HOW TANYA BOTTOMLEY CHANGED HER LIFE Tanya Bottomley never imagined life could be this good. The 38-year-old Nelson local lives a stone's throw from beautiful beaches, rivers, and mountains. A customs officer and ultramarathon runner, Tanya hopes to become the first woman to complete the Thir Southern Seasons Miler Challenge [...]
JUST GOING FOR A WALK: FROM ARGENTINA TO ALASKA WITH LUCY BARNARD You’ve heard the story a million times. You know, the one where someone quits their 9 to 5, ventures into the wild, experiences enlightenment, and comes back radically transformed. It’s an appealing notion but rarely the reality, [...]
CLIMBING EVEREST WITH MARIAM KTIRI It’s 2:35 am on May 22, 2019. The night is calm, the moon almost full. Mariam Ktiri is closer to the heavens than any other human on the planet. She can’t see a thing, but ‘the feeling of just standing here, knowing there's nothing higher; [...]
MICHELLE LEE: MASSAGE THERAPIST, ROWER, AND WORLD RECORD HOLDER If there’s one thing Michelle Lee knows, it’s that we’re capable of so much more than we imagine. In April 2017, the Sydneysider became a world record holder - the fastest woman to row one million metres, on a Concept [...]
10 CHALLENGES, 10 MONTHS, $10,000, 1 WOMAN Monique Bortoli is a woman on a mission. The Port Stephens trail runner and mountain biker is set to complete 10 gruelling challenges within 10 months to raise $10,000 for the Yacaaba Centre, a support centre for those experiencing domestic abuse. Why? [...]
8 QUESTIONS WITH ALLIE PEPPER Blue Mountains local, Allie Pepper, is an adventurer, guide, and trainer with twenty years’ experience. She’s currently in Nepal with her climbing partner, Vibeke Sefland, attempting to ascend Makalu [the world’s fifth highest mountain, at 8481m], without the use of supplementary oxygen. Allie gives us some [...]
MEET MEL STAMELL: INVENTOR AND ADVENTURER When it comes to outdoor activities, 35-year-old Mel Stamell has pretty much tried it all: kayaking, climbing, caving, mountain biking, and skiing, her personal favourite. But she's not your average adrenaline junkie. With a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering, she's taken on the [...]
NOT ALL SLEEPING SYSTEMS ARE CREATED EQUAL & FEW CATER SPECIFICALLY TO THE FEMALE FORM For years, female athletes in the outdoor industry have been making compromises when it comes to their gear—settling for climbing clothes with poor fit, skis that can’t hack it at elite level and sleeping bags that [...]
TECH DIVING TO FIND “A PEACE WITHIN” MEET UNDERWATER FILMMAKER KATY FRASER What do cave diving, landscape painting, and ancient Mayan culture have in common? They all feature in British technical diver and filmmaker Katy Fraser’s documentary, A Peace Within, currently debuting across Australia in the Ocean Film Festival. Get ready [...]
LISA BLAIR: THE WOMAN BEHIND THE MAST When Lisa Blair signed up for the Solo Trans-Tasman Yacht Race, there was one teeny, tiny problem: she didn't have a boat. Neither that, nor the fact that it was her first solo sailing trip, could stop her. She found a yacht, [...]
