Interviews with Female New Hampshire Hikers
Two teenage all-season White Mountain hikers interview the women who hike New Hampshire's most rugged and beautiful peaks.
June 2, 2021
Alex, Sage, and Trish discuss finishing the Grid, and what hiking the 4Ks has meant to them over the years. This episode marks the end of the podcast, as Alex leaves for college in September, and Sage chooses not to continue the podcast without her sister. Thank you all for tuning in, and thanks to each one of our wonderful guests! Happy hiking, always!
Phoebe Seltzer is an ultra runner with White Mountain FKT records, and she is an avid hiker and skier. In this episode, Phoebe talks to Alex and Sage about her experiences in the mountains and answers some questions about four-season trail running logistics.
Retired music teacher and White Mountain hiker Karen Ann talks to the girls about her adventures hiking the NH4Ks, the 52WAV, and the Belknaps. Check out Karen’s blog, In The Pines.
Strength and nutrition coach Sarah LaCourse talks to Alex and Sage about her enjoyment of and experiences in the White Mountains.
Stephanie Cawley is a trans woman who is a nurse and an avid White Mountain hiker. In this episode, we speak about hiking the 4Ks and Stephanie's experiences on the trails.
A note: we had some phone connection issues in this episode. We did the best we could to make everything clear and for the most part all is well, but there are still some small parts of our conversation that are not as clear as we'd like. Hopefully we can interview Stephanie in person after COVID and talk some more (and avoid telephone connection issues.
Michele Hernandez Bayliss is an avid all-season hiker of the northeast’s highest and most rugged peaks. Her accomplishments include (but are not limited to) the NE111 and the Terrifying 25. In this episode, we talk with Dr. Bayliss about her love of winter hiking, her adventures on the northeast’s most difficult mountain ranges, her non-hiking hobbies, and much more.
Alex and Sage have a fun conversation with Jen Clark, the creator of the new podcast, Guides Gone Wild, and the owner of the Evans Notch Lodge in Gilead, Maine. Jen is an avid northeast hiker who enjoys sharing the trails with her teens. She and her family have also hiked in many National Parks. Listen as Jen talks about her adventures, animal encounters, and more.
Join Alex and Sage as they talk with Azra Palo, a librarian who hikes the Whites. Azra talks about dealing with exercise-induced asthma while pursuing the 4Ks, her adventures with a porcupine, her favorite non-hiking related book, and more.
Nicole Hamel is a Travel Nurse who hikes the Whites whenever she is in the New Hampshire area. She recently finished the Terrifying 25, and she has also hiked NH’s 48 Four Thousand Footers. Nicole has a lot of experience hiking outside the Whites too; in this interview, we discuss Nicole’s trekking adventures in Iceland, Panama, and other parts of the USA. Nicole hopes to Triple Crown in the next few years; thank you, Nicole, for all the important work you do - we wish you well and hope to see you again when you’re back up in New Hampshire.
In this episode, Mia Heacock, White Mountain hiker and climber, talks about her love of adventure and the joy she finds leading an active outdoor lifestyle. Mia also discusses Indonesian Three Magnolias, the nonprofit organization which seeks to improve the quality of life and education of women and children in West Java, Indonesia (https://www.indonesianthreemagnolias.org/).
Note that our interviews are now taking place over the phone due to COVID-19; please forgive any distortion.
There's a new NH hiking list for kids under the age of 13. It's called 13 Before 13; Alex describes it in this episode and two girls who are hiking it, Alice Marcotte and Ella Harris, talk about their experiences on the trails.
Alice Marcotte
Ella Harris
Aubrey Voelker, an Animal Care Associate at Squam Lakes Natural Science Center in Holderness, NH, talks to Alex and Sage about her love of hiking the Whites, the fun she has taking care of otters and other species, and why “abandoned” baby animals found outside should be left alone (they haven’t been abandoned!). This was a great interview. :)
Serena Ryan, owner and manager of The Notch Hostel, talks to the girls about hiking in the USA and the origins of her popular White Mountain establishment.
Hello everyone! We hope everyone is staying safe and well during this pandemic. We took a break from doing the podcast for a few months as we both became very busy with our schoolwork and extracurricular activities. We are glad we now have an opportunity to continue the interviews. We look forward to releasing more episodes over the next few months.
Last week, we interviewed Megan Hemmer, an avid hiker who lives in Maryland but who frequents the White Mountains of New Hampshire. She often hikes with her dogs and cat; many of her dogs have finished the NH48. It was a pleasure speaking with Megan, learning how she hikes with her furkids, and hearing about some of her adventures.
(This interview was done by telephone).
Well, we tried something different the past couple of months that didn’t quite work out. We wanted to record ourselves while we hiked. That’s a departure from the usual format of this podcast, but we wanted to try something new. We learned that recording while hiking does not, for us, make for a good podcast episode. We forget to record half the time, and when we do, you can barely hear us over the crunching of our footsteps. It also feels unnatural to take out a recording device right in the middle of our natural conversations. So this was an interesting thing to attempt, but we are going to go back to our usual format. Here’s some of what we have if you’re interested. It’s short and noisy.
We had such a fun time speaking with Alyssa, the Mountain Model! Alyssa is an accomplished hiker and a Registered Esthetic Nurse who models on mountains for Instagram. Alyssa discusses her job, modeling, hiking, the importance of sunscreen, and much more in this lively and enjoyable interview.
Please note that there is a faint reverb on some of the audio that we could not erase. Please forgive this imperfection on our part.
We interviewed a fellow kid hiker, Alina Sawady, for the first podcast episode of the 2019-2020 academic school year. Alina lives in Massachusetts and hikes with her family; the Sawady clan can often be found on the trails in the Whites. Alina and her family are currently section-hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Alina (second from left) with her family during summer 2019.
We are on break! We’ll be back for another year of interviews with more amazing Granite Gals starting in late August. Have a great summer, everyone!
Alex had the pleasure of talking to Jill Kropp, the woman responsible for her son’s recent completion of the New Hampshire Four Thousand Footers. Carter began hiking the 4Ks when he was four and finished when he was six, becoming the second-youngest boy and the fourth-youngest person to have ever completed the list. Carter’s success depended greatly on his mother, Jill, the person willing to facilitate Carter’s quest. Here, Jill talks about her experiences and her enjoyment of hiking in general.
Susan Reenan is a Rhode Island middle school teacher and an avid hiker of mountain ranges all over the United States. She is currently working on, and almost finished with, multiple lists including the Colorado 14ers, the Northeast Winter 111, and the New England Winter 67.
We spoke with Susan over the phone, and the recording is in mono vs stereo. We apologize for the sound quality of our voices; Susan sounds great, but sometimes we (Alex and Sage) are a bit hard to hear.
