Hello.

And I have something for you to think about.

Imagine that you're standing at the base of El Capitan, the iconic granite monolith in Yosemite.

It's towering 3,000ft above you.

It has tested the limits of some of the world's best climbers.

Now picture yourself not as a lifelong athlete or an extreme sports enthusiast.

Instead picture yourself as a 66 year old woman who'd only been climbing for a few years.

Would you even dare to dream of reaching the top?

Well, Deirdre Walonek did.

At an age when many start to slow down, Deirdre decided to push herself in ways few would even consider.

Not only did she become the oldest woman to climb El Capitan, she did it in a single day alongside her son, legendary climber Alex Honnold.

But her story doesn't start or end on that rock face.

Her story is about defying expectations, creating opportunities, and discovering just how much we're capable of at any stage of life.

Deirdre's story is now featured in the documentary Climbing into Life and captured in her memoir, the Sharp Edge of Life.

And today we are diving into her incredible story.

Why she climbed, what she learned, and how after years of feeling boxed in by an unhappy marriage, she found the courage to truly live on her own terms.

So stay with us because this conversation just might inspire you to take on your own mountain, whatever it may be.

Welcome to Boomer Banter, the podcast where we have real talk about aging well.

My name is Wendy Greene and I am your host.

And before I introduce you to Deirdre, I want to offer you a blueprint for aging well.

One that's packed with smart strategies to boost your finances, enrich your relationships, enhance your health, and help you find purpose.

The Thriving Through Time newsletter gets you these powerful, actionable insights every week.

It's your personal guide to unlocking a more vibrant, confident you.

So don't miss out on this transformative newsletter.

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You'll be kicking yourself if you don't, so sign up.

Go to bitvit ly/navigate aging.

Let me tell you just a little bit about Deirdre.

Well, she's gonna have to help me with this again.

Deirdre Wallonik.

Deirdre Walnick.

I think that was right.

She has award winning writings, including the memoir entitled A Sharp End of Life that's been published around the world.

Deirdre is a retired language professor.

She's also been an orchestra conductor, a musician, or she still is a Musician, a marathoner, a publisher, and mother of two extreme athletes.

At 60, Deirdre started Rock climbing.

And as I said, she's the oldest woman to climb Yosemite's El Capitan with her son Alex, who you may remember from the Oscar winning documentary free solo.

The 2024 documentary about Deirdre and her life, called Climbing into Life, has won awards in film festivals across the country.

And Deirdre recently released a new book titled Success and Seven Steps.

I'm so grateful that Deirdre was able to join us today.

Let's welcome her to Boomer Banter.

Okay, help me.

I've said it wrong a couple of times now.

Everyone does.

Everyone does.

Is Deirdre Walnick.

Walnick.

Walnick.

Okay.

Y'all remember that?

Deirdre Walaneck.

Okay.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

So, Deirdre, as I read your book, I was so impressed with how you continued to pursue your interest while raising two children and navigating a pretty dysfunctional marriage.

I mean, it sounded a lot like you were a single mom, even though you married.

I was.

Yeah.

Right.

So how did you keep yourself motivated and.

And feel supported while you were in this unsupported environment?

That's a tough question, because I was raised in an unsupportive environment, so that's all I had ever really known.

And so when I find myself in one, you know, as a married woman, it was, here we go again, you know, same old, same old.

I knew how to deal.

This was different, of course, but I knew how after my childhood, I knew how to talk to myself, keep myself motivated.

I didn't need other people to do that for me.

You know, I had learned that as a child.

So I guess that's kind of.

Kind of answers your question.

Yeah, it's just was, you know, like, starting the orchestra.

Right.

Like, you had to be out of the house.

Yeah.

And.

And put so much time and energy into that and.

And trust.

Trust that your husband was going to watch the kids.

That was a challenge, too.

That was a.

The major challenge of that, of that endeavor.

I mean, I knew I could conduct.

I had taught myself all my life.

