Joanne Urioste is an American rock climber who was inducted into the elite group of Honorary Members of the American Alpine Club which includes 136 climbers worldwide “who have had a lasting and highly significant impact on the advancement of the climbing craft.” In the late 1970s and early 80s, she and her husband, Jorge, established many internationally-recognized long technical climbs in the Red Rocks of Southern Nevada. She was the first woman to publish the first guidebook—ever—to a major climbing area that was previously unknown. She also contributed to pioneering ultra-distance adventure running in the 1990s. She lives with Jorge in Las Vegas, NV, and continues to establish first ascents, even in her seventies.

Episode Intro:

Welcome back to the Female Guides Requested. Happy New Year! This is your host Ting Ting from Las Vegas. Today’s guest is a legendary figure whose name is etched into the very sandstone of Red Rock Canyon. Joanne Urioste is a pioneering rock climber, author, and guide who re-imagined what was possible on the towering walls of the American Southwest.

Starting her climbing journey in the early 1970s—a time when female climbers were often sidelined—Joanne sought out the high-risk, death-defying situations that most would avoid to prove her independence and mastery. Alongside her husband Jorge, she established hundreds of first ascents that are now world-renowned classics, including Epinephrine, Crimson Chrysalis, and Levitation 29.

Joanne didn’t just climb; she literally wrote the book on the region, publishing the original Red Rock guidebook in 1984. After a ten-year hiatus to raise her children—a period where she channeled her drive into becoming an elite ultra-runner—she returned to the rock with a renewed passion. Today, we sit down in her home to discuss her ‘renegade’ early days, the evolution of climbing ethics, and why she believes that taking risks is the only way to truly stay alive.

Links:

• Book: Collages of Rock & Desire: Re-imagining Climbing in Red Rock, Risk in the Andes & Running into Dreams (amazon)

Quotes:

• On the spirit of climbing: “It doesn’t matter if you are physically disabled or not perfect. If you have the spirit and love of climbing, there are different ways that you can climb.”
• On her ‘renegade’ beginnings: “We were just absolute renegades, just you know, shooting from the hip. Boom, boom! Let’s do this! Let’s do that!”
• On the intensity of managing risk: “Calculation, risk assessment was the game… you had very strong consequences if you did not calculate correctly.”
• On the purpose of pushing limits: “This was not about enjoyment. This was about managing the risk in a way that was where you would survive. Pitting yourself against very strong elements and succeeding.”
• On the ‘Bolting Police’: “As we started putting up better and better routes that were like amazing, then people started recognizing that… they started having tremendous hatred for us. As a matter of fact, that type of hatred actually pushed us to do more outrageous things.”
• On climbing as a spiritual act: “I wanted to really put yourself out there so that you would calculate as humbly as you could with nature and lay yourself down… almost as a form of worship to the natural forces.”
• On the unique wisdom of female climbers: “The groups of men will absolutely plug their ears and not listen to my advice… it’s actually detrimental to the men because they would benefit from the wisdom that they’re not listening to.”
• On why she continues to seek risk: “Having some risk in everything that I do… just keeps me alive. It expands my humanity. Looking at my weakest points and trying to work on them a little bit… it’s just such a beautiful way to live.”

Episode Intro:

Happy Wednesday andwelcome back to the Female Guides Requested podcast, this is your host Ting Ting from Las Vegas.

Today, I’m thrilled to host Lisa Van Sciver, a renownedmountain guide based in the Tetons with nearly two decades of experience.

Lisa’s journey is one of passion, balance, and profound impact. She’ll share with us how she went from being a porter who thought guiding was "ridiculous" to one ofthe most respected figures in the industry, and how an early request for a female guide completely changed her career path.

We'll talk about her unique strategy for achieving career sustainability in a feast-or-famine industry, the power of female guide collaboration (or as her mentor, AmyBarnes, calls it, the "sisters of the rope"), and why interactingwith people, learning their stories, and witnessing their inner breakthrough is the most rewarding part of the job.

Lisa also shares with us her recent venture: an inspirational fundraising climb up Kilimanjaro.She'll walk us through her project, "Elevate Education," which is about creating an experience much "bigger than me"—using the mountains to provide educational opportunities for students in Kenya.

Get ready for an insightful conversation on climbing, career longevity, and finding purpose beyond the summit. Let's welcome Lisa Van Sciver.

Lisa's Links:

https://www.instagram.com/lisavansciver/

Kilimanjaro Climb — EducationFor All Children (EFAC)

Quotes:

"The big thing that pulled me into guiding instead ofthat was I really enjoy people. "

"We always have a lot of different things going on, butyou deep dive into one topic at a time."

"I think guiding can be a super long career, but youhave to be very dynamic with it."

"Where I've found sustainability for myself is I'vealways had a second career."

"As much as we're technical guides, were alsoentertainers. we are creating experiences for these people."

"It's shifted my own desires as far as I still have alot of desires of objectives I want to climb and things I want to accomplish in my life, but I think it just gave me more pause on a greater awareness of what people deal with in the world and how I can continue to look for ways to be compassionate and supportive."

"In some ways it's easier to get a job as a woman, butthen it's harder to get promoted. I think that's been from my own personal experience. everyone wants to add to their female roster, but then once you're there, you don't necessarily get the same treatment."

Episode Intro:

Dear listeners of the Female Guides Requested Podcast, welcome back and happy Wednesday. This is your host Ting Ting from Las Vegas. In this podcast, we spotlight the stories of women guides and guides from other underrepresented groups and see how they navigate the complex terrain of mountains and life.

Today we’re thrilled to host a true veteran of the backcountry: Natalie Brechtel.

With over two decades of professional experience, Natalie’s journey is nothing short of breathtaking. She’s gone from guiding in New Zealand to spending ten seasons working for the U.S. Antarctic Program as a Field Safety Coordinator and Mountaineer, all while contributing to the high-stakes world of Yosemite Search and Rescue.

Natalie is the founder of Gut-Z Journey, a business dedicated to building deep-seated confidence in the outdoors through a unique, holistic lens that combines wilderness medicine, strength training, and functional nutrition. As you’ll hear today, the name “Gut-Z Journey” perfectly embodies her philosophy—it’s about trusting your intuition and optimizing your health to make critical, life-saving decisions.

In this episode, Natalie shares her powerful insights on the importance of never outsourcing your decision-making in the field, why she prioritizes working with clients who are “invested in the process” of learning, and how she shows up every day as a strong female role model in male-dominated technical spaces.

If you’re looking to turn your physical and mental fortitude into unshakeable outdoor confidence, stay tuned. Let’s dive in with Natalie Brechtel.

Natalie’s Links:

• Gut-Z Journey
• WMA Instructor Bio
• My philosophy
• Gutzjourney IG
• Dirtbag diaries podcast

Quotes:

• I live in a really outdoor driven town and I actually can find it exhausting to be around so many people that are so driven in the same direction. And there’s just something to be said about when you’re in your own community sometimes behavior just changes.
• I really believe in going from the gut first and it’s a double-edged thing for me. because I also went to school for holistic nutrition later in life and microbiome health and our gut sends a lot of signals with our intuition and a lot of messaging.
• when someone feels physically stronger they’ve reconnected with their body then they frankly tend to feel more confident
• I was trying to think about what I could do back in the US that would still feel fulfilling… that gut part of my intuition was like, Natalie, you need other things.
• I didn’t have examples of women doing the things I wanted to do… I can at least represent that these things are possible.
• You outsource that decision to authority and end up in a precarious situation, even though you knew it wasn’t the right decision.
• I think that when one really wants to pursue challenges just for their own growth, then there is no end point to that.