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Jenni Fogle grew up in Arizona in a family that spent almost every vacation camping and hiking. She started rock climbing in her early twenties, and eventually progressed to mountaineering, climbing Mt. Rainier for the first time in 1999. A few years later, she started guiding. Jenni started her career guiding on Mt. Whitney in the Eastern Sierra of California and was hired by IMG in 2007. Jenni has numerous summits of Mt. Rainier, two summits of Mt. McKinley and also enjoys rock and ice climbing. Last year Jenni was hired as a pro patroller at Crystal Mountain Ski Resort, and is passionate about avalanche safety as well as the medical aspects of ski patrolling. Jenni is certified in Avalanche Level II, Outdoor Emergency Care and Wilderness First Responder. She will shortly update to Wilderness EMT. In addition to her guiding career, Jenni is an officer in the Air Force Reserve, and has logged many hours flying KC-135's for the military as well as civilian 737's and Lear 35's. Who doesn’t love feeling competent and skilled at whatever activity they are engaged in? Until about 16 months ago, I felt like I had reached a point in my life where I felt fairly competent at most of my life’s activities. I’ve been flying military and civilian aircraft for more than 20 years, and felt pretty adept at my skills as a pilot. I’ve been climbing and guiding for several years, and felt pretty confident in my skills as a mountaineer, and I spent a winter ski patrolling full-time, which allowed me to really improve my skiing skills.
Everything changed when I tore my ACL. Leading up to and for several months after my surgery, the only thing I could do that I felt competent at was read! As an athlete, my main source of stress-relief has always been exercise. Suddenly, I was not only unable to run, but couldn’t even walk without crutches. I had to open my mind to a whole new set of activities, and the lack of competency I experienced at every turn was frustrating to say the least.
Looking back, however, I have gained a new appreciation for the feeling of learning something new. When we are very young, everything is new. We don’t know what it feels like to be competent, so being patient with ourselves and taking time to adapt to a new skill is normal. Once we get older and gain a certain level of skill at particular activities, I think we naturally gravitate toward what we feel comfortable and good about doing, and avoid activities that make us feel less adequate.
During the last 16 months, I have tried several new things (swimming, knitting, learning to fly remote control aircraft, box jumps, double-unders, kipping pull-ups, archery), and even achieved a certain level of competency at some. I think this renewed appreciation for delving into the unknown has encouraged me to try even more new things. Instead of shying away from something I feel like I can’t do well, I face new tasks with a sense of confidence and wonder!
What is it that you would try if you knew you would be good at it? I say, “Go out and get good at it!”
