Mollie Busby is a driven entrepreneur, writer, dog musher, and backcountry skier with the spirit of a summer camp counselor and a love of wild places.
Although her yogic path began in a vinyasa-based school in the West, Mollie found her way to the Himalayas to learn the ancient path of kriya yoga, including multiple return trips for further study, intensive practice, and to deepen her self-awareness. Mollie has trained hundreds of yoga teachers in the past decade how to teach asana, kriya, pranayama, and meditation — and above all else: To know themselves.
Prior to her work in yoga, Mollie (then) Shambeau was a Wisconsin gal through-and-through, who thought her life was destined to be devoted to fashion journalism. A few years into that role, she met Sean Busby at the funeral of a very special young man named Jesse who'd passed away from type 1 diabetes. That was the day her entire life changed. The rest — it seemed — was history.
Mollie and Sean fell in love, and she moved west to be closer to him in 2010. That year, they founded Riding On Insulin in Jesse's honor -- a nonprofit which hosts ski/snowboard camps for kids with type 1 diabetes. They were married on September 24th, 2011, a wedding that they unknowingly planned on what would have been Jesse's 15th birthday.
In the years that followed, Sean and Mollie moved to Montana, where Mollie ran Riding On Insulin as Executive Director for 7 years, until Sean took the helm in 2017 as they started migrating further north to the wilds of Alaska. Although the pair both still work for the organization today, Mollie shifted much of her focus in those days to yoga, including founding four yoga studios called Yoga Hive. Her Montana and Wisconsin branches have since been sold, and continue thriving today. Yoga Hive is known for its inviting vibe, friendly instructors, and willingness to show anyone that yoga is for everybody and every body.
In 2019, Mollie and Sean relocated to what’s considered the “Himalayas of the Arctic,” Alaska’s Brooks Range. In Wiseman, 63 miles north of the Arctic Circle, she and Sean hand-built an off-grid wilderness lodge and retreat center, Arctic Hive — which has been featured in Outside, Backcountry Mag, USA Today and Oprah Daily. The pair lives in the mountains (7 hours from the nearest town!) and hosts yoga + northern lights retreats, 200- and 300-hr yoga teacher trainings, learn-to-mush retreats, and dogsled-assisted backcountry skiing/snowboarding adventures. Mollie also offers live and pre-recorded online yoga classes, Jyotish readings, and Yoga Alliance continuing education courses.
