Rapids, Resilience, and Recovery: Adventure Therapy with Fredrick Solheim

What if nature could be a catalyst for healing the wounds of war? Join me as we journey with Fredrick Solheim, a geophysicist and river runner, who uses the adrenaline-charged wilderness as a therapeutic tool for disabled veterans. We traverse the raging rapids of Cataract Canyon and explore the incredible power of nature, adventure, and camaraderie in initiating a journey towards healing and self-discovery for these brave souls.

No stranger to the harsh reality of substance abuse and high suicide rates among combat veterans, Solheim offers insight into the transformative power of adventure therapy. Drawing from the testimonies of program facilitators and participants, we learn about the profound impact these rafting trips have on veterans, gifting them with a renewed sense of purpose and accomplishment. As we navigate the emotional currents of this conversation, we also underscore the pivotal role of community, nature and campfire chats, as well as the undeniable need for all-female veterans' trips for those who have experienced trauma.

Tune in, as we weave heartwarming stories, personal connections, and the healing power of nature into an inspiring narrative. Be prepared to be moved by the resilience of these veterans and the transformative power of adventure therapy.

Further Reading:

• Watch this video from a CNN producer about Warriors
• Check out this video from a Warriors on Cataract vet
• Watch this Steven Spielberg tribute to one of the Warriors on Cataract Vets
• Check out one more video from the river 
• Sign up for a rafting trip or donate at the Warriors website

2 Degrees Out West is a podcast from Western Resource Advocates, an environmental conservation organization that's focused on the Interior West. WRA works across seven states to protect our climate, land, air, and water. WRA protects and advocates for Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming.

2 Degrees out West is a podcast for advocates and decision makers who want to fight climate change and its impacts across the West.

On 2 Degrees Out West we talk with climate experts and advocates to bring you stories, experiences, and insights from their work in the places we call home.

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Chapters

• 0:03 Nature's Healing Power for Disabled Veterans
• 11:05 Supporting Disabled Veterans Through Adventure Therapy
• 18:12 All-Female Trips and Healing Through Rafting
• 31:11 Battlefront Surgeon and Life-Changing Adventures
• 39:13 Fighting Climate Change in the West

Transcript

Full Transcript

Episode Guest:

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder

Introduction

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 00:03

According to numerous studies, when we are in nature, we begin healing. One specific study showed that when participants were exposed to nature scenes, their brain parts linked with empathy and love lit up. Being in nature creates harmony of the mind. It strengthens our connection to our soul on a deep level and creates calmness in our bodies. In this episode, we're talking with Warriors on Cataract Canyon who are harnessing this healing power of nature, as well as the camaraderie of doing an intense whitewater rafting trip to help veterans, specifically disabled veterans, process their emotions, find new connections and have better mental health.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 00:48

We try and add everything we can in to that river trip and help them make more of this opportunity. So we've got adventure, camaraderie, beauty, reverie, all those things.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 01:01

Welcome to Two Degrees Out West, a podcast where we talk about all the things we love about the Western US and how we can continue to support this beautiful place so that it is thriving and protected for generations to come. I'm your host, Jessi Janusee, the multimedia storyteller here at Western Resource Advocates, and we're always growing and expanding this podcast to make it the best podcast it could possibly be, and we do that by reading your reviews. The simplest way that you can leave a review is to go to www.ratethispodcast.com/twodegrees. Thanks. Before we start talking to Fred, I wanted to let you know, listeners, that this episode has a lot of sensitive content. We reference mental health, suicide, sexual assault and substance abuse. Listeners who may be sensitive to these topics please be advised. Now let's talk with Fred. Can we start with you introducing yourself?

