See Her Outside: Stories From Women Who Adventure

The outfit you're wearing right now took more water to make than you'll drink before you turn 40. Mina Guli has spent a decade running to make that water visible.

Mina Guli is a water advocate and ultrarunner. After a 15-year career in law, finance, and climate change, she founded Thirst Foundation, a nonprofit focused on changing how we think about water. This summer she ran Keep the River Running: 2,000 miles along the Colorado River, all the way to where the water runs out in Mexico and on to Los Angeles, starting at 2 a.m. to beat 120-degree heat. Through the Grand Canyon, she ran with Sunny Stroeer (full disclosure: Sunny is also the executive director of the GEA Alliance, which presents this podcast).

Mina and Angie talked about:

• Why the clothes you're wearing took more water to make than you'll drink before age 40

• "If climate is a shark, water is the teeth"

• Why the Colorado River: 40 million people, $1.2 trillion in economic activity, and 90% of winter leafy greens

• Building a pie factory instead of dividing up the crumbs: fragmentation, financing, and future-proofing

• Planning a 2,000-mile summer run around wildfires, drought, and 150-degree sun

• Choosing 25 kilos of water over pack rafts at the top of the Nankoweap Trail

• Crying on a flat rock halfway down, and what Mina realized there

• The viral Deer Creek video and what the comment section missed about two women in their 50s

• Why adventure media rewards the scariest-looking clip over the useful how-to

• Running 200 marathons in 32 countries, hearing crickets, and redesigning the campaign around outcomes

• How Keep the River Running secured $32 million from the Coca-Cola Foundation, Amazon, and Grundfos

• What you can do about water without lacing up

Check out these resources:

• Mina Guli's website

• Keep the River Running

• Mina on Instagram: @minaguli

• Trail Running Sisterhood interest list (applications open November 2)

• The Cairn Project on IG

• The Cairn Project's newsletter

• Become a Trailblazer

• Summit Scholarship Foundation

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond:

• Become a Trailblazer. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.

• Check out the Summit Scholarship Foundation.

• Send this episode to a friend who keeps saying "I could never do that."

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

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Acadia Gantz is a midwife, running coach, and former river guide and ski patroller who lives, works, and plays in the western Maine mountains.

Content note: this episode includes discussion of sexual assault, alcohol use, disordered eating, and depression. Please take care while listening.

Acadia and Angie talked about:

• Leaving Colorado State University to guide rivers and work ski patrol
• How party culture gets baked into seasonal outdoor work
• Being the only woman guide at her outpost, and the sexual assault by a senior guide the company protected
• Self-medicating with alcohol, disordered eating, and ultrarunning
• Four attempts at the Bear 100, and the 2023 race where she cried for 36 hours
• Sobriety, a sobriety community, EMDR, and feeling lighter on her feet in the woods
• Sharing her story publicly for the first time, and the stories that showed up once she did

Big news: Acadia is coaching the new trail half marathon cohort of the Trail Running Sisterhood, our 2027 scholarship program. Applications open November 2026.

⁠Trail Running Sisterhood⁠ (and join the ⁠2027 waitlist⁠)

📚 Podcast rec! The Outdoorsy Women+ Book Pod

Hosted by Christine Reed, the Outdoorsy Women+ Book Pod features women and gender-expansive writers with an outdoor adventure book out in the world. They cover hiking, running, climbing, kayaking, biking, and snow sports, in memoir, narrative nonfiction, and fiction.

On this show, we're always nudging you to tell your own story. Christine's guests took that all the way to a finished book — and now you can hear all about it in audio form!

Follow the Outdoorsy Women+ Book Pod wherever you're listening right now, and find your next favorite episode (or book).

Check out these resources:

• Canyon Wren Coaching, Acadia's website
• Acadia on Instagram: @trailrunningbabycatcher
• Acadia's story, published April 2026

• Books: The River's Daughter by Bridget Crocker, Know My Name by Chanel Miller, One Way Back by Christine Blasey Ford, Push Off From Here by Laura McKowen
• Dr. Maria Blevins
• Respect Outside
• A-Dash Collaborative
• Take Back the Night
• The Cairn Project on IG
• The Cairn Project's newsletter

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

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Just because somebody is physically safe in the outdoors doesn't necessarily mean that they can access a sense of belonging.

Sally Steele is co-founder and CEO of Outdoorithm, a platform that makes it easy to find the right campground for your family, and of Outdoorithm Collective, a nonprofit bringing underrepresented families onto public lands for rest, nourishment, movement, and community.

