Luke Nelson + Nate Bender | Climate Advocacy, the Snowman Race, & Footprints Running
The Freetrail Podcast with Dylan Bowman
Dylan Bowman
4.8 • 866 Ratings
🗓️ 25 January 2023
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Luke Nelson and Nate Bender are trail runners and environmental advocates based in Idaho and Montana respectively. They recently took part in the Snowman Race in Bhutan -- a trail ultra marathon organized to bring awareness to the effects of climate change in the Himalaya. In this conversation, we discuss the intersection of trail running and climate action, Luke and Nate's experience on the trail in Bhutan, and what trail runners can do to take action in support of the places we recreate.
As we discuss at the end, Freetrail and Footprints, an organization that Nate helps to manage, are partnering on creating sustainability oriented content. We're very proud to work with them and look forward to making this information easily accessible to trail runners.
Scout Mountain Ultras -- Luke's race in Idaho
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, fam, welcome to the free trial podcast. Of course, I'm your host, Dylan Bowman, |
| 0:18.9 | here today with a great episode with two |
| 0:21.2 | phenomenal human beings. My guests today are Luke Nelson and Nate Bender, trail runners and |
| 0:27.3 | environmental advocates here to discuss the intersection of trail running and climate action. |
| 0:33.9 | Luke is based in Pocatello, Idaho. He's a pro trail runner for Patagonia. |
| 0:38.0 | He's a father of three. |
| 0:39.5 | He's the race director of the Scout Mountains Ultra. |
| 0:42.0 | And he's a physician's assistant. |
| 0:44.1 | Busy guy. |
| 0:44.9 | Nate is based in Montana. |
| 0:46.7 | He's a trail runner, an ambassador for Protectar Winters, |
| 0:49.9 | and one of the driving forces behind footprints running, |
| 0:53.5 | working with Dakota Jones to put on camps |
| 0:55.7 | and generally develop a new generation of leaders in conservation and environmental advocacy. |
| 1:03.4 | Together, Luke and Nate tackled the snowman race in Bhutan, a grueling high-altitude stage race, |
| 1:09.9 | totaling 126 miles. |
| 1:11.6 | That is 203 kilometers over five days in Bhutan. |
| 1:16.6 | As you'll hear, the race was the vision of His Majesty, the King of Bhutan, if you can believe |
| 1:22.6 | that, with the goal of bringing attention to the effects of climate change in the country and in the high Himalaya in general. |
| 1:31.7 | Luke and Nate both returned from the race deeply moved by the experience and in independent conversations with each of them, |
| 1:39.0 | it became obvious that we needed to get the guys on the show to bring this important topic to the forefront of the |
| 1:45.5 | international conversation among the trail running community. This is one of my favorite |
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