Diva and Conquer

Our contest closed on November 5th, 2007. Thank you for all of your wonderful submissions -- you've made Diva & Conquer a wonderful success. We have enjoyed catching a glimpse of your lives.

Don't forget to check back -- and find out who will be Mountain Hardwear's Outdoor Diva!

Outdoor Diva Nadine Budbill

I'd like to introduce you to my daughter, diva-extrodinaire, Nadine Budbill. Founder and director of Dirt Divas, a mountain bike camp for girls in Northern Vermont, Nadine is 5'1" of dedicated dynamite! She has transformed the training, discipline, and athletic grace which she learned as a young girl in ballet classes into an adult life of physical challenge on the mountain bike trail, love and appreciation for the outdoors, and commitment to bringing that love of meeting physical challenges to girls and young women. Nadine has also been a Luna Chix Ambassador, inspiring women to "get outside and play" while raising awareness about the environmental causes of breast cancer. She always makes sure she gets outside for her own daily dose of exercise but it is sharing the empowerment of outdoor adventure that really lights her fire.

Nadine is also assistant director of the NorCal High School Mountain Bike League, where she organizes and directs trainings, camps, and races - all designed to get young people active and outdoors. Simultaneously she is working on her Masters in Education with a focus on outdoor adventure education for girls with special attention to issues of race and class.

It's not unusual to hear from Nadine that she has just been on an epic mountain bike ride in the Sierra Nevada or a 6 day backpacking trip in the wilderness. Her enthusiasm for the challenges, the trail, and the great gear that makes it possible, is always there, bubbling up in conversation. An advocate for leaving the environment better than you find it, Nadine is also an accomplished and powerful poet. Add insight, humor and a gift for friendship to mountain biker, outdoor adventurer, student, writer, and dedicated educator and you get one inspiring dynamo!

Nominated By Lois Eby

Outdoor Diva Tina Sorenson

... is a co-worker, friend, inspiration, and partner in sublime. A year ago she started work at my store: A coast to coast outdoor gear co-op. Location: Berkeley, California. We were opposed from the start. Me: A journeyman, greasy, gear-head, east-coast bike mechanic. Her: An all-enveloping, life-affirming, customer service rep. (by day), Santa Rosa-store transplant. We spoke little. It took time, Tahoe, and two or three passions-in-common to awaken a connection.

As mutually-southbound, weather-irrelevant bike commuters, we began pedaling home together. On these dark, windswept rides I began to appreciate Tina's limitless love of the outdoors, and its never-ending potential for discovery. But, being a mountain biker, I wasn't too interested when Tina organized a store road-ride to circle Lake Tahoe. It was her contagious sense of adventure, that got me out there. In the end, she, I, and several coworkers completed the longest ride most of us had ever done. The longest, until she rallied a group for the Napa century, a few weeks later.

Maybe more than anything, snowboarding with Tina has shown me the truest sense of her spirit and soul in nature. Riding faster than most, she uses the mountain for more than a trip from A to B. We share the sense of infinite possibility on snow, a knowledge that no two runs will ever be the same. At the lift, her face beams a joy that couldn't exist indoors.

During a solo hike of the entire John Muir Trail this summer, Tina's exquisite photography revealed an appreciation for beauty in even nature's smallest details. As a student, she balances work and play. Also finding time to support my hockey and softball teams. Tina Sorenson lives it to love it.

Nominated by Jeffrey Connelly.

Outdoor Diva Elizabeth Ruff

Railroads can be demanding, but Elizabeth is able to mix the childhood wonder of 'All Aboard!' with outdoor fun. The gal works endlessly in the summer, sometimes over 80 hours a week on the railroad alone running the steam engine or as a Conductor on passenger trains. When you include her massage business and the yoga classes she teaches, there is rarely time for sleep! She thrives off of the long Alaskan days and spends her long evenings hiking, running, climbing and berry picking.

But the means does have an end: the winters find her in Mexico, South America or the Southern USA where rock-climbing is abound. In her car she travels, living in her tent and existing in a true nomadic fashion. She often expresses sorrow that the only pair of pants she needs are starting to wear out...of course they are a discontinued Mountain Hardware design. A new one will have to be sought out!

From time to time she is able to live the life of the rich and famous by teaching yoga retreats in warm and exotic places. But her heart remains in Alaska and nothing beats the March and April spring snows for backcountry skiing.

Elizabeth is compassionate, creative, generous, and a bombshell of energy. Her motto: "My life magically expresses playful adventure!"

