{"id":1318490,"date":"2020-03-01T23:40:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T06:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/vail-womans-passions-include-rocket-science-seven-summits\/"},"modified":"2020-03-02T08:24:05","modified_gmt":"2020-03-02T15:24:05","slug":"vail-womans-passions-include-rocket-science-seven-summits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/vail-womans-passions-include-rocket-science-seven-summits\/","title":{"rendered":"Vail woman\u2019s passions include rocket science, Seven Summits"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.8453695836873\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-994184-176\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-1024x692.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Special to the Daily | Vail's Meghan Buchanan at Denali's 14,000-foot camp. She's headed for Mount Everest as her quest for the Grand Slam of Adventure continues -- the Seven Summits, and both the North and South poles.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"0\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"11\">\n<p><strong>Vail&#8217;s Meghan Buchanan at Denali&#8217;s 14,000-foot camp. She&#8217;s headed for Mount Everest as her quest for the Grand Slam of Adventure continues &#8212; the Seven Summits, and both the North and South poles.<\/strong><br \/>Special to the Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-1024x692.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Vail's Meghan Buchanan at Denali's 14,000-foot camp. She's headed for Mount Everest as her quest for the Grand Slam of Adventure continues -- the Seven Summits, and both the North and South poles.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-1-1024x640.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Special to the Daily | Meghan Buchanan walks, hikes and climbs because she can. She recovered from a horrific snowboarding injury in Vail's Back Bowls, and now climbs mountains.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Meghan Buchanan walks, hikes and climbs because she can. She recovered from a horrific snowboarding injury in Vail&#8217;s Back Bowls, and now climbs mountains.<\/strong><br \/>Special to the Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-1-1024x640.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Meghan Buchanan walks, hikes and climbs because she can. She recovered from a horrific snowboarding injury in Vail's Back Bowls, and now climbs mountains.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-2-1024x506.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Special to the Daily | Meghan Buchanan founded GGRIT, giving motivational talks to help people overcome obstacles.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>Meghan Buchanan founded GGRIT, giving motivational talks to help people overcome obstacles.<\/strong><br \/>Special to the Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-2-1024x506.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Meghan Buchanan founded GGRIT, giving motivational talks to help people overcome obstacles.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-3-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-3-1024x1024.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Special to the Daily | Meghan Buchanan at the summit of Denali. She's shooting for the Grand Slam of Adventure, the Seven Summits and the North and South poles.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>Meghan Buchanan at the summit of Denali. She&#8217;s shooting for the Grand Slam of Adventure, the Seven Summits and the North and South poles.<\/strong><br \/>Special to the Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-3-1024x1024.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Meghan Buchanan at the summit of Denali. She's shooting for the Grand Slam of Adventure, the Seven Summits and the North and South poles.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-4-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-4-1024x769.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Special to the Daily | Meghan Buchanan's recovery has not been all snow, ice and sweat.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><strong>Meghan Buchanan&#8217;s recovery has not been all snow, ice and sweat.<\/strong><br \/>Special to the Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-4-1024x769.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Meghan Buchanan's recovery has not been all snow, ice and sweat.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-5-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-5-1024x767.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Special to the Daily | Meghan Buchanan was horrifically injured on a huge powder day in Vail's Back Bowls. Ski patrollers said they had never heard those kinds of screams come out of a human.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><strong>Meghan Buchanan was horrifically injured on a huge powder day in Vail&#8217;s Back Bowls. Ski patrollers said they had never heard those kinds of screams come out of a human.<\/strong><br \/>Special to the Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-5-1024x767.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Meghan Buchanan was horrifically injured on a huge powder day in Vail's Back Bowls. Ski patrollers said they had never heard those kinds of screams come out of a human.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-6-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-6-819x1024.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Special to the Daily | These days Meghan Buchanan is a rocket scientist with Raytheon.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-2\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"7\">\n<p><strong>These days Meghan Buchanan is a rocket scientist with Raytheon.<\/strong><br \/>Special to the Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-6-819x1024.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"These days Meghan Buchanan is a rocket scientist with Raytheon.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-7-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-7-1024x640.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Special to the Daily | The view from the summit is beautiful, but Meghan Buchanan says you only get to see it if you put in the work.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>The view from the summit is beautiful, but Meghan Buchanan says you only get to see it if you put in the work.