There’s this person I met about 17 years ago. It was my first summer working in the mountains at a historic lodge in Banff National Park. Now, by this point, this person had been lying in the Banff Cemetery for 66 years, but her story was so compelling that it has been the subject of much Rockies folklore. Her accomplishments as an explorer, writer, photographer and artist put her name in the history books alongside notable men of the same era.

Mary Schäffer was no ordinary woman.

“We were all standing there with our art supplies facing the glacier, just taking the wind,” Emily (Emily Beaudoin) says, “and it felt like the dying breath of a beast, just so powerful and so… vulnerable.”

It was a pleasure to put together this short feature about Rockies Repeat Film for the inaugural issue of Mountain Life Rocky Mountains.

I am excited to announce the release of my first children’s book, The Wonders That I Find! Published by Rocky Mountain Books (Spring 2021), this book draws on my own experiences venturing into nature with my two young kids, and what I’ve observed as they’ve taken in the natural world through their own eyes.