One Step at a Time

By Amy Pertuz, 2019 Ascent Alpine Skills Course Participant

I’ve had enough coffee, I decide. Despite a few long days of driving from Colorado to Washington, and some less-than-ideal roadside bivies, I feel energized, awake. I’m excited about meeting my classmates who I have been emailing with, and I’m looking forward to the Alpine Skills Course we will be taking in the week ahead, but there is more to the story. This moment has been a long time coming. I’ve had injuries, and illness, and curveballs getting between me and the pursuit of my ski guide education for a few years now. It’s been frustrating. There has been a lot of struggle, but today is the day that the long wait ends. A scholarship from Eddie Bauer means that I can focus on the learning, not the money it took to get here, and that has been a piece of good luck on this journey. 

The people in the room haven’t gathered to maintain the status quo, or only to learn how to be good mountain guides. We are all here to help shape our own future, but also the future of mountain guiding, and the future of the AMGA. At this point, it’s not about proving we can survive or even thrive as a member of an ‘underrepresented’ group; most of us have already checked that box. This is about creating something BETTER. The future that I’m thinking about isn’t just one where people from diverse backgrounds are thriving, but one where the organizations and industries that they are a part of are thriving, too, as a natural benefit of creating that space. Eddie Bauer is sponsoring this learning opportunity for US, but also because they think that getting us into mountain guiding helps EVERYONE. 

Our next steps as we look towards our own paths now include not just “what do I need to do to get where I’m trying to go?” but also questioning our own assumptions and perspectives about the future we are trying to create, about what’s possible. We will do it one step at a time, but each step brings us closer.