Erin Parisi is on her way to becoming the first openly trans person to climb the highest mountain on each continent, a series known as the Seven Summits.
Erin Parisi is on her way to becoming the first openly trans person to climb the highest mountain on each continent, a series known as the Seven Summits. So far, she’s climbed five of these peaks, and she has just two left to go. Taking on just one of these peaks is a massive ordeal in its own right, but tackling all seven of them takes intense training, logistical prowess and a hefty financial commitment. There are a million reasons to climb a mountain, but for Erin, this journey is about showing the world her authentic self.
Connect with Erin:
Resources:
Erin Parisi: At some point I realized before I hit the top of that mountain, that I was going to make it. And then when I got to the top of the mountain, I started dancing around and I was just yelling, "Who wants it? Who wants it? I'm doing it. It's mine." And I bust out the flag and somebody takes out the camera and takes the picture. And I'm pretty much just euphoric at that point. I'm on the top of that mountain, defying all of the weight that's been placed upon me, whether it's the extreme cold or whether it's the social aspects of it, or whether it's the physical aspect to overcome all that and just kind of be freed from that doubt, it's just like redemption.
Shelby Stanger: Erin Parisi just got back from climbing Vinson Massif, the highest peak in Antarctica. When she made it to the top of the mountain, Erin busted out a flag with pink, blue, and white stripes. Colors that represent transgender pride. Erin is on her way to becoming the first openly trans person to climb the highest mountain on each continent. A series known as The Seven Summits, so far she's climbed five of them. Waving this flag on each peak has become a ritual for her by raising these colors Erin steps out of the shadows and tells the world who she is. I'm Shelby Stanger and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Shelby Stanger: Climbing The Seven Summits is a popular mountaineering challenge, but it's not for the faint of heart. Taking on just one of these peaks is a massive ordeal in its own right? But tackling all seven of them takes intense training, logistical prowess, and a hefty financial commitment. There are a million reasons to climb a mountain and for Erin, part of this journey is about showing the world her authentic self. She wants people to see exactly what a strong, proud, joyous trans person looks like. Erin Parisi, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living, I'm really excited to have you on.
Erin Parisi: Yeah, thanks for the invite.
Shelby Stanger: So just talk to us about what inspired the goal to summit the seven peaks. And if you don't mind, for those of us who aren't mountain climbers, explain what the seven peaks are and why it is such a big deal. I mean, I've read that since 1985, it's been repeated by fewer than 500 times, very few women have done it.
Erin Parisi: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Erin Parisi: I set out not to climb The Seven Summits. I set out to retake my space in the outdoors. The Seven Summits is the goal of standing on the highest mountain in every continent. I was a fairly involved outdoor athlete. I had spent a lot of time in helicopters skiing, a lot of time back country skiing. I had learned to whitewater kayak to about level three to four minus. And I was big mountain biker, kind of all the things. And about 10 years ago, a little less than 10 years ago, I came out as trans. And I think given the way that the outdoor industry brands itself and the way it looks, that landscape was pretty scary for me. I had a lot of climbing friends that I lost in the process and I knew that I had traveled the world and done all of these things and I'd probably lose that aspect of life in order to be myself.
Erin Parisi: And honestly, by the time that prison had gotten so small on me, of my gender identity, I was willing to give up everything in order to... For a one shot at happiness. And a few years after I transitioned, I decided that I was ready to be stronger than I was beforehand. So I thought that the best way I could do that was to set out, travel the world again, go to each continent, work my way through the logistics of finding myself to the highest mountain and then tell the world who I am and be proud of it for once. I had spent my whole life denying my existence and allowing the world to shove me into the shadows. For me, it felt like it was a time that I didn't want to hide, that it was time to stand on the highest mountain and it was time to go some place where I couldn't be shoved into the shadows anymore.
Shelby Stanger: Wow. Thank you for sharing that. You talk about how no trans person has ever done The Seven Summits. So why did you decide to volunteer to be that person? Cause that's really brave and climbing a mountain is brave, but the way you've done it in some ways it's a different kind of mountain to climb.
Erin Parisi: I had spent my life up to that point looking for other narratives that looked and felt like my own, that were empowering. I'd go to the library and I'd be in the card catalog like, "trans" and there'd be nothing there. So I'd go and look and finally I'd usually find something and it would be these psychological studies of comorbidities of trans people or these criminals or people that had been murdered. And I was just like, "Oh my God." And then there was no popular media, every trans representation when I grew up was like Jerry Springer or some other [inaudible 00:05:13] back then talk show kind of ruled the TV. And trans people weren't... They were kind of getting booed and beat up on stage and that didn't feel like me. I felt like I had transitioned and found something different and something positive.
Erin Parisi: And I never could find a narrative that sounded quite like this or anything that I looked at that said, "You can do this." So a lot of this was about taking back that narrative and showing the world and showing myself that you can be strong and you can be brave and you shouldn't have to be brave as a trans person, but yet here we are. But also that we could have stories of triumph and just connect to our environment still. And that the story could end in trans joy rather than trans fear or trans chaos or trans destruction.
Shelby Stanger: Now, Erin has lived the kind of stories that she was looking for in her searches at the library. She's built a life full of adventure and she shared her love of the outdoors with her family. In 2020, the brand Merrell made a short film about her journey as a trans woman, mom, wife, and athlete. It's beautiful by the way, we'll link to it in the show notes and I would definitely recommend you check it out. Erin's story has also been featured on NBC and in publications around the world. To date, Erin has climbed five of the seven peaks Kosciuszko in Australia, Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Elbrus in Russia, Aconcagua in Argentina and Vinson Massif in Antarctica. When Erin hits a summit, she opens the trans flag and takes in the view from the top. Then she snaps a picture for social media and comes out as transgender to the entire continent. It's a triumphant moment, but also a scary one. This undertaking isn't just about empowering climbs, there's a real danger that comes with being trans. In some of these countries expressing a queer identity is a crime. So for Erin planning for her personal safety during travel is just as essential as preparing for the risks of the natural world on the actual mountain.
Shelby Stanger: So you've climbed five of The Seven Summits so far. Tell me about mountain number one.
Erin Parisi: It started in Australia, that was my first mountain.
Shelby Stanger: Which mountain in Australia?
Erin Parisi: It's called Mount Kosciuszko and it's a lot like our foothills here in Denver.
Shelby Stanger: Oh, that's so cool. I had no idea Australia had these big mountains.
Erin Parisi: They got the snowy peaks, they don't have that many mountains, but they definitely have some ranges. And they're not tall, they have some actually pretty technical climbs and Kosciuszko is not one of them, but it's still one of The Seven Summits. It was a good beginner mountain for me, it was a good way for me to get my feet wet and get back out into international travel. I think I got my passport about a week before I left. And it was pretty early in my journey as far as transition goes. I still been a several years, but I took things slow and I still was getting misgendered a lot and that was difficult. But I was finally traveling in a foreign country with a passport and with a license that matched who I was, and that really protected my safety to some extent.
Erin Parisi: If something happened that was detrimental with law enforcement or with immigration or whoever else I had to pass through, I at least had the documentation I needed to travel the world. The next climb I did was Kilimanjaro, a couple weeks later, which is in Africa. I had climbed that in 2011, before I transitioned. And I was really excited about the chance to kind of retake that mountain in my heart, from a different perspective. When I started researching Tanzania, I realized that they have pretty stiff penalties for any L-G-B-T related activity for their own citizens, so I went in there alone with the idea to climb the mountain and realized I had to very much be low key and not be seen and not be heard. And my safety would depend on how unseen I was.
Shelby Stanger: Wow. And then what was number three?
Erin Parisi: Number three was Mount Elbrus in Russia, where the rainbow flag and anything L-G-B-T or queer related is actually against the law. So any display of L-G-B-T anything is punishable by two weeks in prison.
Shelby Stanger: So what did you do there?
Erin Parisi: I flew in alone because due to logistic, I never trust the airline to get my luggage and all my specialized gear there at the same time as me. So I usually arrive a few days ahead of my team. So that meant I'd be alone for two days in a part of Russia that's very remote, not far from Ukraine where they got the problems going on now and not far from Chechnya where they've had an uprising against their L-G-B-T population. So I would be spending a few days, couple hundred miles from Chechnya. And got in about two o'clock in the morning and there was woman I sat next to on the airplane who spoke English, French, and Russian. And she helped me get through customs otherwise I think I probably wouldn't have made it through customs and it was super helpful.