Outdoor Diva Patti Henderson

I love the outdoors. It grounds me. It offers me the opportunity to get back to reality. Be in the moment. Yes, all very cliche descriptions but isn't that why they are cliche? Because they do just that for so many people.

I am a weekend warrior. I work a 70 hour work week but make time to get out and mountain bike, snow shoe, hike, learn to snowboard, ski, cross country ski, kayak, trail run...

No greater is the Diva in me than when I finish my outside activity--endorphines rushing, feeling fitter, knowing that I have improved my health, will live longer for my family, have a smile to share with those around me and have that special 'jewel' in my consciousness - that the world has shared the beauty it offers... with me.

I love the outdoors because it makes me appreciate the rocks, trees, rain, snow, water, roots, dirt... it also shows me that I am not alone -- I am part of a bigger picture...even when I am standing alone on a mountain top, I am not alone.

It gives me the Vision to See, Faith to Believe and Courage to Door.... the great outdoors!

Outdoor Diva Rebecca Gardner

My first thought when reading Outside Magazine and seeing the Mountain Hardwear Diva contest was: "This contest was created for Rebecca." In 2007 alone, Rebecca was a professor of outdoor education for a distinguished university in Boston and a part time nanny, inspiring two children living in Gloucester Bay to "get out" more by riding their bikes & going for walks in pouring rain. Rebecca still found time to work for an outdoor retailer while in MA -- talk about sweet part time job and discount on the gear (Mountain Hardwear) she loves most! Rebecca would get up in the morning and run the trail behind her house three miles to her favorite coffee shop in town. Rebecca, in the harsh, windy, unforgiving North Atlantic winters would run the perimeter of the bay training for what else but the Boston Marathon!? She raised thousands for a cure to Multiple Sclerosis -- a disease to which she lost her grandmother just two years previous. The marathon was one of the coldest, wettest on record -- winds gusting upwards of 40mph -- into her face. Ever resilient, Rebecca finished with a personal record, and has a goal of running either half or full marathons in every state.

The Diva decided to return as a Sherpa to the Adirondack High Peaks in upstate New York. This past summer, Rebecca lead several educational backpacking adventures; all at least seven days in length, full-packing the likes of Whiteface Mountain -- and guess which pack she relied on? During one of her precious days off, Rebecca and some female friends swam the first leg of the Lake Placid Triathlon course while THE BOYS CANOED alongside! Talk about Diva!

At the end of the day, Rebecca is not just a Mountain Hardwear Diva - Rebecca is a Mountain Hardwear Diva's Diva.

Nominated by Steven Darling.

Outdoor Diva Maureen Laskey

She is always on the go. Setting goals and going for it. She also happens to be my wife of 22 years and mother of two beautiful girls. Each day, responsibilities are "juggled" around her outdoor workout or adventure. It must be outdoors, year around. As a result of her positive influence, her girls have become NOLS grads and ballet dancers. She is a competitive road cyclist and avid rider, averaging three to four thousand miles a year. In competition, often humbling women half her age.

In winter, she cross country ski races and loves to backcountry ski. In college she was an All American who won the women's relay in the NJCAA Nordic National Ski Racing Championships. She hasn't looked back, using her ski racing skills; she floats up and down the backcountry trails. Her true love is still the mountains which she still finds time to climb, deep in the Adirondack Mountains. With her undying passion to be outside she has climbed the Adirondack 46 high peaks in summer and then climbed them all over again in winter, becoming one of the few women to accomplish such a feat. Her passion to go higher has led her to a successful summit of Mt. Rainer. A few years later, she summited Mt. Aconcagua, in Argentina at 22,842 feet. Maureen has accomplished all of this while being a mom, wife and an example. She continues to pursue her outdoor passions while balancing family, job, home and caring for a woman with Lou Gehrig's disease, continuing to give of her self.

Mountain Hardwear would be served well to have such a woman as their Diva. Maureen exemplifies what a love for outdoor adventure and an uncompromising demand for excellence can accomplish. She's already my Outdoor Diva, she could be yours.

