Laura

A three-year Adventure Treks student, Laura returns to Adventure Treks for her fifth season as an instructor. Laura has spent the last few winters working with kids, both in Vermont and as a ski instructor in Steamboat Springs, CO. Previously, she was as an instructor for Trails Carolina, a wilderness therapy program in North Carolina. She also worked two summers as a trip leader for Camp Pinnacle, where she led backpacking, canoeing, and whitewater rafting trips for kids and teenagers. While in college, Laura served as a naturalist center intern for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and studied abroad in Lima, Peru. Laura hails from Raleigh, NC, and is fluent in Spanish!

• Education: North Carolina State University, bachelor’s degree in environmental science
• Certification: Wilderness first responder, swiftwater rescue
• Favorite outdoor memory: Going backpacking for the first time as a 16-year-old with Adventure Treks in California’s Shasta Trinity Alps. I had never understood how huge and magnificent the wilderness could be until I stood on top of a mountain and looked over the valley below. I had never felt so moved and so small, and I have been seeking out that feeling ever since.
• Favorite outdoor achievement: I hiked to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park in 2017 with some of my Adventure Treks friends (from when I was a student). To this day, it is one of the scariest and most rewarding things I’ve done.
• Favorite place you’ve visited: Vermont
• Favorite hobbies: I love hiking, backpacking, paddling, skiing, climbing and cooking with friends. And I love Lord of the Rings; this is a personality trait.
• What are you excited about this summer? I’m excited to explore new wilderness areas and getting to know my students! Also excited to see some neat creatures (from a distance).