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 01:54

I'm Fred Solheim. I'm from Boulder, Colorado. I'm a geophysicist. I work with the Department of Defense, I've got an advanced degree in geophysics and I'm also a river runner and that's kind of where we're at here. For recreation I ran the Colorado from Moab to Lake Powell through Canyonlands National Park for a long time. I think I started in the mid-70s and took friends down there and new people and strange people, had a great time at it. One thing I noticed taking people down there, sometimes people come out the bottom of that canyon with a different personality, relaxed, people have more self-esteem, self-confidence, just maybe left a lot of their baggage in the river, a lot of their concerns, maybe their big issues got small, and I thought, well, that's kind of therapeutic. And then I'd been down there about 60 times and I decided, well, I was listening to this National Public Radio and they were interviewing this young Marine, Mark Lutinski, who had stepped on a pressure-plated mine and he lost both his legs above the knee, which is a lot worse than below the knee.

03:04

It makes it a lot harder to walk and his lower left arm. He was learning to ski in the Vail Ski Program and he was saying I'll get it tomorrow, you know, my thumbs are sweaty, but I'm just about there. And he was all up beat. Not a bit of anger, not a bit of self-pity and forward-looking. You know, he goes to college and do something. And I thought, man, if I were him, that wouldn't be me. I'd be depressed, I'd be feeling sorry for myself and I'd be living in my car outside a liquor store waiting for my disability check to come. And so I thought I  want to take him down the river, that'd be great. He'd got a lot out of it and we'd probably get more out of it.

03:45

So I tried to get ahold of him but he was in Walter Reed and they firewalled me and I thought Lutinski, that's a Polish name, he's got to be from Minnesota or Wisconsin. So I got on the internet there weren't too many Lutinskis and I hit him. The first one was his mom and she connected me with him. But Walter Reed wouldn't let him go. But you know, but the seed was planted. So I thought yeah.

04:06

I'll find somebody, I'll find some soldiers to take down there. So I started calling VA hospitals and stuff and I went over to Moab and went and talked to one of the outfitters there, the biggest outfitter. I hadn't interacted with the outfitters because I had my own boats for all those years. I went in and talked to Bob Jones at Tagalong and talked a little bit about river running and then I asked him if he'd ever considered taking disabled vets down the river. He said, yeah, I've been thinking about it. I said well, what would you have to charge? I think the going rate at that time was about $1,200 a piece, for a 4-day trip down there. And I thought he'd come in about half price and then Id have to start negotiating. He said, oh, $200. Really, I didn’t need to negotiate that. And he said but you got to fill the boat. I need eight to make it worthwhile. So I went back and I got 15 guys signed on. So I had to call Bob back and say, Bob, I got problem, I got 15 guys. He said that's okay, I'll put on a second boat. And I had to call him back again Bob, 27 guys, I'll put on a third boat.

05:09

So that was our inaugural trip.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host

That’s awesome, what was the reaction like to that first trip?

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest

It was great. It was more than I expected. I thought it was going to be a great adventure for these guys, but it was also very healing because one thing that I don't know if you ever saw the movie Band of Brothers there's some real tight bonding when you go through combat for four years with somebody in a group that you're all watching out for each other, watching each other at six o'clock and living close quarters, high anxiety. It was a rekindling of that camaraderie that they had in the military that came up on the river trip. Even though they might have been from different units or different conflicts, it was a real commonality there and they could also. You know, one guy had told me you know, for those that haven't been there, there's no way you're going to explain what you're going through, but for those that have been there you don't need to explain it. And all these guys are suffering from PTSD and just the depression of being disabled, and their future hopes are a lot dimmer than they ever expected would be. Having a night terrors, waking up in the middle of the night, choking their girlfriend or wife thinking it’s the enemy and get charged with domestic violence and thrown in jail, all those issues that nobody understood why. They around the campfire and they're going to a midnight talk after their stuff. So it turned out to be a very healing modality. It had everything. We try and add everything we can into that river trip. We think how can we make more of this opportunity? So we've got adventure, camaraderie, beauty, reverie, all those things. We can't think of anything more to add. But it's a very good formula for these guys. I mean I’ve had guys call me, email me, said that trip saved their life.

