First Woman to Ski the Full Iditarod with Sunny Stroeer

0:03One of the things I love about my job is that I interview a lot of people who built a conventionally successful life and then made a hard pivot to chase adventure. Of course, that really resonates with me. I left behind a salaried position in marketing to pursue a career as an adventure journalist. When I did that, it was terrifying. But that career switch has been one of the most fulfilling decisions I've ever made. Today's guest, Sunny Strohr, knows exactly what I mean. For years, Sunny was a high-powered business consultant with a stressful lifestyle. After suffering from major burnout, Sunny chose to leave the corporate world to chase adventure.

0:42Since then, Sunny has set over 20 fastest known times on trails and mountains around the world. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production presented by Capital One and the REI Co-op MasterCard. In 2024, Sunny became the first woman to ski the full Iditarod Trail. That's over a thousand miles in the dead of the Alaskan winter. Between all of her own adventures, Sunny runs a guiding company, as well as a foundation dedicated to supporting women as they go after their own wild ideas. Sunny, your name is German. You have a tiny bit of an accent.

1:26Sunny Stroeer:Where did you grow up? I grew up in Germany, born and raised, and I lived there until I was 18, came over to the U.S. for school, and pretty much never looked back since. So at this point, I've been in the U.S. for more than half my life, more than 20 years, and I very much consider this my home. Wow, I didn't realize you didn't grow up here. Were you always outdoorsy as a kid? Were your parents outdoorsy? Did they go camping? I grew up with parents that were kind of adventurous, but in like a very conventional way, you know, so like they'd make me go outside, we'd go on hikes, like we went skiing in the winter.

2:00Sunny Stroeer:And this is skiing in Europe. So it's like very different from here, you know, you could go and buy a resort ticket for like 20 bucks a day and take the whole family. It was fine, right. So we would do all of that. But then we'd always come back to a comfortable bed and a hot meal at the end of the day. And I definitely never did any type of real crazy, insane, way remote, you know, the type of stuff that I do know. But, you know, things change, right? How interesting. So you went to school, university in the United States, you went to Harvard. I did. So Massachusetts, from what part of Germany were you living in?

2:34Sunny Stroeer:I lived right close to Frankfurt, so kind of smack in the middle of the country. And I actually started out my university years in Switzerland. But then after that first year, I transferred to Harvard. At Harvard, I started getting into backpacking. And that kind of was the beginning of the end.

2:57In college, Sunny joined a student backpacking trip to the New Hampshire's White Mountains. The hike was extremely challenging for Sunny, but she loved it. And the next year, she became a student guide. When she wasn't adventuring in the mountains, Sunny was focused on schoolwork. After undergrad, she took a job in investment management before continuing on to get an MBA. There, she went on to work as a strategy consultant for a major firm.

3:25Sunny Stroeer:For me, the choice to become a consultant was really predicated on the financial necessity because I walked away from my MBA with six figures in student loans and I needed to go and pay them back. Plus I was also so set up and so conditioned to kind of pursue some form of a fast track, high powered career and consulting just ended up being the actual corner of the business world that seemed to fit the best for me. But really it was, it wasn't a choice that I necessarily questioned a lot when I was making it. I just thought that that's what I had to do. So I gained so, so much from consulting, but I also recognized quite quickly that that just wasn't something that made my heart sing.

4:11Yeah, but it is a good, it is a really good background to have. And interesting, because you probably worked with so many different people and saw how businesses run. And if you could take that to the outdoors, like how cool.

4:21Sunny Stroeer:You know, I had a moment when I was up for manager promotion, which is considered the hardest promotion and consulting to get. And I was debating if I should walk away, not because I wasn't going to clear the hurdle, but just because the work was not something that I really was passionate about. And a mentor of mine said, you know what, you really need to stay, you need to get that promotion, and you need to work as a manager for at least a year. And here's why. Because if you do that, you are going to build a level of confidence that nobody can ever take. You know, once you're a manager, you're going to learn to tackle any problem and look at any challenge and issue in the world, essentially.

