Show Notes:
Mentioned Articles and Videos:
- Mia’s Profile on Common Climber Magazine
- Mia and her Petzl Scholarship in 2015 for her AMGA Alpine Guide Course
Mia’s Links:
Episode Intro:
Hello there, you are listening to episode 6 of the Female Guides Requested Podcast. I’m your host Ting Ting based in sunny Las Vegas.
One evening in March, I had this pleasure to interview Mia Tucholke. Mia came to Colorado in 1985 intending to be a ski bum. She soon turned a new page and started her life long guiding career and eventually became the 16th woman in the US to acquire the IFMGA Mountain Guide title.
In this episode, she talked about her love for guiding. In her words, she loved to give her clients “wings” in order to accomplish whatever goals they set out for themselves. She also enjoys mentoring aspiring guides, male or female, because she appreciated all the help and encouragements she gained from the community along the way and loves to pay it forward.
Mia’s secret for preventing burn-out is to diversify the terrains she guides. You can find her guiding and playing on rock, snow, and ice in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.
Timestamps:
00:00:00 – 00:04:10 – Intro. Mia is a superwoman. Based in CO, she guides in all different terrains
00:04:10 – 00:06:17 – Mia guides all people but tends to have a female following
00:06:17 – 00:10:05 – Long guiding career since 1987. ski -> rafting -> outdoor programs in college -> ice climbing -> rock climbing -> … -> IFMGA Mountain Guide
00:10:05 – 00:13:19 – Mia’s AMGA path. took SPI in 2012. was pushed and encouraged by her instructor to continue on. the whole process was terrifying at times but rewarding after all. There were some false assumptions but there was plenty of support.
00:13:19 – 00:15:23 – Could Mia start her AMGA track earlier? Yes but there was also value to start a bit late
00:15:23 – 00:19:02 – Based on Mia’s personal experience, Mia wants to encourage aspirant guides to go for it. There are going to be speed bumps but lots of great learning experience.
00:19:02 – 00:21:34 – dealing with injuries
00:21:34 – 00:22:44 – Mia wants to guides until she is as old as Fred Beckey. We talked about why and what Mia loved about guiding
00:22:44 – 00:24:34 – How Mia prevents burnt-out
00:24:34 – 00:26:27 – Growing up in a city, but Mia feels most at home at a small mountain town
00:26:27 – 00:29:01 – Some fond memories about guiding
00:29:01 – 00:33:31 – Guiding is to give people wings
00:33:31 – 00:34:42 – challenging parts in guiding
00:34:42 – 00:37:25 – Mia talks about the driving force pushing her to get her pin -> wanting to break the mold
00:37:25 – 00:42:10 – How did Mia feel and cope being a minority in her AMGA courses/exams
00:42:10 – 00:43:38 – Changes Mia sees in guiding community
00:43:38 – 00:49:19 – How can we help people gain confidence and stand up for themselves? mentorship comes into the picture
00:49:19 – 00:53:07 – Balance between life/plan/work
00:53:07 – 00:56:09 – Future plans/ guiding plans and how to find Mia
00:56:09 – 1:00:04 – Closing thoughts