Inspiration

Introduction

I often feel that I’m prone to being in the driver’s seat of the vehicle that is my life. I don’t necessarily consider this a strength. Attributes like “easygoing”, “open-minded”, and “flexible” are usually considered  positive, and are basically the opposite of this. But to the extent that anything is inherent, “driving” is an inherent part of my personality. I set goals, and I think about my choices as a progression towards those goals. I have a trajectory that I want my life to follow. I plan.

But where do the ideas for these plans, goals, and trajectories come from? How have I come to understand what’s possible? What stories resonate with me? I’ve spent most of my life in the age of the internet, and I think this has given me a lot of agency by providing an avenue to discover paths that I don’t see others around me taking. I relentlessly seek out stories, lessons, and inspiration from people whose lives contain something I want to emulate.

To keep this list coherent, I’ll refrain from including people with whom I have close personal relationships. I mean that not out of any disrespect for them, as I find many of them very inspiring. This choice is mostly logistical - most of my friends don’t create publicly available content.

So, that’s enough rambling, here’s the point. An alphabetized list of people who I find inspiring, and I hope you do too:

List

Alex Honnold: It’s inconvenient that Alex is first on this list because he’s famous for something that most people consider reckless. A thing which, by the way, I will never be capable of emulating nor do I seek to. But having read into Alex’s life much more deeply than the Free Solo film, and listened to him speak to many people on Climbing Gold, I believe him to be a person of great character who is true to his morals, and a very logical, level-headed, and talented athlete.

Andrew Bentz: Introduced me to my dream of fast and light ski traverses with this video. Generally a very impressive hiker who has done long trails faster than almost anyone. Co-founder (with John Zahorian) and owner of Palante Packs.

Andrew Skurka: Was at the cutting edge of ultralight backpacking for a long time, planned and executed massive groundbreaking trips. Continues to give enormously to the community with no-nonsense gear knowledge and developed routes on his website. Runs an impressively large guiding business doing trips in an adventurous and educational style with smart gear.

Anton Krupicka: Extraordinary endurance athlete who has moved beyond winning 100-mile races to do much more interesting adventures, usually mixing bikes and climbing with mountain running. Excellent writer and advocate for the philosophy of pushing the limits of one’s mind, body, and creativity outdoors.

Ben Kilbourne: A refreshing example of someone who’s backpacking often, in places I love, and writes excellently about how it helps us feel connected to our surroundings. Also, a packrafter who actually hikes and hasn’t been consumed by whitewater addiction. Like me, Ben wishes he could escape gear perfectionism, but I’m glad he hasn’t because his knowledge has positively impacted my life. Started Virga packs to solve real problems.

Caroline Gleich: The gold standard for an athlete/activist combo, Caroline has become a public figure for impressive skiing accomplishments but also because she is such an amazing voice for climate action and land protection. Her 2024 run for Utah Senate winning 32% of the vote in a red state completely recalibrated my understanding of who can run for public office - that’s amazing.

Cody Townsend: Like many, I greatly enjoyed Cody’s series of documentary short films as he ticked off almost all of “the Fifty” classic ski mountaineering lines. This resonates with me because of the human-powered style and transparent decision-making process.  But I also enjoy listening to a recurring podcast with Cody and reading his writing. I find him to be generally very smart and well spoken and enjoy his commentary on a lot of issues.

Dan Durston: Most people don’t know how cool Dan Durston was before he became famous for bringing genius, no-nonsense gear to market. But luckily his blog is still available which documents impressive achievements like a series of very fast crossings of the Bob Marshall Wilderness in May, and a GDT yo-yo. Dan runs an interesting business with low margins, no marketing, and no sales. Instead he puts ruthless energy into fighting misinformation in the gear world, innovation product, and defending decisions that make sense. I sometimes wonder if he has enough time to get outside these days, but he still manages to give back to the community with trail work and new route development.

Dan Ransom: For a long time was a classic Colorado Plateau explorer heavily involved in canyoneering, but has mostly pivoted to packrafting. Dan has always been good with cameras and has produced the highest quality packraft videos to date. Most recently he’s started Sockdolager Equipment where he produces innovative sewn goods specifically designed for packrafting.

Dan Thurber: A highly skilled paddler with a great depth of kayak experience, Dan has been at the leading edge of class V packrafting for many years now. His team routinely succeeds at ambitious expeditions, which they could not do without exceptional risk management that comes from Dan’s experience teaching swiftwater rescue. This last bit is perhaps what I find most impressive - Dan is an excellent communicator and educator who’s spent a lot of time thinking about how to explain complex mechanics and philosophies. Dan doesn’t share much of his own media but you’ll see him in most of Jeff’s videos.

Eszter Horanyi: Much of Eszter’s adventure career has been dominated by long-distance mountain bike racing, but more recently she has pivoted to include more packrafting, fastpacking, and mountain running. I find some of these trips very inspiring, and I’m grateful to have heard about them through her wholesome and authentic use of social media where she writes thoughtful captions and shares excellent photos.

Forrest McCarthy: Forrest’s most creative and ambitious trips were done a while ago now, but they were groundbreaking at the time. My favorites of these include a solo ski traverse from Lander to Jackson, the DuMor, and Canyonlands Figure-8. As far as I know, he’s also had a very cool career of Teton mountain guiding and Antarctic climate research.