I had been a student of music all my life and a performer of music all my life.

And so, I mean, I didn't have any paper credentials or anything, but I knew I could do it.

And I moved.

We moved into a place where all of a sudden, the universe, you know, plopped this opportunity down on my lap and I said, okay, well, this is it.

You know, we lived in a Place that had no.

No culture of any kind.

No stores, no entertainment.

It just.

Just houses.

And.

And my children were, you know, 1 and 3, 2 and 4.

I.

I didn't want to raise them in that kind of environment, and I knew I could do this.

And the, you know, the Chamber of commerce, and they thought it was a great idea.

They.

I launched it.

Wow.

I mean, that's such amazing inner confidence.

I mean, that really inspires me, just that part of the story alone.

But then you didn't start climbing until you were 60, right?

Yeah, I was turning 60.

Yeah.

So had you been an athlete before that?

No, not really.

I mean, when I grew up, you know, this is back in this big city, New York, and after the war, all the kids played outdoors all the time.

You know, we were never home.

Right.

Always out on our bikes, on our roller skates, out on the street, you know, climbing trees, climbing lampposts, things like that.

But climbing as a sport didn't exist yet, except, you know, amongst rock climbers in Europe, that kind of thing.

But we were just.

We were.

We weren't athletes.

We were just active back then.

That was normal.

All kids lived like that, active lives outdoors.

We played stickball, we played.

You know, we're active.

So, no, I was never an athlete per se, but I was always very active, riding my bike and, you know, ice skating in the winter, roller skating, that kind of thing.

So it was.

It wasn't that unusual, you know, but.

It was quite adventurous.

Quite a challenge.

Oh, yeah.

Climbing is a different world, for sure.

Yeah.

And so obviously.

Well, I say obviously, but I would think it was because of Alex that you decided to first try this, right?

My son was born a climber.

He was a climber from the day he was born.

Literally.

I mean, he could.

He could stand up the day he was born, which is absolutely unheard of.

Yeah.

I mean, couldn't stay standing, obviously.

He was a newborn, but he could.

He could get himself vertical.

He had huge hands and he had powerful thighs.

He was born to climb.

And so that's all he ever wanted to do, all he ever craved.

He was not interested in any other sports.

That's all he ever wanted to do.

And so he started doing that as he grew, grew older, like 10, 11, 12.

He started going out to gyms and stuff and then outdoors and.

And I had no idea what that meant.

I didn't know what climbing involved.

I didn't understand how it worked.

I didn't, because I was.

I was busy, as you said, being a single mom.

I was I was, in effect, a single mom of three, one of whom was never going to grow older.

Good.

Grow up.

You know, he was probably autistic and he had nothing to do with anybody.

And he.

He just.

So I had.

You know, I was the only adult in the room.

Yeah, it sounded like it.

So I was.

I couldn't take Alex to the gym.

I.

Somebody had to take care of the household.

Somebody had to, you know, do the food and the cleaning and all that stuff.

That was me.

So I didn't experience what Alex was living for, those teenage years.

So I had no clue when he leave the house on his expedition, if eventually he got some sponsors and he was going out on expeditions and.

And I'd see magazines that come to the house with my son on the COVID doing things that I would look at and I'd say, no, I must be understanding that wrong.

That can't be what he's doing.

I don't want that to be what he's doing.

Exactly.

Exactly.

As a mom, I didn't want that to be true.

So I wanted to find out firsthand what it consisted of and especially how they kept themselves safe.

Yes, yes.

Because that was the big concern you had.

Yes, it was.

And I'd see these walls that he was climbing.

I'd think, oh, my goodness, how do they do this?

You know, how do they keep themselves safe?

So I wanted to find out, so I started going to the climbing gym.

I had.

I had Alex take me to the climbing gym one time while he was.

He was injured slightly.

He had an arm thing and he couldn't climb, but he could belay.

You know, he could hold the ropes for me.

And so.

So I had him take me to the gym, show me how to put the harness on.

