Welcome to my website! I’m an east coast Canadian gal who’s now a west coast Canadian gal. I moved to British Columbia for school and for an adventure – I had no clue just how big of an adventure was ahead me. 🙂
The discovery of mountain adventures was a life-changing experience for me.
Growing up I had no idea that mountains, especially like those found here on the west coast, existed and that people climbed them. I have always been active and enjoyed being outside – moving to British Columbia and this discovery changed my life for the better.
Through this website I’d like to share my adventures with you! I love researching, planning, training, gear shopping – all things related to mountain adventures! My posts on adventuring will be thorough and not only include details of the climb itself, but also lots of other planning and logistical tidbits you’ll need to know. I have completed one expedition to date and I’m excited to share with you tips on how to prepare for an expedition – I have some amazing spreadsheets to share! Hehe 🙂 I also have a kinesiology background and I worked in the fitness industry for a number of years, thus I love trying to dial in what I need to do to prepare for my outdoor goals both physically and mentally. I hope to give you some ideas on how you could train for your outdoor goals or help you find some motivation. 🙂 Lastly, I’m a bit of a gear nerd who used to work at MEC, so I have lots of knowledge to share on that front – my friends and family are always asking me for advice on what gear they need and how to care for it.
Well that’s the short intro to my website. If you’re interested in learning more about why my life is so rooted in the mountains and how it has changed my life for the better continue reading, otherwise check out my posts thorough the menu at the top of my website or click here to get started:
Adventures ◊ Expeditions ◊ Training ◊ Gear
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Starting when I was a teenager, I had a 14 year-long battle with anxiety and depression. My turning point, and subsequently long road to recovery, happened in a yoga class! Yes, yes it did. 🙂 I was living in Victoria at the time and I had been injured, unable to exercise. I decided to try Ashtanga yoga to see if it could heal my body, not knowing that it would begin healing my mind as well. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it – it was the perfect combination of a physical and mental challenge. The instructors were extremely talented in using their words to describe each posture well and how you breathe along with it – they really focused on the breathing throughout the entire class, more than any other studio I’ve been to since (it’s called Ujjayi breathing). I started going multiple times a week and found I was really getting into it and progressing. One day I was in class, moving through the warrior poses (No I’m not kidding!) and as I came up into warrior I, I felt an energy move from the floor, through my feet and up through my body. When the energy reached my head I immediately felt a sense of calmness, and for the first time in my life I was completely in the present. I wasn’t dwelling on the past, or worried about the future, I was present in that moment, in that room, thinking of nothing other than my breathing, my body, and the instructor’s words. Up until this point I had no idea that I wasn’t living my life in the present. It felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders as now I understood what I was doing, but that was only half the battle on the road to recovery. I am not a religious or spiritual person, but I guess you could call this some sort of spiritual awakening. I think any time you’ve been struggling with something for a long time, and then have a break through moment that drastically changes your perspective for the better, it can be called a spiritual awakening.
Now I needed to find a way to actually live my life in the present.
Now I understood what I had to do, but things would still get worse before they got better. Living in the present was no easy task! I moved to Vancouver for school and became roommates with a friend I knew from my undergrad degree on the east coast, who also moved to Vancouver for school. Back east she used to participate in some outdoor activities (camping, climbing, kayaking, hiking) and was curious about the outdoor activities in the Vancouver area. She organized my first backcountry trip, which was an overnight trip to Garibaldi Lake and I was in AWE! I couldn’t believe such a beautiful place existed in my backyard and I enjoyed every minute of it: having everything I needed for the whole weekend in my pack (Including the shelter to sleep in!), wearing the heavy pack uphill (Yes, I am a sucker for a good workout!), spending quality time with my friends in this amazingly beautiful setting, and most of all, I found I was much more present than when I was in the city. There were no distractions! I was only thinking about setting up camp, cooking dinner, how/when/where to go to the bathroom (Because sometimes that takes effort in the backcountry!), where we were going to hike and what that would entail – you catch my drift. I loved having no cell coverage and as I stared at the mountains in the distance, I felt drawn to them. I needed to learn how to climb them! It felt like an amazing, challenging goal that made me super happy. During that whole trip I couldn’t stop saying, “I love BC!” and when I returned home I felt extremely fulfilled and content. I knew that integrating these mountain adventures into my life would be what I’d need to heal and finally take hold of my anxiety and depression. There have been many lessons in the mountains since then, but I’ll end by saying my anxiety and depression no longer have control over me, I have control over them. Throughout this whole struggle I had a vision of a happy person that I thought I had the potential to be, but had no idea how to become her or if I ever would become her. I’m happy to say I have! 🙂
Climbing mountains is now integrated into almost every aspect of my life. I am constantly goal setting, training, researching, planning, learning, climbing, etc. I started by joining outdoor clubs (I remain very active with the Alpine Club of Canada Vancouver Section), climbing with some amazing people from whom I have learned a lot, taken a number of courses, and of course climbed many mountains! I consider myself an all-around mountain athlete (though not the professional kind unfortunately 😉) and I’ve worked very hard to constantly push myself outside my comfort zone just enough to learn and prepare for progressively harder climbs, though I still have a long way to go! It takes many years to develop these skills. I’m a project manager/planner/organizer, who is actually naturally quite a cautious person with a lower risk tolerance, but I love pushing myself outside my comfort zone, into the unknown (after having done a ton of research, training, and planning before doing so 😉). This is a quote I try to live by:
Life begins at the end of your comfort zone – Neale Donald Walsch
All that being said, it’s only natural for a person who has been through a difficult time to want to share their experience and how they came back from it with others. I’m not yet sure how I will integrate this aspect into my adventure posts, or if this part will even move beyond this page, but I do know that a life rich in outdoor adventures of any kind can go a long way in changing your life. I hope my posts will encourage some of you to get out there and challenge yourself or provide you with some useful information. I simply love talking about anything and everything outdoor related!
Feel free to reach out of you have any questions or simply want to get in touch! Email me at jillclimbsmtns [at] gmail [dot] com.
In the meantime…
Keep on rockin’ 🗻
J.
Jill Kennedy 