🌲 What Makes a Fantastic Outdoor Leader: Resilience through a Rappelling Accident, NOLS Rejections, and Olympic Dreams with Jeannette Stawski

On day 21 of an instructor course in the Wind River Range, Jeannette Stawski's rope dislodged a 250-pound boulder. It landed on her legs — 15 miles from the nearest trailhead, in a designated wilderness where no helicopter was coming fast.

Since then, Jeannette has identified the ingredients that make a fantastic outdoor leader, and resilience is a muscle she's built through an entire career of setbacks that became pivots: Olympic dreams ended by back surgery, multiple NOLS rejections, and that day under the boulder.

Jeannette and Angie talked about:

• Pivoting from pre-Olympic rowing camps to raft guiding in Glacier National Park after back surgery ended her Olympic dreams
• Getting rejected by NOLS multiple times and how their coachable rejections shaped her career
• The rappelling accident in the Wind River Range and the rescue that followed
• The gift she's giving her kids: a cross-country road trip to climb the Grand Teton without their parents
• The self-deprecation pattern in women outdoor leaders

Check out these resources:

• The Outdoor Leader by Jeannette Stawski
• Leading Valiantly
• Jeannette on Instagram: @leadingvaliantly
• Jeannette on LinkedIn
• Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim, October 10, 2026 — women 50+
• The Cairn Project on IG
• The Cairn Project's newsletter
• Become a Trailblazer
• Summit Scholarship Foundation

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You can help us close the gender gap outdoors and beyond:

• Become a Trailblazer. Your Adventure Fundraiser makes wilderness experiences possible for girls and women.
• Check out the Summit Scholarship Foundation.
• Send this episode to a friend who leads others outdoors.

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