Nominated By Timothy Laskey

Outdoor Diva Cedar Bourgeois

Cedar is a single mom of two children 5 and 8. She somehow finds time to make home cooked meals for her kids Zen and Coral, get them to school on time, and be the fastest female mountain runner in Alaska! She has won the last 4 mount marathon races, the hardest mountain running competition in the state. The race involves sprinting from downtown Seward Alaska to the base of the mountain and running to the peak at over 3200' and sprinting back down the steep slopes of at times 60 degrees. Check Seward chamber of commerce and click on mount marathon to see pictures of this beautiful strong woman. How she finds time to train is beyond me, as she also makes handmade cloth shoulder bags for sale to help support her family. She also managed to win the lost lake 16 mile trail run this year, won the bird ridge mountain race for the third time in a row and won the power line pass trail run. She truly is a Mountain Hardwear diva as she wears the finest high tech gear on the market on a daily basis to keep herself alive in all of Alaska's most demanding mountain running competitions. To prepare for these races she has to run almost every day up the mountains surrounding Seward Alaska, she has to avoid foraging bears (which she sees all the time), cross raging rivers and streams, avoid rock fall and avalanches (which are numerous) and somehow not slip off the cliffs she runs across. All to return home and make dinner for Zen and Coral! She has inspired an army of women and men to get in shape and follow their dreams no matter how far away they seem. It is truly awesome what this woman has achieved!! Plus she is wicked sexy and would look way hot in your ads, blond hair blue eyes and totally in shape! All her friends call her Martha Stewart due to her amazing cooking and sewing ability, she is quite a homemaker!

Nominated By Jeff Erickson

Outdoor Diva Kelly Cronin

I am nominating my friend Kelly Cronin. She is a senior at the University of South Carolina, the greatest adventurer I know, and an even better person. She a recruiter, secretary, and event coordinator for the schools mountaineering club. She does what few here are willing to do in that she skips events like football games and instead leads camping and kayaking trips, even if it means going by herself. Kelly's mother lives in Panama, to which she gladly embraces all the country has to offer. She has worked at Chiriqui River Rafting in Panama to which she redesigned their webpage, led trips and also translated between guides and tourists (she is fluent in Spanish also). Even in high school he took part in the club Outward Bound to which she spent two weeks hiking, rafting and exploring Utah and Colorado. She has also backpacked through most of Europe and Southeast Asia. Aside from doing all this and maintaining a great GPA, she finds time to volunteer time in Columbia to which she teaches English to local students. She is also currently applying to the Peace Corps. For all these reasons and many more I beleive Kelly deserves to be Mountain Hardwear Diva. Not many college students are willing to put others first, embrace their love and appreciation for nature, and plan a future that consists of helping others in less fortunate situations.

Nominated By Neal Kolnik

Outdoor Diva Christina Catlett

To me, a Mountain Hardwear Diva embodies the balance between a busy career and passion for the outdoors. My wife Christina works full-time as an Emergency Physician at Johns Hopkins and is the Associate Director of the Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response. Nicknamed the "Disaster Diva," her love of the outdoors has become her salvation from the rigors of her career.

In the last four years, Christina has climbed nine mountains between 15,500 and 20,500 feet, including Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. Last year, she took a two and a half month leave of absence from her career to be a doctor at Base Camp at Mt. Everest (where she slept in a Mountain Hardwear Wraith!). This year, she took a month off to be the physician on a ship traveling from Siberia to the Arctic Circle and Alaska.

I am most proud of the fact that she uses her love of the outdoors to help others, leading medical relief missions to disaster and humanitarian zones such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She and her team slept in tents, and Christina prepared them to be self-sufficient by providing them with water purification systems, camp stoves, and dehydrated meals so they would not burden the region's limited resources.

Christina is a gear hound and seems to enjoy shopping at outdoor stores more than in women's clothing stores. In her closet, you will find climbing, backpacking and mountaineering gear squeezing out business suits and scrubs. Unfortunately, she's a closet slob, so some of it is on the floor!

Nominated By Gregg Viola

Outdoor Diva Jane McKinnis

Hats, gloves, goggles, skis, boots, poles, pass, lunch, money; families have their mantras. This is ours. It is not the list that really matters. It is the ritual of preparedness. "I am fifty four years old, grandma moved to Idaho in 1960, I have been pushin' it hard in the mountains for forty years. I was around to see the advent of Gortex and Velcro." Her memories before technological upgrades remind me that with or without gear, recreation is just a way of life. It is simple. For my mother time is not a balance of play and work. Play is the only way to get through work, and work is just a means to support the play. Her life is not glamorous. These are her concerns: a hot meal for her kids before school, enough money for a seasons pass, sturdy leather gloves to grip the axe handle, firewood for winter, duct tape to patch the down jacket she has owned since high school.

Recreation is not a trend, not a newfound resolution to fitness, for her playing outside is a reverent act that sustains life. People who experience the power of reverence just don't stop one day because the wind and snow are blinding, they put on a few more layers, head out, and play.