06:55

One of the VA therapists, sometimes the VA therapist bring their guys. One told me that she had nine guys on a higher suicide watch, which is the military term. The VA these guys are, you know, suicidally watching closely and she said after the raft trip they were able to graduate all nine of them off watch I thought man, nine out of nine, that's pretty good. And another therapist told me she said, you know, this raft trip is worth more than a year of therapy and these soldiers among themselves are better healers than what we can do with our pharmaceuticals or our therapy. Just among themselves they do that with each other and I guess they form support networks that last beyond the raft trip. I had a guy. He emailed me about two months ago. He went on a trip with me 10 years ago. We've done 13 trips down, about a thousand vets. He went about 10 or 11 years ago and he brought, he was a master sergeant and brought three of his guys, two of them were amputees, Ward Mayfield. He emailed me. He said you know, he said he said first that trip saves lives. That's a fact, a fact. And he also said you know, my guys are still talking about that raft trip. So it's good to hear that there's a lasting effect to the raft trip. We don't have a very good follow on to see what the lasting effects are, other than you know we get a nice email.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 08:29

On the evening of the last river camp we have everybody write down, and pass around a journal and have them write down what they think they might have got out of the raft trip. You know, just after four days, it hasn't really soaked in what it was, but some of the comments are really hartening. Here’s some of the collection, some of them. Maybe I can read some of these.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 08:52

Yeah, I love that, so you, just to clarify, you started the first trip in 2010. So you've been doing it for 13 years now.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 09:02

Yeah. I think it was 2011. Yeah, I don't know. It was way back now.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 09:10

Cool. Go ahead If you want to read some, that would be amazing.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 09:14

This woman said I'm so appreciative of this trip. It's truly life changing. I heard that word a lot from these people. It changed my life. What you did for us was beyond words and we were forever grateful for the experience. And then another said, yay, I feel so grateful to be on this trip and help out in the ways I did. I think we all managed to leave most of our baggage in the river and to come out all the better. Some of the women managed to blow themselves away with what they accomplished. Another said Fred, I want to thank you for this, for putting us together.

09:46

This trip has done so much for me. Just being together with my fellow Marines is very therapeutic. Being back together with some of the guys from my own unit brings back the joy into my life. What a beautiful place to make things so much better. Being here is really the happiest that I've been in a long time, makes me look forward to life. I really needed this trip pretty bad. It was only a few weeks ago that I was suffering from severe pain, nightmares and uncontrolled and suicidal thoughts. I can say that since day one on this trip, my pain has decreased, my nightmares have stopped and no thoughts of suicide. There's nothing like the power of natural healing out in God's world. This is the river, you know.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 10:29

That's beautiful. Why did you pick Cataract Canyon of all the places that you could have done these rafting trips?

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 10:38

Well, it's the biggest water in the US when you get a big snow year. I wanted the big water. I wanted the big rapids. I mean, my boat is. I've got two J-Rigs. I call it J-Rigs. It would take 20,000 pounds to push that boat underwater. It's got a lot of flotation. It's a big boat but I've turned it over twice. The last time it went up a wave and over backwards in a backflip. That's how big the waves are.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 11:03

Wow, that's crazy.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest1 1:05

Yeah, it's a great rush and these combat, these guys are combat soldiers. You know they're adrenaline junkies. They like the thrill and rush, so it was perfect for them.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 11:15

Yeah, they want to be challenged and work through the problem together. You know, have the experience together, right, that's a big part of it.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 11:23

That's right. It's one of the things I thought. You know, put these guys to a real big challenge. Maybe they're, you know, maybe they're a wheelchair and take them down to those rapids and scares of the bejeesus out of them. They didn't, they don't know if they can do it, but once they accomplish it, it's a big boost to them. You know I'm disabled, but I don't have to be disabled. Yeah, you know, we had wheelchairs and a blind guy, a lot of service dogs, a lot of amputations, this one guy, Greg Orton, who got hit in the head, a real bad brain injury, and he had to cut away a lot of his scalp, his skull, because of brain swelling, and that January they put a plate back in his skull but he had aphasia, he couldn't form sentences and he wouldn't talk. But I saw him, you know, on the beach the evening of the last or the second river camp he started chatting it up with everybody.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 12:16

That's crazy. He just like, it just came back.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 12:19

Well, he just wanted to. I guess really bad. So yeah, I don't know.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host

Wow that's so beautiful.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest

12:27

Yeah, now I ought to check with his therapist and see how he's doing. Recreation therapists in the VA system are wonderful. They're great people.

