Outdoor Diva Laurie Zuehlsdorff
Mention an adventure in the mountains to Laurie. You will see her eyes start to sparkle. You will see her cheeks get flushed. You will see a toothy grin crack across on her face. She already has a bag packed, and before you know it you will be heating up dinner on her cook-stove.
Laurie is a quintessential mountain diva. It doesn't matter what sport it is. It doesn't matter what season it is. If something is going on in the mountains she has either done it, is training for it, or has plans to do it next weekend. In the last year that I have known her, she has re-introduced me to the mountains I live in, but had forgotten about. She has drug me into slot canyons that squeezed, up sheer slopes that terrified, and down chutes that turned stomachs.
She loads up her bicycle and leaves an hour before work so she has time to lift at the gym. At lunch she'll go run for an hour. After work she'll meet up with her women's mountain bike group for a spin in the hills, and then she'll go rock climbing at the gym after it gets dark. And all that is on a Wednesday. On the weekends, you won't be able to find her without a GPS.
Spend a week with Laurie, and if you can still walk afterwards you will understand why she is a Mountain Hardwear Diva.
She is not losing an extra 200 pounds, not recovering from illness, and not juggling five kids and a career. What she is doing, is kicking my butt up and down every mountain in Colorado on foot, bike and board in my Mountain Hardwear jacket.
If she is a winner, maybe I can get it back.
Nominated by Mark Mages