The harnesses are not obvious.

It took me a long time to figure out how to get this stupid harness on and what all the straps were for and where they.

How they attach.

And he showed me how.

And I got on.

On my first wall and.

But back then, I mean, I was.

I was from.

I'm from New York City.

A lot of my friends lived in big apartments, you know, many, many stories tall.

And I've been in many skyscrapers.

I've been in the World Trade center.

And, you know, and I knew that if I looked out over the edge, my stomach would roil.

And I took that to mean I was afraid of heights.

You know, a lot of people say, oh, you could never climb.

I'm afraid of heights.

It's not the height you're afraid of not the height itself, it's falling off that height.

Yeah.

And when that goes away, when you're, when you're tied into a rope and you know that the strongest climber in the world is at the other end of your rope holding it, controlling it, you know, seeing that you don't fall.

Well, that goes away.

Yeah, but still, Deirdre, in your book.

But still.

I know, but still 2,000 foot wall that.

Yeah, it doesn't go away, but.

Right.

You still talked about some of the mind games that you had to play to overcome those fears, right?

Oh, I mean, first mind game though was in the gym that first day, like just 40ft going up 40ft from the floor.

40ft when you've never done that is really high.

40ft.

I mean get on a 10 foot ladder and it seems high, but go up 40ft.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It took some talking to myself.

Do you need a lot of upper body strength to.

No.

That surprised me.

Climbing depends mostly on your legs.

And your thighs of course are the, the strongest part of you, you know, the most powerful part of you.

And so you climb mostly using your feet.

You use your feet to propel yourself upwards and then you use your hands for balance, you know, equilibrium or to push yourself in a different direction or you know, once in a while, yes, you have to pull, really pull, pull.

But so push or push.

But it's so seldom that I could do it.

I mean, I've got these little chicken arms.

I've got no muscles in my upper body whatsoever.

But I didn't now, but I didn't then and, and I was very surprised to learn that that's not where climbing takes place.

And that's the difference between male climbers and female climbers.

Oh really?

A guy will get on the roads the first time and he powers himself up the wall, pulls himself up, he's doing pull ups all the way up and then he wears out.

Ah, women don't do that because they don't have that upper body stuff.

So they, they learn other strategies, other ways to push yourself up the rock, you know.

And so, yeah, it's a very different approach to climbing.

That's interesting.

So tell me about your climb up El Cap with your son.

Like, why did you do that?

And in one day.

Yeah, that's, that's the hard part, the, the one day part.

Why I did it.

Well, I, I had been going to El Cap for, you know, many, many years and before I was married, before I had kids and we, then we used to take the kids There.

And I had seen all these little dots going up, you know, moving, moving up the wall so slowly it seemed.

And I'd seen them and I wondered, wow, I wonder what you see from up there.

I wonder what it's like to be hanging on the wall there, 2,000ft out.

Gosh.

And I wonder what it's like to sleep up there.

No, I always wondered about those things.

And then my son started climbing and he and all his friends, they're always talking about, oh, Cap this and El Cap that, we did this and that and you know, and, and I was so curious to, to understand, you know, what drives them to do this and how they do it and is it possible for someone else who's really not a climber per se, you know, to do this?

And so I was really curious.

So one, I asked him, we, I, I had, he had once a year for my birthday, Alex takes me climbing that.

You know, when.

The year I started climbing the back in.

Whenever, whenever that was right when I was 60 years old.

And, and I'm now 73, so 13 years ago.

So he started that and, and it's a wonderful birthday present, you know, it's a memory I'll have like behind me.

You can see those are most of the, the peaks I've done with my son.

Yeah, but, so it was, it was an amazing way, amazing way to train.

If you will, you know, time with him, other.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And, and, but did you, did you.

Know you were going to do it in a day when you started?

No, no.

Oh, heck no.

Well, well, yes and no.

So I asked him if like six years later, after I'd started climbing, I asked him, you think because he had just done his amazing climb, ropeless climb, which.

