Claire and Emma of Salmon Sisters join us to pull back the curtain on what it takes to get wild Alaskan salmon from the water to your plate. Growing up on a remote off-grid homestead at the tip of the Alaskan Peninsula, fishing commercially with their father, and building a women-owned small business over the last decade, these two sisters have become some of Alaska's most compelling voices for sustainable fishing, fisheries advocacy, and connection to place.

In this episode we cover:

• Why all Alaskan salmon is wild and what that means for you as a consumer
• How commercial fishermen function as scientists and frontline stewards of wild fisheries
• The truth about overfishing, escapement, and sustainable fisheries management in Alaska
• What it looks like to build a women-owned seafood business from the ground up
• Raising the next generation of women in commercial fishing
• How living off the land shapes values around food, sustainability, and community
• Why small family fishing businesses are the backbone of the Alaska seafood industry
• Advocacy work protecting salmon habitat and watersheds for future generations

Find Salmon Sisters at salmonsisters.com and follow them on Instagram @salmonsisters.

Find host Gabriella on Instagram at @outsidegabs and the podcast at @womeninwildplaces

🏜️ Join Us in Bears Ears This October

This fall, Women in Wild Places is teaming up with KMAC Guides for a five day backpacking trip through Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. We will hike sandstone canyons, explore ancient Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings, sleep under some of the darkest skies in the lower 48, and build real community with a group of women who showed up for something that called to them. Optional yoga daily, structured community moments throughout, and KMAC guides making sure every experience level is supported every step of the way. Space is very limited.

👉 Sign up here

Julie McGuire is a South Bronx high school English teacher, backcountry skier, and the first woman to ski all 33 of the Catskills High Peaks — mountains that top out at 4,200 feet and are far more rugged, technical, and unforgiving than most people realize.

In this episode, Julie joins host Gabriella in a conversation that's as much about inner wilderness as outer wilderness. She shares how the abrupt end of her marriage sent her into the Catskills and how skiing solo through these dense, cliffed-out New York mountains became a spiritual practice, a healing journey, and eventually a record-breaking achievement documented in her award-winning short film, Queen of the Catskills.

We talk about backcountry skiing in the Northeast, what makes the Catskills so technically challenging compared to Western and Alpine terrain, skinning up steep bushwhack terrain with no snowpack, following your intuition in the mountains and in life, the spiritual experience of solo wilderness adventures, and bringing her South Bronx students into wild places for the first time.

Whether you're a skier, a hiker, a Catskills lover, or someone who's ever rebuilt their life one mountain at a time, this one's for you.

Connect with Julie:📸 Instagram: @queenofthecatskillsny🎬 Queen of the Catskills — film still on tour, link in show notes

Connect with Women in Wild Places:📸 Podcast Instagram: @womeninwildplaces🌿 Host Instagram: @outsidegabs🎒 Gear Lists & Favorites: shopmy.us/outsidegabs💬 Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe, leave a review, and share with a friend who belongs in wild places.

Topics: backcountry skiing New York | Catskills High Peaks | ski touring Northeast | women in the outdoors | solo female adventurer | Catskill 3500 Club | wilderness and healing | outdoor education South Bronx | Queen of the Catskills film | ski mountaineering | nature and spirituality | women who ski | Catskills hiking | upstate New York adventure

In this episode of Women in Wild Places, host Gabriella sits down with Steph Davis — professional climber, base jumper, wingsuit pilot, and one of the most accomplished female alpinists in the world. Steoh has freed El Cap in a day and the Salathe Wall, free soloed the Longs Peak Diamond and put up first ascents in Patagonia, Pakistan, and the Arctic.

What makes this conversation so compelling is how accessible Steph makes it all feel. We talk about what it's like to stand at the edge of a cliff before a base jump, how she thinks about fear and decision-making in high-stakes environments, and why she believes the goal isn't to be fearless , but to be present.

We also get into her unconventional path from classical pianist to professional climber, what it was like living out of a car to climb full time, her years of expedition climbing in Patagonia and beyond, and the mindset it takes to free solo big walls in Yosemite.

Whether you climb, jump, or simply want to live more intentionally, this episode will shift the way you think about risk, intuition, and staying true to yourself.

Find Steph Davis:

🌐 Website: https://stephdavis.co/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highsteph/

📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephdavisclimb/

Steph's Books:

📖 High Infatuation: A Climber's Guide to Love and Gravity — essays on climbing, life, love, and risk

📖 Learning to Fly: A Memoir of Hanging On and Letting Go — her memoir on skydiving, wingsuiting, BASE jumping, and rediscovering purpose through flight

Follow Women in Wild Places:

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womeninwildplaces/

🎙️ Host: https://www.instagram.com/outsidegabs/

In this episode we cover: free soloing, base jumping, wingsuit flying, rock climbing, El Capitan, Patagonia climbing, women in adventure sports, fear and decision-making, intuition, living simply, following your passion, expedition climbing, backcountry flying, Moab Utah, women climbers

Cover image taken by by Jimmy Chin.