Erin Parisi: I found my way to a hotel. And then basically when I realized kind of the environment I was facing, the World Cup had just started, the United States Embassy had released a statement saying that they would no longer support diplomacy for anyone in Russia. And also that they couldn't provide any support, especially near the Chechnya area or around specifically Mount Elbrus. That's when I knew it was going to really come down to me being as low key as possible and keeping my eyes up and my head down as much as I could. So I met my team and I think it took about 10 days to get to the top of Mount Elbrus. And when I got to the mountain I still... I did have the trans flag in my backpack, but I realized that displaying that flag meant two weeks in prison if I did it in the public square. So if you see that picture, you ever see kind of that moment, I'm just really throwing up a T symbol with my hands to kind of represent the trans community while still being able to survive the flight out of Russia.
Shelby Stanger: It's scary enough to climb a mountain in Russia and then not being able to be yourself.
Erin Parisi: Yeah, when they're telling you that there's a chance of kidnapping, cause the World Cup is started and that they're already having problems with local uprisings and stuff. You realize how vulnerable you are out there as somebody who's, the laws are directly targeting you from a suppression standpoint.
Shelby Stanger: So after Russia, what was the next mountain?
Erin Parisi: After Russia was Aconcagua in South America in Argentina.
Shelby Stanger: And how was that experience?
Erin Parisi: That was pretty incredible.
Shelby Stanger: That seems like a cooler place to climb.
Erin Parisi: I love south America. I always have, it's a short flight, it's not, not short, but when you're flying north and south, it just kind of happens. You don't lose the time, you get down there and they've just got everything. So I was excited. I also have cousins in Buenos Aires, so-
Shelby Stanger: Fun.
Erin Parisi: Yeah. So traveling there meant that I'd have a chance to visit family who I hadn't seen since I transitioned. My cousins that lived there, they were super supportive via email and messaging and on social media, but I'd never spent time with them since I had transitioned. So it wasn't just about going and climbing that highest mountain. It was really about going and seeing family and seeing how I was connecting with people that were able to be supportive from far. And it was amazing they were, our relationship had actually improved between the time I visited eight years ago and when I went back.
Shelby Stanger: When Erin came home from Argentina, it was time to focus on mountain number five, Denali. This mountain in Alaska is known as one of the most challenging of the Seven Summits. But because of the pandemic Erin's expedition date kept getting pushed back. Finally, in May of 2021, almost two years after she summited a Aconcagua, Erin left for Denali. Unfortunately the trip didn't go as planned. After 18 days on the glacier, around 16,000 feet above seed level, the conditions were too dangerous to continue. Erin had to make the tough decision to turn around and try again another time. This outcome was disappointing. A lot of people had been following Erin's climb and she felt like she was letting them down. She wondered if the Seven Summits goal was even doable anymore, but with her climb in Antarctica on the horizon, Erin decided to double down on her goal and make some changes. What happened after you didn't make it up Denali? How did you deal with that?
Erin Parisi: Well, after I didn't make it up Denali and got to the bottom, I didn't allow myself to think about climbing for one month. I didn't want to allow not making the summit on Denali to define that experience on that mountain so the best way I could do that was to distance myself, from not making it to the peak. Another thing that was going on in my brain as far as self-doubt goes, is that you've got Vinson coming up and it's a significantly larger, challenge and investment as financially and logistically to get to that mountain. And I knew that my mind wants to tell me if you don't make that summit, that's probably going to kill your dream here. So first I just didn't think about climbing for 30 days. After that I got a mental coach and the mental coach taught me a ton of things.
Erin Parisi: First, I started to recognize the people who were supportive of me rather than the people who were tearing me down. And that's something I've tried to do all along, but I had forgotten to do. Next was I had told myself all the reasons I couldn't make it up the mountain and that became my mantra, I had all the reasons, all the workouts I missed, all the people that said I couldn't do it, all the, "If I didn't make it up Vinson, I won't make this journey happen ever again." I stopped that as myself talk and started looking at, "I've climbed four of these mountains. I've been to 23,000 feet. I've done these logistics. I've traveled there alone. I've never gotten afraid of heights." So I had to remember that I had all of these skills that empowered this journey and all these doubts I had were manifestations that weren't real.