To some the possession of the perfect tool may be an obsession to own new things. For my mother the things she owns are testament to the landscape of her spirituality. Every layer of clothes a ticket to another hour of serenity. "I got my pass and I got my firewood. I know when I am going to work and I know when I am going to ski. That is all I know."

Nominated By Elizabeth Majors

Outdoor Diva Allison Renaud

I'm nominating myself, because I don't want to miss out on the chance to compete, love to compete, for a chance to win some wonderful gear from your company. I use your gear for work as well as my outdoor athletic endeavors. I'm an IL State Trooper and I train for our Crowd Control Team in your fleece wind stopper zip jacket and knit hat. I'm an all weather cyclist and take advantage of the near by state park and my second home up in beautiful Door County WI to hit the trails and/or the road. Your jacket is a must have for when I'm out snow shoeing and cross country skiing either up north or out west in Lake Tahoe. I'm at the stage in my life that I can afford technical gear for my many outdoor interests. I love the quality of your product and this contest is a very cool idea. Kudos and good luck to everyone who took time to enter. I'm excited about my chances. Have to go now, my multi-colored leaves are calling me to rake them up. Happy Fall!!

Outdoor Diva Lisa Brougham

My wife Lisa is a 24/7 Super Diva. We live on a small island 20 min from Vancouver, BC with our 2 daughters and Jack Russell dog. She is known as "Super Woman" to all who know her!

Lisa does anything and everything there is to do outside! When she is not working or sleeping: Lisa can be found kayaking, trail running, swimming, surfing, mountain biking, mountain climbing and camping in the summer and snowshoe running, winter camping and x-country skiing in the winter with friends and her family. She always looks great and has an infectious laugh and sense of humor while she is out to "GIVER!"

Lisa also gives back to her community by volunteering with Lions Bay Search and Rescue and has spent several all-nighters in the mountains with her Mountain Hardwear Sub Zero jacket to keep her warm. (She tells me she loves the jacket and just bought another one... in purple)

Not only does she find time to be a mom, volunteer, and play outside and win trail running, snowshoe running and kayak races, she also has a full time job as a Director and Coach of two gymnastics clubs (Vancouver and Bowen Island) and was recognized as "Recreational Leader of the Year" in British Columbia.

Whether Lisa is doing the "Howe Sound Challenge" of kayaking and summitting three mountains in one day, trail racing, kayaking to work, or climbing up a mountain with our daughters, her sense of humour, boundless energy, love of the outdoors and unfortunately for our bank account: her love of clothes (several of them being Mountain Hardwear jackets and shirts!) make her the perfect candidate for the ultimate Diva and Conquer prize... as I have no doubt that she will be able to spend the $1000 shopping spree money and then be the first to run up the mountain in record time!

Nominated By John Brougham

Outdoor Diva Ali Ralston

My daughter the Diva of Life.

Her picture says it all. Ali is one-of-a-kind. In love with life.

Nominated By Dan Ralston

Outdoor Diva Adrian Gray

My amazing wife Adrian. She is one of the strongest willed people I have ever met. After having our first son Micah in 5/05, she competed in a 12 hour adventure race in July 05. The team name was Team "Got Milk" because at one of the check points during the race she had to get in a jeep and use a breast pump. You would think that this might hurt our overall time for the race... well, we won that race. Unbelievable to most people. It gets better. After having our second son, Logan, in 6/07, she competed in an offroad triathlon on 9/8/07. She would have placed in the top ten if she had not waited for a friend after the Paddle leg. Her friend is 10 years younger, in good shape and did not just have a baby. Adrian ended up a respectable 12th place. Oh yeah. She had to use the breast pump just prior to and after that race. Adrian is an amazing wife and mother. She works full time as an ER nurse and still finds time to be a great mom. I certainly don't have much time to help out. I work 56 hours a week and I am training for an Ironman. She still somehow finds the time to stay in shape and be competitive at her races.

Nominated By Sean Gray

Outdoor Diva Jerri Kirk

I must nominate Jerri Kirk. Come December, she will have been my Lovely Bride for 28 years. She does not slow down.

Her boss knows not to ask her to work late because that cuts into her "play" time. Our kids and friends know not to try to track her down - Leave her a message, and she might take a break soon.