In this episode of Women in Wild Places, host Gabriella sits down with Dr. Iva Njunjić, a cave biologist, National Geographic Explorer, and co-founder of Taxon Expeditions, to explore the hidden worlds beneath our feet.

Dr. Iva studies life in extreme underground environments, focusing on cave-dwelling insects and biodiversity in some of the most remote places on Earth. Her work has taken her to Europe’s deep cave systems, rainforests in Borneo, the Amazon and more. She shares how a childhood visit to a cave at age 13 sparked her lifelong passion for exploration and science, and what it takes physically, mentally, and technicallyto access places few humans ever see.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Why nearly 80% of Earth’s species may still be undiscovered
• How caves function as “living laboratories” for evolution
• The story behind naming a beetle after Leonardo DiCaprio
• Why insects and small organisms are essential to ecosystems
• How citizen science helps protect biodiversity
• What it means to care for the natural world without burnout
• Practical ways anyone can support conservation in daily life

Dr. Iva also explains how Taxon Expeditions allows everyday people to join real scientific research expeditions and help document new species around the world.

This episode is for anyone interested in conservation, biodiversity, cave exploration, citizen science, environmental protection, and reconnecting with nature above ground and below.

🎧 Listen now to learn how paying attention to the smallest creatures can change how we see the planet.

Links & Resources

🔬 Dr. Iva Njunjić

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cavernella/
  

🌍 Taxon Expeditions

• Website: https://www.taxonexpeditions.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taxonexpeditions/

🎙️ Women in Wild Places Podcast
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womeninwildplaces/
Host: https://www.instagram.com/outsidegabs/

Substack: https://substack.com/@womeninwildplaces?

Cover Image by Sotiris Kountouras / Taxon Expeditions

What does it mean to hunt as a deeply embodied, emotional, and relational practice?

In this episode of Women in Wild Places, I sit down with writer and landscape architect Christie Green to explore hunting as a path to connection: to food, to place, to the animal world, and to our own bodies.

Christie shares her journey of beginning to hunt later in life after growing up in Alaska, and how what started as a desire to harvest her own food became a personal and creative practice. Together, they talk about the sensory world of the hunt, the moment of deciding whether to take a life, the paradox of grief and gratitude, and what it feels like to see your own anatomy reflected in the body of an animal.

We talk about why the topic has become so polarizing, and how these charged topics can actually open space for deeper dialogue, humility, and mutual respect.

This is a conversation about nuance, belonging, and paying attention.

Connect with Christie Green

• 🌿 Website: https://www.christiegreen.net/
• 📸 Instagram
• 📖 Moonlight Elk
• Christie's fashion brand

Connect with Women in Wild Places

• 📸 Instagram: @womeninwildplaces
• 
  Join the free community on Substack
• Shop essential gear

In this episode of Women in Wild Places, I’m joined by Amanda Monthei, a former hotshot wildland firefighter, writer, and the creator of the Life With Fire podcast, for a deep, thoughtful conversation about wildfire, creativity, and what it means to live and work inside powerful & uncontrollable landscapes.

Amanda spent multiple seasons working on fire crews and hotshotting, witnessing massive wildfires most people will never experience up close. Through years on the line, she came to understand something many of us resist: fire is never really “in control,” and the idea that humans can fully control it is largely a myth.

We talk about what it’s actually like to live in survival mode all summer, the nervous-system crash that comes in the off season, and the emotional and psychological toll of increasingly long, intense fire seasons. Amanda shares what it means to see communities burn, to work inside catastrophe, and to carry that weight long after the season ends.

We also explore her transition from firefighter to storyteller, and her current chapter pursuing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at the University of Montana and returning to craft, attention, and creative practice as a way of making sense of the world. We talk about writing, observation, landscape, and how learning to really see the places we live changes how we tell stories.

This episode is about hotshotting, the creative process, and how living with uncontrollable forces shapes the way we pay attention, write, and understand our place in the world. It’s also about humility, limits, fire ecology, and what wildfire teaches us about being human in a changing climate.

Connect with Amanda

• Listen to her podcast: Life With Fire
• Follow her on Instagram: @a_monthei
• Check out her website and Substack

Connect with Women in Wild Places

• Follow us on Instagram: @womeninwildplaces @outsidegabs
• Join our Substack
• Subscribe to our Patreon

If you loved this episode, please consider following the show, leaving a rating or review, and sharing it with someone who loves wild places, good stories, and thoughtful conversations about the world we live in.

Note: Toward the end of the episode, Amanda accidentally say “prescribed fire councils” when she meant to say “prescribed burn associations.”

Performing aerial acrobatics suspended over glaciers sounds like a scene from a dream. For aerial artist and climate advocate Sasha Galitzki, it’s home. In frozen landscapes where ice shifts and snow falls, Sasha brings movement to places that are disappearing faster than we can comprehend, using art to help us feel what we can’t ignore.