Erin Parisi: So it was about talking about the things I had done to deserve to be there. And then lastly, I started focusing on the little things I was doing daily. There's something that happens between your mind and your hand when you write things in a journal that really hard codes it and changes the way that you view it. So at the end of the day, I would write down three things that I had done to further my goal, rather than three things I had done that would stand in the way of my goal. So rather than say, "I skipped my work out," I'd say, "I let myself rest." So if I broke the diet or wasn't following my nutritional guidelines, I was making myself feel better. So to me, journaling has been a huge tool, at least starting my journal out and saying, "Here's three things that I did today that I'm super proud of." And then I can go into having my parking spots stolen at the grocery store, whatever else it is that I need to get out of my body.
Erin Parisi: But starting with those three things is really putting myself in a place where I'm remembering that overall, the little stupid stuff really probably ultimately doesn't matter in life.
Shelby Stanger: The work Erin did on her outlook had a huge impact on her training and performance. It made the Seven Summits seem achievable again. Less than a year after she attempted Denali, Erin successfully climbed Vinson Massif.
Shelby Stanger: Side note, she got home from Antarctica just three weeks before our interview and her stories are incredible. When we come back, Erin talks about climbing Vinson Massif and dancing on the summit. She also talks about the nonprofit organization, TranSending and her advice to anyone who wants to go after their wild idea.
Shelby Stanger: Climbing The Seven Summit is a huge investment. Physically climbers have to train for months, even years for these expeditions. Financially, the flights, the gear, permits and the support crews well, they're all expensive. We're talking tens of thousands dollars. For Erin there was an additional hurdle, the pandemic. In Antarctica, she and her team had to take COVID tests daily. If one of them wound up positive, that person had to turn around in an instant, all the time, money, and effort she'd invested would be lost. If she didn't complete Vinson Massif on this trip, she wouldn't have resources to attempt this mountain again. Her dream of climbing, The Seven Summits would have to come to an end. So you just got back from climbing Antarctica, Vinson Massif, what was that like?
Erin Parisi: I headed down to Antarctica right before Christmas and spent the holidays and my birthday and new years down in South America and then Antarctica. And it was surreal. I've never thought I would see a frontier and just kind of that untouched landscape, just all the different shades of blue and white and gray and just so many variations of just water and snow basically.
Shelby Stanger: Wow, that sounds awesome. So just how does that work? How many days are you gone? Did you go alone?
Erin Parisi: Yeah. I had somebody I had met in Australia a bunch of years ago and he runs an expedition company. So I had been making these plans for years. And I made it down to Antarctica to a small camp that's maintained for about two months of the year. On my birthday, which was December 19th and met with my team, a bunch of strangers, all working through an expedition company. And then from there, it was just a matter of waiting for a weather window so that we could get into the small twin prop plane and drop into base camp, basically. So anybody who's doing that expedition is staying at those established camps and bringing all of their tents and everything up there, setting up cooked tents and everything, but we're taking multiple days, setting up a self-sustaining camp, bringing in all of our food, carrying out all of our garbage, carrying out all of our waste. And when I say all of our waste, I mean all of our waste and it's kind of a self-contained little pod.
Shelby Stanger: And then when you climb, how long does that take?
Erin Parisi: For that particular mountain with a clean weather window, you could probably do it in four or five days. I mean, you could do it quicker than that, but comfortably speaking about four or five days to get to the top and get to the bottom safely and without rushing too much. So you really need that weather window to open up.
Shelby Stanger: What do you tell yourself to keep going those times when it's like negative 50 degrees and you do want to turn around or you see [inaudible 00:20:52], that just looks so sketchy or, I mean, imagine you counter all sorts of obstacles along the way. How do you keep going? So what do you say to yourself? How do you get through?
Erin Parisi: Well, it kind of varies. I think if I let my brain just go, I spent about half my time thinking of positives and probably honestly, and I hate to even admit it, but probably half the time, I think negative stuff. After so much fundraising and training and just the anticipation of it all to climb up there, there's a lot of times in my head, I don't think I can climb. And I just think I should go and I tell myself I should be going home or I shouldn't be there, I don't belong there. So I've become a big fan of focusing on the positive voices. If I start telling myself why I don't belong there, I'll counter myself with two reasons I do belong there or two reasons I know I belong there. I'm a big fan of mantras, so I will develop my own mantras on the mountain. I usually try to start with something and as I take a step or I count in usually three or four steps this time around my mantra was, "I know I'm strong. I know I belong."