Sally and Angie talked about:

• How slavery, then sharecropping, disrupted her family's relationship to land for generations
• Growing up without any exposure to national parks or outdoor recreation
• The barriers to belonging outdoors: logistics, the cost of gear, and physical and psychological safety
• Why "will I be physically safe" and "do I belong here" are two different, equally real questions
• Scarcity mentality, geotagging, and the difference between gatekeeping and entitlement
• Building a "Community Vibe Score" for campgrounds, modeled on the Negro Motorist Green Book
• Outdoorithm Collective's free family camping trips, and the mantras that anchor them
• Why cultivating belonging on public lands is part of what protects them

Check out these resources:

• Outdoorithm
• Outdoorithm Collective
• Outdoorithm on Instagram: @outdoorithm
• "Why Being Black and Outdoorsy Is a Whole Thing" — NPR
• "Embracing Our Relationships with Whiteness in the Outdoors" — Melanin Base Camp
• "The Achilles Heel of Trail Running" — Melanin Base Camp
• "Five Reasons Why You Should Keep Geotagging" — Melanin Base Camp
• "Does Geotagging Matter?" — Femignarly
• The Cairn Project on IG
• The Cairn Project's newsletter

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app. Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

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Jen started the first women-owned ski and snowboard brand in the universe, ran it for 12 years, and then closed it — and this conversation about what's actually worth fighting for is required listening for anyone who wants to survive capitalism and do some good in the world.

Jen Gurecki is a multi-hyphenate entrepreneur who has spent her life doing things differently — founding Zawadisha, a microlending program for women in rural Kenya; starting Coalition Snow, the first women-owned ski and snowboard brand in the universe; and mentoring small business owners on aligning their values with their livelihoods. Her newest venture, Far Out, brings together outdoor adventure travel and creative exploration.

Jen and Angie talked about:

• Growing up as an activist, not an entrepreneur — from a McDonald's playground moment to taking down her principal in the school paper
• Starting Coalition Snow in 2014 "to fuck with the industry"
• Why "unisex" gear is a business decision, not change
• The cancer diagnosis that rewrote what's worth fighting for
• Deciding to close Coalition after 12 years
• Far Out: no fake urgency, no discounts, and a story page for every maker
• Redefining wealth, enoughness, and why you should stop waiting for someone else to fix it

Check out these resources:

• Far Out
• Far Out on Instagram: @letsget_farout
• Jen on Instagram: @yogurecki
• Jen's Substack: Redefining Radical
• The Cairn Project on IG
• The Cairn Project's newsletter
• Become a Trailblazer
• Summit Scholarship Foundation

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond:

• Become a Trailblazer. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.
• Check out the Summit Scholarship Foundation.
• Send this episode to a friend who wants to survive capitalism and do some good in the world.

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

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Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Listen on: Amazon, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, other platforms

Although Puerto Rico is less than a four-hour flight from East Coast hubs like New York City and Washington, D.C., many continental Americans haven't experienced its stunning ecosystems and culture: rainforest, mangroves, bioluminescent bays, and one of the largest underground cave systems in the world.

Writer, athlete, and engineer Alex Garcia grew up in that landscape, and this conversation traces how she carried it with her through a hard relocation to the mainland US, a period of major injuries and professional upheaval, and back out into some of the biggest adventures of her life.

Alex and Angie talked about:

• The culture shock of relocating to Virginia for work
• Feeling like a second-class citizen despite being born a US citizen
• Getting through 2021–2023, a period riddled with major injuries and professional upheaval, and the mantra that carried her: "the only way out is through"
• Difficult Pursuits: her yearly practice of choosing one hard, self-designed outdoor challenge
• Becoming the first and fastest person to complete the Veredas Noreste, Puerto Rico's only long-distance backpacking trail, in January 2023
• How to be a sustainable change agent without burning out — focusing your energy where it's needed most

Check out these resources:

• ⁠The Cairn Project on IG⁠
• ⁠The Cairn Project's newsletter⁠
• ⁠Become a Trailblazer⁠
• ⁠Summit Scholarship Foundation⁠

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond:

• ⁠Become a Trailblazer⁠. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.
• Check out the ⁠Summit Scholarship Foundation⁠.
• Send this episode to a friend who wants to survive capitalism and do some good in the world.