Oh, it's, I still can't wrap my mind around that.

But, but he does, he did that.

And then, you know, a few months later, I, like a few weeks later, I asked him, you think there's any chance that someday.

I really shouldn't expect him to say yes because, because he knows how I climb and I'm no great shakes of a climb, I never will be.

I started late.

I'm not wrong.

I don't have the head for it to just go for it, you know, and so I asked him and, you know, any chance you could get me up, El Cap?

I wanted the experience to see what it was like.

And he didn't bat it on.

He said, yeah, sure, but you have to learn how to jug.

And then he left on another expedition.

Well, I didn't know what jugging was the term.

I didn't know what it meant.

So I sit about to find out.

And I started finding out.

Oh, oh.

And I started.

I started using the method that's in my new book.

Everything I've done, all the.

All the accomplishments of my life.

I mean, I've done many different kinds of things in life, and I've always done it, approached it this way.

And this is the method I've set out in my new book, Anybody can do this.

I used to laugh when Alex, when he was a kid, you know, a teenager doing all that, he would get interviewed and he'd say, well, it's no big deal.

He was.

He was known among other climbers as no big deal Hanold.

Because he would say things like, well, you know, they would interview him about some extraordinary feat that he just accomplished, and they would say, well, it's no big deal.

Anybody can do this.

And everybody would laugh and shrug and roll their eyes and, you know, but it's true.

Anybody can do anything if you approach it right, if you have a method that will get you there little by little.

And that's what my latest book is about, that method.

I've used it as a conductor, as a publisher, as a public speaker, as an Internet.

What do you call a multilingual tour guide, driving and giving tours in, you know, four different languages?

I've used it all my life, and I know it works.

And so does he.

He's used this.

These same seven steps that are in my book.

He's used them all his life.

He didn't know it.

He didn't put it into words like I did in my book, but.

So I started training that way, following my own method.

And.

Son of a gun, three months later, he took me up El Cap in a day.

The original climbers who set up that route that we did.

Yeah.

Five days to do it.

Oh, my gosh.

It wasn't just up Deirdre in the dark, right?

In the pitch dark.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

It was quite the adventure.

Oh, my gosh.

But.

But I remember one section in your book where you were starting running and.

And you came home and you said, oh, I ran a mile today.

And Alex said, oh, good.

If you ran a mile, you can run a mile and a half.

Exactly.

So is the key to everything.

We're gonna have to have you back to talk about that other book.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's so important.

People think that, oh, I can't do this, because.

And we're bombarded from cradle to grave with all these messages about why you can't do such.

And so if you're.

If you're this gender, you shouldn't be doing this.

If you are this weight or you're too skinny or too fat or whatever it is, you shouldn't be doing this and that.

Nonsense, absolute nonsense.

Turn off that stuff.

It's so detrimental to our psyches.

It.

Turn off that stuff and just go do it.

You need a method and I, I have that now.

I.

You know, it's in black and white in my book.

You can do whatever you dream of doing.

Look at Diana Nyad.

Have you seen the movie?

Oh, that's right.

Oh my gosh.

Yes, doing that.

Always dreamed of it all her.

She never gave up.

Exactly.

Like me in the orchestra.

I always wanted to conduct an orchestra.

I knew I.

I knew I probably never would because I didn't have the credentials.

I didn't done the training.

But you know, you wait around for the universe long enough and then into effect, you can do anything.

Yep, that's so true.

So tell me what you have learned about yourself through climbing.

Oh, where to start?

Oh goodness.

That is a whole hour's worth of talk.

Okay, much.

I mean, I had no clue that I could do this.

I mean, I like, I believed a lot of like the.

The most primal message in my life.

I grew up in a house filled with cigar and cigarette smoke all the time.

All the time.

I mean, you had to wave away to watch television, you know, it was horrible.

And so I knew, quote, unquote.

I knew that I couldn't do anything that involved regular deep breathing because I couldn't.

