Today we sit down with the one and only Christine Thuermer!
Buckle your proverbial seat belts because this one is a wild ride. Christine is the “most hiked woman in the world” having completed 60,000KM of hiking, 40,000KM of hiking, and 8,000KM of paddling. The question no longer becomes what next, but instead is there anything left you haven’t done?! She answer our unspoken question quite simply when she states “It is not important to end the trail because it’s just all a part of a long journey.”
We begin the show by realizing, when she points it out, she is the first foreigner (excluding Canada) to be on the show! We then begin to unpack a little of her backstory as she shares being a business woman and how the lessons she learned in the career world have transferred over to how she handles adventures. She takes the business oriented mind, but then opens it to freedom and curiosity, and as you will hear when combined how the end result is something truly special.
We dive deep into her “impetus” into thru hiking beginning with a simple conversation with some PCT thru hikers she met while on vacation. We chat the turning point for her to realize time is irreplaceable and how she wanted to live her best life, now. We go deeper into the first chat that opened up this new world for her, and what was so capturing, inspirational, and life changing in a single conversation that could change an entire life.
We begin with her first thru-hike in 2004 on the PCT, her becoming about the 100th person to Triple Crown, and her burning curiosity to continue exploring. We chat chasing the “strong Euro” and how her hikes were practical from her business background to use her currency where it was the strongest but also to see and be free to explore new things.
We chat looking for a challenge. When someone has accomplished so much, what is the continuing source of fuel to living this life? We chat new ways to intellectually challenge oneself, first her becoming a multi-book best selling author in Germany, to doing full presentations, to continuing to look for new ways to challenge her intellectual capacity anyway she sees fit.
We chat thresholds of happiness, tiny apartments in ex-communist buildings, and the most important resource in life. We chat The Greater Patagonia Trail, hiking both East to West and North to South across Europe, and adventuring for a year and a half straight. We chat being “un-athletic”, finding “The Flow”, and paper maps vs reality. We chat Schnapps, snickers bars worth their weight in gold, and more Schnapps.
We chat refusing sponsorships and the reason behind refusing what so many people actively seek. We chat how a terminus just becomes another part of the overall journey. We chat the writing process over the years and becoming people’s “daily Netflix.”
We chat waymarktrails.org and Germany having the same miles as the entire US of walkable tracks. We chat Eastern Europe and the beauty of new areas, the “might as well mentality” and we chat thru-hiking being the first love.
So much to touch on, not nearly enough time, thank you so much Christine for joining us, it was an absolute joy, we only scratched but a fraction of a percent of the stories/life, but hope to have you on again!
Favorite Quotes:
“There is always chances along the trail of my life.”
“I am the most un-athletic person I can think of.”
“Most important resource in my life is time.”
“1 Dinner, 1 Breakfast, 27 M&M’s.”
To learn more about Christine Thuermer check the links below:
Instagram & Facebook: Christine_Thuermer
Website: https://christinethuermer.de
Blog: https://christine-on-big-trip.blogspot.com/?m=
To learn more about who we are click below:
Website: www.ElevenSkys.com
