POPUP LIFE — Episode 5
This week’s adventure episode of The Pop Up Life Tour rolls to the rocky mountains of Colorado to meet up with snowboarding legend Chad Otterstorm in Aspen, CO. and follow his journey to the summit of 14,000 foot Pyramid Peak, including an unforgettable encounter with high elevation mountain goats.
Then the crew heads down valley to meet up with snowboarding pioneer and splitboard mountaineer Laura Hadar, who has made a career out of walking to the beat of her own drummer. She takes the crew deep into the mountains, up and over tight access roads, to forage the rose buds that grow at high elevation and create Rose Bud Tea in one of the Four Wheel Campers.
Video Transcription
00:02
i lived in my self-made camper for three
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years searching for a more sustainable
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lifestyle
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join us as we continue this pursuit of
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living
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i’m ryan brown and i’m getting out of
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town
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[Music]
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this is pop-up life
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[Music]
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your headspace when you’re in the
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mountains is a full meditation you get
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to the point where you’re like realize
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where you’re going and you forget about
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that
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you’re just wandering and you’re staying
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on that same trail and
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your brain just seems in tune when i’m
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walking on a trail my brain starts to
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flow
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yup you could live up here in a camper
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you know
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it’s just good food you got the water
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it’s probably some of the best water you
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could drink on the planet
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but i never you know they say fiji is
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but
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i think it’s probably this i’ve met chad
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otterstrom multiple times but it was
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really fun
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actually getting to hang and shoot the
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getting to hang with somewhat of a
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current snowboard legend is a bit
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surreal
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he’s so chill and down to earth just
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another brother of the shred tribe
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i was a pro snowboarder for 20 years or
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so out here in colorado
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you know doing the competitive thing
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traveling making snowboard movies
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just living the uh fantasy life you
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could call it all that snowboarding
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stuff
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ended and i was kind of lost didn’t
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really know what to do with my life
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didn’t really find myself until i
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started coming out here and living in
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the
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in the mountains again and and that
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really kind of changed my life i’d
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started hiking mountains and taking
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photos and camping at the tops of
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mountains and going from
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fantasyland of the snowboard life to the
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fantasy land out here
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this is like the real life for me
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my goal and what i’m living for in life
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is there’s tons of trailheads all around
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colorado and
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instead of getting up at your home and
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having to drive an
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hour and get set up there you can set up
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at night
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at a trailhead and wake up and be on the
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trail in five minutes as opposed to an
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hour and a half and
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that’s kind of what i call living
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i haven’t seen a cairn that big in a
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while yeah we’re here we’re at the
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the ridge line we’re going to get up to
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the street field as you can see
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and pyramid’s right there so we just got
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to go through the screen
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[Applause]
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that’s the thing is is it’s just like
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when people ask you that
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same question when you’re snowboarding
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like what is it about you’re like it’s
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so hard to always put it in words you
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know
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it’s just the feeling there’s the
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feeling that it gives you
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that makes you want to come back it’s an
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addiction of living
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in the earth and real you know like
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carpets are nice and couches are nice
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and showers are nice and bathrooms are
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nice but
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it’s nice to be out here for a few days
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you know kind of for a reset
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you know it’s basically what it is it’s
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just why people go on vacation this is
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my vacation and i slowly want to be on a
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permanent vacation
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after chad left we got to hang with a
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good friend laura haydar
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i’ve known her about four years now and
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absolutely love her
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nature is a huge aspect
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of my wellness my mental health
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my community it means
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so much to me i think being connected
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with nature
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is just innate in some
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people and in others it is yet to be
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explored
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it was really neat learning some more
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about foraging in our valley so you want
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to make sure that there’s enough
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berries left over for the bears for the
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birds
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before they’re starting to fall down
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yeah from the sea for to be able to
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reseed
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[Music]
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i feel in foraging it’s a very personal
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encounter
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and being able to show somebody
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to teach somebody hands-on and somebody
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that is your friend
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that you really want it’s passing
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knowledge down
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it’s just the same as when my grandma
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took me when i was little
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to go and forage we picked rose hips and
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made some juice from them
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which is an amazing natural and local
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source of vitamin c
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oh that was good it tastes like coffee
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for my
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[Music]
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coffee
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after foraging we met nikki and wills
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for some fly fishing
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nikki is my partner we’ve been together
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almost five years four and a half years
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he is a big hunter
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and fisher it’s kind of a good
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classic combo of
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the hunter fisherman and then the
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gatherer we almost joke about it
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[Music]
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it was really rewarding catching my
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first brown trout on a fly rod with
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nikki by my side
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coaching me through the landing it’s
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such a different feeling than the
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fishing i grew up doing in missouri
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lakes and ponds
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what an adventure this trip has been i’m
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grateful to have been able to see and
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experience all that we have and meet
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some new rad humans
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the pop-up life is such a fun way to
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travel and experience new places
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we shall see what the next adventure
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[Music]
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brings
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you