If I get, you know, getting up out of my chair and I would huff and puff, oh boy.

The alveolar sacs that line the lungs, they.

Once they pop, once they're gone, they don't regenerate ever.

So.

And I had learned.

Learned all about this.

I had in informed myself as I grew.

Because it's horrible not being able to breathe.

It's like.

It's like it feels like you're drowning.

Yeah.

And so I knew this about myself.

So I figured, well, I can't run.

I can't, you know, I can't swim.

I can't.

Well, nonsense.

No matter how physical this limitation you think you have is, I mean, there are climbers out there who have no feet or have one leg.

And you know, there are blind climbers.

If you want the first step in my book, I lay it out very simple.

It's not a.

It's not a how to feel, feel good kind of book.

It's a.

It's a hands on, you know, how to book.

Step by step.

The first step in any goal, changing any dream into a very accomplishable goal.

The first step is you have to want it badly enough.

Have to want it badly enough.

If you allow yourself to be talked out of it, you didn't want it badly enough to tell you what to do rather than what you know you can do.

You didn't want it badly enough.

You're so right.

Yeah.

It's like starting this podcast.

Same thing.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Like, I didn't have any experience in this, so.

Yeah.

Which is why we are both in that women to lead.

Exactly.

Recognition thing that just came out, which was quite an honor.

So I want to.

I want to go back to when you were being mom for the two kids.

And that was really, at least what I got out of your book was that was really your big purpose in life was to be the best mom for them that you could be.

How has that purpose changed now that they've grown up and they've got their own lives and now you've got your life?

How has that purpose changed?

It hasn't changed.

It's always been the same purpose to be.

How do I put that?

To be truly who I am.

And back then, you know, 20, whatever.

40.

Oh, wow.

40 years.

I know, I know.

It's my daughter's turning 42 this year.

Yeah.

Oh, my goodness.

Anyway, back then, my purpose was to be true to myself as a mom, as a mother.

Okay.

And.

And that that purpose has stayed the same, to be true to you.

This is, this is the oldest human advice that we have record of, like 6,000 years ago.

It was carved on, on, on buildings.

Know thyself.

Socrates was it 6,000 years ago, 5,000 years ago, Socrates taught, you know, in Greece, ancient Greece.

Know thyself.

That was his main, first bit of advice.

You have to know who you are.

And that's in my book as well.

It's a step two.

You have to know exactly who you are.

Because if you don't know, like, if I had not known that I could follow through with a plan, like to create an orchestra.

I just create an orchestra.

How.

How do you do that?

You know how to create an orchestra?

Well, what do you need to know?

Do you need to have.

What do you need to do?

You have to know those things.

If I had been unsure of whether I could follow through on all these things myself with no support at home, no Training.

If I had not been sure who I was, know thyself, I would not have been able to do that because I had no support.

I.

You know, the only thing my husband ever said about the orchestra was something like, don't you have enough to do?

He didn't, you know, so know thyself.

I mean, so my purpose has not changed ever know yourself, know what you're capable of, know what you can do, know what you want, and that's know thyself.

Socrates said it in two words, know thyself.

That's the oldest bit of human advice and the most important.

But the fact that.

I mean, what's so inspiring, as I listen to you, is the fact that you knew that at a young age, in spite of all of the challenges you were facing at home.

Yeah, well, I was forced to learn that really, really young, growing up the.

Way I did, I guess, because I think back, I know I gave in a lot to being a people pleaser, you know, you do what.

Yeah, do what you're taught to do.

You do what you're taught to do.

What the adults around you teach you to do.

And it takes guts to think that through.

Takes guts and a lot of method.

And there's that method again, you know, we always come back to that.

And some of us get air sooner than others, you know, so, yeah, it's inspiring.

So too late.

That's the important part, too.

You know what?

You're absolutely right.

It's never too late.

And as you said, you know, you just keep trying.

You just keep moving forward.

You just.

Right.

You don't listen to those.

Those naysayers.

Those naysayers.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, I had a lot of naysayers.

