Show Notes:

Emma’s Links:

• Emma Contaoe on MEC
• Climb Escapes (Website)
• Emma’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/emmacontaoe/

Episode Intro:

Dear listeners of the Female Guides Requested Podcast. Happy Wednesday. I am your host, Ting Ting. I finally returned from my home country Taiwan and now am delivering this episode in Las Vegas. This episode is about Emma Contaoe, who was highly recommended to me by a listener whose life was impacted by her. I reached out and recorded the beautiful life story of Emma, how she stayed curious and followed her intuition and eventually found she could combine her passions and work into a fulfilling life.

Emma is an avid climber and certified rock climbing instructor in Quebec. She is the founder of Climbing Escapes, where she gives outdoor climbing courses to all types of climbers, as well as offers climbing and yoga retreats. After eight years of teaching, she finds joy and fulfillment through her business by combining her love of climbing instruction and creating a wholesome community.

In this episode, we talked about how she eventually tried rock climbing in Australia, where she found space to strip the constraints of the environment and identity she lived during the first two decades of her life. She then followed this awakening to Nepal and brought all she learned back home in Montreal. Her business was her dream and her mission. To build her business was a slow and steady process. There was fear, imposter syndrome, tears, and grief of her best friend’s passing. She got reaffirmation from classes she taught and from the mutually empowering space she created with other women.

Please enjoy this episode with Emma Contaoe.

Things We Talked about:

• First time climbing, wanted to start at a place where she could be anyone
• Constraints from the native environment
• Transition from “not for me” to fully “embracing the outdoors”
• Start the business not focusing on “nobody like me had done something similar before” but on doing what she loved
• Always following what she is curious about then built the intuition of what felt right
• Solo travel – a 4-year journey
• An encounter with “3-sister guiding services” in Nepal
• Finding a purpose during the repetitive traveling of seeing different places
• Hands on with charity work from building a shelter in after-quake Nepal to finding volunteers for a school project
• Reflection on what’s for her and what’s sustainable
• Early days of Climbing Escapes
• Mission statement of her dream business
• What does the word “retreat” mean to Emma
• Any structure to facilitate the so-called “down time” between climbing and yoga? Or just let the magic happen?
• Proudest moments
• Want the audience to take away
• And more…