Peaks & Passages: Season 3 explores the heartbeat of mountain life—the people who rise before dawn, dig deep, and are keeping ski culture alive. This three-part video series drops this fall; this is episode three. 

What started as a small idea to connect women in skiing and snowboarding through an outdoors-oriented blog has evolved into a full-time business for two entrepreneurial sisters in Colorado. It began as a storytelling blog called Thumbs up Birds back in 2011, but during the Covid shutdown, sisters Kelley and Leanne Wren wrote a business plan and launched their own thing.

They changed the name to VNTRbirds and eventually turned it into a women’s adventure company that hosts meet-ups, avalanche education, and community events that encourage women to lead, learn, and gain confidence in the backcountry.

In this third and final episode of “Peaks and Passages,” VNTRbirds follows these two ambitious, self-starting sisters as they turn passion into purpose and connection into community. They’ve started a movement built on mentorship, empowerment, and avalanche education that brings people together through laughter, learning, and powder days.

Through speaker series, films, and free community events that teach ski turning, how to use map apps, and backcountry navigation, they are getting people together to gain knowledge, mentors, and community. “Folks can get intimidated in learning situations, so we wanted to create a fun, unique learning space,” says Leanne Wren.