.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host

Do you have a long wait list every year?

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest

No, we do have to call sometimes and we just have to make judgment calls on who would get the most out of the trip.

Who's going to gain most? And we just kept adding more and more trips because we had more and more people. But we're kind of up against the funding limit now. You know 8,000 killing themselves every year. You know how many we've lost in 20 years of combat in the Middle East. As a comparative number, 20 years of combat haven't even lost 8,000. And we lose 8,000 every year to die by their own hand.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host

Wow, hmm, something we've got to think about.

Yeah once I moved to Nevada I met a lot of veterans and became friends with them. And they really are some of my favorite people. Once you become friend family they will do anything for you. You know, you’ve just got each other backs and it’s really beautiful.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 16:19

Yeah, yeah, I love being around them. You know they're very mature, they're very calm, they've got a real good outlook, very good perspective on the world, and you look at them and go God, you guys are all beat up. His life is a lot less than he thought it would be. He's still on top of it.

16:38

Yeah, we have a trip, for I made a mistake early on having a mix of Marines and Army guys until we had two camps, so I thought, well, we got to have these guys on separate raft trips and so now we have a special operations trip as well as the other branches in the military. So the special officer, like Air Force Pararescue, Green Beret, Army Rangers, Navy Seals, and those guys resonate together, even though they're from a lot of different branches in the military. This summer we had a bunch of Seals and Air Force Pararescue and, I think, a couple Rangers, and we managed to get an Ukrainian soldier who's an amputee, who was over here to get fitted for prostheses, so we got him on a river trip and he didn't speak English but we had a female interpreter for him.

17:24

Igor was his name. When Igor went back home, his daughter called back over and said Igor was over the moon, over the moon about to trip and was chatting it up with all his buddies. When I told them, the Seals, we'd have a Ukrainian soldier on board, I wanted to prewarn them and they said, ooh way cool, way cool. We had two that were going to go but one of them broke his femur just before the raft trip, re-broke it and then had to go in and put a rod in his bone and then he got a bone infection. So Roman couldn't go. But next year we're trying to get two, three or four disabled Ukrainian soldiers and we want to get two disabled female soldiers too. I noticed about after three or four of these years of trips that we weren't getting many women to sign on.

18:20

There weren't many women in the military, but we didn't have even the proportions right. And then one of the therapists said well, yeah, of course these women most of them had been raped in the military and they won't camp with soldiers. They'd be really uneasy about it. So, we started having all female trips and all female crews. They don't even let me go, Fred, you're going to stay in port. Those are our best trips. We get a lot of good response out of them and we have a therapist, Karen House.

18:49

This woman is magic. She has two masters degrees of counseling. She's a goldstone widow. She's rode the Grand Canyon a dozen times in a little dory. She's a river runner, river guide. She's embedded in the Air Force. She's got a page and a half of military accolades just to build out on her own. She really knows what she's doing, so she ramrods our all-female trips. She goes on the male trips too, but one of the activities she gets women involved in like mindfulness and yoga and games and finding yourself. But it doesn't work so much with the guys, you know. They do yoga maybe, but mindfulness, how about horseshoes?

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 19:33

Well, that sounds amazing. I want to go on an all-female rafting trip. That sounds so good. Yeah, can you set the scene a little bit, just of like what it looks like in the canyon, what it's like rafting down it. I mean, how many times have you rafted it at this point? Hundreds of times?