4:56Sunny Stroeer:And you're going to have a way to think about it and to frame it and to start taking a bite out of it. And I listened to that advice. And in retrospect, I think that my mentor was very, very right in saying that. So what ultimately made you walk away? What was the decision? What was the moment? The moment I decided to walk away from my job was when I handed in the final deliverables on a project that completely broke my back and essentially just put me deep, deep, deep, deep, deep into burnout. I had a project where I worked 43 hours straight, literally started on a Tuesday morning, didn't go home until Thursday morning.

5:40Sunny Stroeer:And even when I went home on Thursday morning, I didn't get to go home because the work was done. I got to go home because I had to deliver the final presentation to the CEO at eight in the morning. And my team who are still working on trying to finish it up are saying, hey, you know, you're not coherent because you haven't slept and you need to go and deliver this presentation. So you better go and get some sleep. Right. So anyway, that, that project was a turning point for me. And it was a very illuminating exercise in a, how much I can get done with an amazing team, but also be how fluid and unprotected my personal boundaries are.

6:17Sunny Stroeer:and the result from it was that I just found myself in acute burnout and I saw no path forward on the track that I was on and made a decision to quit. Like right then? Right then. Right then and there I sent an email to the whole partner team saying this is it I'm done on a Friday afternoon and then I finished up the project on Saturday and Sunday into Monday morning because there was still work to be done and I was the only person who could do it and then by the time Monday morning rolled around, I thought through the rational consequences of my decision to quit. And, you know, at the time, I still had a bunch of student loans, they weren't all paid off yet.

6:56Sunny Stroeer:And I also was and still am a German citizen. So my ability to be in the country was tied to my employment. And the minute that I walked away from my job, I was going to lose my work permit, right and have to leave the US, which is where I built my life. So as those pieces kind of came into focus, I sent another email to the partner team and I said, hey, so by the way, I'm quitting, right? I told you that on Friday, but I'm not going to quit this week or, you know, in two weeks. I'm going to give myself until the end of the year, which was like eight months out. I'll go and see through my projects until the end of the year.

7:30Sunny Stroeer:And as of December 31st, I'm going to walk away. Sunny used her last few months at work to plan her next move, and she found herself itching to spend more time outside. She decided to try van life, which would give her the freedom to drive to any trailhead or mountain she wanted. It also meant that she could keep her cost of living pretty low. And with the money she'd save from work, she could enjoy herself for a while without having to find a job. I had read an article about Alex Honnold, and in that article I saw a photo of his van. And I think that was the first time that I ever had any concept or idea of the fact that there's such a thing as van life and people actually go and live on the road and just pursue adventure, right?

8:17Sunny Stroeer:That was completely unknown to me at the time. And then I quit my job and I knew I wasn't going to have a lot of money, but I really wanted to go and have adventures. I was like, oh, I'm going to go and live in a van. So I bought a Chevy Astra van off of Craigslist for 2 ,800 bucks and started building it out and moved into it. And that's what started my adventures. Okay, I'm curious what song played in your head when you first moved in your van and you were like, oh, I'm so free. You know, the reality was actually the complete opposite. So when I first got the van, it was a disaster. And I had all these second thoughts and questions because, again, I've been working as a consultant.

8:58Sunny Stroeer:I'm traveling around the country and around the world on projects, flying comfortably, staying in really nice hotels. I actually didn't own a car at the time. I only had rental cars because I was traveling so much. It didn't make sense for me to have a car in Texas where I was living. And then I buy this piece of junk, you know, for 2 ,800 bucks of Craigslist. It had like 200 ,000 miles on it, but it smelled to the high heavens. Like it was nasty. And I'm literally like sitting in traffic, driving this thing home from where I picked it up. And I'm just thinking, oh my God, what did I just do with my life?

