Billy Goat Swift

04/13/2026

For some Monday Mountain inspiration check out the four part documentary series on YouTube. “The Climb: Rebel Girls take on Aconcagua” ( link in bio) Jes Wolfe shares an in depth story of her own process and I’m so happy I was there to share it with her!

04/02/2026

Billy Goat Swift dreamed of a Canada 🇨🇦 ski lodge almost 10 years ago and the trip of a lifetime fell together. A remote ski lodge with a cook 👩🏻‍🍳 accessed by helicopter and guided ski touring for 8 days in a scenic and wild place. It brought together the elements of laughter, the alpine terrain, cold powder snow, a hot sauna, good food , and time to connect with each other and ourselves. Thank you for keeping us safe and sharing the joy!

02/10/2026

I have literally been asked this question 3x since the new year, so I thought I would dive deeper into my general answer:
“Should I use ankle weights to train?” Generally, my answer is no. I think the weight of skis/boots/bindings is greater to warrant it, but even then, you’re typically sliding the ski on snow. If you already own them, and you want to use them on a treadmill okay, but they disturb the walking gait and are absolutely a tripping hazard. Be a billy goat and make other variables like your pack weight, distance of hike, elevation or pace the main things to vary between workouts in order to prepare for expedition climbing.

01/28/2026

Here is my photo dump of backcountry bootcamp! It was a birthday trip for the old man that had a snowpack with good avalanche stability, varied conditions and big tour days, that ended in the yurt each night for cribbage games and great meals shared.

01/22/2026

09/10/2025

So excited to see the film Girl Climber tomorrow night! Emily shares her story, her fears, her failures and her accomplishments as a climber. This movie wasn’t made for only the small percentage of the population, that are climbers. It’s made for everyone who has ever been afraid, pushed themselves, and is a woman in any sport. Melissa Arnot Reid said recently on the about how she herself was not known for being the “Climbers, Climber”. The title of this film, really dives into this type of OTHER labeling, that doesn’t serve us as a small community of people with a passion to climb. Read the article in Climber Magazine and Get tickets now to see the show in Tahoe City this week!

08/27/2025

A recent visit to Yosemite brought my memories back to when I first started to read and apply the lower heart ranges of Zone 2 for high altitude adaptations from Phil Maffetones book. This podcast breaks down some of the recent media about zone 2 training and the claims are based on very little evidence; small sample sizes, Short term studies, on populations from whom you wouldn’t want to extrapolate. However, you don’t run a marathon on high intensity intervals either! The bottome line is that Zone 2 isn’t necessarily easy, it’s a moving target with many poor estimates for where that zone lies for a person, is not the best intensity to drive mitochondrial content in biogenesis, BUT, this is not the only thing that makes us better at exercise. We need to increase capillaries, stress other adaptations for the heart and neuromuscular advantages to climb mountains.

07/19/2025

For those who haven’t heard me talk about how much I love to watch and listen to Bob and Phil narrate the Tour de France each morning, it might come as a surprise but you should watch the highlights from today. Stage 13 was an exceptional Uphill Time trial: The shortest distance stage in the history of the Tour, but what a friggin punch 🥊! An almost 5000 ft climb in less than 5 miles. Many of the cyclists completed the stage in a blazing 🥵 22-27 minutes. Meanwhile, the rest of us are trying to find ways to tackle the hills in the neighborhood without any tears.

07/08/2025

I want to highlight the under talked about importance of failure and growth. I see a fragility of confidence when it comes to climbing peaks, and the bigger risks one takes as a goal, the bigger the fear of failure approaches during training and as the expedition approaches. Disappointment occurs when results don’t match expectations and the excitement of change wavers.
Our deepest, darkest fears can manifest: Will I ever get the results I seek?

What if I give it my all and my all is not good enough? Focus on the gains you have made, the skills, the relationships, the climbing days with sunshine ☀️ all of the above will help with the edges of growth versus disappointment. And an acceptance that every day and trip has something to be learned and isn’t a failure if you don’t meet the expectations you originally set.

07/02/2025

It feels like the height of summer endurance season, and the middle or beginning of mountain prep for the fall season. I had the opportunity to visit again last week with UC Davis sports medicine group and have a Metabolic Efficiency Test and discuss the most talked about zone 2! Some takeaways include that it’s a moving target, that general fitness and aerobic capacity can be trained using numerous methods, and when we try to combine many goals; it can get complicated really quick. It deserves an individual approach and a much longer conversation and that is what coaching is for. Of course I like field tests, but the gold standard is in a lab with pre and post testing after being willing and able to apply the advice given. “You don’t know until you go!” (One of my favorite mountain guide mentor quotes)

06/18/2025

It’s easy to show up when you feel good. But that’s not what training always looks like, during the mountain trips, or summit days, or race days. Hard efforts and polarized training approaches are key to building experience and the mental fitness required. here’s a photo of two local goats 🐐 running in the Broken Arrow this weekend!