https://femaleguidesrequested.com/podcast/ep-31-sof-petros-question-the-establishments/

Show Notes:

Sof’s Links:

• Sof Petros on Instagram
• Climbers of Color

Episode Intro:

Dear listeners of the Female Guides Requested Podcast, happy Wednesday. This is your host Ting Ting from Las Vegas. Today we have a young and inspiring guest whose name is Sof Petros. I got to know her a little last summer when I taught an SPI course for the Climbers of Color. She was the assistant Rock Director of the organization and helped me with many tasks. She was thorough, an excellent communicator and her emails were always filled with loads of positive energy and humor.

Sof is an AMGA SPI and a PSIA AASI Certified Alpine Ski instructor. She does rock guiding with Climbers of Color in Washington, Out in the Wild in Oregon, and Flash Foxy in California and teaches skiing in Stevens Pass Washington. She does admirable work in affinity space providing safe and supportive learning environments. To quote her words, she is “amped to join and lead affinity programming that not only brings communities together, but also challenges and questions systems and values of supremacy, domination, and oppression that manifest in climbing spaces, even ‘diverse ones.'”

In this episode, she recalled that her family always liked to play outside. Even though the activities they chose were not “technical recreation,” the sense of connection to nature and the land was very impactful. We of course talked much about affinity programs. Sof shared valuable insights on how we could make the environment more inclusive, which would also help guides manage risks and provide better student experience.

Beyond climbing and skiing, Sof can be found baking lots of bread, crying over just about every dog she sees, making jewelry, taking outdoor naps, eating really good pickles and hot sauces, and trying to make craft cocktails on her truck tailgate. Now let’s dive into this lighthearted yet serious conversation with Sof Petros.

Things We Talked about:

• Sof’s upbringing
• Central park bouldering started her climbing path
• Wearing multiple hats for her career
• Starting guiding in college at Columbia university in New Your City
• In summers guiding long multi-week trips in CO and WY
• What brought Sof to Pacific Northwest
• After college, Sof started a job in Chilean Patagonia and found her love towards ocean
• Why Sof uses the term “technical recreation”?
• How should we define outdoors and outdoorsy?
• How does Sof’s family see her now?
• Camping and backpacking with mom; skiing and climbing with little brother
• Working with and in affinity spaces
• What are the social and emotional risk factors?
• Feedback she got from non-affinity groups after she brought the practices used in affinity space
• Contemplating where she can make the most impact
• How can we make the principals we practice in affinity space more common sense?
• Why is it that hard for changes to happen?
• Sof’s personal experience going through the first BIPOC Guides Development Program hosted by Alpine Ascents
• Inclusive guiding practice
• Is how hard you climb and hard fast you ski important?
• And more…