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 19:52

No, just over 100 on cataract. I've done a couple of rivers, but mostly cat. I've been down there a lot of times, so it's not so much the river to me anymore, except when we get to the big rock rapids. I like that. My heart starts going. But I like watching the reaction of all the people in the boats and listening to them chat and jostle with each other. So that's a big, big part for me. See what they get out of it.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 20:18

I got to be really good friends with a corpsman, Marine corpsman, but from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, marines. They got their butts really kicked over in Fallujah. They lost 30 in combat and lost 30 something to suicide after that home. So we thought we can do something about this. So I got ahold of Doc Gwynn corpsman, the medic, and he rounded up his guys and brought them down the river and did them a whole lot of good to get back together and then Doc got killed and so we had over a memorial day weekend about three years ago we had a memorial trip for him and these other 2 7 Marine battle buddies, and his mother and his widow and his brother. That was a much different trip. It was pretty much. Pretty much. You can tell it's just yeah, still gets me emotional.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 21:14

Yeah, it sounds like a really beautiful, amazing tribute.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 21:18

Yeah, that was an unusual trip. Doc, we got to be friends but it really hurt me when we got killed. I saw a lot of change and he went on three trips, I think maybe four, and I could see a progression. He got to be more relaxed, more conversive, just more settled in, more focused on this marriage. That's something I've heard from some of these guys. Well, you know this river trip. It's a magic for me. I'm back in my marriage, I got a job, I'm happy with it, I'm back in school, I'm getting good grades. Some purpose is kind of the operative word. You need some goals to go after, some purpose. Everybody does otherwise you languish.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host

Do you have a lot of guys that come back here after a year or, you know, do the trip multiple times?

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest

We bring them back if they need another river trip, another dose and if they're really good leaders to meet everybody and activate some of these other guys. So yeah, when we had one woman who was, we bring Brits over because they’re NATO troops, they fought in our conflicts. They're a lot of fun, especially the Royal British commandos that are really a trip. But this one woman had been so brutalized sexually in the Marines she switched over to army in the UK. Same thing out of frying pan and on her first trip over she came over with three other Brits and when I met her down in the motel lobby, met that group, I could see her just kind of tense up and move back. She really would tense up the presence of guys and so she felt traumatized. So we actually had her over I think four times.

23:13

Karen had a therapy practice down in Santa Fe. Karen brought her over for the summer to work with her, work on her and work with her, with her in her practice, and now, now Karen Marshall is, she's pretty much back to normal. She can even give me a hug, which is something for her to be that close to a guy. Karen Marshall and Karen House is the therapist, so just to keep them separate on the raft trips we call them one K1 and K2. Ha, yeah.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 23:47

How do people sign up for the trip? Do they just find the website and they can just fill out a form?

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 23:52

Yeah, I get emails now and, then they get word of mouth. Some of these units north of, Air Force Pararescue is only about 300 of them, so the word gets out real quick. The Seals and Seal Foundation and all those guys are a pretty tight-knit group and a lot of Marines. So the word gets out and the VA and the VA rec therapists, recreation therapists go roundup their guys and bring them. The rec therapist in Cheyene, Christie Rueben. This woman, she, she's just magic with these guys. They follow her around campus like puppies, but she, she had 34 foster children. Imagine that.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 24:34

That's incredible. Oh my goodness.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 24:37

She's still smiling. She just called me this morning.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 24:48

In Cheyenne, Wyoming?

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 24:56

Yeah, yeah, she's on the road to Laramie to see some of her guys.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 24:48

Wow, it seems like there's a lot of really incredible people out there. You know doing this work.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 24:56

Yeah, yeah. You meet a lot of good people doing things like this.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 25:01

You mentioned a bunch of different organizations that you're working with, but who else do you work with that helps support and gives you funding?

