WEEKEND WARRIOR
Photographer and Londre Bodywear CEO Ainsley Rose hikes in high places
Londre Bodywear CEO Ainsley Rose has walked into some peak experiences
In her early 20s, Ainsley Rose rebelled against her outdoorsy upbringing on Vancouver's rugged North Shore, preferring urban pursuits. The Londre swimwear maker, who turns 29 this month, has since returned to her roots. “I started to do some smaller day hikes with my girlfriends when I was travelling, and then it developed into a passion for doing longer adventures because it makes you feel really accomplished,” she says. Rose, who has trekked the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, the Himalayas and France's Mont Blanc, is headed to Patagonia on the southern tip of South America this year.
She found her first expedition, to Morocco in 2015, surprising for more than its snow-covered mountains. After hiking for five hours, she and her friend Kyla Brophy came across a soccer field in the middle of nowhere and with nobody in sight. “Then you'd hike another five kilometres and see a guy carrying a goat on his head that was just screaming up a storm,” Rose recalls, laughing hilariously.
A year ago, she and her now-fiancé, Russell Henderson, did a long trek in Nepal. They'd considered Everest base camp but due to bad weather chose the Annapurna Circuit instead. “It is a 14-day trek where you start out in the jungle with waterfalls and