**Embody resilience:** Chloé Easterling stares at the horizon from the bow of the MMA *Valour*, just off the coast of Kona, Hawai’i.

Don't Settle

September 26, 2023 in Personal

When I was 28-years-old, I got on an airplane for the first time in my life. I flew from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Houston, Texas, then to Dubai, then to Kandahar, Afghanistan. Before that trip, I had never even been inside an airport.

I was working for Remote Medical International, a private company that had been contracted by the U.S. air force base in Kandahar. I spent almost a year there. As a girl from Small Town, USA, it was my first dose of real culture. I was interacting with Kenyans, Indians, and Afghanis on a daily basis.

It taught me a lot about resilience. In the book Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert writes you can let fear sit with you, but you tell it to get in the back seat. I told my fear to get in the fucking trunk.

Doing It Like a Woman

March 08, 2019 in Adventure

In honor of International Women’s Day, I want to share stories of women who have been (and continue to be) massive sources of inspiration and motivation for me. They are mountaineers, marathon swimmers, scuba divers, and polar explorers. They are leaders. They are survivors. And they are brilliant authors.

This list below includes works of non-fiction written in first-person by women who seek adventure, discovery, and scientific endeavors in domains many consider “traditionally male-dominated.” Scrolling through the titles, you may notice recurring themes and subjects — pursuits in the alpine world, epic endeavors in the ocean, and expeditions around the world, from Antarctica to the Himalayas to the outback of Australia.

My favorite adventure books written by women.

Women On High

March 01, 2017 in Adventure

The outdoor endeavors that I find myself most drawn to—rock climbing, scuba diving, white-water paddling, and mountaineering—are, and always have been, dominated by men. It's 2017, and there are more badass ladies in these scenes than ever before. But still, the vast majority of books on these topics are written by male authors. Even books about women crushing, like Lynn Hill's Climbing Free or Stacy Allison's Beyond the Limits, are co-authored by men.

Before I go on—I want to clarify that this post is not a diatribe against men or male authors. I've read everything that Jon Krakauer and John Steinbeck have ever written. Gregory David Roberts wrote my all-time favorite book. And my most reliable, go-to adventure buddy happens to be a man. But I think he, and lots of other men, would agree that we need more female voices in this realm. Without going down the rabbit hole of the current state of feminism, let's just say our world, in general, could use more feminine energy and perspective.

So here are my top five female-authored adventure books. I cannot recommend them highly enough.