Cassidy Randall

Thirty Below: The Harrowing and Heroic Story of the First All-Women's Ascent of Denali by Cassidy Randall wins 2025 Banff Mountain Book Competition Grand Prize We are excited to announce the 2025 Grand Prize Book Competition winner at this year’s 50th anniversary Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival.

You guys. I was floored when the jury announced that THIRTY BELOW won the Banff Mountain Book Competition Grand Prize on Thursday. What a hell of an honor. If you haven't read it and want a "propulsive" read, as the jury called it, now's a good time to pick it up!

www.banffcentre.ca/articles/mou...

Thank you so much!

Congrats to @cassidyrandall.bsky.social for winning the grand prize at the Banff Mountain Book awards for her excellent book, THIRTY BELOW.

Thank you! Want to come Banff and hang out? ;)

Thank you, Eva!

Give Me the Common Ground The "us-against-them" rhetoric is metastasizing--and exhausting. What if instead, we started from the places where we (gasp) agree?

I went looking for the kind of leadership that unites people, and through union, offers a path out of the pressure cooker.

No matter your politics, there is always SOME thing we can find to agree on, that makes us, instead of enemies, a community.

cassidyr.substack.com/p/give-me-th...

Regenerating the soil of America’s heartland National Geographic photographer Rena Effendi visits the U.S. Midwest to capture how one farmer is restoring her family farm from the ground up—and with support from PepsiCo, helping cultivate the fut...

We were excited to see this story from National Geographic about Wendy Johnson, one of the keynote speakers at our upcoming Perennial Farm Gathering! #PFG2026

www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/...

Story by @cassidyrandall.bsky.social
Photos by @renaeffendi.bsky.social

How to Wrangle the Idea with Cassidy Randall Cassidy Randall takes us to her Atavist Magazine pitch that earned her a nod in Year's Best Sports Writing 2023.

@cassidyrandall.bsky.social stopped by Pitch Club HQ to talk about her @atavist.com pitch for her story "Alone at the Edge of the World," a story was anthologized in Year's Best Sports Writing 2023.

welcometopitchclub.substack.com/p/how-to-wra...

The complicated rise of Missoula's Logjam Presents – The Pulp Logjam reshaped Missoula’s music scene, bringing big stages and shows, while its corporate playbook drew fire — and lured a much bigger fish.

Love that my fave piece I've written all year is for our local outlet @thepulp.org. It's about how Missoula landed on the national music map. But it's about so much more than that - including how to preserve the culture and people that give a place its soul.

thepulp.org/empire-state...

Protests at Glacier as national parks reel from Trump cuts: ‘They’ve gutted staff, gutted funding’ As Republicans tout their stewardship of public lands, Montana protesters say their park is suffering – and help is urgently needed

My latest for @theguardian.com: locals rallied in Glacier as politicians "championing" public land showcased the park - while doing nothing about the Trump administration’s slashing of jobs & funding that have thrown national parks into crisis.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The first all women's ascent of Denali, 55 years, was an absolutely fantastic story and a wild survival story to boot.

But why had it gone mostly untold, until now? My latest, for REI.

www.rei.com/blog/climb/f...

Our Wilderness Honeymoon Almost Killed Us. Literally. Why it's a good thing to face mortality with your significant other.

When @be-jammin-polley.bsky.social and I, two adventurers, were planning our honeymoon, it made sense that it should be the most epic adventure we’d undertaken to date. No feather beds and cocktails on beaches for us, we thought.

And then we almost died.

cassidyr.substack.com/p/our-wilder...

The Secret To Success Isn't Just Wishing For It Writer and REI podcaster Shelby Stanger lives a dream life. But she's honest about the fact that she worked for it, invested in herself, and was entirely motivated to pursue her passion.

Latest on the column: Writer and REI podcaster Shelby Stanger lives a dream life. But she's honest about the fact that she worked for it, invested in herself, and was entirely motivated to pursue her passion.

cassidyr.substack.com/p/the-secret...

Thank you to @alexhonnold.bsky.social for the most fun interview I've gotten to do yet on THIRTY BELOW. Clearly it was winter when we recorded this...

How to Open to Unexpected Love What my new handful of a pup taught me about expectation, perfectionism, and entering into relationships with other beings.

