59 min

Ep 26: The Bridge Back to Life with Sarah Fountain Nature Untold

    • Mental Health

Sarah Fountain (she/her) is a marketing director, creative, writer, dog mom, rock climber, and general outdoors enthusiast living in Boulder, Colorado. She recently celebrated 9 years of sobriety. She also describes herself as an aggressive extrovert and empath.

In this episode, John and Sarah discuss:


her day-to-day in Boulder, Colorado
Sarah’s recent celebration of 9 years in recovery
her upbringing and how she immediately felt like she was a fish out of water
how the first time she got drunk, she immediately thought ‘I need this’
her semester with NOLS and how it was essentially a detox but also she had her first big moment with the outdoors
her relationship with cocaine and how it became a light switch in her brain
how addiction can feel like a loss of trust in yourself
her rock bottom moment
how most of early recovery was about trudging the happy road
her move to Maine after 20 months of recovery catalyzed by her brother having Stage 4 cancer
how climbing and the climbing community supported her during her recovery
having to mourn the loss of drinking and drugging
dealing with cultural norms around drinking
her relationship with her brother, who was dying of Stage 4 cancer, and how she wouldn’t have been able to show up for him, in the same way, were it not for a 12-step program
staying in the right relationship with the mountains and learning from the mountains
keeping your side of the street clean

Catch up with Sarah on Instagram.

Thank you, as always, for listening to this episode. Please follow along on the show’s Instagram, our private Facebook group, or wherever you’d like.

Sarah Fountain (she/her) is a marketing director, creative, writer, dog mom, rock climber, and general outdoors enthusiast living in Boulder, Colorado. She recently celebrated 9 years of sobriety. She also describes herself as an aggressive extrovert and empath.

In this episode, John and Sarah discuss:


her day-to-day in Boulder, Colorado
Sarah’s recent celebration of 9 years in recovery
her upbringing and how she immediately felt like she was a fish out of water
how the first time she got drunk, she immediately thought ‘I need this’
her semester with NOLS and how it was essentially a detox but also she had her first big moment with the outdoors
her relationship with cocaine and how it became a light switch in her brain
how addiction can feel like a loss of trust in yourself
her rock bottom moment
how most of early recovery was about trudging the happy road
her move to Maine after 20 months of recovery catalyzed by her brother having Stage 4 cancer
how climbing and the climbing community supported her during her recovery
having to mourn the loss of drinking and drugging
dealing with cultural norms around drinking
her relationship with her brother, who was dying of Stage 4 cancer, and how she wouldn’t have been able to show up for him, in the same way, were it not for a 12-step program
staying in the right relationship with the mountains and learning from the mountains
keeping your side of the street clean

Catch up with Sarah on Instagram.

Thank you, as always, for listening to this episode. Please follow along on the show’s Instagram, our private Facebook group, or wherever you’d like.

59 min