When I would go back to the.

The college I was teaching, a community college.

I'd go back on Monday after one of my expeditions with my son.

You know, I'd go climb one of those things behind me.

One of those.

Right.

And we'd come back on Monday, we'd all hang out in the.

In the hallway, you know.

What'd you do this weekend?

Oh, I went to the market.

Oh, I.

Doing a new floor in my house.

What did you do, dear?

And they'd roll their eyes and they'd say things like, deirdre, you're too old to be doing.

Oh, God, you're gonna get hurt, Deirdre.

Dad.

You know, and that all comes from the media.

That's right.

And the adults who have already ascribed to that media, and they believe it firmly, you know.

Oh, Deirdre, you're going to get hurt.

Not if you train properly.

But, dear.

But you're too old.

No, I'm not.

Who says so?

Who said so?

You know, and you.

And you had to overcome that even when Alex was younger and you would say you would climb things in the playground and other mothers would.

Yes.

Oh, yeah.

Hold you for it or pull their kids away.

Yeah, yeah.

We were.

We were pariahs in the, in the, in the.

The play areas of the, you know, the playgrounds.

So.

So talk to me about the fear, though.

I mean, I know you had some fear watching Alex do stuff, and you had your own fear when you started climbing.

How.

How did you overcome that?

In any goal, there's a lot of fear.

Because when you embark on a new adventure, a new goal, a new thing you want to do, whatever it is, whatever you call it, there's a lot of unknowns.

There are a lot of unknowns.

And fear comes from not knowing.

Fear comes from not knowing enough.

That's why the first step in my book is find out everything that you need to know about your goal.

You know, because people talk about dreams.

Oh, I'd love to write a book someday.

I'd love to run a marathon.

Yeah.

They'd go out and buy running shoes.

And then they say, I'm going to start running this Monday right before work.

And then that doesn't work.

They don't know enough yet.

You have to find out everything you can find out about your goal in order to conquer it or in order to achieve it, whatever you want to call that.

And if you don't know enough, that's what leads to frustration and quitting.

You go out and start running on Monday morning, and on Tuesday you're sore, and Wednesday you can't get up from your chair.

You try it again on Thursday, and then you go.

And then like three weeks later, you say to yourself, geez, this is too hard.

I can't do this.

And your running shoes become your, you know, gardening shoes, whatever.

Yeah, that's.

That's why we quit, because we don't know enough.

And I don't.

And I think also if we don't have our own inner confidence, like you've had a lot of inner confidence, but.

That the confidence comes from knowing.

More fear comes from not knowing.

Confidence comes from knowing.

I think that's true in social relationships, too.

You know, a lot of that's true.

In anything in life.

If you watch the movie, my son's movie, the first time he attempted to go up El Cap Rope, was he Stopped.

I don't know if you remember that.

He.

He quit.

He bailed.

They call it bailing.

He bailed.

He bailed off the climb.

It was embarrassing to him.

He hated doing it.

But he knew.

He.

He knew at that point that he didn't know enough yet.

And if you try to accomplish a goal when you don't know enough, especially on a thing like El Cap, you're gonna.

Right, you're gonna die, you're gonna hate yourself, you're gonna fail.

Whatever.

Whatever the goal is, and you're gonna fail.

You're gonna.

You're climbing.

Your running shoes are gonna become your gardening shoes because you don't know enough.

That has to be step number one.

I.

I divide the whole.

The book is seven steps, and each one of those seven steps fits into one of three categories and the three main categories.

You cannot achieve any goal without this.

First, you have to what you.

What you need to know, and that has to be complete before you start moving on to the others.

Second is what you need to have.

You have to have the right gear to have the right kinds of shoes.

You have to have the right nutrition, you have to have the right this, that.

So if you don't know enough about that, you're not going to run a marathon, you're going to quit.

And the third is what you need to do and doing is last.

First you have to find out what you need to know.

And that's where most of us fail.

We don't do that.

