Show Notes:
Amy’s Links:
Episode Intro:
Dear listeners of the Female Guides Requested Podcast, happy Wednesday! I’m your host, Ting Ting. I’m currently working and playing in the Pacific Northwest, escaping the heat of Las Vegas. Early this year, I finally caught up with Amy Shore from Fifth Class Climbing, based in Bishop, California! And I’m excited to share our conversations with you.
Amy grew up in North Dakota and spent her young adult years traveling the world while pursuing her college degree in International Studies. After finding climbing at the age of 21, it became her life’s passion and has been a main focus of her life for almost two decades.
Bouldering, sport & trad climbing, establishing big wall first ascents in the Sierra and Patagonia, guiding 14,000 ft peaks… Amy loves the vast array of disciplines that climbing allows one to pursue. Establishing Fifth Class Climbing School in 2016 allowed her the freedom to guide what really inspired her, which was not big mountain objectives, but rather women’s events and courses that focus on teaching women to be independent climbers.
In 2021, Amy became the lead safety manager for a National Geographic TV show, combining guiding with rigging and logistics, and traveling the world to do it.
Most recently, Amy became a mom and now has a 20-month-old son. She still runs and guides for Fifth Class and is currently most interested in a new pursuit: projecting sport climbs. The day after our interview, Amy sent her first 5.13.
Things We Talked about:
- From Whitney Base Camp to Fifth Class Climbing
- Wanted to work with different clientele to focus more on instructions
- Instructed before she became a climber
- Upbringing – explored outdoors and tried different sports
- Travel and then Travel & Climb
- From pebble wrestling to big walls
- Mom & projecting single pitch sport climbs
- Training entered her life
- Guiding is an empowering profession
- Started her own business in 2016 – Fifth Class Climbing and School
- Rigging for TV shows
- Changes and transitions after having a kid
- Why Amy loves logistical challenges
Quotes:
- There’s a small amount that is a part of me that likes to suffer and push myself and see what I can do.
- When you’re in that kind of mindset of doing big wall first ascents and alpine climbing and then guiding, you’re in a very much no fall territory.
- I get to be the places I love being. I get to teach and I get to give people an amazing experience that is maybe once in a lifetime for them. maybe get them hooked so that they’re doing this all the time. and it was empowering
- It’s nice to be able to facilitate programs that people are excited about offering and helping them make that happen through the permitting and stuff.
- As adults, we kind of take ourselves seriously and as a kid, you just do what you want to do.
- That risk tolerance thing changing [has] been a really interesting part of it for me. And sometimes I think it’s good guiding wise because I do have a lower risk tolerance than I used to. And I think that I see things and maybe this is from spotting my son too, but I think I see things preemptively better than I used to.
- That’s why I really like doing the rigging work and the TV work as well is that I think I logistics is kind of my jam
- I love hearing that kind of feedback after guiding. And it’s a special industry we’re in. we get to help people realize their dreams.
