Sally Edwards and Melissa McKenzie, both avid snowshoers, are the cofounders of YubaShoes Sport Snowshoes, a manufacturing company of high-performance snowshoes.
Edwards has been committed to fitness all her life. One of the founders of triathlon competition, she has completed 13 Ironman triathlons, finishing in the top five in the master's or open division in each. She competed in the 1984 Olympic Marathon Trials and set the women's record at the 1993 Iditashoe 100-Mile Snowshoe Race in Alaska with a time of 24 hours, 1 minute. She has won dozens of other endurance events, including the master's division of the 1994 Mt. Taylor Quadrathlon, a combination of snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, running, and cycling.
In addition to Snowshoeing, Edwards has written 7 books on sports, fitness, and diet and more than 300 magazine and newspaper articles. She is a well-known professional speaker and the national spokesperson for the Danskin Women's Triathlon Series since 1990. One of the founders of Triathlon Federation/USA, she served as its vice president for seven years.
Edwards earned her master's degree in exercise physiology from the University of California at Berkeley, in 1970 and her MBA from National University in 1986.
Melissa McKenzie left her job as a marketing executive for a cellular telephone company to launch YubaShoes with Sally Edwards. Having earned her MBA from Boston University in 1986, McKenzie was no stranger to the corporate environment. YubaShoes became her first entrepreneurial venture, allowing her to combine vocation and avocation.
McKenzie's lifelong interest in the outdoors and her bachelor's degree in biology, with an emphasis on botany and ecology, allowed her to make major contributions to the chapters in this book that focus on nature. A member of the Sierra Club and the National Audubon Society, McKenzie hopes to inspire others to become more familiar with the great outdoors.