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Featured Outdoor Blogger of the Month: Michael and Tracy of Adventure Loves Company
Tracy and Michael O'Brien are the two daring adventurers from Colorado who run the blog Adventure Loves Company. They created ALC to be able to share, inspire and perpetuate a life of adventure that most people have been dreaming of. They want people to see that there is more to enjoy in life and that everyone should make the most of it.
Tracy's first passion was classical ballet. She has undergone training around the country in programs by the American Ballet Theatre, The Joffrey Ballet, and The Boston Ballet and later earned her degree in Dance. All of the years Tracy spent doing classical ballet has equipped her to take on the challenges of the outdoors. Michael, on the other hand, is a pure adventurer. He loves mountain biking, ski mountaineering, and ultra running.
We hope to inspire the people around us to push their boundaries and squeeze the most out of life.
1. What fueled your passion for travel and adventure?
Adventure to us means pushing boundaries and becoming a student of the activity or the place. Travel enables us to take on new experiences that give us the opportunity to get outside our comfort zone and be a part of something bigger.
2. Do you remember the very first trip you took together? How was it like?
Our first trip together was to South America in 2014. We started in Santiago, Chile, then took a bus to Pichilemu to stay at a surf hostel and finally flew over to Mendoza, Argentina to explore the wine region. We immediately realized that we loved to have our trips circle around some sort of physical activity with more relaxing activities on the peripheral. Four days of surfing on the Chilean Coast followed by the best mojitos of our lives in Mendoza made for a pretty unforgettable trip.
3. What occupies your time when you're not traveling?
We’ve made a home in the mountain town of Silverthorne, Colorado. We fill our time with endurance running, mountain biking, backcountry skiing and pack rafting. When we aren’t adventuring, Tracy works as the Brand Manager for Breckenridge Ski Resort and Michael manages consulting engagements for Deloitte.
4. What are the best and the worst places you've been to? Tell us more about them.
We absolutely adore the Alps. We spent our honeymoon ski touring from hut to hut in the Bernese Oberland and the same year ran the Tour du Mont Blanc from hut to hut in five days. The Alps offer up incredibly majestic, yet rugged terrain and the huts provide food and culture that’s hard to beat. There’s something about the simplicity of just skiing or running, sleeping, and then doing it all over again for multiple days in a row.
Hmmm...we don't really have a place that we visited that we didn't like. We believe there's something "good" in every experience.
5. Can you imagine life without travel?
Our lives simply wouldn’t be the same without travel – it’s fuel for adventure. We value experience over material goods, and traveling together always brings perspective to our relationship. There is so much more to do and explore; we can’t wait to keep learning, pushing and discovering.