00:03There's always this perception that everything wild is somewhere else.
00:06Everything wild is out west or up north, and there's so much adventure to be had
00:10just north of Detroit.
00:15When Sasha comes into town, I want to start her on some things that have been
00:19climbed before. There's one thing when you're drafting a placement that's
00:24already been made for you, and then it's another thing to climb Virgin Ice.
00:27I'm not really an ice climber at all, but Angela is the queen of ice climbing,
00:32so she's going to show me the ropes today.
00:34Getting a good swing is just crucial for leading, and that's something that's not always focused on
00:40when you first get into climbing.
00:44Swing it in there. Come on. No. Because if you're on lead, you're not going to move off that.
00:51There. I feel that. That's it.
00:53One of my approaches to life when it comes to education, when it comes to climbing,
01:00I don't want to be limited by the fact that I don't know how to ice climb.
01:05Sasha did shockingly well. It was really impressive. I know she's just ridiculously strong,
01:10so I wasn't really surprised, but I was surprised with how quickly she changed.
01:15After just three burns on the first day, she looked like a whole different climber.
01:20When it comes to climbing Virgin Ice, it's totally different, so I want to get her on things that
01:25have not been climbed and ultimately get her feeling really comfortable with her kicks and
01:29swings so that she can lead ice herself and feel what it's like to be on the sharp end.
01:34On this coastline, it's known that there's ice on Grand Island, so we actually have a plane hired,
01:40so we're going to be able to scout this from the air.
01:43There's just so many nooks and crannies along the shoreline, and it just hides.
01:53We start seeing ice, and we just can't believe it. There's like ice everywhere. We're like,
01:57oh, there's ice there, there's ice there, and then it's like, oh wow, this is really bumpy,
02:01and then we're still seeing ice, so we're all glued to the windows, and then it's like, where's the
02:06garbage bin? I got really sick, but we were so psyched to find ice. What I realized is that there's
02:14so much ice out there, and yet even with having an aerial view of it, it's still so hard to
02:20find.
02:26It's 2013, the channel hasn't frozen over to cross, so getting to the island hasn't been an
02:32option for as long as I've been climbing in Michigan. We're drilling ice to see how thick it is,
02:37see if we can get the snowmobiles across to Grand Island. Looks good, six inches.
02:42One inch will hold a man, two, man and his horse.
02:47The upper peninsula of Michigan is this open wilderness, and it's fun. I got to learn how to
02:53drive a snowmobile for my first time. Oh yeah!
03:09Going hard! What? And I was like, ah! I thought I was going to fall on top of it.
03:17It was really scary. I think I had too much fun.
03:25I think a lot of the climbing here doesn't get access because of its approaches.
03:39To team up with another strong female is really inspiring to me because there's something about
03:46watching another woman do something and feeling like I can relate to that. I think that once I
03:52learned my confidence in her, I felt like our partnership just really clicked.
03:58You have to earn people's trust. I expected it to be great, but I really didn't expect to
04:02get this close to her so fast. I really appreciate that because it ultimately led to the success of our
04:07climbing. How wild was that? Just so dreamy. You're such a badass. We're leaving that.
04:14It's definitely like the hardest one yet.
04:23Getting ready to wrap in. I got really nervous. You don't want to end up in the water.
04:31Getting ready to wrap in.
04:39To team up with another strong female is really inspiring to me because
04:44there's something about watching another woman do something and feeling like I can relate to that.
04:50And I think that I've learned my confidence.
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