Show Notes:

Alexis’s Links:

• @alexiskrauss – Alexis personal IG
• @riseoutsidecollective – Rise Outside IG
• @kinshipclimbingcollective – Kinship Climbing Collective IG
• Rise Outside Website
• The Transformative Power of Nature Connection | Alexis Krauss | TEDxBoston

Episode Intro:

Happy Wednesday! This is Ting Ting, and I’m currently in my home country, Taiwan, welcoming you to a new episode of the Female Guides Requested Podcast. I’m excited to announce that today’s guest is Alexis Krauss. Alexis wears many hats.

Alexis is a long-time lover of the outdoors and teaching, with a background in elementary education and human rights. She has been guiding outdoor adventures since 2016 and especially loves sharing the transformative power of nature with youth.

An avid climber, she is an AMGA Apprentice Rock Guide, a Single Pitch Instructor, and a NYS-licensed climbing and hiking guide.

She is an outdoor educator with Wild Earth, a New York non-profit that provides transformative outdoor experiences for youth in the Hudson Valley.

Alexis is also a co-founder of Kinship Climbing Collective, a climbing and leadership program for New York City girls and gender-expansive youth, and Rise Outside, a New York-based 501(c)(3)dedicated to creating access to outdoor adventures for underrepresented communities through inclusive and qualified mentorship.

Additionally, Alexis is a working musician and one-half of the band Sleigh Bells.

Chatting with her was so easy and fun. Her dedication and passion for uplifting youth and sharing the love of climbing were obvious. Without further ado, let’s enjoy the episode with Alexis Krauss.

Things We Talked about:

• Many hats – Sleigh Bells, Outdoor Education, Climbing etc. Things in different fields that connect
• How Alexis discovered outside climbing and why was that experience intense and life-changing
• Climbing and dancing
• Want to share this special thing and love to her community
• Alexis’s mentor at the Gunks
• Alexis’s always has a passion for working with young people
• Young Women Who Crush -> Kinship Climbing Collective -> Rise Outside
• The mentor and mentee relationships
• Time management
• Alexis’s personal experience taking an affinity AMGA Rock Guide Course (All women)
• Self and the community
• Motherhood

Photo credit: Trevor Riley

Show Notes:

Emma’s Links:

• Emma’s website: https://www.emmarwalker.com/
• Emma’s book: https://www.falconguides.com/9781493052783/dead-reckoning/
• AIARE website: https://avtraining.org/

Episode Intro:

Dear listeners of the Female Guides Requested Podcast, welcome back and happy Wednesday! This is your host, Ting Ting. Right now, I’m in my home country, Taiwan, teaching some rock climbing courses. Our guest today is Emma Walker. Emma spends a lot of time outdoors and currently serves as the Education Director for the American Institute for Avalanche Research & Education (AIARE).

Emma is a career outdoor educator with a background in curriculum design and a particular interest in accident analysis. A jill-of-all-trades, she has worked as a raft guide, avalanche educator, and in numerous other outdoor jobs, and has also made ends meet as a waitress, horse groom, and kindergarten teacher. She lives in Spring Green, Wisconsin, with her husband, son, and two badly behaved dogs.

Talking with Emma was so soothing; she answered all my questions with thoughtfulness and compassion. I gained so much knowledge from our conversations and couldn’t wait to incorporate all that wisdom into my daily guiding because, as she said, ‘good guiding is education.’ Now please enjoy this episode with Emma Walker.

Things We Talked about:

• The love of the outdoors stems from childhood
• Teaching runs in the family. Emma chose to be an educator but wanted to make sure she could spend much time outdoors
• The impact of the first NOLS course
• From Colorado to Alaska
• Place-based education
• Macro landscape VS. micro landscape
• What is Emma’s interpretation of experiential learning
• Emma’s short river guiding career
• Toughness doesn’t equate high risk tolerance
• What do we want to be remembered?
• What exactly does a curriculum specialist do?
• What does that mean by “student-centered”?
• How do we evaluate the effectiveness of a course?
• Adjust the avalanche education based on travel modes
• Why diversity is important in avalanche industry and other spaces?
• Emma’s book – DEAD RECKONING: LEARNING FROM ACCIDENTS IN THE OUTDOORS

Show Notes:

Angela’s Links:

• https://alpinist007.com/ (personal website)
• Angela Hawse takes helm of American Mountain Guides Association board as group leans on women to foster change in guiding culture

Episode Intro:

Dear listeners of the Female Guides Requested Podcast, happy Wednesday. This is your host Ting Ting from Las Vegas. Today our guest is Angela Hawse.

Angela was the 6th woman in the U.S. to become an IFMGA mountain guide with a successful career spanning over three decades. She’s trained and examined aspiring guides for the AMGA for the past 19 years and served as the AMGA president for five. Angela’s led over 30 high altitude mountaineering expeditions to the world’s Greater Ranges and guided remote trips to the Arctic and Antarctic. She skied from Sweden to Norway across Lapland, reached the South Summit of Mt. Everest (500’ higher than K2) and has led numerous technical all-women’s ascents.

She’s currently on the board of the IFMGA and the 1st woman and non-European to join the Technical Commission. Angela has a Master’s Degree in International Mountain Conservation, is on the POW Alliance Team and a Black Diamond athlete. In 2011 she was awarded AMGA Guide of the Year and in 2022 received the AMGA Lifetime Achievement in Guiding Award.

I love that she considers herself successful in mountain guiding because she still loves the profession and is still in it for the same reason that she got into it initially. She established a lifelong love of playing in the mountains since she was a kid. Her curiosity let her explore all facets of life related to guiding, and she hardly found boredom. We talked about dealing with burnout, giving back to the communities, her AMGA work, changes in the environment and the industry in the past 30+ years, and making a guide career sustainable. I’m super inspired by all the wisdom Angela brought in. Now please enjoy this episode with Angela Hawse.

Things We Talked about:

• Has been guiding for 3.5 decades and still going strong
• Angele’s special sauce to keep her in the industry for this long
• Stay curious
• Diversify
• Mental bandwidth
• Childhood
• Prescott college and first role model
• Was a dedicated climber for many many years before thinking about guiding
• Various jobs from Outward Bound, an adjunct position in Prescott, working for different guide services so on and so forth
• Expeditions and giving back
• All women’s expeditions
• What was is like being one of few female guides back then?
• Ways to develop confidence
• AMGA president – what happened during those years
• AMGA’s DEI work
• Angela deeply cares about climate change
• Trends and changes Angela saw in the past 3.5 decades in the mountains and in the industry
• Being a guide in the US full time
• What does Angela’s work consist of now?
• Alpinist 007