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 25:08

You know we’re real humble. There’s only three of us that do this. You got Karen, got the the website girl and me. And the website kind of falls behind because she also does this photo album, anyway. So stuff we fall behind on stuff. There's supposed to be a sign up on the website where you can choose the trip you want to go on and you have to fill in all this information. A lot of its HIPAA. We want to know your medical condition, what your medications are. What are your emergency contacts, everything that might come up on the river trip is about half of that questionnaire, a third of it is HIPAA, and all the confidential. But they can sign up there. And as far as the women are concerned, Karen is so good with them, she interviews and coaches all the the women before the trip, briefs them, just calls them one by one. You know that's 40 women.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 25:57

Yeah, if somebody wants to give you money, if an organization you know or a person's listening to his podcast, do they just email you? Is there a way for them to do it on your website?

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 26:06

Well, if they go to the website, yeah, if they went to the website there's an address. They can mail it directly to me and I put in our bank account or they can mail it to, I'm under the umbrella of an outfit called Outdoor Buddies. They spun out of Craig Rehab Hospital 37 years ago. They take wheelchair people hunting and fishing.

26:27

Well, they handle all the finances, the banking and the IRS reporting so and I'm on their board so they can mail to outdoor buddies or to me or directly to my accountant, and most of that information is on the website.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 26:43

Okay, I'll make sure to link it so that if people are curious they could get right to it.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 26:48

Yeah, that’d be much appreciated.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 26:50

Yeah, I mean more trips, more veterans you could have on the trips and more people you can hopefully save from taking their own life, right? So super important.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 27:00

Well, it's also, one of the therapists said, you know, you've saved a lot of lives, but you also salvaged a lot of marriages, and salvaged a lot of people's careers. You’re saving lives, but you’re also salvaging lives. So it’s a little bit bigger than just saving lives.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 27:20

Yeah, making the quality of life better.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 27:24

Yeah.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 27:25

Yeah, it's, I even see that when I just go on a regular three day camping trip with my friends. You know like we come out of it with better stories and better connection and you know better emotional state.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 27:41

And maybe recharged, it’s recognized now by the medical people, not just in the US but globally. Getting out in the woods is very healthy. Japanese have been doing it for a long time. They call it forest bathing. It's kind of prescribed by some of these rec therapists and that's what they want to do is get these guys out doing something fishing or hiking.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 28:04

Yeah, it's like back in the day when people get sick and they'd be like oh, your prescription is to go to the seaside. I'm like I wish that was more common now, that they, the doctor, would be like you just need to go into nature. Goodbye.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 28:18

That's right, yeah, you need a river trip.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia StorytellerHost28:24

Yeah, we do mom's trips where it's just me and a bunch of my mom friends and you know we leave all our kids behind and we all go camping together and then we come back and we're able to be better moms, you know.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 28:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're more grounded. You know your big problems become small problems.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 28:45

Yeah.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 28:46

Get on top of things.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 28:48

And the same and same deal. You know, then you, all of us moms, get to just talk about our kids and our life and all of our things with each other, uninterrupted in nature, for a weekend, right, and that is really powerful. So, I can imagine for the veterans it's got to be so, so powerful.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 29:07

The big component of getting back together with the guys in the same situation, that camaraderie, it's a real strong thing. You go through this tough times and stress and things like that. You get really tightly bonded, lifetime bonds. I mean I talked to some of these Marines and they still talk to, yeah, I'm in touch with all my guys and you know, like 10 or 20 years out of the service.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 29:30

Yeah. Well, how long is the deployment usually? Like how long are you on tour with all these same guys? I guess it all really varies.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 29:40

Yeah, it's mostly the same guys, but there are multiple deployments. There might be three or four deployments and it might be six months or even a year at a time, and the composition will change a little bit because some of the guys got out of the service and some got killed, so you get new guys in, but mostly it's the same core.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 29:59

Yeah, and then how many deployments do people usually have?

