Dina Mishev breaks a winter sport world record while coping with her MS diagnosis.

By Tom Scott

24 Hours of Sunlight
Nestled in a valley on the western slope of Colorado where the Roaring Fork and Colorado Rivers converge, the small town of Glenwood Springs, once a summer vacation spot of former President Teddy Roosevelt, is a gateway to recreational bliss––offering adventurous spirits access to an assortment of sports year-round, including mountain biking, paragliding, kayaking, and skiing.

Glenwood Springs is also home to 24 Hours of Sunlight, a unique endurance race that takes place annually at the town’s Sunlight Mountain Ski Resort, challenging thrill-seekers of all ages and abilities (in solo, duo or tandem teams) to hike up the mountain and ski, snowboard, and/or snowshoe down, for a 24-hour period.

Mary Kenyon, 24 Hours of Sunlight director, asserts that the event’s popularity is based on the exhilaration of conquering the mountain and achieving personal goals. “I believe it is the ability to challenge yourself, your teammates, and the whole field of participants while you get up and down the mountain. There is something about doing a human-powered race that makes one dig deep to accomplish whatever goal they have set for themselves. For some, it is the number of laps, for others it’s a set goal of vertical feet. One thing that is absolutely true––they sure have a lot of fun,” Kenyon says.

Climbing Higher
In early February, Dina Mishev, a 33 year-old Jackson, Wyoming resident diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) in 2006, entered the field of 300 competitors for the 4th Annual 24 Hours of Sunlight event in pursuit of history. After overcoming her diagnosis and refusing to let MS get the best of her, Dina became the first woman in the world to ski 34,500 vertical feet uphill (also known as ‘skinning’) in 24 hours.

An avid backcountry skier for over a decade with an athletic 5’10 physique sculpted by years of rigorous physical activity, Dina admits she was confident that she could break the women’s world record in skinning––previously set at 32,000 feet. But she realized that competing solo would be significantly more challenging than competing on a relay team with a partner or group, which offered adequate time for recuperating after each run; a luxury afforded to her in 2007. That year, she signed up with her husband Brian Harder for her first taste of 24 Hours of Sunlight, after discovering that proceeds were being donated to a Denver-based MS center. The couple finished in first place in the Duo Category with Dina completing 21,500 vertical feet in 12 hours.

“In 2007, I completed 15 laps on the mountain. The women’s record at the time was around 21 laps. I knew if I was given another 12 hours as a solo competitor I’d be able to complete another 10,000 feet and have a chance at the record,” says Dina, a former self-proclaimed ski bum and junior Olympian race walker who studied math and economics at Northwestern University.

In preparation, Dina trained at Snow King Mountain in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, skinning up to 30 times per week for 2 months. She also excluded cardio and weight training to avoid hauling unnecessary muscle weight up the mountain.

The Ups and Downs
The 24 Hours of Sunlight course takes competitors on a grueling 1,500 ft. ascent at an average grade of 27%. Once you reach the peak you must turn around, head down the mountain, and do it all over again. For those braving the trail individually, confidence dwindles after the first few laps. As dusk settles and the frigid air stifles muscles and lungs begin to burn, the mountain takes on a more ominous presence. On top of the mental and physical demands, as well as worrying about her MS rearing its ugly head, Dina’s biggest concern was providing her body with enough fuel throughout the day. On lap six of her world record performance, Dina did what any conditioned outdoor athlete in the midst of a battle with the elements would do, she had her brother fetch her McDonalds––eight double cheeseburgers packed with enough calories to keep her energized for a few hours. She could only eat two of them.

With each completed lap she also plucked away at a colorful arsenal of snacks and supplements piled into a huge storage container she had prepared for the event, including Ramen noodles––which she slurped down without chewing. Her goal was to devour 200-300 calories per hour, an unpleasant ordeal while simultaneously traversing up and down a mountain. On her 23rd and final lap, just before the 24-hour mark, a Sunlight Mountain employee tailed Dina on the trail blaring one of her favorite songs, Eye of the Tiger, from a portable radio. Dina had conquered two mountains that day; Sunlight and one built of frustration and despair caused by MS.

