Beth Rodden is one of the best female rock climbers of all time, and a globally recognized ambassador for the outdoor community. She has achieved a number of notable free climbs on El Capitan, the 3,000-foot monolith in Yosemite National Park, and has also established the hardest first ascent of a crack climb ever done by a woman. She has been climbing for thirty years, and she hopes to be climbing for thirty more. She lives with her family in California. For more information, visit: bethrodden.com. In our conversation, Beth speaks to me about the book, climbing, of seeing strength in young f ..read more

Sydney Palmer-Leger is one of the young cross country ski racers on the US National B team. She made a quick trip to Falun, Sweden for the season finale, where she skied to her best-ever World Cup result -- a 23rd place. Right before Falun, Sydney capped off a stellar collegiate career with a victory at the NCAA National Championships in Steamboat, Springs Colorado. Sydney is a three-time NCAA National Champion, was a member of the 2020 Junior World Championship Silver Medal Relay Team and is a 40k classic U.S. National Champion. In 2023, she represented the USA at the 2023 World Ch ..read more

Kendra Coleman is a professional track and field athlete sponsored by Oiselle. She is currently focused on the Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugen, Oregon June 21-30, 2024, where she will compete in the 800. Her top accomplishments include her Highschool UIL State Championship in the 400 meters and a 9th place finish at 2016 Olympic Trials in the 800 meters. Kendra is also the Senior Administrative Coordinator at The University of Texas where she producers Blackademics TV airing on PBS and facilitates grants for education under the black studies department. She has a Bachelor of Science ..read more

Liz Derstine is a musician, runner, writer, and as of 2020, a long-distance hiker. On July 7, 2020, she embarked on the life-altering adventure of through-hiking the 2,193-mile Appalachian Trail, as quickly as possible. Now, having had several years to reflect on this epic journey, Derstine tells her whole AT story: from what inspired her to want to hike the entirety of this daunting trail, to how it all went down, through to the many ways her life has changed as a result of transporting herself on foot, through the wilderness, from Georgia to Maine. At its core, this is a journey of self-disc ..read more

Ski Coach, Julia Hayes grew up skiing, running, cycling, climbing, and hiking in Frisco, Colorado. She attended and cross country ski raced for Montana State University, graduating with a degree in exercise physiology. She has been coaching with Bridger Ski Foundation for five years, where she works with high school/early college age skiers. In 2023, she earned the opportunity to coach at the Junior World Championships in Canada. For the 2024 season, Julia is one of 8 coaches named as Trail to Gold Coaching Fellows. Julia loves to mountain bike in the summers and spend all her free time w ..read more

Wang Ping is a poet, writer, photographer, installation artist, founder and director of Kinship of Rivers project. Her multi-media exhibitions include “Kinship of Rivers: We Are Water,” “Behind the Gate: After the Flood of the Three Gorges,” and hundreds of other installation exhibitions at schools, colleges, galleries, museums, lock and dams, confluences around the world, including the interactive installations at the Everest (Tibet and Nepal sides) and Kilimanjaro. Ping, Professor Emerita of English at Macalester College, has authored 15 award winning books of poetry, prose and translations ..read more

Leann Bentley is the Press Officer/Attaché for the Stifel U.S. Cross Country Ski Team and Communications Manager at U.S. Ski & Snowboard. Based in Park City, Utah, Leann has been with the team for almost two years and is inspired daily by the incredible athletes and staff, pushing her to keep raising the bar and doing what she can to elevate the sport and athletes to new levels. Originally from Wyoming, Leann finds happiness when outside in the mountains, whether it be skiing, running, biking, climbing, hiking – and loves a good, loud laugh. Get involved and support the show and more spor ..read more

Kristen Bourne has coached cross country skiing at the collegiate and professional level for the past four years. She was the assistant coach at The College of Saint Scholastica for two years where she was a 2021 Women’s Sports Foundation Tara VanDerveer Fellow. During the summer, she was an assistant coach with the Craftsbury Green Racing Project professional team in Vermont. Prior to coaching, she skied for Northern Michigan University for five years, qualifying for the NCAA Championships three-times and representing the United States at the World Junior Championships and U23 World Champions ..read more

Madeline Depman is early on in her career as a professional mountain biker. She completed her first bike race when she was 16, which was her first introduction to being part of any competitive sport. Since then, she has been working hard to gain fitness and technical skills with the goal of being one of the best in the country. In 2021 she raced her first Cross Country Mountain Bike World Cup in Snowshoe, WV. In 2022 her daughter Ruth was born. Madeline started racing again in 2023 with a lighter schedule to give ample time for recovery but a 3rd place in the Ring of Fire (part of the NUE seri ..read more

Dr. Margo Mountjoy received her medical education and her family medicine training at McMaster University, Canada and her sports medicine specialty degree in Ottawa, Canada. Margo received her PhD from the VU University in Amsterdam. Margo was the medical and scientific lead at the Health & Performance Centre at the University of Guelph where she focused her practice on promoting elite athlete care. In addition, Margo has acted as the national team physician for Synchro Canada for 20 years as well as for the National Endurance Training Centre Athletes (middle- and long-distance track ..read more