Show Notes:

Angel’s Links:

• Rock Iguana
• Coast to Bluff Recreation Access and Conservation
• Angel Robeldo’s Instagram

Episode Intro:

Dear listeners of the Female Guides Requested Podcast, happy Wednesday! This is your host, Ting Ting. In this episode, I have guest Angel Robeldo from Rock Iguana, a guide service located in the Cayman Islands. Towards the end of last year, one of my SPI students told me he needed certification to work in the Caribbean, which piqued my interest. As soon as I knew the owner of the guide service was a woman, you can probably guess what happened next!

Angel was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She left Brazil in 2005 to discover the world and ended up discovering herself. She has climbed around the world and done a lot of high-altitude mountaineering, including in the Himalayas, Andes, and Denali. Angel has traveled through more than 80 countries but found Cayman Brac to be the perfect place to live and enjoy her lifestyle. Since 2013, she has promoted and helped develop rock climbing in the Cayman Islands. She also helped build a non-profit boulder gym in Grand Cayman where a climbing community started to grow. Angel is an AMGA Certified Single Pitch Instructor.

One might say Angel is truly living the dream, but I’d say that is the guaranteed result because she has always followed her mind and heart. Now please enjoy the episode of Angel Robeldo.

What We Talked About:

• From ocean to mountains and back to both ocean and mountains
• An injury changed Angel’s life trajectory
• Fulfilled her dream of living in the Caribbean
• Personal and Professional climbing journey in Cayman Brac
• Growing up in Brazil
• Fear of height | Fear of Exposure
• Where are the clients from?
• Climbing courses and adventure travel
• Climb Iguana & Coast to Bluff Recreational Access and Conservation
• Work & life balance
• Being away helps strengthen the love of her residence Cayman Islands
• Holiday guiding

Quotes:

• I was terrified of heights. And that was one of the biggest thing why I stick to climb because I want to investigate that fear and I want to go over that fear.
• I love to guide people afraid of heights. That’s my favorite because I know exactly where you are.
• Have the fear and go for it. And then suddenly there is no more fear.
• I keep doing what I love and what drives me and what makes me feel very alive.
• When you owe a guiding company when it’s just you working it’s way easier because you just have to manage you when it started to get big and they have all the employees it’s just like sometimes it’s way more work and no more money
• Most of the time what stop all of us doesn’t matter if you are on a female body, on a masculine body, all stop us is on our heads

Show Notes:

Amy’s Links:

• Fifth Class Climbing

Episode Intro:

Dear listeners of the Female Guides Requested Podcast, happy Wednesday! I’m your host, Ting Ting. I’m currently working and playing in the Pacific Northwest, escaping the heat of Las Vegas. Early this year, I finally caught up with Amy Shore from Fifth Class Climbing, based in Bishop, California! And I’m excited to share our conversations with you.

Amy grew up in North Dakota and spent her young adult years traveling the world while pursuing her college degree in International Studies. After finding climbing at the age of 21, it became her life’s passion and has been a main focus of her life for almost two decades.

Bouldering, sport & trad climbing, establishing big wall first ascents in the Sierra and Patagonia, guiding 14,000 ft peaks… Amy loves the vast array of disciplines that climbing allows one to pursue. Establishing Fifth Class Climbing School in 2016 allowed her the freedom to guide what really inspired her, which was not big mountain objectives, but rather women’s events and courses that focus on teaching women to be independent climbers.

In 2021, Amy became the lead safety manager for a National Geographic TV show, combining guiding with rigging and logistics, and traveling the world to do it.

Most recently, Amy became a mom and now has a 20-month-old son. She still runs and guides for Fifth Class and is currently most interested in a new pursuit: projecting sport climbs. The day after our interview, Amy sent her first 5.13.

Things We Talked about:

• From Whitney Base Camp to Fifth Class Climbing
• Wanted to work with different clientele to focus more on instructions
• Instructed before she became a climber
• Upbringing – explored outdoors and tried different sports
• Travel and then Travel & Climb
• From pebble wrestling to big walls
• Mom & projecting single pitch sport climbs
• Training entered her life
• Guiding is an empowering profession
• Started her own business in 2016 – Fifth Class Climbing and School
• Rigging for TV shows
• Changes and transitions after having a kid
• Why Amy loves logistical challenges

Quotes:

• There’s a small amount that is a part of me that likes to suffer and push myself and see what I can do.
• When you’re in that kind of mindset of doing big wall first ascents and alpine climbing and then guiding, you’re in a very much no fall territory.
• I get to be the places I love being. I get to teach and I get to give people an amazing experience that is maybe once in a lifetime for them. maybe get them hooked so that they’re doing this all the time. and it was empowering
• It’s nice to be able to facilitate programs that people are excited about offering and helping them make that happen through the permitting and stuff.
• As adults, we kind of take ourselves seriously and as a kid, you just do what you want to do.
• That risk tolerance thing changing [has] been a really interesting part of it for me. And sometimes I think it’s good guiding wise because I do have a lower risk tolerance than I used to. And I think that I see things and maybe this is from spotting my son too, but I think I see things preemptively better than I used to.
• That’s why I really like doing the rigging work and the TV work as well is that I think I logistics is kind of my jam
• I love hearing that kind of feedback after guiding. And it’s a special industry we’re in. we get to help people realize their dreams.

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