Shelby Stanger: Ooh. I love that. "I know I'm strong. I know I belong."
Erin Parisi: Yeah. And it was just, every step was one syllable. And I think I counted out four paces and I knew that my right was certain syllables and my left was certain syllables. And I swear, I went miles on that mantra.
Shelby Stanger: What was it like when you made it to the top of Vinson Massif?
Erin Parisi: I was very much at that point getting, it was almost two years. I was getting back into climbing up the mountain and I had this missed attempt on Denali. And I had a lot of self-doubt at that point. So I had a lot of buildup and at some point I realized before I hit the top of that mountain, that I was going to make it. And then when I got to the top of the mountain, I was the first person on the rope team. So I got up on the top of the mountain and I started dancing around and I was just yelling like, "Who wants it? Who wants it? I'm doing it. It's mine." And I bust out the flag and somebody takes out the camera and takes the picture. And I'm pretty much just euphoric at that point.
Erin Parisi: I'm on the top of that mountain, defying all of the weight that's been placed upon me. When you make it to the top, it's really redemptive and it just feels so good to know that you kind of proved yourself wrong and that you made it, that you can do that, that you do have that inside of your soul and your heart to overcome whether it's the extreme cold or whether it's the social aspects of it, or whether it's the physical aspect or all the other things that stand in the way of us climbing our mountains to overcome all that and just be freed from that doubt. And that fear may be... It's just like redemption.
Shelby Stanger: What's it like being with all these personalities? Cause on that climb, I heard you met Nims star of the Netflix movie, 14 Peaks, Caroline Gleich, who's been on the podcast before. Conrad Anker, the first Qatari woman to climb.
Erin Parisi: That's correct.
Shelby Stanger: Who Nims was guiding. I mean, so you're also with these other superstars.
Erin Parisi: I don't necessarily always share my story. And in mountain climbing there tends to be a lot of ego. So I just find it's a little bit easier to listen than to talk. And in Antarctica it was ridiculous because everybody there is some sort of incredible athlete or some sort of influencer or they're just really wealthy people that want to climb the [crosstalk 00:24:16].
Shelby Stanger: So I'm glad you said that. Cause sort of, I was like, "It's hard to climb these mountains because it's expensive as F."
Erin Parisi: Right. Well I'm not an incredible athlete. I'm not an influencer and I'm not rich as F so-
Shelby Stanger: Well you are, I'm happy for you anyway, but like I get it. You're making it happen for a bigger reason. You have a different why.
Erin Parisi: Everybody wants to talk and tell their story in most cases. So I think that you'll learn a little bit, if you just stop and listen. Now, by the end of the trip, they usually know my story, but I'm not really in a race to out-ego somebody. So I let the talk go and I listen as much as I can.
Shelby Stanger: Are there any fun dinner parties on these mountains?
Erin Parisi: Oh my God, my birthday in Antarctica was incredible. I do not like my birthday, I'll stop short of saying I hate it. It's never been something I've connected with. I think from the first day I was born and was misidentified all the way until my 45th birthday or the day before. I have never connected with my birthday as a day, it's close to Christmas. My parents called me a tax deduction because I was born so close to the end of the year. And I always got a present that was birthday present and a Christmas present. So to redefine my birthday on the mountain, I was at that point when I was on Antarctica that I didn't feel necessarily like I fit still. And I was was listening to everybody talk about why they were there and what they were doing. And I was alone.
Erin Parisi: And for a few days, just kind of interacting with the team and getting to know each other kind of period. And the guides had found my birthday information on my application to be on the team. And all of a sudden I'm out there and this bottle of champagne gets delivered and they bring out this cheesecake dessert and you're on this sheet of ice in the middle of nowhere and the whole tent, there's 70 people singing happy birthday and really letting you know like they're going to celebrate with you. And it's about you that time because there's nothing else to celebrate up there as it is, you're just out on a sheet of ice being happy. So yeah, we're just drinking champagne and eating cheesecake up in Antarctica. It's been the redefinition of my birthday for the last, I mean, I think I hope for the rest of my life, because it really was this amazing day for me.
Shelby Stanger: One of the most rewarding parts of Erin's journey is that she's been able to reach a wider audience with her story. A few years ago, she was instrumental in starting the nonprofit TranSending. The organization supports trans athletes as a way to raise awareness about transgender rights, their work opposes legislation that prohibits trans people from participating in sports and other activities. TranSending has also helped raise funds for Erin's seven summits journey. Tell us a little bit more about TranSending, how you got involved, the work they're doing and the impact the nonprofit is have? Because it seems like an incredible nonprofit and only been around since you said 2018.
Erin Parisi: Right, so in 2018 it was founded with Emma Shin whose founded the Colorado name change project, and two other board members. And my project was the first project that they adopted as a goal. And basically we want to hijack the trans narrative. We're not as trans people allowed to tell our stories very often. And the problem with that has been, we've watched kind of the media tell our stories instead of allowing us directly to tell our stories. So TranSending really is the conduit to connect the resources, to empower trans people to tell their stories, but also to give them the voice to tell their stories themselves.
Shelby Stanger: So what impact have you seen it had over the years?
Erin Parisi: My story personally, I'm doing a lot of... The nonprofit allows me to do outreach and public speaking in a way that reaches on a grassroots level. A lot of people that I wouldn't reach otherwise. So we have a lot of speaking opportunities and we're able to go into other organizations and speak and talk about the trans challenge. We're also able to create the narratives that we want and we're now branching off into providing travel opportunities to get trans kids from states where they've passed laws against their existence, into states and summer camps and things like that, where they can exist and be safer.
Erin Parisi: So we're really trying to again, find these opportunities for trans people to get into the outdoors from places where they might not have that opportunity and get to places where they are safer and have those opportunities. So my story and my climbs have been a conduit for me to tell a story of trans empowerment, but we're also doing smaller things, working with climbing clubs to get more queer climbing nights and do those types of things. And again, empower trans people to get into outdoor spaces.
Shelby Stanger: Do you talk a lot about owning your own narrative? And I think that's something that a lot of people struggle with, owning their own narrative and you not only owned your own narrative, you took it back and you're putting it on a mountaintop and shouting it, which I think is really, there's just so many beautiful metaphors in what you're doing. So tell me a little bit about owning your own narrative.
Erin Parisi: Yeah. The world is very good at taking your narrative from you. It starts happening before you realize it's happening and you begin living the world's narrative of what you are supposed to be. Starting, I think so young and it's impressed upon you so early that you don't realize that the water around you is the narrative that the world has given you. I think right now, the biggest thing that I'm trying to convey is how the world has crowded outed out and silenced trans and other L-G-B-T and queer voices. I think a lot of people don't understand the detriment of when we're taking books out of libraries or we're saying that we can't mention L-G-B-T topics at all in school or we're making these subjects taboo to talk about in the public forum. The effect that has on the individual and I think it's easy to say, "Well, L-G-B-T ideas shouldn't be talked about," but then when you actually have to confront a person in a humanized story and a narrative, then all of a sudden it's a little different.
Shelby Stanger: So much of what you do is for the larger community. How have you personally grown on this journey to complete the Seven Summits?
Erin Parisi: When I look back at this whole journey of when I started climbing up in Australia and I just finished the mountain in Antarctica. I have a lot of video and I look back at it every now and then, and I realize some of the personal growth that I've gone through really does make the difference. So I didn't have the confidence when I started out, really socially or just mentally to almost go to the grocery store in a lot of cases. A lot of people would look at me like I was different or they'd maybe sometimes pull their kid away from me or something. And I was early in transition and that made me not want to talk to people and made me very, just not social.
Erin Parisi: And it was easier just to kind of hang with my dogs and stay in the neighborhood where people knew me and I knew I was safe. And as I've grown through this journey and retaken that space, what I've grown is this bubble of confidence maybe. And just the knowledge that it takes to know that I'm in control of my safety by and large, and that I'm making decisions that affect my safety and that I've grown as a person to the point that I can find my way in and out of these situations. If I know I belong there and I focus on the reasons I belong there and the decision that I made to get me there and being a wise one, then I'm able to travel. And I've, again, retaken that space traveling the world. I've been to Europe, I've been to Russia, I've been to Africa, I've been to Australia, Antarctica, South America, all of these places, when really when I started this journey, I was afraid to go to the grocery store. So that has been the most rewarding part of this.
