Episode
The Full Range - Carolyn Highland (Part II)
- Podcast
- Hiker Trash Radio
- Published
- Aug 19, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2078
- Processing state
not_requested
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Summary
In Part 2, Carolyn Highland gets into the adventures, the essays, and the through-line that ties them together. She runs 40-mile loops solo in the Eastern Sierra when her crew cancels. She has sat in a backcountry creek at golden hour with seized legs, chips, and sparkling water, knowing she would have to stand up alone because there was no one else to do it, and found in that moment a kind of freedom she would not trade. She has spent years noticing that the thing a 50K teaches you — keep going when you're cold and exhausted and it would be easier to stop — is exactly the same skill that a heartbreak requires. Her book tracks both, side by side. This half of the conversation also covers the opening essay in The Full Range (a 48-hour goodbye ski weekend with a former partner, knowing the whole time this was the end), the most striking line in the book ('Sam wasn't my person, but he was my people'), the mental game and what negative self-talk does to your body, two hiking hacks, a Jeff Pelletier YouTube recommendation, and a recently honeymooned-in-the-Dolomites aside. If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, start there — it dropped 10 minutes ago.