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Charlotte Austin is a writer, editor, and mountain guide living in Seattle, Washington.
When she's not writing, Charlotte works for International Mountain Guides, where she leads climbing, mountaineering, and hiking expeditions around the world. She's guided in North and South America, Europe, Alaska, Patagonia, and Nepal. She's a Wilderness EMT, a Leave No Trace (LNT) Trainer, and holds Level 2 certification with the American Institute for Avalanche Education and Training (AIARE).
Charlotte's work has included a feature story about why there aren't more women in alpinism, a study of how understanding the science of gender can be a helpful tool in the mountains, and an essay about how debriefing after hard experiences could save your life. In 2017, she spoke at the Cody Ice Festival, led an expedition to climb Denali, guided a team of climbers to the top of Mount Elbrus (18,510'), and summited the tallest mountain in Mongolia.
In this episode, Charlotte tells the story of how she became both a writer and a mountain guide. We talk about everything from imposter syndrome and courage to fear, risk, discomfort, and being a female in a male dominated industry.
Charlotte shares openly and honestly about the sacrifices she's made to live an adventurous and more unconventional life, and about the danger of romanticizing everything you see on Instagram.
We talk about her daily writing routine, her advice for new and aspiring writers, and what she's learned from pushing herself to do hard things over the years.
I absolutely love Charlotte's work, and it was a total blast to have this conversation with her. I hope you love it just as much as I did!
Connect with Charlotte
Selected Links From This Episode
Books, Resources & People Mentioned
- Hydro Flask
- Tiger Tail
- Jentel Arts
- International Mountain Guides
- Oregon Wild
- The Fifth Sacred Thing, by Starhawk
- The Creative Habit, by Twyla Tharp
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This includes:
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Thank you so much for your support!!
Music & Audio Editing by ADAM DAY
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I loved this episode for many reasons, but the thing I walked away with most was when Charlotte said, “The mountains just don’t care what kind of bullshit you bring.” The discussion moved to talking about how the trail is the trail, whether you like it or not. That’s something that I didn’t learn until a year into backpacking and wish someone had told it to me sooner.