Renate Belczyk was 27 when she moved to Canada from Germany in 1959. Over the years she has spent a great deal of time adventuring in the backcountry of the Canadian Rockies and Columbian mountains, where she’s worked as a ski camp cook and kindergarten teacher. During the past 50 years she has visited Peru, Pakistan, Tibet, China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Mongolia, Bhutan, Syria, Jordan, New Zealand, Ecuador, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Russia, and all of Europe. She has paddled the Amazon River, canoed the Mackenzie from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk, and walked around Mount Kailash in Tibet. Now in her 80s, she lives in Castlegar, British Columbia.