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 30:03

Well, the Marines, they get sent out three or four times. They're in four years obligation to be in the military. We had a guy, I think I sent you this one, Dr. Bill Krissoff. He's got the right stuff. He had two sons who were Marines and one of them got killed in Iraq. So Krissoff decided at 60 years of age he was an orthopedic surgeon in Truckee and he decided he would drop his practice and join the Navy.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 30:32

I didn't even know you could do that at 60!

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 30:38

He couldn't, but he tried. He wanted to be a battlefront surgeon and in his son's unit, so they wouldn't let him join because he couldn't pass the age limitation. But he had an audience with the President Bush, along with some of their families of the fallen. Bush asked him this is George W., asked him if there's anything he or his staff could do for any of them, and Krissoff said well, yes, I'm trying to join the Navy, but they tell me I'm too old. No offense, sir I’m younger than you are. So Bush got him in I don't know what you call it and he spent six years in the Navy.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host

Wow.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 31:13

As a battlefront surgeon. He said, he was on our crew, he was telling me about it. He said the trauma treatment in those units is the best in the world, in part because they've got so much experience, they see so much, you know so many injuries. He said if they bring a guy in and he's got a heartbeat, we got a 98% chance of saving what's left of him, 98%. He said he saw a lot of multiple amputations. They even treated civilians who got injured in the battle.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 31:43

I guess the best way if someone wants to get involved with you is to go on the website and email. Yeah, is there any other things you want people to know about? You know your program and this work with veterans.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 31:59

Well, it's free for the veterans. Once they get to Moab. We don't want to get involved in all the confusion about air travel. Everything once they get to Moab is covered and they're going to like it. I mean I’ll just close here with a few more comments. Glorious trip of a lifetime.

32:15

Thank you for changing my life, one of the best things I've ever done. I can't tell you how much these trips change my life. The new great memories have helped drown out and muffled many bad old wounds. Thanks for making a blind guy enjoy a great week. This adventure helped me in ways no modern medicine can. It was amazing. The people I've met on the trip, this guy was from Scotland actually, the people that I met on the trip have change my life completely. It was only at Christmas that I tried to commit suicide because my PTSD was so bad I couldn't take it anymore. I felt extremely down and depressed pretty much every day until I came on the trip. I just want to say again for a fantastic life changing experience, Karl. My guys talk about the river trip every day. The raft trip completely changed my life. This is one of the greatest adventures in my life. This has been a life changing experience. So it has a positive impact and it's a lot of fun. Rewarding.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 33:10

I bet it's so beautiful too, and you go to petroglyphs, right. I saw there's optional hiking. There's everything you could want.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon FounderGuest33:17

And we keep keep the campfire going past midnight, charcoal at the bottom of the fire pan. Keep those guys talking. That's very healthy.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 33:23

Campfire chats. They're a special thing. Do you think you'll do this forever? Do you think you'll just keep running these trips as long as you can?

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 33:30

Well, as long as I can. I mean, I'm not young and more significant I got a lot of miles on me. I've been in a plane crash and got beat up and other things. Yeah, I'm still going. I got Scandinavian genes, so I'm holding up pretty good.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 33:48

Nice. Yeah, I mean a hundred trips. That's crazy. Yeah, I've only done one rafting trip in my life. I'm really missing out. I got to get on it.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 34:00

They're good for you, the memory.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia StorytellerHost34:02

Yeah, I've always wanted to raft down the Grand Canyon. That looks incredible, yeah.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 34:09

Yeah, Cataract, bigger water, it’s a shorter trip. You know at the grand. It's a week, I don't know 10 days or two weeks. It's a lot for some soldiers to do that. For some of them it's a four day trip that’s about right. Some of them could use it a little bit longer. Cataract, logistically is easy for us. You come into Moab, you fly into Moab, you can drive in and you can get on the river right there and then you get off at Lake Powell. That's two hours back to Moab. So logistically it's easy. The Grand is much more remote. Moab is kind of a hub of a lot of activities, a lot going on, and there's an outfit that runs zip lines. There are six links, two of them are over 1,300 feet. They get going really fast and so you put all your soldiers up on zip lines up on top of the sliprock.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 35:01

Whoa, that's got to be crazy.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 35:03

Challenges some of them.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia StorytellerHost35:07

Yeah, I'd be terrified. And the Canyonlands is so beautiful. I mean, Utah is magic like that.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 35:12

Yeah.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 35:13

Well, thanks so much. Your stories are amazing.

Fredrick Solheim - Warriors on Cataract Canyon Founder Guest 35:15

Well good talking to you.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 35:18

Thank you so much, Fred. It's been a pleasure to hear all of your stories and the stories of all the folks that you've helped along the way. Fred did send me a really beautiful photo book of all of their expeditions in 2022 and it's really heartening to see all of the smiling faces and the photos of hiking and petroglyphs and abandoned cabins and the rapids. My favorite section is the all-female rafting trips, and there's some great quotes in here from Cataract Canyon and I just wanted to share one that kind of makes me want to cry.

35:54

“Women are strong, and together they are stronger. Seeing them be okay with themselves in this beautiful place is one of the best things to witness. Thank you always for this opportunity.” Fred shared a bunch of photos with me that will be on our blog post and the link will be in our show notes, and I'll also take some photos of this really cool photo book so that we can kind of get a glimpse into the beauty of the canyon and these connections and this healing place. Okay, before we go into my favorite segment, “What I like about the West” we need to take a minute to shout out our amazing sponsors.

36:31

Our stellar 2023 sponsors include our impact sponsor, First Bank, the largest locally owned banking organization in Colorado. We'd also like to thank our premier sponsors, Solup and Vision Ridge Partners, our signature sponsors Denver Water and Kind Design, and our supporting sponsors Great Outdoors Colorado and Jones & Co Modern Mercantile. As we're coming into 2024, it is the perfect time to become a new sponsor of both Western Resource Advocates and this podcast. If your organization is interested, find the link to find out more in our show notes. Also, listeners, before we go into “What I like about the West”, I wanted to give you one more reminder.

37:15

We're always trying to make this podcast better and we do that by reading your reviews. You can leave us a review by going to ratethispodcast.com/2degrees.Thank you so much. It's time for “What I like about the West”. This is our last one for this season and for the year, and Christie, who is the director of marketing and communications here at Western Resource Advocates, offered her what I like about the West. She wanted to be included before the end of the year, which is awesome, so right now we're going to listen to what Christie has to say about the West.

Christie Silverstein - Marketing and Communications Director Guest 37:56

What I love about the West is that I live in one of the largest cities in the country, but I can walk out my front door and in less than half a mile I can be at the Thunderbird Conservation Park, which is more than 1,100 acres of desert mountain landscapes filled with hiking trails, wildlife, cactus and other local plants, and even sometimes of the year, there's beautiful wildflowers. I love that my kids and I can so easily enjoy it all the amazing open spaces we have in the Southwest and experience the incredible wildlife. We've seen ducks, quail, tortoises, herons, owls, Gila monsters, geckos and egrets. We even spotted a bald eagle flying overhead the mountains near our home earlier this year, and the whole point of living in Arizona, with all of the days of sunshine, is to spend time outdoors and enjoy nature, so that is what motivates me to do this work and to work alongside our incredible team of experts at WRA to fight climate change and its impacts for generations to come.

Jessi Janusee - Multimedia Storyteller Host 39:06

Thanks so much, Christie. I love that you're closing us out for the season this year. All right, everybody. This podcast is created by Western Resource Advocates. We are fighting climate change to sustain the economy, the people, the environment of the West. If you want to find out more about our work just click the link in our show notes and see what we're doing every day on the state level to protect this beautiful Western landscape. I'm your host, Jessi Janusee, the multimedia storyteller here at WRA, and, as always, it's been great to spend time with you all. Thank you so much for listening. We have some great new podcasts in the works for 2024 and a new season, and I hope you’ll tune in in the new year. Have a beautiful holiday season. Bye, y'all.