Amber's connection to the North runs deep. Although she didn't fully explore her Inuit heritage until adulthood, the seeds of resilience were planted early. Her grandmother's escape from a residential school builds the foundation of Amber's strength.

This fortitude, passed through generations, fuels her mission to protect and revitalize Inuit culture, most tangibly through her work with sled dogs.

“I PASSED!!!” Mary Miller shared these triumphant words in an Instagram post last year, declaring her newfound status as a level one sommelier with a level two award—the latest in her long list of achievements, adventures, and reinventions. At age 66, her story is one of an unyielding spirit hungering for life’s richness and a willingness to take risks in the pursuit of joy.

It was a workday like any other for Hailey McIntyre and Ocean Rutherford of SAAM Towage when they set off up the coast on their tugboat. However, the 3-day trip from Prince Rupert, BC, to Stewart, BC, to assist in docking and undocking a ship became the first all-female tugboat crew in the over 70-year history of their company.

Moniera Khan was 54 years old when she finished dead last in her first mountain bike race. But race results have little to do with her love for riding.

Instead, it’s a celebration of what bikes have brought into her life, what her body can do, and her ability to define success on her terms.

On the trails of North Vancouver, Kelli Sherbinin emerges as a beacon of light in the mountain biking community. Known for her adaptable teaching style, she is an educator, speaker, and community advocate, promoting riding to connect with nature and challenge individual boundaries. She inspires riders to push their limits and emphasizes the sports' transformative impact on personal growth.

Sitting in her kitchen, one of the few rooms of her home that shows no evidence of DIY renovations, Carys Evans sips from a mug made in her basement studio—one of only a few without a feminist theme, and reminisces about her days as the first sponsored female freeride mountain biker. Her story bends and weaves along a timeline of bikes, travel, working in the trades, finding her way home in clay and the reclamation of vulgar words.

Full of tumultuous energy and a deep-seated desire to prove herself, Claire Buchar poured everything into mountain biking. She’d always dreamed of being an athlete, but at 20, when she took up riding, no courses or workshops were available to learn skills. She simply kept up with the guys and did what they did. Never doubting herself, if they hucked something, she was right there with them.

At one time, Norma was heavily engaged in her local mountain bike community as a well-loved and devoted member. Most recently, however, she has emerged as a sought-after skate documentarian committed to highlighting nontraditional people in the space. As a Mexican woman, she’s spent her career drawing on experiences and lessons learned between both sports to increase accessibility for others.

Mainstream media is awash with stories, slideshows and film clips celebrating “mountain mommas who rip” within days and weeks of giving birth. But many new mothers have discovered those success stories are not always the norm. Set up by the expectation of quick recoveries and hampered by a lack of information available, women looking forward to returning to the sports they love are instead often finding further injury and frustration.

When Chelsie McCutcheon’s teenage parents brought her home from the hospital in an apple box, they could have easily continued the party lifestyle so readily available to them. Instead, they pursued sobriety. They also made a conscious effort to raise an active daughter who was healthy and connected to the outdoors. Now McCutcheon, who is a member of the Wet’suwet’en Nation, is using outdoor recreation as a holistic tool for positive social change in First Nation communities.