We just rush out, buy a ukulele.

I'm going to learn the ukulele, you know, and then we don't know enough about the ukulele.

Right.

We find out that it's too hard or it's not what we imagined or it's not, you know, and right.

Things fall apart.

And we quit because we didn't know enough going in.

Yeah, that's really good advice.

So you went back at 70.

Yes.

And climbed that mountain again.

El Capitan.

I.

Did Alex go with you that time?

No, no, this.

This was that I turned 70 in whatever it was 20 years ago.

Yeah, 20.

21.

In 2019, I had major surgery on my left foot.

And there was a lot then after that that I couldn't do.

My foot couldn't bend certain way.

A lot of things I couldn't do that were required for climbing or for running or for just about anything for living.

And all the limpings started doing bad things to my knees, and.

And so I was in a bad way.

And so the next year after that, Covet struck, shut us all down.

Couldn't do anything anywhere with anybody.

And then the following year was my 70th coming up.

Well, I wanted to say 70 is a milestone.

It is.

I know a lot of people who did not get to 70.

You know, growing old is a privilege.

It is.

Growing old is a privilege.

People.

This is the only country I know of where people fear it.

Growing old is a privilege, and we should honor it, not fear it.

And.

And I was turning 70.

I felt great, except for my foot, my lungs.

I mean, you know, a lot of various parts of me weren't, but I.

I was.

I wanted to celebrate.

I couldn't go to a restaurant with my friends.

Covid.

Couldn't have all my friends over to my house.

Covid, what could we do?

Well, outdoors was okay.

In covert, outdoors was fine.

Yeah.

So I.

I invited several of my older women friends, not younger than me, but older women, you know, who are climbers.

And I've invited them to go do El Cap with me.

And now for a climber, El Cap is, you know, the Mecca of climbing.

And they all dream.

All climbers dream of someday getting on El Cap, you know, and so I offered them this gift, if you will.

Yes.

From me to you.

Come.

I know how to do it.

I've done it.

I have young, young people willing to help us to carry stuff and things, to lead, you know.

So they came, and there were 11 of us who went the day.

Wow.

Yeah, there were four of us old ladies.

And since I had done it up and down in a day with Alex, I had never had the experience of sleeping up there.

I.

Or seeing the sun rise or set up there.

So I wanted that.

And so I decided we would camp on the top, you know.

So you made it to the top in one day?

In one day.

And then we slept, we ate, we slept, we did all that, and then we came back down the next day.

So this involves carrying a lot of stuff, especially for older women.

You know, we need a little mattress on the ground.

We need a bag to sleep in.

We need food, water, maybe a change of clothes.

If something gets wet or dirty, whatever, you change that.

That's very heavy.

And I arranged.

I invited for youngins, for young climbers I knew, and they knew others who were willing to come help.

And so they each carried.

They call it a hall bag.

It's a big cylindrical bag almost as tall as me.

And you put all that stuff in that bag, and then you haul it up, you carry it when you're walking on your back.

And when you're doing the vertical parts, you haul it up on ropes.

And some of them were really heavy.

And unbeknownst to me, the guy who carried mine, my.

My main lead climber, the guy who happened to be the videographer of my movie, in fact, he carried my bag and he carried up champagne for my birthday.

Oh, wow.

Wow.

Which is very heavy in.

In bottles and glasses to drink and cake.

And cake.

Cake, little cakes for everybody.

So.

Yeah, I'll never top that as a birthday party.

Never.

No.

That's fantastic.

And for those of you who don't know with El Capitan, most people, and tell me if I'm wrong, Deirdre, but most people sleep hanging.

They don't make it even to the top in one day.

Right.

What they call portaledges.

So you all you terrific, amazing older women climbed the top in one day.

Yeah, Yeah, I would.

I would.

I would have slept at a portal edge.

I.

What I wanted to try with Alex, but he would.

No, he didn't want to carry all that stuff with us.

Oh, gosh.

