The Brooks Range is Full of Magic 

Something really special about summer in Alaska is the short but magical window when we can access some of the most wild, remote places. One of the most special? The Brooks Range. Located within the Arctic Circle, I can’t help but keep coming back to these mountains.

This trip consisted of myself, Luc, and our good friend Will. The three of us hiked and packrafted our way around the Delong Mountains, surrounded by wildlife, sweeping vistas, and endless sunlight

How We Planned Our Brooks Range Trip

Planning to spend time in this extra-wild area takes a lot of effort. The Brooks Range does not have any roads or developed trails. A successful trip in this wild place requires hiring a bush plan to take you to a remote landing strip and doing lots of research to find good routes nearby.

Lining up the timing also feels like threading a needle. We try to go late enough so that the snow has had time to melt away for easier walking, but early...

Three Strategies for Peeing Outside for People with Vulvas

For beginner outdoor adventurers, peeing outside can be intimidating! For people with penises, the method is usually pretty simple. But if you have a vulva, you might be looking for a little more guidance. Everybody pees, and we want to help break down any anxiety you might have about answering nature’s call. The good news is hygienic and comfortable peeing outside is easy with just a few pro tips and some experimentation! 

We came up for the idea for this blog after having a couple different casual conversations with friends last summer who had wildly different approaches to peeing outside! Different preferences are part of the game, so we asked three folks to share their preferred method for taking care of business. Each person has a different strategy, including simple and low-budget solutions. Below are some tips for success as well as pointers for when and why one option might work better than the others.

If...

Making the most of summer by slowing down, bringing your buds, and finding joy.

This is a guest blog by Mind & Mountain friend & team member Vanessa Chavarriaga. Vanessa is a Colombian, mountain athlete, environmental sociologist & outdoor advocate.

When the white blanket of winter creeps away, summer comes in full force with a perfect concoction of colors, smells, and feelings. The oversaturated greens of spring create colors that you’ve never seen before. The sweet smells of pine sap, dust and sunshine create a cocktail for your nose. The hot sun on your skin warms every cell in your body. When the heat becomes overwhelming, a cold dip in a lake soothes your burning skin, mixing fire and ice and waking you up with a jolt of energy. 

Summer is a time for endless options.

The long days make it possible to have 5 days in one. But with these endless possibilities often comes the sense of overwhelm, fatigue, and pressure. Here are some tips that have helped me...

Returning From the Wilderness Can Be a Big Adjustment

Sometimes, the hardest part of wilderness trips or vacations isn’t the challenge of hiking or long plane rides, it’s getting back home and adjusting back to regular life afterwards. 

Each summer, I take at least one long trip into the Alaskan wilderness. After about three weeks in nature, coming back home to the city often feels jarring. For many years, I struggled with reintegration from the wilderness back to my regular life. The first few days always felt awkward, sometimes even frustrating. More recently I’ve been noticing this after other intense experiences, like a week of nervous system training. Can you relate?

Whether you’ve been on a long wilderness trip, a retreat, or a vacation, it’s totally normal to feel a mix of emotions in the first few days of your return back home. It’s also totally normal not to feel able to jump right back into your routine at full speed.

This...

Denali Backpacking: Mosquitoes and Memories

Every summer, usually in June, I take a two- or three-week wilderness trip with my husband, Luc. It’s one of our favorite traditions and always gives us quality time and good stories.

In June 2023, we set our sights on the northern part of the Alaska Range in Denali National Park. This was a multi-sport, point-to-point trip including backpacking and packrafting. We planned an epic trip with three different phases, each with their own beauty and challenges.

We started out with a treat: walking down Denali Park Road.

A Rare Window: Backpacking Denali Park Road

In summertime, Denali Park Road is usually hopping with buses. Park visitors board buses to travel the mostly unpaved 92-mile road through the interior of the park. It’s an incredibly scenic route and often rich with wildlife–it’s popular for a reason! For the last couple of years, the second half of the road has been closed due to a landslide. For backpackers...

