Sadie Ford
Primary Outdoor Sports: Splitboarding & Bike Touring
Favorite Beverage: Farewell Instant Coffee with Laird Creamer in My Tin Cup
Sunrise or Sunset: Sunrise
Non-Outdoor Hobby: Staring at My Chickens
Go-To Trail Snack: Kettle Chips
Favorite Season: Spring
Guilty Pleasure: Dating Apps
Favorite Camp Chore: Making Fires
Book Recommendation: The Name of the Wind
Three Words to Describe You: Hilarious, Resilient, Kind
“I was a bit of an intrepid troublemaker kid. I got sent to a wilderness therapy program. I went to wilderness for 50 days. It was a really awesome program. Great counselors. They're still my friends. They would take groups of kids out to do a different activity for five days. They’d rotate. We went rafting. We did backpacking. We did a bunch of stuff.
That kind of got me into the outdoor world. I thought, ‘This is something that is healing. It is very worthy of a lot of energy and passion.’ It just gives somebody like me a solid direction. You know, I'm a border collie kind of pup. I got to have a job to do. I've got to have my vector on a lofty goal. As soon as I replaced breaking the rules with outdoor things, I started doing way better.”
“I've just always been a little nature girl. I’d identify plants and trees and animals and things. To really see that, you gotta get out there.
To really see the full spectrum of the changing biome throughout the day, throughout the week, throughout the season, it's a really cool spectrum to witness. That's why I like longer trips is to see the whole spectrum, what's going on.
You have to stay in touch with the inner child of joy and excitement and wonder. It’s really important to finding vibrancy.”
“I like all the weird shit nature throws at me on different things. That creates a lot of cool, fun, interesting challenges. It brings a lot of vibrancy and texture to whatever experience I'm having. It's going to reflect whatever is going on in me back at me. It's that DIY aspect that I really love about practicing flexibility and adapting. Treating every little obstacle like a challenge to figure out, like it's just a puzzle.”
“I've been on this upswing of doing a similar thing at a high level for a few years now. I think this last February, I really stepped into a new level of strength and confidence,
I had this three day trip with one of my best buds Stratton on North and Middle Sister. We camped up in there. We spent a day to get into place. The snow had made the approach five miles longer, so we had a huge approach. So we're like, ‘We're just going to take the day to do this.’ Squalls and flurries and snow and whatever. It's fine. It's just storm walking.
The next day we were feeling confident enough in what we found in snow conditions that we went for the Diller in powder. It was perfect and we were confident. I wasn't too puckered and just rode the shit out of the thing. Just slapped my name all over it, all the way down. It was awesome. We were super happy and had a wonderful night and campfire.
Then, we did the Thayer the next day which is also a coveted, hard-to-get line in Central Oregon. It drops just from below the top of the North Sister. I was told by several people that I'm the first woman to have gotten it.
Nobody really goes up there in winter. And even then, it's so hard to get because it's south facing and it's kind of like a bowling alley because it gets direct solar radiation. It just heats up so fast that it's really dangerous.
We were walking at 4am and got up there pretty early. We got to wait around. It was a weird position to be in, just on top of North Sister hanging out for 20 to 30 minutes. Laughing. Having a great time. Watching the ravens surf the thermals and dropping the Thayer. That was really a crown moment for me, seeing all the work that I’ve done come to fruition.”
“I feel that these experiences expand my time on earth. That’s the way that I look at it. Because when people say, ‘The years have flown by,’ it's because they've experienced monotony. That's when you think hours fly by, when you're doing the same thing.
But by creating more notable, interesting events, hard times, roller coasters of emotions, you create more things that are memorable, that break up monotony, break up time. I feel that it expands my time. Today, we had this big trip and it felt like a week. We experienced so many different conditions, emotions, laughs, things like that. So it creates this accordion of memories that stretches out. That's my favorite thing about it.”
“This is an energy giving thing. It's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to bring me a lot of joy. So making sure that I'm in that mindset is important, If it's stressing me out, then I don't do it. There will be more. It’s important to remember there will always be more opportunities when making decisions, this notion helps keep me safe and enjoyment high.
I work professionally as a firefighter/EMT so managing that stress is crucial. Splitboarding is restorative to me, brings that veneer back into life so easily. Though trying to plan too many missions can be digressive so I have to practice balance.”
“Inconveniences, pain, discomfort slides off you way more when it's just funny. You know, that's kind of one of my tactics. When we're doing this ridiculous slog and I’ll be like, ‘Haha. Look at our stupid little lives. This is ridiculous. It's so funny. Nobody else would do this.’
You can be emotionally developed where it really counts, in communication and honesty, and then be a silly little goofball and roll around. Our initial reactions to things are often pain or trauma or what has happened to us. But, your delayed reaction, your meditation, your response to that is who you are as a person, how you've grown. That's the opportunity to prove who you say you are. That’s why I like those drawn out journeys as well.”
“It's been hard for me to find a girlfriend. I'm just gone a lot. I think I've sacrificed opportunity to make new friendships or relationships. Some of the more superficial ones have dissipated, but it's grown a lot of my other ones deeper.
I know that this makes me really happy. I know this grows me into the woman that I want to be. There’s a bunch of unknowns that I can't control and that isn't right now. I’m just sort of trusting the process. When something is right for me, it'll begin to come around and come to fruition.
I'm not always going to be pushing myself really hard. But the good news is, I'm only getting fitter and wiser and hotter. So that's fine. I think it's great that my generation is pushing that marriage thing back a little bit. You don't need to go to college and start a family right away.”
“If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there. Just do something and don't get intimidated. Don't get discouraged that you're not good enough or that you don't have the gear or whatever. Just remember the important thing is to just have fun. That will make it easier to keep going out and then you'll be really adept before you know it.”