<\/strong><br \/>Special to the Daily<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2020\/03\/MeghanBuchananEverest-vdn-022920-1-7-1024x640.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"The view from the summit is beautiful, but Meghan Buchanan says you only get to see it if you put in the work.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/sports\/outdoors\/vail-womans-passions-include-rocket-science-seven-summits\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/sports\/outdoors\/vail-womans-passions-include-rocket-science-seven-summits\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">VAIL \u2014 Meghan Buchanan doesn\u2019t just climb \u2014 she ascends. She wants you to, too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The Vail resident worked her way back from a horrific snowboarding injury \u2014 she broke the head off her left femur in Sun Up Bowl \u2014 and is more than halfway to The Grand Slam of Adventure \u2014 the Seven Summits, and both the North and South poles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Along the way she launched GGRIT \u2014 Growth Gratitude Resilience Integrity and Tenacity \u2014 aimed at helping people in general and women in particular overcome obstacles and reach their personal summits, \u201cgive people the tools to overcome challenges,\u201d Buchanan said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">This month, she leaves for Mount Everest, the fifth of her Seven Summits. She hopes to return home to Vail in May.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">Really, rocket science<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Buchanan is an honest-to-brilliance rocket scientist with Raytheon. Her company shares her vision and sense of adventure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Denali was an enormous adventure. She had good weather for the first part, then, at about 17,000 feet, a storm hammered her group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cYou power through it and keep going,\u201d Buchanan said, which is pretty much the story of her life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI recall thinking how beautiful it is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Then a more profound thought hit her.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cYou get to see it if you put in the work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Her guide on Denali told her, \u201cYou are ready. Go do Everest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">So she is. She hopes to arrive in Kathmandu in March and be off the mountain in May.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Subhead\">Her toughest climb<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The Vail Valley is home to countless elite climbers and a few who\u2019ve completed the Seven Summits, but few have rebounded from the kind of injury Buchanan suffered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">She was laughing, smiling and loving the powder on Windows in Vail\u2019s Sun Up Bowl on Feb. 6, 2011, a powder day. Everything changed in an instant. Buchanan blasted through the deep powder when she hit a fallen tree, buried under about 4 feet of new snow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">She broke the head off her left femur bone, twisting it so badly that the muscle and everything attached to it tore loose. It was so bad she was bleeding out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">There was so much snow that Super Bowl Sunday that they had trouble finding her. Eventually, ski patrollers followed the screams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Dr. Rick Cunningham, the surgeon with Vail-Summit Orthopaedics who put her back together, said he hadn\u2019t seen injuries that severe in 10 years. To the untrained eye, it looked like ice cream falling off the cone, or in Buchanan\u2019s case, the bone, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Not so long ago, someone with an injury like that might have been facing life in a wheelchair, Cunningham said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Cunningham inserted a 14-inch rod into Buchanan\u2019s femur, along with all the hardware to hold it in place. Along with everything else she was suffering, Buchanan\u2019s body tried to reject it, leaving her in constant pain. The femur is one of the biggest bones in your body, and the rod needed to stay there at least a year for it to heal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">After a year and a half, bone marrow was growing back and that pain was gone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cAfter 19 months of constant chronic debilitating pain, it was finally gone,\u201d she said. \u201cThe life I once knew came rushing back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A month later, she could finally climb stairs unassisted. Four months after that, with her team\u2019s approval, she left for Nepal with Love Hope Strength, a Colorado nonprofit \u2014 to hike to Everest base camp (17,500 feet) and Kalapathar (18,500 feet), a 14-day trek.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cAll the amazing support and people in this valley gave me my leg back. I can\u2019t wait to celebrate with my family and friends,\u201d Buchanan said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/sports\/outdoors\/vail-womans-passions-include-rocket-science-seven-summits\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vail&#8217;s Meghan Buchanan at Denali&#8217;s 14,000-foot camp. She&#8217;s headed for Mount Everest as her quest for the Grand Slam of Adventure continues &#8212; the Seven Summits, and both the North and South poles.Special to the Daily Meghan Buchanan walks, hikes and climbs because she can. She recovered from a horrific snowboarding injury in Vail&#8217;s Back [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1318490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-05 12:15:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1318490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1318497,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318490\/revisions\/1318497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1318490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1318490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1318490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}