Cross-Training for Skiing, Channeling Healthy Aggression, and Women-Centered Spaces Outdoors

I recently sat down with Jen Gurecki of Coalition Snow for a juicy chat (hah!) on the Juicy Bits podcast for an episode we called Wisdom & Wellness. We covered so much ground, from learning to ski as an adult, to aging gracefully, to cross-training for winter sports, and lots more.

Jen is a winter superfan and the CEO of Coalition Snow. Over at Coalition Snow, they sell winter sports gear and other merch, plus lead group outdoor trips. Jen and her team have created a fantastic niche in the skiing and snowboarding community, and I’m happy to have an ongoing relationship with them. Jen has even joined us for Ski Babes workouts!

One of the topics we loved most is unpacking the norm and pressure in skier culture for skiers to go as hard as possible and constantly push themselves physically. We poked at why we don’t subscribe to that mentality, and the importance of joy and mental...

Embracing Adventure & Scaling New Heights

This is a guest blog by Mind & Mountain friend & team member Vanessa Chavarriaga. Vanessa is a Colombian, mountain athlete, environmental sociologist & outdoor advocate.

Read on for more of her story:

As a child, I'd gaze out of airplane windows and dream of slipping among the clouds, imagining them as perfect mattresses or trampolines. The wonder of those shifting clouds gradually faded as I grew older, but it wasn’t until I began going on outdoor adventures and backpacking trips in my 20s that I allowed myself to dream again.

This past summer, I spent on an extraordinary eight-day expedition living above a sea of clouds. Together with Phil Henderson, an industry leader with nearly three decades of outdoor experience, we organized a challenging climb up Mount Kilimanjaro, choosing the Lemosho Route. In May 2022, Henderson made history by guiding the first all-Black team to the summit of Mount Everest.

My connection...

Embracing Strength through Bikepacking

This is a guest blog by Mind & Mountain friend Oliviah Franke. Oliviah (they/she) is a biracial Cáhita person who is living on Dena'ina lands and works in Community Education for Native Movement. They are a cyclist, cat mom, gardener, and are very passionate about racial equity and community building. 

Read on for more of their story:Strength is a concept that is not entirely foreign to me, but physical strength specifically is something I never assumed to have. I have known that I have emotional fortitude; a stubbornness to persevere and thrive despite all odds. As a child in the foster care system for the first 6 years of my life, my mental and emotional strength was tested and strengthened time and time again, and even as I grew older and found security and love through adoption; life still demanded a certain strength of me. But it definitely wasn’t physical strength that I focused on building. Because of...

Redefining Goal Setting in Outdoor Recreation

This is a guest blog by Mind & Mountain friend & team member Vanessa Chavarriaga. Vanessa is a Colombian, mountain athlete, environmental sociologist & outdoor advocate. 

Read on for more of her story:

I am a relatively new mountain athlete -- my childhood consisted of indoor activities and being teased for being the slowest one to run the mile in gym class. Read more about my childhood in the Vamos Afuera: Everyone Belongs on the Trails blog. The learning curve for skiing, ultra running, and climbing has been steeper than the trails themselves. The only remedy I have found for this is finding the support of a community of mentors who genuinely want to uplift my potential and help me grow.

I was fortunate enough to find mentorship, inspiration, and sisterhood in my dear friend, Dani Reyes-Acosta. Through our many climbs and runs I have learned that no one is capable of existing in this space alone, and we have...

Expanding the Narrative of Being 'Outdoorsy'

This is a guest blog by Mind & Mountain friend & team member Vanessa Chavarriaga. Vanessa is a columbian, mountain athlete, environmental sociologist & outdoor advocate, who immigrated to the United States during her childhood.

Read on for more of her story:  

I grew up on the lush hillsides of Colombia, with a waterfall and a banana tree in my backyard. My childhood was a mix of color and diversity and the lines between inside spaces and outside spaces were always blurred.

After immigrating to the United States in my later childhood, I quickly learned that the way people in the US interact with the outdoors is quite different, and in a lot of ways less accessible. Here, being an outdoor recreationist is associated with having the right type of gear, body, ability, partners, and knowledge. I am grateful for my multicultural upbringing because it has allowed me to challenge this, and expand the narrative of who...