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

⁠Follow on Spotify⁠

⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠

Listen on: ⁠Amazon⁠, ⁠Pocket Casts⁠, ⁠iHeartRadio⁠, ⁠other platforms

If you've ever worried that becoming a parent means losing the adventurous parts of yourself, this conversation is the antidote: Julie mountain biked through both of her pregnancies, and she's built a community of thousands of moms proving you don't have to shrink your world after kids.

Julie Bacon is the founder of Mothership Collective, a community helping moms stay connected to the outdoors, adventure, creativity, and themselves through motherhood. (And they fully embrace "alien disco ball vibes" as feral moms.)

Julie and Angie talked about:

• What moms are missing in traditional outdoor communities
• The viral climbing-wall photo that drew hundreds of critical comments a day
• How pregnant athletes can modify sports
• The hardest parts of the first year of motherhood
• Building the Mothership: a viral reel, a 10,000-member Facebook group, and 160 Rally the Village events across North America in one month
• What outdoor brands get wrong when talking to moms and why honesty beats polish
• Her pep talk for new moms: you don't have to wait, and you can start small

Check out these resources:

• Mothership Collective
• Mothership Collective on Instagram: @the.mothership.collective
• The Cairn Project on IG
• The Cairn Project's newsletter
• Become a Trailblazer
• Summit Scholarship Foundation

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond:

• Become a Trailblazer. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.
• Check out the Summit Scholarship Foundation.
• Send this episode to a mom you know — or somebody who's kid-curious.

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

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Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Listen on: Amazon, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, other platforms

On day 21 of an instructor course in the Wind River Range, Jeannette Stawski's rope dislodged a 250-pound boulder. It landed on her legs — 15 miles from the nearest trailhead, in a designated wilderness where no helicopter was coming fast.

Since then, Jeannette has identified the ingredients that make a fantastic outdoor leader, and resilience is a muscle she's built through an entire career of setbacks that became pivots: Olympic dreams ended by back surgery, multiple NOLS rejections, and that day under the boulder.

Jeannette and Angie talked about:

• Pivoting from pre-Olympic rowing camps to raft guiding in Glacier National Park after back surgery ended her Olympic dreams
• Getting rejected by NOLS multiple times and how their coachable rejections shaped her career
• The rappelling accident in the Wind River Range and the rescue that followed
• The gift she's giving her kids: a cross-country road trip to climb the Grand Teton without their parents
• The self-deprecation pattern in women outdoor leaders

Check out these resources:

• The Outdoor Leader by Jeannette Stawski
• Leading Valiantly
• Jeannette on Instagram: @leadingvaliantly
• Jeannette on LinkedIn
• Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim, October 10, 2026 — women 50+
• The Cairn Project on IG
• The Cairn Project's newsletter
• Become a Trailblazer
• Summit Scholarship Foundation

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond:

• Become a Trailblazer. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.
• Check out the Summit Scholarship Foundation.
• Send this episode to a friend who leads others outdoors.

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

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Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Listen on: Amazon, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, other platforms

Meet a lifelong outdoor guide who has kept adventure in her life for 70 years and counting. You'll hear 7 campfire stories about what the wilderness has taught her.

Scout Wilkins has been guiding since she was 11 years old — backpacking, horses and mules, rivers and canyons, winters as a ranch hand, a fire lookout tower in eastern Oregon, and these days guiding in places like the Zion Narrows. She has taken what she learned in the wilderness and mapped it over to the human-built environment: her trainings work to free people, systems, and cultures from being trapped in the idea that there is one right way.

Check out these resources:

• Scout's personal coaching and guiding: TravelingLIGHT.life
• WordTrails — Scout's game to nurture an improvisational life
• Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim, October 10, 2026 — women 50+
• The Cairn Project on IG
• The Cairn Project's newsletter
• Become a Trailblazer
• Summit Scholarship Foundation

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond:

• Become a Trailblazer. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.
• Check out the Summit Scholarship Foundation.
• Send this episode to the Bessie Greener in your life — or the 22-year-old who needs one.

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

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Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Listen on: Amazon, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, other platforms

Antonina Samoilova's mountaineering career began with a breakup, two weeks' notice, and a one-way ticket to Antarctica.

Antonina is the first Ukrainian woman to summit the five highest mountains on Earth — Everest, K2, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, and Makalu — and in 2024 she made history by summiting Everest and Lhotse in a single 24-hour push. She grew up as a city girl in central Ukraine with zero outdoor background, and her message for women is as direct as the routes she climbs: fear is a door, not a wall.