We enjoy many outdoor activities together. A couple of my friends are a bit jealous that we enjoy some much together, and their wives just want to go shop. Can I make a list of the things she enjoys? Running, trail running, hiking, kayaking, skating, mountain biking, road biking, camping, ATVing, snorkeling, boating - she loves it all. Whatever the available time and weather will permit. She won a road race for her age group last year. She is also an inspiration. A couple of years ago I dropped 40 pounds. Since then when someone asked me how I did it - I would just point at her and say "Chasing her". A perfect example recently: She is preparing for a half-marathon. I go along to walk and carry our water. As she passes me, she grabs a drink. This is on a Saturday morning. Most people would think that 12 miles of trail running would be enough for any one day. Not her, as I am getting comfortable to watch a football game... she is loading her mountain bike to go back out for 12 more miles. She did not want to waste the sunshine. Can you believe this Doll is going to be a Grandmother in May? She is already shopping for a running stroller.

On top of all this... She is My Best Friend.

Nominated By Jon Kirk

Outdoor Diva Ximena Ansel

Being a Diva is balancing the mental and physical parts of life. That is what Ximena Ansel does. As an experienced cyclist, backpacker, and day trekker, Ximena has taken on many adventures. She balances her outdoor activities with her career at a university and life at home. At home she enjoys cooking, reading, photography, and playing in the garden. Ximena's 2007 journeys include three 200 mile single day bicycle events, a bicycle trip and cultural experience in Provence France, and two different self contained bicycle tours of central California. Ximena Truly lives a balanced life. Whether she is backpacking in the Grand Teton's, bicycling on the roads of southern California, or reading a current novel, Ximena is Conquering the Diva lifestyle.

Nominated By Kevin Ansel

Outdoor Diva Elaine Forsman

We roped up as if to cross a glacier. Australia hasn't seen glaciers in tens of thousands of years, but we roped up anyway. Earlier, while sitting back from the cliff edge in a shallow cave, we watched lightning dance across the sky and strike the valley floor not 200 metres from us. Counting the seconds between the strikes and accompanying thunder we monitored progression and passing of this flash storm that was close enough, and the fear of attracting lightning strike real enough, that we removed all climbing iron-mongery and placed it a good distance away.

I struggled to remember the final tie-off for the Kiwi-coil; a method of rope management for glacier crossing. Elaine knew: An extra bight of rope, an extra hitch, clip it, let's go!

The electrical part of the storm has passed, now the rains come. We are still on the half-way ledge of a 400 metre cliff in the Blue Mountains, 200 kilometres west of Sydney, Australia. This particular ledge is accessible from the top via a very steep and loose scramble, dodging stunted trees and negotiating dirt and mud, which is fine on the descent if you are careful. The slightest slip reversing it could have us airborne, hence the roping up. It didn't need to be said: "If I fall you jump around the other side of a tree."

The next day we romped down a luscious slot canyon for which the Blue Mountains are famous amongst outdoors people the world over. A couple of days later Elaine took me sailing. Skiing and snowboarding is done with style; mountaineering is a cinch; canoeing, C1-ing, surfing, too many to list. Name an outdoor adventure sport and Elaine takes to it with zeal and finesse. She is and always will be a diva.

Nominated by Iain Finlay

Outdoor Diva Mary Bo

Mary Bo is my role model, best friend, and fellow outdoors Diva. The six words below describe her perfectly.

M: Mother -- She is the mother of four active teenage girls, each involved in multiple sports. To illustrate her love, she supports us at our events, no matter the weather. Through the Michigan heat, cold, sleet, and snow, my mom enthusiastically encourages us to perform at our best.

A: Appreciative -- Nature amazes my mom. Because of her, I appreciate the great outdoors for its beauty and splendor. Every time she returns from an adventure, she vividly describes what she experienced. I know no one else who appreciates nature more than she does.

R: Rider -- Bike riding is my mom's passion, and she pedals thousands of miles each year. Although biking is her favorite pastime, she enjoys swimming, skiing, and hiking. She has trekked to the peak of Mt. Tallac, to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and along the picturesque trails lining Michigan's coastline.

Y: Youthful -- Laughing and fun fill my mother's days. She energetically creates family games, plans outdoor adventures, and organizes social events.

B: Busy -- My mom owns a part-time cleaning and cooking business. She is involved in our church, and she keeps up with the busy schedules my sisters and I maintain. However, she still exercises two times a day.

O: Outfitter -- Mountain Hardware Gear is my mother's favorite brand of clothing because she has a sporty, outdoorsy style. Her reason for wearing great gear is simple; they are quality clothes that provide ample protection and comfort for outdoor exercise.

Next year I am attending my dream college in Tennessee. As a farewell gift to my mom, I am nominating her as the Mountain Hardware Diva. She would be blessed to receive such a title!

Nominated by Lindsay Bo