So if you could leave us all with one piece of advice, like maybe a overarching philosophy or one piece of advice to growing older, and what.

What would that be?

Well, that's a toughie.

I know, I know.

There's seven steps, so.

Yeah.

Yes.

Well, I'm gonna break it into two bits of advice.

Okay.

First of all is turn off the media.

I mean, turn off all this advice, this unwanted advice.

You know, if you want to sleep better, take this drug.

If you want to feel better, take this drug.

Take.

Want to embark on exercising, see your doctor first.

I mean, only you know what your body can do.

I mean, obviously, if you have, you know, broken leg or severe arthritis, yes, you're not going to, you know, go up and climb rocks.

But all things being equal, only you know what you're capable of.

And don't let the naysayers influence you.

That's what we're the most guilty of in this society.

And the other part is journal, Journal.

All the things I've done required a lot of talking to myself, figuring out, do I really want this badly enough?

If so, what are the steps?

If so, who's going to help me?

Who's going to hinder me?

What is going to help or hinder?

Do I really have the time for this?

Do I know how to go about setting a schedule to do this?

You know, like.

Like running a marathon?

You have to have a schedule, a training schedule, they call it.

And there you know there are schedules available out there you to copy.

I couldn't copy theirs exactly because I was.

I had too many jobs.

I was a single mother.

I was, I was too busy.

But.

But I tweaked them a little bit.

I, you know, found them online, found them word of mouth.

I tweaked them to fit my lifestyle.

Only you know what you can do.

But journaling can be the key to figuring all of this out.

A journal is a.

The best shrink in the world.

And it's always open, always available.

You set the schedule, you can figure out whatever you want.

So those two things together are very powerful tools.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I so agree with you on the journaling, too, because that has helped me through so many things so many times.

Yeah.

What an inspiring story, Teardra.

And I can't wait to see where you go next.

And like I said, I do want to have you back to talk about your new book, which is called Success and Seven Steps.

So I definitely want to have you back for that.

Let me give people a couple of ideas where they can connect with you.

Deirdre has a blog.

Your pictures are amazing.

Do you, I mean, do you carry a camera or is that with your phone?

No, that's my phone.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

So she has a blog.

It's called Dear D I E R Drew D R E W.

That's.

No, that's my first name and then my last initial, Deirdre W.

Oh, okay.

Well, spelling it looks like Deirdre, so it's Deirdre.

D I E R D R E W us.

So that's her blog.

And then you can also find.

Follow her on Instagram at Deirdre.

And I'm going to spell your middle name.

It's W O L O W N I C K Honnold H O N N O L D.

So you can find her on Instagram there.

And again, amazing pictures.

Yeah.

The iPhone takes great pictures.

Yeah.

And you go to great places, so that makes the difference, too.

I also want to remind you to subscribe to the Thriving Through Time newsletter and you can do that at Bitbit ly Navigate aging.

So who are we talking to next week?

Next week, Becky Blue is my guest and she is a former geriatric nurse turned author.

She took up Ballet at 60, so she wasn't climbing rocks, but she was dancing and is redefining aging with an explorer's mindset.

She has a book called Turning the Magic and Mystery of More Days, which has a lot of different kind of thought conversations, thought questions.

At the end.

So we'll be talking to Becky and and you know, I'm part of this collaboration group and as part of that, I want to recommend a new podcast called ageless traveler.com and ageless traveler is on a mission to make sure that you never stop traveling.

It is hosted by Adrienne Berg and she brings you useful information on trips, tips and hacks for lifelong travel and breaks down barriers to solo, intergenerational and traveling at slower paces.

So you can check out her website, agelesstraveler.com for access to a lifetime of travel.

She's got several trips coming up, but she does some really interesting stories on her podcast.

So check that out.

Deirdre, thank you so much.

This has really been not just a delight but super inspiring.

So thank you for that.

You are more than welcome.

My pleasure.

And I will be in touch about scheduling the next one.

Okay.

Okay, take care.

Bye.