How super-fit mums balance parenting with outdoor pursuits and the female athletes challenging the ‘allowable norm’
Endurance sports require an intense dedication of time, mental energy and physical effort that many see as incompatible with motherhood, but some elite sportswomen are finding ways to successfully combine the two
Like most outings with a small child, taking a 13-month-old with you when you go climbing requires extra preparation.
First of all, you need at least three adults in the rotation – one who’s climbing, one who’s belaying and one who’s on baby-watch duty.
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Then, in addition to your own climbing gear and sustenance, you have to pack toddler snacks and water, and some form of kid distraction. One trick: shiny carabiners and quickdraws make great baby rattles.
All of this is standard protocol for Brittany Aae, a dedicated ultrarunner, rock climber, backcountry skier – and mother.
Aae, 31, was living out of her car in the Methow Valley in northern Washington state when she found out she was pregnant. That was a surprise. But everything else leading up to the May 2016 birth of her daughter, Rumi, was highly scripted.
Aae kept an intense training regimen, skiing steep corridors in the North Cascades (a national park in Washington state) at five months with her trousers unzipped, running 48 kilometres a week leading up to the birth, and going into labour at the climbing gym.