Growing up, Teresa Bruffey was passionate about nature-passionately against it. To the self-conscious Seattle teen, the outdoors seemed dirty, scary, and uncomfortable. When she did spend time in nature, her suspicions were validated: Sand snuck into her swimsuit at the beach, chafing her skin; flies buzzed around her at picnics, freaking her out Communing with Mother Earth, she maintained, was not her thing.Until one day, it was. Sometime after college, a boyfriend convinced Teresa to join him on an overnight backpacking trip to nearby Kaleetan Peak. "I was terrified, panicked about it getting dark and animals lurking in the wilderness,'' she says. "But when I woke up, it was blue sky and mountains all around. Everything was still and beautiful. I just felt, I don't know, full."
Teresa had always been active; she'd even taken up rock-climbing-though always indoors. But after the camping trip, she began climbing outside, dragging friends along and overcoming a fear of heights in the process. "Being in nature reset my confidence and peace of mind," she says.
