Two years after retiring from competition, snowboarding icon Shaun White faces a fascinating juncture in his career as he pours his energy into a range of projects that will extend and redefine his legacy.

　　Academy Award-winning filmmaker, celebrated adventure photographer, and elite climber Jimmy Chin is enjoying an extraordinary run of success and also feeling more thankful than ever for the mentors who helped him navigate his early path into the mountains.

　　In the wake of the Oscar-nominated biopic that chronicled her incredible open-water swim from Cuba to Florida, Diana Nyad is on a new mission: to convince all of us that we should never, ever give up on our dreams.

　　These three inspiring figures are among the 25 speakers who will be sharing their stories at the Outside Festival, a celebration of outdoor culture that brings together major musical acts (Thundercat, Fleet Foxes, Andrew Bird), riveting adventure films, a professional bouldering competition, yoga and fitness classes, climbing walls, and a broad range of interactive demos and exhibits from leading sports and wellness brands. The festival is taking place in downtown Denver’s Civic Center Park, June 1-2, with the speaker series located inside the Denver Art Museum, just across the street.

　　Other speakers include Protect Our Winters founder Jeremy Jones, climate activist and fashion model Quannah ChasingHorse, bestselling adventure author Kevin Fedarko, and wildlife ecologist and TV host Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant. The full lineup of panel conversations, keynote addresses, and interviews is below and you can learn about what’s happening across the festival at TheOutsideFestival.com. Single-day General Admission and VIP tickets are still available for purchase. Of special note: Kids under 12 are free.

　　Saturday, June 1 Shaun Whites Next Twist 1:00 p.m.-2:00PM Since retiring from competition in 2022, the three-time Olympic gold medalist and snowboarding icon Shaun White has been busier than ever. In the last two years, he has launched the snowboarding and snowboard culture brand Whitespace, partnered with two billionaire sports team owners to purchase We Are Camp, the snowboarding camp he attended while growing up, and teamed up with Park City, Utah’s High West Distillery for Protect the West, an initiative to raise $1 million for organizations like Protect Our Winters that are dedicated to preserving Western landscapes. In this conversation with Dhani Jones, a former NFL linebacker who has become an adventure TV host, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist, Shaun will share his unbounded excitement for the next phase of his life and career, and explain how the lessons he learned on the halfpipe continue to guide him.

　　Journeys of Purpose with Jeremy Jones, Quannah ChasingHorse, and Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant 2:15PM 3:15PM Jeremy Jones was the king of freeride snowboarding when he started noticing shifts in the mountains that revealed the dire threats of climate change. After struggling for a way to respond, he founded Protect Our Winters, which has become an influential force in the outdoor industry and on Capitol Hill for policies to safeguard our planet.

　　Quannah ChasingHorse is from Eagle Village, Alaska, and dreamed of being a model since she was six years old. She is also a fourth-generation land protector fighting for her homelands and her people’s way of life. After her activism got her noticed by a talent scout, she went on to work with top global fashion houses and has used modeling as a platform to uphold and uplift her Indigenous values and peoples.

　　When Rae Wynn-Grant was a little girl, she loved nature TV shows and envisioned working as a scientist in the Amazon and the African savannah. But when she got to college, she initially hated her ecology courses because she felt out of place as a Black woman who’d never been camping. Her path to becoming a renowned wildlife ecologist, chronicled in her new memoir, Wild Life, has been marked by unexpected challenges, expectations she had to leave behind, and an enduring courage to pursue her passion.

　　In this conversation, moderated by Gloria Schoch, senior director of global impact for the VF Corporation, Jeremy, Quannah, and Rae will share the lessons they learned along their journeys and offer insights on how we can find our way from caring about something to truly making a difference.

　　A 750-Mile Walk Across the Grand Canyon with Kevin Fedarko 3:30PM 4:30PM A few years after quitting his job to pursue the ill-advised ambition of becoming a whitewater guide on the Colorado River, journalist Kevin Fedarko was approached by his best friend, National Geographic photographer Pete McBride, with a vision as bold as it was harebrained. Together, they would embark on an end-to-end traverse, on foot, across the heart of the Grand Canyon, a 750-mile odyssey that McBride promised would be “a walk in the park.”

