A LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY LADIES
Spanning the generations, women have planted themselves here among the cactus and pine. They’ve forged unconventional paths west — hunting and harvesting stories worth remembering. Today, they are still heeding the call of their heritage, bravely shedding all that is frivolous as they head deeper into the backcountry. They pursue that which will outlive them, in faithful stewardship of the tender shoots of conservation.
This league of extraordinary women have been tested and tried in the high lonesome; blooming amidst the rugged terrain with tenacity and grace that has changed the landscape on which they reside. They are too many to name — those women who have led the way — but each month we aim to share their stories. These are Women of the West.
KATIE DELORENZO
NEW MEXICO
In southern New Mexico, a young Katie Delorenzo held a squirming lizard in her small hand, displaying it proudly for her father, biologist Don Delorenzo, to inspect. Here in the gravel and sandy soil of the Chihuahuan desert, the seeds of Katie’s future were taking root.
“It was a childhood hyper-focused on being outside. My dad made everything interesting,” said Katie. “Even the smallest things that we found he made cool, and he’d explain them to me.”
While Katie hunted sporadically with her dad, it wasn’t until a 2015 Rocky Mountain Bighorn ewe tag came in the mail that she ventured into the backcountry of the Latir Peak Wilderness in pursuit of something larger. “It was just me and my dad. I got off work super late, and we covered half the trail that night. We threw our bags down on the ground and slept under the stars. We hunted all the next day, and I ended
