Climate Conversations: Anna Gibson
Ski Mountaineering Olympian, Trail Running Champion and Environmental Law Graduate
Our guest on the Where The Climate Things Are podcast this week is Anna Gibson – you might know her from her insane trail running career or from the 2026 Winter Olympics in ski mountaineering, but you might not know that she also holds a graduate degree in environmental law. Anna grew up at the base of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, spent her childhood in a Volkswagen camper van, and was casually writing climate fiction in just third grade. She went on to work in grassroots advocacy in Jackson, WY before launching a into a career as an elite athlete at the international level in not one but TWO sports.
In this conversation, we get into what it felt like to be featured in the official Olympics documentary examining the long-term viability of winter sports – and we spend a good amount of time on something she thinks about carefully: why her advocacy has almost nothing to do with her Instagram, and why showing up quietly, in rooms nobody is watching, might be the most sustainable form of athlete advocacy there is.
We talk about:
An early interest in environment and even climate - she wrote climate fiction in third grade!
Her environmental interest expanding into a law degree and grassroots advocacy
Racing internationally across seasons and noticing that something was always slightly off – not the same thing everywhere, but consistently strange
Being featured in the official 2026 Winter Olympics documentary, which examines the long-term viability of hosting the Games as snow conditions change
Why her advocacy looks almost nothing like her Instagram, and what it means to show up in rooms nobody is watching
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Keywords: ski mountaineering, trail running, environmental law, Winter Olympics 2026, Protect Our Winters, athlete advocacy, climate storytelling, human-powered travel, outdoor community, Jackson Hole, snow sports climate