KIM HULL and her husband Greg gave up their working lives to move to Colorado and they now spend most of their time biking, skiing, climbing and photographing the nature around them.

After a year they started Chasing Light Media which involves sports and event photography and sees them travel all over the country.

Kim has made her name on the internet through middleagedskibum.com which connects those with similar interests from around the world. 

In this exclusive interview she talks about all the success and adventure she’s had and also offers advice to those who long to remove themselves from the daily grind of corporate life and explore the wonders of nature and all it has to offer.

In 2010 you and your husband left your conventional lives and moved to Colorado. How hard was it to make the decision to embark on your new life and had you always been involved in and had a passion for outdoor pursuits?

Surprisingly, it wasn’t that difficult. We’d hiked for decades, climbed multiple 14ers and in 2002, we climbed Kilimanjaro. We skied numerous times a year and had spent up to a month at a time in Aspen. The mountains felt like home by 2010 even though our address was in Texas. We have been huge pro cycling fans for decades and also rode whenever we got the chance.

After coming back to Dallas from a trip to Denver in 2010, we decided we needed to make it happen. We spent the fall having garage sales and simplifying. We listed our house that January, it sold in 20 days, and we were on our way.

Could you tell us how your business, Chasing Light Media, evolved from the outdoor adventures you were taking part in and was it a natural progression?

When we left Dallas, Greg said we needed to do nothing business-wise for a year. So, that first year we cycled about 3,000 miles in and around Denver, climbed First Flatiron and some 14ers, shot the inaugural USA Pro Challenge, and then moved to Aspen and skied 104 days that season.

We took quite a few photographs along the way, I’m fairly active in social media, and I started our blog, Middle Aged Ski Bum. At the end of the year, it all came together and we formed Chasing Light Media where we do sports and event photography and publish Cycling Perspective®, a pro cycling website.

We specialise in pro cycling photography, but have also shot World Cup skiing and do some events and landscape/fine art photography. And, I still blog about hiking, skiing, and travelling on Middle Age Ski Bum®.

Could you tell us more about the sports you’re involved in and how does the weather cycle affect what you’re able to do at different periods throughout the year?

We are avid hikers, cyclists and skiers, so we have something for every season.

Since Denver, we spent two seasons in Aspen, had a brief stay in Sonoma, then moved to Reno/Tahoe. As far as skiing, we still love Aspen Highlands, but our new home mountain is Squaw Alpine, which is also pretty amazing.

We live on the outer edge of Reno, so spring and fall cycling is great with little traffic, although every now and then you have to wait for some mustangs to cross the road.

Summers are filled with shooting races and hiking.

What does the Amgen Tour of California involve and could you tell us about your experiences of exploring Northern California?

Part of the draw to Reno for us was its location. We are three-and-a-half hours to San Francisco, wine country, and all that Northern California has to offer – but we can see the ski slopes of Mt Rose from our house.

We just got back from Monterey last week where we shot the cycling festival, Sea Otter, and also took in some whale watching and hiked Big Sur.

As far as Chasing Light Media, Reno is centrally located between California and Utah, so it’s great for shooting the races.

Amgen Tour of California is a gorgeous race and covers the entire state. It is well attended by top teams, so it is both fun and beautiful to shoot.

That said, shooting a race is work. Our day starts at 7am and ends about midnight. Amgen Tour of California is an eight-day race covering over 700 miles with about a dozen host cities. A typical day starts with some social media posts, followed by shooting the start of the race in one town, posting updates throughout the day, catching some shots midway on course, shooting the finish in the afternoon in a different town, and then editing photos and publishing results throughout the evening and into the night.

It is fun, exciting and exhausting.

Could you tell us more about the Tour of Utah?

We love the Tour of Utah. Utah is so beautiful and the people are spectacular. We also have quite a few friends in Utah, so it is our favourite week of the year.

The Tour of Utah has the tag line, ‘America’s Toughest RaceTM” and it really is. This will be our fourth year shooting it and the course is crazy hard. As a cyclist, you learn new respect by watching pro cyclists up close. Their endurance and tenacity is truly amazing.

Since your move to Colorado if you have to pick two of the highlights what would they be?

Wow, only two. I know it sounds clichė but this is really about the journey.

We spend somewhere between 50 to120 nights on the road each year, dipping our toes in both the Atlantic and the Pacific in the process.

We’ve met professional athletes and adventurers along the way and have lived and played in some of the most amazing places on earth.

Could you tell us more about middleagedskibum.com and how important is it to you to be able to connect with like-minded people on the internet?

I’ve met the majority of my current friends online, so the blog and social media, especially Twitter, is very important to me. I hate to use the term in real life because online is my real life and I consider my online friends to be my best friends.

We were brought together by shared experiences and passions – skiing, hiking, etc – and now, I know them better than I know my next door neighbours. Most I met through Twitter chats over the years and yes, the vast majority I have not met in real life – but we’re working on it.

Do you have any exciting plans or adventures coming up in the near future?

Let’s hope so! We will shoot Amgen Tour of California in May and Tour of Utah and USA Pro Challenge in August. The pro cycling World Championships are in Richmond this year in September, so that should be a blast. We hope to tack on some time on the east coast while we are there in the fall.

I just signed up for my first half marathon at Tahoe in October, so I am training for that.

We want to get up to Washington and Oregon for some hiking. Add in cycling and hiking at Tahoe, some California time, and whatever else that sounds like fun and that should fill out the year until ski season.

If you had to give some words of advice to someone thinking of making a lifestyle choice similar to the one you made what would those words be?

If you are young, save your money. We set a plan in motion in our 20s to save 25 per cent of what we earned no matter what so we could retire early. At that point, we had no idea what we’d be doing or when we could pull it off, but bit by bit we got to a point where we knew we could take the leap.

But, for anyone – even if you can’t turn in your notice tomorrow and pick up a backpack – invest in experiences over stuff. Technology gets dated, clothing wears out, but doing something amazing, that’s something your hold on to a lifetime.