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! (more…)