Antonina and Angie talked about:

• Growing up in a landlocked city in Ukraine with no mountains and no outdoor role models
• Her first mountain — Kilimanjaro — and swearing she'd never climb again (she lied)
• The breakup that sent her to Antarctica on two weeks' notice, and how that trip changed everything
• Summiting Everest just four months after Antarctica
• Running out of oxygen on Kanchenjunga at 8,400 meters — and her only option was to keep climbing
• Summiting Everest and Lhotse back-to-back in exactly 24 hours
• Why she believes women's biggest limits live in their heads, not their bodies
• Managing your menstrual cycle at extreme altitude
• Her current "fear frontier": public speaking in English
• What's next — Nanga Parbat and the full Crown of the Earth

Check out these resources:

• Antonina's website
• Antonina on Instagram: @tonya.samoilova
• The Cairn Project on IG
• The Cairn Project's newsletter
• Become a Trailblazer
• Summit Scholarship Foundation

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond:

• Become a Trailblazer. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.
• Check out the Summit Scholarship Foundation.
• Send this episode to a friend who wants to climb an 8,000m peak.

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

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Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Listen on: Amazon, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, other platforms

Ultrarunner Rachel Entrekin joined the First 50k Sisterhood and hundreds of other women running the Wild Woman Trail Runs races on June 19-21, 2026.

We recorded our conversation in case you weren't there IRL!

Rachel Entrekin is a pro trail runner and record holder who most recently outright won the Cocodona 250 race in Arizona.

Rachel and Angie talked about:

• Traits that make for a strong runner (that society sometimes weaponizes against women)
• The life-changing moment in the middle of Cocodona 2026 and what she's passing onto other women
• How sharing your story with others can shape the future of trail culture

Learn more:

• The First 50k Sisterhood
• Rachel on Instagram: @rachel__entrekin
• Wild Woman Trail Runs
• Start your own Adventure Fundraiser
• The Cairn Project on Instagram: @thecairnproject

Our First 50k Sisterhood runners ran their first ultramarathon last weekend, and Coach Zoë was one of the folks who made it so successful.

Zoë Rom is a journalist, coach, podcast host, and ultrarunner based in Carbondale, CO. She co-hosts Your Diet Sucks and The Trailhead Podcast. Zoe's journalism focuses on public lands and the environment. She coaches endurance athletes through Microcosm Coaching, where she designed the First 50k Sisterhood's training program alongside her partner TJ David.

We talk about:

• Why carbs are queen and other women’s nutrition talk
• When should you hire a coach?
• Coaching the First 50k Sisterhood and what shifted for the 15 women
• Mental barriers she sees for women athletes and why "just be confident" misses the point
• What trail races can do to be more welcoming of women
• Zoë’s path to 2nd place at Leadville in 2024
• What perimenopausal listeners of Your Diet Sucks are asking about
• Insta-Coach: Zoe answers one-sentence coaching questions on toddlers, treadmills, night miles, and making carbs less scary
• Why YOUR story can be just as impactful as Rachel Entrekin’s!

Check out these resources:

🏃‍♀️ Microcosm Coaching

📱 More from Zoë

💌 Meet the First 50k Sisterhood runners (and read their stories!)

➡️ The Cairn Project on IG

✨ The Cairn Project's newsletter

🥾Become a Trailblazer

📅Summit Scholarship Foundation

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond

•

⁠⁠⁠⁠Become a Trailblazer⁠⁠⁠⁠. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.

•

Check out the⁠⁠⁠⁠ Summit Scholarship Foundation⁠⁠⁠⁠.

•

Share this episode with a woman in your life who has a wild business idea she hasn't acted on yet.

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠

Listen on:⁠⁠⁠⁠ Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠ Pocket Casts⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠ iHeartRadio⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠ other platforms⁠⁠⁠⁠

Mimi was a third-year medical student when she signed on as the sole medical officer and only woman on a four-climber expedition attempting the east face of Everest from Tibet (a route that had only been climbed once before).

If you love what Mimi has to say, her memoir was the featured book in our last winter Grit Lit box.Join Grit Lit now and you'll get our welcome box plus the next quarterly box this summer. Proceeds fund wilderness scholarships for girls and women.

Mimi Zieman is a physician, writer, and the 2025 Georgia Author of the Year for her memoir Tap Dancing on Everest, also selected as the Best Memoir of 2024 by the American Writing Awards.

