the Adventure Lifestyle magazine

What if you're skiing down an icy couloir and you're worried that your skis are going to pull out from the snow and not hold? Or what if you have to jump a fifty-foot cliff and stick the landing with just ten feet of clearance? Well, if you're back country skier Kasha Rigby or extreme skier Kristen Ulmer, you're anx­ ious but you make it. The pros experience adrenaline very differently than most people. They breathe through it. visualize success and override the fe · ar. Adrenaline (a.k.a. epinephrine) ... .. is a biochemical secreted by the adrenal glands in times of stress. It mobilizes stored glucose and breaks down glycogen in your muscles. which helps them contract quickly in a short period of time." explains Dr. Peter A. Farrell. professor of physiology at Penn State University. Adrenaline is also a stimulant that increases your heart rate and blood pressure. It can make you anxious. like drinking too much coffee. According to Dr. Nathaniel Zinsser from the Center for Enhanced Performance. an applied sports psychology facility at West Point Academy, "This performance-enhancing chemical makes us a ..... little bit stronger. faster, more reactive and more perceptive. The trick is embracing it, trusting the unconscious reaction and executing these more complex motor skills with the same lack of awareness and same lack of self-consciousness as turning on a light in the dark." Like Ulmer did on that fifty foot cliff a few years ago. "1 planned how fast I was going to take off."' she recalls. -It was a real physics equation. but the whole time I was doing this. I was really calm and relaxed. And it was really hard and really scary 'and really technical. In the air I didn't feel anything: I was just in this zone where I was so concentrated and just convinced that nothing would go wrong. The second i landed. I had to make the turn. and then it was like the world had exploded in my face. All of a sudden everything was really sharp and vivid."' That rush is addictive. Not the fear. not the jump itself. but the whole package. As Rigby explains. -I don't necessarily like the part where I'm really scared. but after I've successfully accom­ plished what I set out to do. that's the rush of it. having actually gone through it and having controlled your fear and spasms. that's the really exciting part. It's like. 'I did that! I can't believe I did thatr - Sports psychologists say that hard-core athletes. especially who do outdoor sports. can really get addicted to adrenaline. It sets off th same mind-boggling highs as psychedelic drugs. only in a more profoun stable way. That's what makes these activities so cool. so undenia appealing. "Talk to anyone into high-risk sports and they almost always they're hooked."' says Dr. John Fry. a clinical psychologist with a practice in Costa Mesa. California. -They find the chemical rush of temptin death so pleasing that they keep coming back for more. They' adrenaline jun kies." Frank Gambalie. a r'ecord-breaking BASE jumper. says it's defi nitely the strongest drug he's ever taken or experienced. "lI"s like som kind of mind-altering substance. It makes it difficult for me to distinguis between real life and what's happening and a dream. It's stron.gest right the point where I'm starting to jump. when I start to bend my knees or to lean forward. I' ll just slowly roll off the building. so I can milk tha moment for as long as I can: Jumping out of an airplane or driving at breakneck speed causes your body to shift into the "fight or flight- mode as it prepares to defend itself. This. in turn. stimulates your brain to release two more feel-good chemicals: norepherine and dopamine. Dr. Bob Franken. a psychology professor at the University of Calgary who researches risk-taking behavior. explains. '"When either of these hormones are mixed with endorphins. you feel a much better high. But it's like mixing yourself a cocktail. For it to carry some punch. you need all the right ingredients in their proper proportions."' And it's hard to know exact­ ly what those proportions are or when an adrenaline rush will hit. Still most adrenaline athletes need a regular fix. like Gambalie-who jumps three times a week. "lI"s the easiest thing to do a jump and forget about the rest of the world if I'm having a bad day or a problem: While Gambalie doesn't put himself in the face of. as he says. "unnecessary risk"-well. not beyond jumping nine-hundred-foot buildings in Los Angeles or power towers in Northern California - adrenaline addicts often do flirt with disaster. According to Zinsser. 'They'll go harder and harder with fewer safety nets. And if they get really strung out. there may be no way for them to back off. They crave the risk. They play Russian roulette with more and more bullets."' While addiction to stress and anxiety can lead to hypertension and heart disease in the more commonly known adrenaline junkie. the Type A personality. it's not clear what the long-term effects of regular self-induced shots of epinephrine will be on these athletes. They seem to know how to work through it. Zinsser observes. adding. "How many climbers or snowboarders do you know who are stressed out?"-Jenn ifer Kabat _� "!- __ _-;:;-; -t :::T <

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