Alli Hartz
Primary Outdoor Sports: Skiing & Running
Favorite Beverage: RPM
Sunrise or Sunset: Sunrise
Non-Outdoor Hobby: Reading
Favorite Season: Winter
Go-To Trail Snack: Gummies
Guilty Pleasure: Trashy Romance Novels
Fun Fact: I passed as a Canadian in a hut in BC by saying “sorry” a lot.
Book Recommendation: Anything by Kate Quinn
Three Words to Describe You: Particular, Fun, & Real
“I grew up in Pennsylvania and definitely grew up playing outside. We went hiking as a family and we didn't go backpacking. We kind of did the simple basic stuff, although it was pretty cool to learn to ski at such a young age.
I did all the traditional sports like soccer, swimming, basketball. I just kind of did everything. Then, I moved to Oregon in my mid-twenties and that's when I met people who rock climbed. They kind of took me under their wing and taught me how to rock climb. Then, that same group of people took me ski touring. I had never heard of backcountry skiing growing up.
I had really great mentors and peers that were like, ‘Get these bindings. Get these boots. This is the setup you want. You need skins.’ They went out with me the first few times on the Mt. Bachelor uphill route and helped me learn.”
“I think I got really lucky. At that time when I moved to Oregon, I was doing triathlons. I connected with some people and just through work somebody was like, ‘Oh, you should meet this person. She also grew up in Pennsylvania.’ We went for a few hikes and she's like, ‘Oh, you do triathlons, you should meet this person who does triathlons.’ He was a rock climber and he was like, ‘Well, let's go rock climbing.’ So really by chance and luck and having an attitude of, ‘Oh yeah, I want to try everything,’ I started to find a community.”
“Anytime I've been out touring, it just kind of puts me in a position to bring my best self to whatever my next life situation is. I just feel lighter. I feel energized. When I used to work a 9-5 job, anytime I would go skiing before work, I would just go into work so energized.”
“I’ve been eyeing the Diller Headwall and wanting to ski it for years. It’s such a tight window in the springtime. It’s kind of neat to have those lines in the back of my mind that I want to ski someday. If I ski other cool stuff in the meantime that’s great and when everything lines up and I get to ski something that has been on that list, then it’s really cool.
We didn't know for sure if it would still be in, but I had a hunch because everything was corning up, it just seemed like everything was in really good condition. I figured that line probably was too.
Touring in I didn't want to get my hopes up or get too hooked on that one objective because I knew there'd be a lot of good options to ski. We were going to have a fun day regardless. Getting in there, we could see the bergschrund and it had some cracks, but we were kind of looking at it and we're like, ‘I think I can see how we can get around it.’
Touring up the Hayden glacier, it was pretty windy and cold and still kind of firm, but we could feel the sun and I just knew it was going to soften. Everything went so smoothly. We were just kind of going at a steady pace. It didn't feel like a slog and sometimes it can going all the way back in there. But, on this day, it didn't. We were just like, ‘This is beautiful. It's so fun.’
We got to the top and we looked in and poked at it with our ski poles and we're like, ‘It’s softening.’ So we didn't have to rush to transition. We hung out and chatted and had snacks and then we're like, ‘Well, should we ski it?’
We looked at it and I just felt joyful. That was cool too, because a few years ago when I looked down it, the conditions were kind of mushy, sticky snow and I was gripped and just not that psyched. This time, I looked down at it and I was like, ‘Yes, I'm psyched. I want to ski this. It's going to be fun.’ And, it totally was.”
“One of the things I love about the mountains is just how small I feel. That feeling is just incredible. There are all these day to day things that I worry about and feel anxious about or over think and being out there, it's like, ‘Wow, these mountains are old. These trees are old. I'm small. I don't matter. None of my problems matter.’ It allows me to just be present.”
“During the summer of 2020, I decided to attempt a run I call the Five Sisters. I think some people call it something else, but it's summiting North, Middle, South, Broken Top, and Mt. Bachelor in one go and running between all of them. I wanted to try to put up a fastest known time. At that point, there was a men's time and I knew women had done it, but there hadn't been a women's posted time.