Mimi and Angie talk about:

• Training to be the sole medical officer on an Everest expedition while still a third-year med student
• Solo backpacking in Nepal in a pre-internet era
• Why Mimi became an OB/GYN after a bad teenage appointment
• The beauty and challenge of being the sole woman on an Himalayan expedition
• What menstruating adventurers should know before heading into the backcountry
• Advice for women who want to write a book, and behind the scenes of writing a vulnerable memoir

📚Join Grit Lit — Tap Dancing on Everest was in last winter's box!

Check out these resources:

📖 Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman

🌐https://www.mimiziemanmd.com

📱 Mimi onInstagram,Facebook, andTikTok

✏️ Medicine, Mountains, & More on Substack

➡️ The Cairn Project on IG

✨ The Cairn Project's newsletter

🥾Become a Trailblazer

📅Summit Scholarship Foundation

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond

•

⁠⁠⁠Become a Trailblazer⁠⁠⁠. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.

•

Check out the⁠⁠⁠ Summit Scholarship Foundation⁠⁠⁠.

•

Share this episode with a woman in your life who has a wild business idea she hasn't acted on yet.

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

⁠⁠⁠Follow on Spotify⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠

Listen on:⁠⁠⁠ Amazon⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠ Pocket Casts⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠ iHeartRadio⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠ other platforms⁠⁠⁠

Seasonal workers know the feeling: You love the community, the adventure, the purpose, and then every fall you get laid off, change your address, and try to figure out health insurance, again.

Sasha Clonts is the founder of Guide Theory, a platform helping seasonal workers build more sustainable, empowered lives through coaching, community, and practical tools.

Sasha and Angie talk about:

• The COVID-era burnout that pushed her to change her life and work

• Selling her car, buying a van, and ending up at a Taos rafting company

• Falling in love with the seasonal lifestyle before she even knew how to raft

• Why empathy is one of the most powerful tools adventure leaders can hold

• Why she was the wrong fit for full-time raft guiding (and what that taught her)

• How she built her business, Guide Theory, to help seasonal workers find sustainability in finance and lifestyle

• Curiosity as the antidote to imposter syndrome

• What corporate employees can learn from seasonal workers

See Her Outside is partnering with⁠⁠ Western Colorado University's Outdoor Industry MBA⁠⁠ — a remote degree program built for people who want to lead, build, and create in the outdoor space. If you've ever thought about building a career or business in the outdoor industry, WCU's Outdoor Industry MBA was made for you.

Check out these resources:

🛶 Guide Theory programs: http://guidetheory.com

📱 Guide Theory on Instagram: @guidetheory

⁠➡️ The Cairn Project on IG⁠

⁠✨ The Cairn Project's newsletter⁠

🥾⁠ Become a Trailblazer⁠

📅⁠ Summit Scholarship Foundation⁠

🎓⁠⁠ Western Colorado University Outdoor Industry MBA⁠⁠

If you want to put a big seasonal adventure on your own calendar, join us in the Grand Canyon on October 10, 2026 for our Rim-to-Rim hike! It’s a bucket list trip, and proceeds fund wilderness scholarships for girls and women. ⁠⁠Learn more here.

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond

•

⁠⁠Become a Trailblazer⁠⁠. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.

•

Check out the⁠⁠ Summit Scholarship Foundation⁠⁠.

•

Share this episode with a woman in your life who has a wild business idea she hasn't acted on yet.

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

⁠⁠Follow on Spotify⁠⁠

⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠

Listen on:⁠⁠ Amazon⁠⁠,⁠⁠ Pocket Casts⁠⁠,⁠⁠ iHeartRadio⁠⁠,⁠⁠ other platforms⁠⁠

⁠Hike Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon this October!⁠

Four women set off on a 1,380-mile paddle from Lake Superior to the Hudson Bay, and became the first publicly documented all-women's crew to complete the historic Voyageur route to York Factory.

Along the way they crossed a 9-mile portage on day one, paddled multiple 40-mile days through wildfire smoke, navigated a teammate's POTS diagnosis and another's torn rotator cuff, and went a full first week on the Boundary Waters meeting 150 paddlers — not one of them a woman.

This conversation with teammate Helena Karlstrom is about networking your way into the trip of a lifetime, the group dynamics that get you to the Arctic, and why simply being visible on the water is a form of activism.