　　Against his better judgment, Fedarko agreed, unaware that the tiny cluster of experts who had actually completed the trek (for which there is no trail) billed it as “the toughest hike in the world.” In this presentation, Fedarko, the author of the beloved bestseller The Emerald Mile, delivers the story behind his latest book, A Walk in the Park. Join him for a rollicking and poignant account of an epic misadventure, a singular portrait of a sublime place, and a deeply moving plea for the preservation of America’s greatest natural treasure.

　　Seeing Beyond: Deaf Mountaineers Shayna Unger and Scott Lehmanns Bid for the Seven Summits 4:45PM 5:45PM Some 460 people have stood on top of all of the so-called Seven Summits—the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. None of them were deaf. Scott Lehmann and Shayna Unger are aiming to be the first. They were both born into multigenerational deaf families and raised in the deaf community. Growing up, they faced limited access to outdoor education due to communication barriers. It wasn’t until after college that they taught themselves to climb by studying YouTube videos and communicating with other mountaineers using paper and pen. Over the last decade, they have climbed some of the world’s highest peaks, including, last spring, Mount Everest and neighboring Lhotse back to back in 26 hours. This May, they reached the top of Makalu, the world’s fifth-highest mountain. In this presentation they will share stories from their incredible journeys and discuss their mission to change global perceptions of deaf people, pave a more inclusive and accessible path to exploration, and inspire a new generation of deaf and hard-of-hearing adventurers. Over the last decade, deaf mountaineers Scott Lehmann and Shayna Unger have climbed some of the world’s highest peaks. Hear stories from their incredible journeys—and learn more about their mission to pave a more inclusive and accessible path to exploration.

　　The Audacious Candidacy of Caroline Gleich 6:00PM 7:00PM Caroline Gleich has always been an underdog. Along her path to becoming a world-renowned ski mountaineer, skeptics regularly questioned her skills and success even as she summited Mount Everest with a torn ACL and later became the first woman to complete all 90 ski descents in The Chuting Gallery, the cult-classic guidebook to Utah’s Wasatch Range. Her emergence as an outspoken activist for environmental and social justice, including testimony on climate change before Congress, has earned her both praise and scorn. Now she is attempting the boldest climb of her life: running for United States Senate to represent Utah. In this conversation with Luis Benitez, a former international mountain guide who serves as the Chief Impact Officer at Trust for Public Lands and is one of the most powerful political voices of the outdoor industry’s political movement, Caroline will discuss how the determination that propelled her athletic career is fueling her passion for public service.

　　Sunday, June 2 Never Ever Give Up with Diana Nyad 1:00PM 2:00PM Diana Nyad is a storyteller, not a lecturer. She will take us on a journey of high adventure, team commitment, and the grit behind her historic swim from Cuba to Florida.

　　Adventure Forever with Caroline Paul and Juliet Starret 2:15PM 3:15PM Caroline Paul has embraced risk since childhood, when she attempted to break the world record in crawling at age 13. As an adult, she has completed whitewater first descents around the world, worked as a firefighter in San Francisco, and now pilots, paragliders, and gyrocopters. Along the way, she authored seven books, including The Gutsy Girl, a New York Times bestseller that encourages a new generation to go outside and practice bravery, increasing the confidence and leadership skills needed for a happy, healthy adulthood. At the Outside Festival, Caroline will present the fascinating, surprising, and sometimes hilarious science that links an outdoor life with fulfillment and longevity, all uncovered while reporting her latest book, Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking, How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age.