At that point, I might've summited North Sister once, but in climbing gear with a rope. So I kind of projected North sister that summer, just kept going up there to get comfortable on the loose rock and watching for when the snow across the traverse would melt so that I could go across it in running shoes.
I dedicated a lot of time to getting really familiar with the routes and how I could move the fastest I could over that loose scree. The whole journey was really cool. I did get really comfortable.
The day I went to attempt it ended up being this really hot day, way hotter than forecasted. I started at Pole Creek and I moved well over North, Middle and South, but I ran out of water going up South way below the summit. I knew when I got to the summit of South that I was dehydrated and that I needed to make sure to take care of myself.
I stopped as soon as I got to water, I filtered a water bottle, chugged that, and filled another one. Then, I got down to Green Lakes. I splashed through and kept going because I was still close enough to being on pace for my goal time that I was like, ‘Got to keep moving,’ But, what I should have done was really dunk and submerge in Green Lakes.
When I started going up the Broken Top Trail, the sun had moved into the western part of the sky and that basin was just radiating. It felt like an oven and I absolutely got cooked, just fell apart. I bonked so hard. I was crawling up the trail just really tired. I ended up summiting Broken Top, but it was really slow. And, I was still thinking, ‘Okay, I can make up time on the run to Todd Lake.’ I was still kind of hopeful that I could recover since the sun was going to be sinking low in the sky.
I was on the trail heading toward Todd Lake and I was just like, ‘I can't.’ I sat down and I knew. I had a friend that was going to be picking me up at Mt. Bachelor when I finished and I called her and I just started crying.
I learned later that I had a group of friends that were tracking me on my Garmin and they were planning to have a finish line party. They were like, ‘Call off the party.’ It filled my heart so much, I kind of shuffled and cried back to the Todd Lake trailhead. I was crying because I had poured so much into that effort that really didn't mean anything except whatever it meant to me.
I had given it absolutely everything I had, through the training period and through that day. I was crying because I was sad I was falling short, but also crying because it was such a beautiful experience to feel that raw and fragile and vulnerable. That's a really cool place to be. I was fine physically, just tired. But emotionally, I was absolutely just fully exposed.
I was so grateful just to be able to have that experience. There’s something that's really beautiful about falling short of objectives. It was a good lesson that if I achieve my goals all the time, I don't actually get to feel that raw emotion. That has stuck with me over the years.”
“I love being out in the elements, like skiing in a storm. But, I’ve also gone out running into the mountains in a fairly measured way but intentional way. Running into a snowstorm or something where it's going to be gnarly up there and I'm going to go up there and be in it.
I love that feeling too. It's so uncomfortable when the wind is just knocking me off my feet or it's snowing so hard I can't see. But, it makes me feel alive and it's pretty cool just the power of nature and elements. That's definitely something I seek out from time to time.”
“I think some of those initial experiences came out of a little bit of stubbornness or maybe not quite understanding what I was getting myself into.
But, I learned that I can dig deep and I've got some grit and some resilience and some self reliance. I can get myself through that and that's really cool to learn about yourself.
I was scared and solo and I just had to trust myself. I did it and now I know I'm capable of getting myself through that situation. A lot of times, we might be in physical danger, but it's so much in our heads. To know that I can be in a situation where I feel gripped and know I can stay calm and get myself through it, that builds a ton of trust in oneself.”
“Finding partners is a very real challenge with a lot of outdoor activities. That was a big reason I kind of moved away from climbing. Even with running, you don't need a partner, but it's way more fun.
I’ve found myself at moments where my core running crew has moved away or they are doing different things and it gets lonely. There have been moments where I didn't have a lot of partners that I could count on or people bailed at the last minute. That was really tough.
One of the best ways to find good partners is to be a good partner myself, to try to be the partner that I would want. So showing up on time, being reliable, not bailing, especially on new partners. Coming with good energy, especially with new people. Not being fake or anything, but just bringing good energy, bringing good snacks, being jazzed. That certainly makes it a little bit easier to find people.”