Latest on my Substack: what our reactive, handful rescue dog taught me about expectation, perfectionism, and how to enter into relationship with other beings. And remembering that none of us mean to mess up (usually). We're all just doing our best.

cassidyr.substack.com/p/how-to-ope...

Thanks to @brendanomeara.bsky.social for the chat on The Creative Nonfiction podcast on my latest @atavist.com story. Talking with other writers about writing is always so validating and vindicating and all the other feels solitary writers often need so badly.

brendanomeara.com/the-cassidy-...

If you like a good podcast, well, you're in luck. It's a double-feature Friday and @cassidyrandall.bsky.social is back to talk about her @atavist.com story "The Longest Journey."

Need something inspirational in your apocalyptic politics feed? My latest for @rollingstone.com.

www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

She Completed an Audacious 1,600-Mile Ski Journey. Then Tragedy Struck. Lena Rowat embarked on what many considered an impossible expedition across the Coast Range mountains to quiet her demons. But she only began to silence them once she lost the love of her young life.

Lena Rowat skied 1,600 grueling miles across the Coast Range to quiet her demons. But she didn’t begin to silence them until tragedy struck. Atavist no. 163, by @cassidyrandall.bsky.social, is here. magazine.atavist.com/the-longest-...

Historical Nonfiction for Readers Who Crave Adventure Take a deep dive into the world of historical adventure and survival nonfiction.

Here's a real actual booklist of real actual books about historical adventures in the great outdoors - mine included! 💙📚 I'll add @cassidyrandall.bsky.social's THIRTY BELOW and Jayne Zanglein's THE GIRL EXPLORERS. @bookriot.bsky.social bookriot.com/historical-s...

Thank you for the shout out!

She Completed an Audacious 1,600-Mile Ski Journey. Then Tragedy Struck. Lena Rowat embarked on what many considered an impossible expedition across the Coast Range mountains to quiet her demons. But she only began to silence them once she lost the love of her young life.

My latest for @atavist.com: It the greatest ski mountaineering expedition ever. And it was a journey of obsession, depression, love, loss, survival—and the cost of following a drive to go further and higher than anyone had before.

magazine.atavist.com/the-longest-...

The Pressure of Constant Productivity We live in an era of curated productivity, both work-wise and in nearly every other aspect of life. How do we buck such unsustainable standards?

We live in an era of curated productivity - a time of drinking from a constant fire hose of production.

How do we buck such unsustainable standards? Latest on the Substack.

cassidyr.substack.com/p/the-pressu...

Five Ways Top Summer Vacations Depend On Public Lands Millions of people plan summer vacations to hike, bike, camp, fish, raft and adventure. Which depends on public lands being staffed, funded—and public in the first place.

"Once these lands are gone, they're gone forever." That means no more hiking, biking, camping, horseback riding, flyfishing, rafting, or wildlife watching. Latest on my Forbes column.

www.forbes.com/sites/cassid...

What It's Really Like to Face Off With a Grizzly -- and Live to Tell the Tale Jon Bentzel and Micah Nelson were hiking in Glacier National Park when a grizzly bear attacked Bentzel while protecting her cubs

Jon Bentzel and Micah Nelson were hiking in Glacier National Park when a grizzly bear attacked Bentzel while protecting her cubs.

www.rollingstone.com/culture/cult...

So good!

Some are willing to muzzle science to seek profit By Benjamin Alva Polley EBS COLUMNIST The current administration is attacking institutions of knowledge, such …

Newark’s Mayor Arrested at Protest Outside ICE Detention Center

In case you just walked in: the mayor of Newark was arrested during a protest at an ICE detention center in his capacity as mayor while requesting access to the facility, which, the city says, failed to obtain required permits or certificate of occupancy.

Gift link:

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/09/n...

I could not be more honored that Thirty Below has been selected as the Town Read at Mountainfilm this year! If you’re in Telluride, come join me at Wilkinson Public Library for some storytelling. So, so excited for this event.

No precedent, no permission: The first all-women team to challenge Denali – The Pulp In a raw and intimate excerpt from “Thirty Below,” Missoula author Cassidy Randall chronicles the tension and triumph of a historic all-women ascent.

Coming for you Friday night, Whitefish! Thanks to @thepulp.org for publishing an excerpt of THIRTY BELOW ahead of the Whitefish reading. Montana love is the best kind of love.

thepulp.org/thirty-below...