No Symptoms, No Sweat
When asked in retrospect if she had noticed any symptoms before her diagnosis in 2006, Dina remembers experiencing intermittent bouts of vertigo that began 3 years prior. Living an active and healthy lifestyle since her youth, Dina was exceptionally stubborn when it came to doctor visits. The frightening dizzy spells that had caused constant nausea motivated her to make an appointment at a local health care clinic. “The PA said it was odd that someone my age would have such severe vertigo. He gave me Valium and said it would probably go away. And it eventually did. So I didn’t really worry too much.”

A few years later, as she began her relationship with Brian, Dina experienced a reoccurrence of symptoms––this time it was double-vision. “All of a sudden my vision started to get funky and my sight was fading in and out,” Dina explains. Brian urged her to see a specialist. She visited an optometrist who said her vision was 20/20 but noticed Dina’s left eye wasn’t moving correctly. Dina was told she needed an MRI.

“At this point MS wasn’t even on my radar because the optometrist didn’t even mention a word about it. When I asked her what might cause something like I was experiencing with my left eye, she said it could possibly be a tumor or aneurism. It was the first time I ever cried out of fear.”

The MRI, however, revealed classic signs of MS. “When I found out I completely broke down,” she adds. “My physical self is how I define myself, so it was devastating.”

Dina had planned to go for the skinning record in the winter of 2008, but after returning from her honeymoon with Brian, she suffered from severe depression. Dina underwent a second MRI, when doctors noticed a new lesion in a region of the brain known for controlling mood that could’ve been the culprit.

Although drug injections helped minimize her MS exacerbations and improved her quality of life, Dina still had to learn ways to cope psychologically. “Getting out and being around people helps me a lot. If I start losing feeling in my leg or some other symptoms pop up I’ll just go out to the local coffee shop to take my mind off of things. I used to be very physically demanding of myself before my diagnosis. If I was in pain or tired I just sucked it up. But now when my body is asking for a day off I have to listen.”

Presently, memory loss is Dina’s most prominent symptom. “Sometimes I ask my husband the same question three times in 5 minutes. It’s also harder for me to multi-task. And Brian is definitely not leaving me in charge of boiling water or anything like that because I’m liable to walk away and forget about it.”

A New Beginning
But Dina has learned to ignore her MS and not let it interfere with her various pursuits, including her active lifestyle and passion for freelance travel writing. “I drew great inspiration from Tim Cahill, an adventure travel writer and founding editor of Outside Magazine. When I first started writing back in 1999, I sent out 1,400 queries to different magazines and received just 1 response,” she recalls. Now Dina’s writing can be seen in a wide-range of magazines, including National Geographic Traveler, Outside, Sunset, and National Geographic Adventure.

Since her diagnosis, Dina has also traveled to Nepal in Southeast Asia for a mountaineering expedition, packing 30 shots of disease-modifying MS medication for the trip. Thinking back, she laughs at how she constantly had to check to make sure they didn’t freeze from the cold temperatures.

As a veteran world traveler and adventurer, Dina recently created Never Too Weak To Wander (http://nevertooweaktowander.wordpress.com), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people with MS see and experience the world. “I get stressed traveling now more than I ever did. Since my memory isn’t what it used to be packing is always very difficult. There are also a lot of little things travelers with MS have to deal with besides the hassle of lugging around walkers and wheelchairs. For instance, try explaining why you have a package of syringes in your luggage at a foreign airport.”

As part of her fundraising efforts, Dina is planning to bike 10,400 miles around the country in various races––1 mile for each individual diagnosed with MS annually. She plans to use the proceeds to book tours for travelers with MS to various destinations, from family-friendly resorts such as Disneyland, popular vacation spots like New York City and the Eiffel Tower in France, to more exotic locales around the globe.

To learn more about Dina, please visit www.dinamishev.com. You can also read about her daily adventures by visiting her blog at http://fleecefashionista.wordpress.com/.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 1:22 pm and is filed under All Articles, Featured, Techguide Newsticker, United Homepage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.