Helena and Angie talk about:

• The Appalachian Trail trip her freshman year that changed her trajectory
• How Girl Scouts gave her an outlet to connect with other women outside
• The Appalachian Trail trip her freshman year that changed her trajectory
• How the Hudson Bay Girls met and dreamt up this expedition and planning the entire expedition over Zoom
• Partnering with Save the Boundary Waters and the Northern Lakes Canoe Base
• Navigating a teammate's POTS diagnosis and another's torn rotator cuff mid-trip
• Finishing the final day with a 17-hour, 55-mile paddle to the Arctic
• Group dynamics, personal growth, and paddling as advocacy

Check out these resources:

📱 Hudson Bay Girls on Instagram: @hudsonbaygirls

🛶 More about the expedition: http://hudsonbaygirls.com

📖 Our episode with Natalie Warren, author of Hudson Bay Bound

⁠➡️ The Cairn Project on IG⁠

⁠✨ The Cairn Project's newsletter⁠

🥾⁠ Become a Trailblazer⁠

📅⁠ Summit Scholarship Foundation⁠

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond

•

⁠⁠Become a Trailblazer⁠⁠. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.

•

Check out the⁠⁠ Summit Scholarship Foundation⁠⁠.

•

Share this episode with a woman in your life who has a wild business idea she hasn't acted on yet.

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

⁠⁠Follow on Spotify⁠⁠

⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠

Listen on:⁠⁠ Amazon⁠⁠,⁠⁠ Pocket Casts⁠⁠,⁠⁠ iHeartRadio⁠⁠,⁠⁠ other platforms⁠⁠

The hands that built Melissa’s entire sport, business, and life were taken from her in an accidental instant.

Her story explores what came next: the mental tools she invented to survive, the small triumphs that felt enormous, and the athletic determination it took to find her way back to the rock.

Melissa's memoir, Climbing Through: A Courageous Story of Grit, Healing and Second Chances, is also the spring pick forGrit Lit, our adventure book club. Join by May 7th to get Melissa's book in your next box.

Melissa Strong is a sponsored rock climber, writer, and restaurant owner based in Estes Park, Colorado, and El Paso, Texas. She's the founder and owner of two acclaimed Estes Park restaurants, Bird & Jim and The Bird's Nest, and together with her husband owns Wagon Wheel Co-op, a guiding concession in Hueco Tanks State Park.

Melissa and Angie talk about:

• Finding rock climbing at 26 after realizing she couldn't run half a mile
• Becoming a sponsored climber in an era before climbing gyms were on every corner
• The near-fatal accident that severely burned her hands
• Seeing a forest and tunnel during her near-death experience
• The "closet of boxes" self-coaching tool she invented in the hospital
• Having her arms literally sewn together for three weeks to rebuild skin
• Tapping into her athlete's mindset to push through recovery
• Why women need to stop shouldering everything and give themselves a break

See Her Outside is partnering with⁠ Western Colorado University's Outdoor Industry MBA⁠ — a remote degree program built for people who want to lead, build, and create in the outdoor space. If you've ever thought about building a career or business in the outdoor industry, WCU's Outdoor Industry MBA was made for you.

📚Join the Grit Lit Adventure Book Club to read Melissa’s book this spring and enjoy other woman-created goodies!

Check out these resources:

📖 Melissa’s book - Climbing Through: A Courageous Story of Grit, Healing and Second Chances

🏔️ http://melissaisstrong.com

✨ Melissa on Instagram

➡️ The Cairn Project on IG

✨ The Cairn Project's newsletter

🥾Become a Trailblazer

📅Summit Scholarship Foundation

🎓⁠ Western Colorado University Outdoor Industry MBA⁠

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond

•

⁠Become a Trailblazer⁠. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.

•

Check out the⁠ Summit Scholarship Foundation⁠.

•

Share this episode with a woman in your life who has a wild business idea she hasn't acted on yet.

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Have you ever chalked up gear discomfort to your body being the problem: the chafing, the shoulder pressure, the hip belt that just won't cinch down far enough?

It's not you. It's the gear.

Sarah Berkeley (trail name: Mellow!) is the founder ofSymbiosis Gear, an ultralight backpacking gear company designing packs and accessories that actually fit women's bodies.

Sarah went through three backpacks on the Pacific Crest Trail before she decided to stop waiting for someone else to solve the problem! She founded Symbiosis Gear, an ultralight backpacking gear company built specifically for women's bodies.

See Her Outside is partnering withWestern Colorado University's Outdoor Industry MBA — a remote degree program built for people who want to lead, build, and create in the outdoor space. If you've ever thought about building a career or business in the outdoor industry, WCU's Outdoor Industry MBA was made for you.