Hannah Green: It’s difficult to discern much concrete information from Hannah’s instagram, especially given that it currently appears to be gone. But it was very artistic and beautiful. What I do understand is that Hannah has an affinity for long trips in good style through wild places - places that are very important to me as well.. There’s some evidence of this on her website and on iRunfar.

Jan from Nunatak: I don’t know much about Jan, but I like that he leads a company designing high quality and innovative backpacking gear and advocates against the nonsense of the industry in an entertaining writing style. He seems to occasionally share glimpses of personal trips, many of which are long and visit the most remote and rugged regions of Colorado, the Sierra, and Colorado Plateau.

Jeff Creamer: It would be difficult to argue that Jeff is objectively the most inspiring packrafter of the modern era. Nearly 10 years ago he began advancing to a class V skillset, and has a mind that ruthlessly innovates routes combining whitewater with true wilderness. This is made exponentially more impactful by the fact that he’s willing to share glimpses of his trips, mostly in short videos but also on a blog.

Jen Hogan: Jen is an extremely experienced Grand Canyon hiker and backcountry ranger, most famous within this niche community for her wild personality and for being the first solo woman to hike the length of the canyon in a continuous trip.

John Zahorian: Basically, John was the first person to show me how cool backpacking can be, blowing my mind with his tiny pack and 40+ mile days, and captivating my heart with his artistic, pleasant videos. These videos disappeared for a while but are currently back by popular demand.

Jordan Manley: All I know about Jordan is that he travelled with, shot, and produced two of my favorite outdoor films of all time - Crossing Home and Treeline.

Katie Gerber: Both a highly accomplished adventure hiker and standout backcountry skills educator, Katie has traversed the length of Grand Canyon and works as a manager of Andrew Skurka’s guide program.

Kyle McCrohan: I somehow found Kyle’s incredible website a few years ago, and it has absolutely opened my mind. Kyle is largely responsible for my interest in running, fast mountaineering, and Washington in general. He’s taken my affinity for high routes to another level and altered what that means. A publicly heartful and passionate person, I love his style of writing and photography so much that I’ve tried to emulate it.

Len Necefer: Len is an unbelievably multifaceted genius - he has deeper cultural, political, and systemic knowledge than I could ever hope to achieve. But we’re all lucky that someone like him is in the outdoor recreation space, because he’s a fiercely passionate entrepreneur, activist, and educator on environmental and Indigenous topics. He also has an amazing sense of humor. He uses Instagram differently than most, but is still quite active, and he also writes an amazing Substack.

Liz Sampey: For a long time, Liz was a cutting edge long-distance mountain bike racer. That career was ended by a concussion, but luckily she already had another incredible one as a Doctor of Physical Therapy where she integrates healing with training. My favorite things about Liz are her interest in adventurous multisport expeditions, her authentic online presence, and her eagerness to talk in depth with new friends, like me.

Luc Mehl: A long-time Alaskan adventurer, Luc was instrumental in the progression of packrafts to the northern stage where their use in both whitewater and massive expeditions was on display. Recently he seems more interested in skating wild ice than mountaineering, and advocating for river safety than running hard rapids. To do this, Luc authored an amazing Packraft Handbook, and he teaches trip planning, swiftwater, and ice rescue classes.

Marc-Andre Leclerc: Watching The Alpinist seems to leave many common folk judgemental, but for me, it’s heartening to see someone progress a sport to a jaw-dropping level because of passion, talent, and a unique philosophy on life that I believe is both logical and all too rare.

Mike Curiak: From what I can tell, Mike was one of the original founders of bikepacking and bikepack racing as they’re known today. But perhaps he just has an affinity for developing new adventure sports, because I’m much more interested in his early contributions to whitewater packrafting in the lower 48. He’s never had any social media, but luckily all of these things are documented in beautiful assemblies of words and photos on his normal blog and fancy blog. And if you’ve burned through Jeff’s videos many times over, as I have, then have a dig into his Vimeo.

Morgan Sjogren: I like the style in which Morgan wanders around the desert for sure, but she's known primarily as an anthropologist and writer who's published books and authors a Substack about the Colorado Plateau. I've learned a great deal about history and felt better at connecting with landscapes because of her work.

Rich Rudow: Though Todd Martin published the guidebook, Rich was behind almost every single exploratory canyoneering descent in Grand Canyon. He has a friendly personality and continues to be an avid hiker and heavily involved in the community today, often willing to share his knowledge with genuinely inquiring minds. 

Roman Dial: Although he wasn't quite the first person to ever use a packraft, nor is still at the cutting edge of their performance, Roman is remarkably close to both. He's had a long and wild career as an Alaskan adventurer, researcher, and educator - beginning with some daring alpine climbs in the 80s and continuing with mellower backpack/float trips today.

Ryan Jordan: It seems that Ryan's life missions is to apply his endless curiosity for hiking gear towards helping educate as many people as possible to go backpacking. Through his company, BackpackingLight, which has been around for a while now, he excels at this. He cuts through marketing hype and gets to the root of what material details make products work, or not. But he also explains this better than anyone else can, and provides plenty of skills education as well.

Wyatt Mullen: I came to find Wyatt’s Instagram once he began doing trips and producing a YouTube weather channel with Kyle McCrohan. Although Kyle really opened my eyes to Washington, Wyatt’s incredible personal environmental education campaign on IG has taught me everything I know about it. It's truly amazing, and he's a great photographer and mountain athlete too. These two are a dynamic duo I hope go on forever!