This hiking philanthropist has one ambition: To walk until she dies
by Life & Leisure · Australian Financial ReviewLife & Leisure
Mar 16, 2026 – 5.00am
Di Westaway is the founder at Wild Women On Top, a women’s outdoor adventure business. She lives in Sydney.
Why long-distance walking?
Because hiking saved my life. Literally. Twenty years ago, I was 40, burnt out and teetering on the brink of divorce, and I decided the most responsible thing I could possibly do was something wildly irresponsible: sign up to climb Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, the highest mountain in the southern hemisphere. I was a complete novice and of course I didn’t reach the summit. But somewhere between gasping for oxygen and questioning my sanity, I found my thing. That failure sparked an obsession with extreme hiking. Not bad for a midlife wobble.
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