Natalie grew up competitively ballroom dancing on a national level but secretly wishing she was an Arctic explorer. Inspired by stories of her Soviet mountaineer dad, she booked a one way ticket to the Himalayas where she saw her first ice climbers scaling the frozen waterfalls of the Khumbu. That winter she hitchhiked from Seattle to Bozeman with a pair of donated ice tools and crampons. Since then she's been chasing ice and alpine adventures around the world while working on autonomous robots, engaging in citizen science projects and telling stories.

Long approaches, distant lands, pushing personal boundaries, learning new skills, and adventuring with a purpose are all things she looks for when planning her next trip. She holds two Bachelor’s degrees and a Masters of Science in STEM fields and gets just as excited learning about the microstructure of ice cores as she is discovering a new climbing area.

She has a fondness for longer, aesthetic ice routes, singing along to Beyoncé and Wu-Tang, and sharing behind-the-scene stories to inspire all the weekend warriors out there. She has organized expeditions to climb in Alaska, Morocco, Central Asia and across the US. After 10 years away, she is proud to call the North Cascades home again.

Alpinism is her love, and Grivel sums it up the best: