2024 Mentorship Program
She Moves Mountains exists to empower and educate women—including cisgender and transgender individuals—and gender minorities through technical climbing clinics and community events.Â
In the guiding industry, only 15% of working guides are women. Of that 15%, only a small portion are Women of Color or from the LGBTQ+ community.
Our Mentorship Program aims to change these statistics and help reshape the present and future of guiding.
Mentorship Program Details
About
Guiding as a career is full of hurdles. It's a large financial and time commitment, and qualifying for rigorous training programs requires a high level of experience and skills to begin with. Needless to say, there's a lot of privilege involved.
We established the She Moves Mountains Mentorship Program as a way to both address and counter the barriers to entry (and the gender disparities) in our industry.
The program aims to provide individuals the opportunity to explore what it means to be a guide in a supportive and encouraging environment. To create a space where you can shadow current instructors and ask questions about the realities of becoming and being a full-time guide.
We welcome women (trans and cis) and non-binary climbers who feel comfortable in a space that centers women.
How It Works
In an assistant role, participants will have the opportunity to shadow 4-8 clinics. Duties may include setting up top-ropes, cleaning routes, monitoring belays, coiling ropes, and helping with demonstrations.
We believe strong mentorship relationships and representation within the climbing community are invaluable, and we see our relationship with mentees as a partnership. In addition to support and guidance, She Moves Mountains will offer 2-3 free workshops for participants to help them build the necessary skills for tackling guiding certifications.
At the end of the season, we will select two mentees, one of whom will be a woman of color, to receive full scholarship for an AMGA SPI Course and Exam.
We will begin accepting mentee applications for our 2025 season in January. Join our mailing list to stay updated.