In this episode, we talk about how Sasha stumbled into pole dancing in her twenties, fell in love with the feeling of flying, and eventually combined her two great passions, the outdoors and aerial art, into breathtaking performances on glaciers and ice. She shares the logistics behind climbing anchors, rigging in the cold, and planning choreography down to her fingertips. We talk about risk, safety, and why grace means even more when conditions are harsh.

We also dive into the story behind her new film Embers: losing her home in the Jasper wildfire, returning to the ice year after year to witness glaciers recede, and how grief transformed into purpose. 

Cover art photo by Kris Andres @kristopherandres

Watch + follow Sasha’s work here:

• Website: https://www.sasha-gali.com/
• Instagram (Sasha): https://www.instagram.com/sasha_gali/
• Wild Aerial Film: https://www.wild-aerial.com/wild-aerial-film
• Embers Film & Festival Info: https://www.wild-aerial.com/embers

• Instagram: womeninwildplaces

• Host: outsidegabs

• Support the show + join the community on Patreon

• Gear lists & episode-inspired kits

• Substack: https://substack.com/@womeninwildplaces

Kristy and Anna are twin mushers who race sled dogs across Alaska’s most remote wilderness.

Racing sled dogs across Alaska’s vast wilderness is one of the most physically demanding and logistically complex endurance sports in the world. It means weeks of preparation, months of training, and days spent moving through snow, wind, darkness, and isolation alongside a team that cannot speak, but communicates constantly.

In this episode, I sit down with identical twin sisters Kristy and Anna of Seeing Double Sled Dog Racing. Based in rural Alaska, they live and work together caring for, training, and racing with 32 sled dogs. Kristy and Anna share how a childhood fascination with mushing turned into a full-time lifestyle, how they found their way to Alaska, and why sled dog racing is not just a sport, but a long-term commitment to animals, routine, and place.

We talk about what it actually takes to train a sled dog team leading up to hundred-mile days, how race days unfold from the starting line to remote checkpoints, and what it feels like to move through the wilderness when it seems like you might be the only people on earth. Kristy and Anna explain how they communicate with their dogs through body language and instinct, how they make hard decisions in the dogs’ best interest, and why trust is the foundation of everything they do.

We also explore what many people misunderstand about sled dog racing, including why the dogs want to do this work, how they live fully in the present, and what it means to survive together as a team. This episode is about endurance, care, sisterhood, and the intelligence required to move responsibly through wild places.

Follow Kristy and Anna and meet their dogs here:

• Website: https://seeingdoublesleddogracing.com
• Instagram: @seeingdoublesleddogracing
• Facebook: Seeing Double Sled Dog Racing

Follow Women in Wild Places

• Instagram: @womeninwildplaces
• Host: @outsidegabs
• Support the show & help keep these stories alive through our Patreon
• Join our community on Substack

Speed climbing the Yosemite Triple Crown, El Capitan, Half Dome, and Mount Watkins in under 24 hours, has always lived in the realm of legendary, and until recently, it was something dominated entirely by men. In this episode, I sit down with speed climber and designer Kate Kelleghan, who, along with her partner Laura Pineau, became the first women to complete the Yosemite Triple Crown in under 24 hours.

We talk about how Kate was once an emo art kid who walked the mile on purpose who became an obsessive trail runner and then a climber. She shares how joining the Colorado Mountain Club and Yosemite Search and Rescue (YoSAR) gave her mentors, partners, and friends who took her big goals seriously. We dig into the nerdy side of speed climbing like spreadsheets, Coros data, gear notes in erasable pen and what it feels like to climb El Cap through the night with only a headlamp bubble around you.

We also explore what it means to be a “competitive feminist,” to chase an audacious, history-making goal in a male-dominated space, and how Kate is thinking about mentoring the next wave of women climbers. This one is about big walls, big math, and even bigger belief.

She shares updates about the Triple Crown documentary, guiding trips, and plenty of behind-the-scenes moments here:

• Instagram: @katekelleghan

• Join her Greece climbing + adventure trip: https://www.sunrise-mindset.com/greece

• Podcast: Women in Wild Places — all episodes available on every major platform

• Instagram: @womeninwildplaces

• Host: @outsidegabs

Check out my curated gear lists + episode-inspired kits:

• Gear & kits: https://shopmy.us/outsidegabs

Support the show & the stories you love:

• WIWP Patreon

Adventure photographer Abbi Hearne joins me to talk about what it means to photograph love in landscapes that are literally changing beneath our feet. We get into her early years building a life off the traditional path, her deep connection to Alaska’s glaciers, and how climate grief and her father’s terminal illness became intertwined.

We also talk about raising her daughter in wild places, returning to the same canyons and lakes year after year, and why she treats landscapes like characters in her work. This is a conversation about love, loss, presence, and choosing a life that’s true to you.

Connect with Abbi

• Instagram: @abbihearne, @thehearnes
• Website: thehearnes.com

Connect with Women in Wild Places

• Instagram: @womeninwildplaces
• Host: @outsidegabs
• Gear Lists: https://shopmy.us/outsidegabs