9:29Sunny Stroeer:Like, this is terrible. right so for a little while I just I had the van parked at the top level of my parking garage in Houston and then I grabbed a couple of tools and started building it and you know got it done right before I had to move out of my apartment on the 31st of December and that's the moment where you know that feeling of freedom really came in okay so you go you live in a van and then it sounds like your whole life just starts becoming wild idea after wild idea after wild idea i would say that that's an accurate description in a lot of ways and i will say as i moved myself into this van and i completely pivoted i think the most meaningful and most important thing that I did was that I gave myself permission to not think about the future for a little bit.

10:28All that I wanted to do for a couple of months was to just be able to live and to

10:36Sunny Stroeer:enjoy and to thrive doing the things that truly bring me joy and that I'm truly passionate about. And I knew that I had a super limited financial runway. I knew that I had no, you know, at the time legal way to make money again, because I'd given that up. I was now back in the US on a tourist visa. So I really can't go and seek gainful employment. You know, I had all of these constraints, but I just said, you know what, doesn't matter. I know that I'm okay in the moment. I know that I'm going to be okay for like the next, you know, three to six months. And then I'm pretty confident, thanks to my trajectory, my career, my experience, my education, that I will be able to figure something out again.

11:13Sunny Stroeer:So for six months, I'm just going to park all of the planning, all of the thinking, all of the worries, and I'm just going to be in the moment.

11:24Sunny settled into her new life of adventure. She visited national parks across the country, rock climbed, hiked, and spent as much time outside as she could. During this time, Sunny kept coming back to a memory of a previous expedition she did to Aconcagua in Argentina. She had always wanted to go back. So Sunny decided to put together an all-woman's expedition to go down to South America and climb the mountain together. Tell me what happens with a group of women who climb a mountain.

11:56Sunny Stroeer:So that was a big question that I had before I put together this team, right? Because I figured it's a self-selecting crowd who shows up for a challenge like this, right? It's going to be a bunch of very strong personalities, probably very driven, very type A. You put all of these women into a pressure cooker of an expedition environment. What happens? I had no idea. I honestly had no idea. And I was prepared for it to be really, really tough and really challenging. And I was hoping for it to be really cool and really amazing. And it turned out to be both. Right. It was a really unique and really powerful dynamic that we fell in so, so quickly where we're open with one another.

12:41Sunny Stroeer:We're sharing with one another. We're vulnerable. We're communicating a lot like we're doing all the things that women kind of tend to do in normal life. Right. We're just doing it in this pressure cooker environment. and comparing that experience to the experiences that I had had climbing with male partners and in co-ed teams and you know with predominantly men I was like wow there's you know this feels really different like the fabric of the experience the fabric of the social interactions is materially different and I love it and I think there's something here and I think if more women got to experience this you know we would see a very different level of participation of women in the high mountain realm.

13:26After the expedition, Sunny's friends went home while she stuck around Argentina a little longer to do something spontaneous. She wanted to climb Aconcagua again, but this time she'd set out alone and unsupported to break the fastest known time.

13:43Sunny Stroeer:What inspired you to do an FKT? At the time, I was really deeply invested in trail running. I was doing a bunch of ultra races. I'd been spending a bunch more time at high altitude. And I was curious what it would feel like to go and put those elements together. And I started to wonder and say, wow, you know, I have some extra weeks on the mountain. I wonder, could I potentially go and run this thing? So you got the FKT. You did it. And I'm just curious, like, how did that change you? when I got that FKT on Aconcagua I was really proud of having done it and you know I was yeah I was proud and you know happy that I was able to pull it off but the reality is that that day was actually a really really really difficult day in the mountains for me and I'm not at all proud of the process that allowed me to get the FKT.

14:40Sunny Stroeer:And the decision making that took me through that day was really, really poor and something that I'm still learning lessons from. So what I mean with that specifically, I had a really, really bad cough for probably two and a half weeks or so and was suffering from that right up until I tried for the speed record. And, you know, at the time that I tried for the speed record, which for what it's worth was a run from base camp at about 14 ,000 feet to the summit at about 23 ,000 feet. It's a six mile route took me just under nine hours to do it. But when I set out to go and pursue that record, I thought that I was recovered enough, I thought that I was healthy.

