Show Notes:

Emilie is a an AMGA/IFMGA Mountain Guide but she likes lots of things that have nothing to do with mountains: cats, true crime podcasts, and books about early Arctic exploration to name a few. 
When she is guiding, she’s a generalist and finds equal enjoyment on sunny rock climbs, steep ice, and snowy slopes. 
If she’s not home in Salt Lake City, UT, she likes traveling the world….the more unusual the place, the better!

Emilie’s Links:

• http://www.emiliedrinkwater.com

Episode Intro:

Dear listeners of the Female Guides Requested Podcast, welcome back. This is your host Ting Ting from Las Vegas. Today I am joined by a veteran of the guiding world, Emilie Drinkwater. With over 25 years of experience, Emilie’s career has taken her from the rugged ice of the Adirondacks to pioneering leadership programs for women in Afghanistan. As an IFMGA-certified guide and a member of the AMGA instructor team, she brings a wealth of knowledge on what it means to make guiding a lifelong profession.

In this episode, we dive into her transition from the Northeast to the West, the cultural complexities of guiding abroad, and a recent, harrowing health scare that changed her perspective on the risks we take in the mountains. Let’s get into the conversation with Emilie Drinkwater.

Quotes:

• On her start in guiding: “I literally begged my way into a job guiding people… Guiding’s kind of my only marketable skill at this point. So luckily I like it and I have no plans of stopping anytime soon.”
• On being a female guide: “I love the title of your podcast because my whole career is like I have these opportunities because a female guide has been requested. And I’m often in a place where I’m… a bit of a rarity.”
• On the reality of the profession: “Guiding it’s a good career for extroverted people, which I’m not. And so, yeah, any job, it’s most of the time it’s great, but there’s definitely times where I’m tired or stressed or have a little feeling of burnout.”
• On the value of instruction: “I always learn from students… every single program I learned something new and I’m like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I’ve never seen or heard that before.'”
• On guiding in Afghanistan: “When we think of terrorists and Taliban… the majority of people in Afghanistan are just generous and kind and they’re poor. They don’t have money, it’s a tough place to live.”
• On the guide’s mindset during a health crisis: “As guides we are really used to being uncomfortable all the time… our tolerance level may be dangerously high. And that is something I’ve learned is I need to say something sooner if I’m not feeling good.”
• On finding the right partner: “A perfect partner is somebody who compliments you… somebody that you’re on the same page with—they’ll support you, but also you have a similar enough skill set.”
• On the definition of success: “Success begins with a willingness to try… because I think if you tried something you probably learned a lot from it… the success comes in trying and learning from each bit of it.”