Page 34 - 2013 AMA Winter

Students James Smith and Camilla Cox after a successful ascent of the Bridalveil arête on Cima de la Madonna, Pala Dolomites. Working with students as motivated and positive as you convinced me I love the work.Thank you.)
Yet it can be intensely rewarding. Ask yourself whether you could enjoy a somewhat alternative lifestyle and if the sacrifices you might have to make to achieve your goal won’t be too painful for you.
Learn to love pushing yourself physically. Build a strong base so that you can safely sustain a physically demanding job. When it comes to physical prowess, often women underestimate their abilities and don’t set their targets high enough. If you don’t like physical challenge then this job isn’t for you.
The reality is, the fitter you are the easier, safer and more enjoyable it is to do a physically demanding job. Being a Mountain guide demands a robust fitness that cannot be built up overnight.
I am passionate about cross-country skiing. It is a sport renowned for being aerobically very demanding. Many of the girls whom I have taught have not possessed a good enough base level fitness to get the most out of this amazing sport. As a woman this is a terrible shame. If you do not have a good level of fitness challenging physi- cal activities can offer more pain than reward. It’s tougher to start training in the first place than it is to further improve your fitness. But don’t be discouraged, once you have a good basic fitness level you will find that the more you push yourself the easier it is to improve and the more you will enjoy it. Remember that while it’s really tough in the beginning it does become easier... but it never becomes easy.
I encourage the girls whom I coach to view physical training like investing in a bank. You have to make deposits on a regular basis to appreciate any gain in your bank balance. No investment means no return. As long as the training you do is aerobically challeng- ing it doesn’t really matter what you do but you must do it regu-
32 ARMY MOUNTAINEER