Sarah and Angie talk about:

• The heavy backpacking and camping gear Sarah started her outdoor adventures with
• Thru-hiking the Vermont Long Trail solo and running into gear problems
• Sarah’s journey to ultralight gear after meeting other hikers
• Tips for solo hiking after experiencing urban assault
• Going through three backpacks on the PCT and finally deciding to build her own
• Gear and safety: The moment she fell through a snow bridge in the Sierra and had to make a fast call
• Why the outdoor industry isn't designing for women
• How Symbiosis Gear fits differently: curved straps, adjustable sternum, and a waist belt that fits every body size
• Lessons from building a product-based business and what’s ahead

Check out these resources:

🌐Symbiosis Gear

📱 Symbiosis on IG

📱 Sarah on IG

➡️ The Cairn Project on IG

✨ The Cairn Project's newsletter

🥾Become a Trailblazer

📅Summit Scholarship Foundation

🎓Western Colorado University Outdoor Industry MBA

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond

•

Become a Trailblazer. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.

•

Check out theSummit Scholarship Foundation.

•

Share this episode with a woman in your life who has a wild business idea she hasn't acted on yet.

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

Follow on Spotify

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Listen on:Amazon,Pocket Casts,iHeartRadio,other platforms

When Colleen was a kid, her mom read her a story about a family stranded in a storm on Kilimanjaro. Most kids would have been scared. Colleen thought: “I have to go there.”

Colleen MacDonald is a mountaineer and ultrarunner specializing in 50 and 100-mile ultras. Her unshakable grit and love of flying down technical descents has led her to many adventures and advocacy projects (which you can hear about in our past two episodes together!).

In 2025, that focus took Colleen to Mt. Kilimanjaro, where she set an FKT on a route she and her partner established. She turned this adventure into an advocacy project to raise thousands of dollars for women’s wilderness scholarships.

Colleen and Angie talk about:

• Years of planning this high mountain adventure, with logistical challenges
• How a childhood fascination with the mountain led her here
• Turning her FKT attempt into a fundraiser for women’s wilderness scholarships
• The FKT recap: 62 miles and a new route
• BTS of Kili: guides, porters, female leadership, and support from her partner
• The ascent and descent play-by-play, then health effects after the feat
• Finding a voice in advocacy and representation for women outdoors
• Getting comfortable with visibility and speaking up for others

Other conversations with Colleen:

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Spring 2025: DNF’s, Post-Race Blues, and Competition for Collaboration: Colleen’s Ultrarunning Story

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Winter 2026: Athletes are Advocates to Speak Out Against Fascism: Tips for Speaking Up Even When It’s Scary

Check out these resources:

•

📱 Colleen on IG: @m_cmacdonald

•

➡️ The Cairn Project on IG

•

✨ The Cairn Project's newsletter

•

🥾Become a Trailblazer

•

📅Summit Scholarship Foundation

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond:

•

Become a Trailblazer. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.

•

Check out theSummit Scholarship Foundation.

•

Join our book club, Grit Lit.

•

Share this episode with a friend or family member.

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

Follow on Spotify

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Listen on:Amazon,Pocket Casts,iHeartRadio,other platforms

Brought to you by the Alliance for Gender Equity in Outdoor Adventure (GEA Alliance). Hosted by Angie Lake and edited by Alyson Castonguay.

Kat Schaumberg heard the conventional advice to prove her worth by climbing high mountains – but she ended up ditching the toxic culture to pursue true leadership instead.

Kat began her career in outdoor education at 18 and went on to work as a mountain guide, instructor, and logistics coordinator for many outdoor organizations. She’s spent hundreds of days on expeditions across Alaska, Yosemite, Patagonia, Ecuador, and Nepal, and has been featured in Climbing Magazine writing about the vulnerabilities of being a female guide in a male-dominated space.

Kat and Angie talk about:

• Getting hired at guiding companies and feeling treated as less competent than male coworkers
• What it meant to be a "marketable female guide": the pressure to be strong, charismatic, likable, and professional all at once — while suppressing her personal self
• A trifecta of traumas that ended her full-time guiding career and sent her toward healing
• Bringing bodywork and somatic awareness into expedition guiding
• The menstrual cycle and outdoor adventure
• Co-founding a forest school and completing a two-year, 10,000-mile sailing journey: "always lead with the lungs, follow with the feet"

Check out these resources:

•

🌐Kat's massage therapy website

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🎬Kat and her fiancé's sailing vlog on YouTube

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📱 Kat on IG: @alpine_kat

•

➡️ The Cairn Project on IG

•

✨ The Cairn Project's newsletter

•

🥾Become a Trailblazer

•

📅Summit Scholarship Foundation

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app!