15:18Sunny Stroeer:So I got to the summit, I radioed down that I was up there, I took photos for proof, you know, I stopped my watch, I had set the record. And I figured all that I had to do at this point was walk back down, which shouldn't be that hard. But guess what, The moment that I started walking off the summit, I realized that I couldn't breathe and I had zero energy left in the tank. I was way up at 23 ,000 feet on my own. And I ended up taking dexamethasone, which is a rescue steroid, because I was so scared and so weak and I had no idea if my body was going to stay with me, essentially, to take me off the mountain.

15:55Sunny Stroeer:And then eventually I ended up radioing to a friend of mine who was down at base camp. And I said, hey, you know, Libby, can you please come meet me? Because I'm worried that I'm not going to make it back down by myself. I'm worried I'm going to sit down and just not continue on. Oh, that's so scary. But you did make it. I did make it. I will say, you know, if Libby hadn't been there, she's a trained nurse, an ICU nurse. If she hadn't been there, I think I probably would have gotten helicoptered off the mountain because I was so strung out and I was so not okay. I was severely tachypnick where, you know, I couldn't actually go and form a full sentence.

16:37Sunny Stroeer:I could say like two words and then I would have to gasp for air. And that was still true 24 hours later. So if she hadn't been there to keep an eye on me, I would have gone to the medical staff at base camp and the medical staff at base camp would have looked at me and would have said, you're in deep trouble and you need to go to hospital right now. Right. So that's why I'm saying, yes, I set the record. Yes, I got the FKT. Yes, it was the first FKT that I set. Am I proud of it? Not really, to be honest. You know, I'm grateful that I was able to do it, but my process and my risk management was absolutely atrocious.

17:13Sunny Stroeer:And what's worst of all, I think, is that I thought I was being safe and I thought that I was leaving gas in the tank until all of a sudden I realized that I was in deep, deep, deep trouble.

17:30The sunshine is back and I'm planning to spend the next few months outside. catching waves, camping, and hiking the trails all around San Diego. If your summer plans also involve spending as much time outside as possible, the REI Co-op MasterCard offers rewards and benefits that support your love of the outdoors. It's just for REI Co-op members and earns card rewards on every purchase at REI and everywhere else MasterCard is accepted. What I love is that rewards are available in one to two days, So all of those stops on the way to the adventure, from fuel for the drive to last-minute gear runs, it all adds up.

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20:47In 2017, Sunny Strohr set an FKT Anacogagwa that garnered attention from adventure publications like Outside Magazine and National Geographic. A few months later, Sunny was in Nepal after leading an expedition in the Himalayas when she decided to try for another FKT, the 136-mile Annapurna Circuit, a famous and extremely challenging backpacking route.

21:15Sunny Stroeer:I had another 10 days or so before my return flight to the U.S. was scheduled. So I was looking around and thinking about, OK, I'm really acclimatized. I'm pretty fit. What could I go do with these couple of days? And I started reading about the Annapurna Circuit. I'm like, oh, you know, that looks cool. I would like to probably hike that. And then I started thinking, oh, why would I hike it? You know, if I can do it fast, might as well run it. If I run it, I might as well try to put a record on it. Sunny ended up completing the circuit in just under four days, setting the fastest known time. A few months later, she headed back to South America and set an FKT on a different route on Aconcagua.

21:59Then in the winter of 2024, Sunny geared up to go after a totally new wild idea. She became the first woman to complete the 1 ,000-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational in Alaska on cross-country skis.

22:17Sunny Stroeer:the Adderot trail is a household name for a lot of adventure folks in the u.s because there's a huge sled dog race on it every year right and it's a big big deal in alaska and nationally but the race that i started looking at and that i've now participated in several times is not the dog race it is the human powered cousin to the sled dog race, essentially. So it's called the Adderod Trail Invitational, or ITI for short. And the ITI takes place on the same trails as the Adderod sled dog race. It's pretty much at the same time of year. And you can choose between a short distance and a long distance.