kong!) Phill partnered with the non-profit “Dressember” this year to raise money to fight human trafficking. Join us for a conversation about living your “real-life” no matter where you are or what you’re doing, following your faith to use your natural gifts to better the world, social media pressure during COVID-19 and the amplification of “cancel culture”, why the AT is the most difficult part of the triple-crown, a really neat pair of pink pants, and so much more!   Follow Flamingo on Instagram! @phillip.david.t   Become a donor to Phill’s Dressember fundraiser! https://dressember2020.funraise.org/fundraiser/phill-toomasian?fundraiserPrompt=1108924&fbclid=IwAR3rbpIFKSHxrpWrvb193JzMRtIIw-D5O4hNcbAaSZQXyfXItT5-KSgNgAU     Happy Holidays! I can’t believe this is already the last episode of 2020. I’m so appreciative of all of you who have been with me this year to share this journey with me :)        Connect with Walking and Talking!   All Things Walking and Talking: https://ryanschlosser.com/   Links to Listen: https://ryanschlosser.com/podcasts/   Donate: https://ryanschlosser.com/donate/   Contact: https://ryanschlosser.com/contact/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/walkingtalkingpod   New Episodes every other Wednesday at Noon EST!