Shelby Stanger: That's incredible. And [inaudible 00:32:55] set such an example of growth and of confidence for your daughter too. How old is she?
Erin Parisi: She is turning 10 in about two weeks.
Shelby Stanger: So how has your relationship with nature changed, including her on your adventures? I'm just curious, because I've got a niece that's the same age as her and my relationship with nature has changed dramatically by including her in my surf adventures, et cetera. We basically watched the little mermaid and we look for mermaids when we're out surfing. It's so fun.
Erin Parisi: That's awesome. And that's, I think what you need to do as a parent is you have to understand, I think a lot of us go in as a parent or as a a role model in that place, that outdoor experience for a child is just as big and beautiful and magnificent as it is for you.
Shelby Stanger: Well, in my case, I want the small wave and my niece is like, "I want to go to the big waves, auntie Shelby, take me out there." And I was like, "Dude, you have no idea what you're getting into. It's huge out there." And she's like, "Oh, it's so fun." And -
Erin Parisi: Yeah, that's my daughter with climbing. She wants the big wall and she wants to be in the best spot. But with the long hikes, all of a sudden, it's like, "No, give me the short hike. That's like, I can run from here to there and come back."
Shelby Stanger: So I found that snacks work really well, emergency candy work really well on hikes with kids.
Erin Parisi: That's true. And I've found the chocolate cheesecake, the freeze dried chocolate cheesecake is phenomenal. And I can get my daughter with three of those, three night camp trip, easy.
Shelby Stanger: Oh, that's awesome.
Erin Parisi: Yep. We don't go very far and we've got to find the things that she can climb on. And it can't be about my distance and I can't look at it as training, but it's connection with nature and it's connection with my family through the outdoors. And yeah, she's just got to have that fun stuff that quick, like the cheesecake and the Rocky Craig, the climb up and she's happy.
Shelby Stanger: Any advice on how to be a better ally?
Erin Parisi: I would say, listen, stop, listen, open your mind. And I think everybody understands trans stories as something that happens to somebody else or something that happens somewhere else in America. And really it happens everywhere America and everywhere around the world. And it happens in all of our relationships, whether you know it or not. So right now one in eight people would say that they know a trans person, but I would say it's probably a much higher number. I would challenge people to really think about whether they are a safe space, whether they know there's a trans person around them or not.
Shelby Stanger: It's a wild idea to climb the Seven Summits. It's a wild idea to be part of TranSending, this amazing nonprofit. It's a wild idea to just make an impact doing your work, any advice to people who have a wild idea and want to pursue it? Regardless of the adversity they're going to face. And how do you keep going?
Erin Parisi: I think it's going to sound almost cliche, but don't let the world tell you no. And when the world tells you no, keep telling yourself, yes. We all have big dreams and I think if you can dream it and break it down into small enough pieces, whether that's Seven Summits or just the next training day to get to the next summit, you can define your adventure and not let other people stop you. I mean, I'd say, I'm told no 10 or 12 or 15 times for ideas before I hear one yes. But as soon as I hear that, yes, all those nos become silent.
Shelby Stanger: Even if the world is telling you who you can and can't be, only you know who you really are. Erin took the bold step to say yes to her own wild idea of climbing The Seven Summits. But in order to reach the top of each mountain, she also had to say yes to herself as a mountaineer, an outdoors person, an advocate and as woman. Erin has heard a lot of nos along the way, but by following her internal compass, she's turned her wild idea into a reality. Erin, thank you so much for coming on Wild Ideas Worth Living, your dedication and perseverance is really inspiring to me. We're rooting for you. We're sending you good vibes as you conquer your next two summits. You can all follow along Erin's climb on Instagram at TranSending 7, that's T-R-A-N-S-E-N-D-I-N-G and the number seven. And on the TranSending website, which is tranSending7.com. Just a reminder that's TranSending with no C and the number seven.
Shelby Stanger: Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, written and edited by Annie Fassler and Sylvia Thomas of Puddle Creative. And our senior producer is Chelsea Davis. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. As always, we appreciate when you follow the show, rate it and review it, wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.