Adventures Within RecoveryAdventures Within Recovery
Addict II Athlete Podcast
Coach Blu talks with recovery coach and adventure guide Tara Butson about combining sobriety with mountain sports, ultra-running and guiding in Telluride. Their conversation highlights how outdoor movement, community and small everyday actions can support life without alcohol.
48:15•23 Nov 2020
Mountains, Sobriety and Coors Peak: Adventures Within Recovery
Episode Overview
- Movement-based activities such as running, cycling and guiding help Tara manage anxiety and depression without substances.
- In a remote area with scarce treatment options, athletic recovery groups offer an alternative or complement to traditional 12-step meetings.
- Finishing last in a gruelling 50-mile race showed that completion and resilience can matter more than placement.
- Guided climbs like Wilson Peak allow people in recovery to face fear, build trust and turn old drinking symbols into sober milestones.
- Simple steps like layering up, going for short walks, or trying nordic skiing and snowshoeing can ease winter blues and support ongoing sobriety.
“Everybody’s worth sobriety. Everybody’s worth having that.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation on Addict II Athlete takes you high into the Colorado mountains with AIIA Certified Recovery Coach and adventure guide, Tara Butson. Set in Telluride, a tiny ski and mountain town with very limited formal treatment options, Tara talks about getting sober in a place where, until recently, people detoxed in the county jail.
She explains how traditional 12-step meetings helped at first, but how she craved more options: athletic connection, outdoor movement, and a different kind of community. That’s where Addict II Athlete came in. Tara and her husband run San Juan Outdoor Adventures, and she folds recovery straight into her work as a professional guide.
From long-distance running to cycling, she uses motion as a pressure valve for anxiety and depression: “It was a way to deal with my anxiety and my depression outside of self-medicating.” One of the standout stories is a brutal 50-mile mountain race with 23,000 feet of elevation, where Tara finished dead last, soaked, freezing, and exhausted—yet proud.
She laughs about being last, but Coach Blu reframes it: last meant she got “the most bang for her buck” and outlasted many who quit. You’ll also hear how Tara guided a group of Utah athletes up Wilson Peak, the famous Coors can mountain. Instead of beer photos, they planted a sober flag on a symbol of drinking culture, turning it into a monument of recovery.
Winter doesn’t stop her either; she champions cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and even stair-climbing at home as simple, low-cost ways to keep moving. Tara closes with a message aimed straight at anyone still unsure: “Everybody’s worth sobriety. Everybody’s worth having that.” Could your next step in recovery be as simple as putting one foot in front of the other and heading outside?
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