You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond:

• Become a Trailblazer. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.
• Check out theSummit Scholarship Foundation.
• Share this episode with a friend or family member.

Make sure you subscribe to the See Her Outside Podcast so you don't miss a story!

Follow on Spotify

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts

Listen on:Amazon,Pocket Casts,iHeartRadio,other platforms

Brought to you by the Alliance for Gender Equity in Outdoor Adventure (GEA Alliance). Hosted by Angie Lake and edited by Alyson Castonguay.

Grab the workbook: How to Use Your Adventure for Your Career Goals

If you went to summer camp as a kid, you get it. The bats at dusk, the swim across the pond, the feeling of being someone slightly new for a week... Those memories don't fade.

And if you worked at summer camp, you also know that the skills you built there — troubleshooting on the fly, managing 300 kids and 65 staff, keeping everyone safe and fed and having fun — are some of the most transferable skills you'll ever develop.

Mary-Jane Strom is the CEO of Girl Scouts of Northern California, a lifetime Girl Scout member, and a Gold Award recipient whose project focused on increasing access to outdoor spaces for all girls and women.

Mary-Jane is also a competitive swimmer working toward completing open water swim events in all 50 states.

This conversation is for anyone who's ever felt like their outdoor experience doesn't "count" on a resume.

Hear about:

• Why summer camp is a powerful growth environment for youth (and adults)
• The business of summer camp: 8 weeks or 3 days?
• Mary-Jane's career path from camper to lifeguard to camp director to CEO
• How to translate outdoor leadership experience into resume-ready skills
• Mary-Jane's 50-state open water swim goal and how camp swimming started it all
• What the media gets wrong about Girl Scouts

Mary-Jane on LinkedIn | Girl Scouts of Northern California camp info | @gsnorcal on Instagram

Send this episode to your friend who LIVED for summer camp.

Check out these resources:

•

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠➡️ The Cairn Project on IG⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

•

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠✨ The Cairn Project's newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

•

🥾⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Become a Trailblazer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

•

📅⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Summit Scholarship Foundation⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app. Make sure you subscribe to the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠See Her Outside Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ so you don’t miss a story!

Brought to you by the Alliance for Gender Equity in Outdoor Adventure (GEA Alliance). Hosted by Angie Lake and edited by Alyson Castonguay.

Do you remember running sprints as punishment in soccer practice, or the stress of the dreaded PACER test?

Many of us equate running with suffering. But that doesn't have to be the case.

Emily Holland is a runner, rock climber, and Partnerships Manager at HydraPak, where she builds collaborations that fuel adventure and strengthen community across the outdoor industry.

This story is a reminder that we’ll probably continue to take in toxic messaging in running media, but with care and thoughtfulness we can always come back to feeling strong and happy in our bodies. And, we can create our own media to shift the greater running culture.

Hear about:

• Our early running exposure, which was typically sports team punishment
• Experiencing body image challenges as a child and adolescent
• Differing cultural norms in different sports
• The negative effects of over-exercising and under-fueling
• Moving to Boulder, CO and rock climbing and trail running there
• Learning how to fuel for distance running and listening to her body
• Running the Gorge Waterfalls 50k and the Grand Traverse in 2025
• Juggling goals in different outdoor sports
• Emily's storytelling through "Jacked and Chill" and finding joy in strength training

⁠Emily on LinkedIn⁠ | ⁠Emily's Substack⁠ | ⁠Emily on IG⁠

Send this episode to a friend who wants to set a running goal!

Check out these resources:

•

⁠⁠⁠⁠➡️ The Cairn Project on IG⁠⁠⁠⁠

•

⁠⁠⁠⁠✨ The Cairn Project's newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠

•

🥾⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Become a Trailblazer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

•

📅⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Summit Scholarship Foundation⁠⁠⁠⁠

Like this episode? Leave a 5-star rating and review on your podcast app.

Make sure you subscribe to the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠See Her Outside Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ so you don’t miss a story!

Brought to you by the Alliance for Gender Equity in Outdoor Adventure (GEA Alliance). Hosted by Angie Lake and edited by Alyson Castonguay.