　　Juliet Starrett is a lifelong athlete, adventurer, entrepreneur, attorney, author, and podcaster whose mission is to inspire people to move more. She and her husband, Kelly, are pioneers in mobility training, having worked with pro-athletes, Olympians, and Navy Seals. Through their coaching program, The Ready State, they are empowering everyday athletes to be active throughout their lives, helping us feel great and function better as we age. Their 2023 New York Times bestselling book, Built to Move, is an all-in-one guide for simple but powerful practices that will dramatically improve the way your body feels and prolong your expected lifespan. Juliet will share wisdom that can be transformative for everyone from professional athletes to gym haters and everyone in between.

　　In Search of a Quiet Mind with Cory Richards and Katie Arnold 3:30PM 4:30PM Renowned climber and National Geographic photographer Cory Richards spent his career pursuing high-risk expeditions around the world, becoming the first and only American to reach the summit of one of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks in winter. He captured that effort and the aftermath of his team’s harrowing experience in the award-winning documentary Cold. But for years, Cory kept his real journey out of his story: the violence of his childhood, along with his grief, addiction, and mental illness. Now, as he prepares for the release of his forthcoming memoir, The Color of Everything, Richards examines the power of the stories we tell by sharing a deeper, more nuanced, and hopeful understanding of how his early trauma drove him to seek such heights.

　　When elite trail runner and bestselling author Katie Arnold shattered her leg in a remote river canyon, it was the beginning of a test—of her body, her spirit, and her marriage. Her years-long recovery process led her to a search for stillness through a Zen practice. In her recently released second book, Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World, she recounts her learnings from a tumultuous time that spurred a deep examination of the possibilities of a well-lived life.

　　In this conversation moderated by Outside contributing editor Florence Williams, whose latest book, Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey, won the 2023 PEN/E.O. Wilson Award for Literary Science Writing, Cory and Katie will discuss the winding pathways that eventually led them to places of peace and understanding.

　　​​The New Storytellers with Sofia Jaramillo, Jody Potts-Joseph, and Wawa Gatheru 4:45PM 5:45PM In this conversation, guided by Princess Daazhraii Johnson, an Emmy-nominated screenwriter and former Creative Producer for the Peabody award-winning PBS Kids series Molly of Denali, a group of innovative and passionate storytellers will discuss how they are creating space for voices and perspectives that have long been overlooked by mainstream outdoor culture.

　　Sofia Jaramillo is a Colombian-American documentary photographer whose work focuses on the intersection of the environment and people. She is a National Geographic Explorer, co-founder of Mountains of Color Film Festival, and is currently directing a fine art photography project called A New Winter. Her mission is to tell the stories she wished shed seen as a kid.

　　Jody Potts-Joseph is Han Gwich’in and lives in Eagle Village, Alaska, where she is an active hunter, fisher, trapper, and dog musher. She is a cast member of National Geographic Channel’s Life Below Zero: First Alaskans and provides consultation to fashion brands working with Native Peoples.

　　Wawa Gatheru is GenZ climate activist passionate about bringing empathetic and accessible climate communication to the mainstream. She is the founder of Black Girl Environmentalist, the largest Black youth-led climate organization in the country and the only national organization dedicated to addressing the pipeline and pathway issue for Black girls, women, and gender expansive individuals in the climate sector.

　　Mentoring in the Mountains with Jimmy Chin, Conrad Anker, and Malik Martin 6:00PM 7:00PM Climbers and mountaineers have a reputation as brash characters—mavericks and renegades with big egos who do things their own way. But at the heart of the climbing community are deep friendships that only come from shared experiences in wild and dangerous places. Wisdom and skills are shared in the form of mentorships that can last a lifetime. Legendary alpinist Conrad Anker has been part of this band for decades, benefiting from the lessons of the greats that showed him the way and passing them on to new members. This includes Jimmy Chin, who he began inviting on expeditions in the Himalayas more than 20 years ago, and Malik Martin, who was a relatively new climber from Memphis, Tennessee, when Conrad brought him on an ice climbing trip in 2020. In this conversation between three generations of athletes and storytellers, moderated by veteran journalist Tracy Ross, we will hear how the bonds they’ve made in the mountains have defined their lives and given them their purpose.