Juliana Garcia started climbing the mountains of Ecuador at fifteen years old. Since then, she has climbed and guided many mountains and big walls throughout the Andes, Peru,Bolivia, Colombia, as well as in Pakistan, Alaska, United States and the Alps. She became the first female Latin American certified IFMGA mountain guide and served as the President of the Ecuadorian Association of guides for 6 years.

She is currently one of the instructors of the Ecuadorian guiding school ESGUIM. Juliana is also a Patagonia Brand Ambassador and an AIARE Avalanche Education Instructor and POW ambassador. She served as “board member” at the IFMGA for six years and became the first female and non-European to occupy that position. Recently she was recognized by the IFMGA as an “honorary member”.

Juliana got her “ski guide” diploma this spring 2025 in U.S by the AMGA. She became the first female Latin American to obtain this status as a full IFMGA. She is passionate aboutlearning and sharing.

Episode Intro:

Dear listeners of the Female Guides Requested Podcast,welcome back! I am your host, Ting Ting, from Las Vegas. Today’s guest is a true trailblazer in the international guiding community: Juliana Garcia.

Juliana is an Ecuadorian mountain guide whose career is a series of "firsts". She was the first woman to pass the rigorous aspirant exams in the Bolivian system and became the first female IFMGA-certified guide in all of Latin America.

Juliana’s influence extends far beyond the technical terrain of the Andes. She served two terms as the president of the Ecuadorian Mountain Guides Association, where she was instrumental in bringing their national school up to international standards. She also shattered glass ceilings at the highest level of the profession as the first woman ever to sit on the board of the IFMGA.

At the time of this interview, Juliana was based in Washington state and was in the final stages of a multi-year journey to become a certified ski guide—a discipline she picked upas an adult to bring high-level snow science and safety back to her home community in Ecuador. (And to no one's surprise, she passed!)

Now, let's dive into Juliana's inspiring life journey—her transition from volcanoes to the Cascades, the power of mentorship, and why she believes the most important tool a guide can have is the ability to listen.

Links:

• Her Place in the Mountains – Patagonia Stories
• Juliana’s Instagram page – julianagarciaguide

Quotes:

• I’m just a person that loves to be outside, loves to be in the mountains. yeah, that’s it, I think.
• When I became part of the board… I became the first female to sit at that board ever. That blew my mind. I was like, ‘You kidding me?
• I knew that that discipline exist… and I was like, what? I’m going to learn how to ski as an adult. I’m going to learn a lot of our snow science and I’m going to do it.
• I love sharing how people put themselves outside of their limits, sometimes and they do it and they found joy doing it. I love to be part of that journey of other people.
• I think we are really good on listening. I think we are really good on perceiving what is going on in our surroundings when we are guiding… and I think we’re really good on not being ashamed to turn around.
• I don’t care anymore. I don’t need to prove anything to anybody… I realized… I was pushing myself for no reason… no one is going to pushing me… I’m doing my own path.
• What we can do to help is just to choose to be uncomfortable for a moment in our daily life… We need to choose in our daily life things that we can do that support the energy overall.