Episode 60: Rebecca Ross Name Drops Mountains

Rebecca Ross earned her master’s in public health, epidemiology from the Oregon Health & Science University. She has a passion for climbing and providing healthcare to rural communities. She grew up in the Pacific Northwest and started climbing in 2017, but don’t let her late start in climbing deceive you. Her climbing career started shortly after completing a Basic Climbing Education Program offered through the Mazama’s in May 2017. She’s been actively taking advanced courses in order to climb more technical mountains—including AIARE I, a six-day intermediate alpinism course through the American Alpine Institute, a three-month long Advanced Rock Climbing course through the Mazama’s, and received a scholarship to complete part 2 of a leadership program through The American Mountain Guides Association. Since then, she has climbed a number of local peaks including Mt. Rainier, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. Baker, and many others including plans for climbing two peaks in the Republic of Georgia in June 2019.

The skills and knowledge she’s gained over a short amount of time has led her to successfully obtain two international climbing grants: leading her first international expedition to the summit of Pico de Orizaba in December 2018, and another expedition planned in 2020 to summit three peaks in Mongolia.

What’s exciting for me in this episode is how Rebecca has jumped right into this sport that she discovered only a couple of years ago, how she has taken the lead role in many climbs and how she knows what she wants and goes after it by ignoring discomfort and breaking through her fear. We talk climbing, safety, fear, lack of solid goals, training, diversity, altitude, photography, adventure, and gear for shorter people.

If you like this episode, you may also enjoy:
🎤 Ep 56 with Lisa Keller on not dealing with the patriarchy in women’s only events. Listen Here.
🎤 Ep 49 with Mary Grace Stocker on climbing solo. Listen Here.
🎤 Ep 40 with Blake Carson on the beauty of mountains. Listen Here.
🎤 Ep 27 with Shelma Jun on Flash Foxy, women’s only climbing group. A must listen. Listen Here.

Rebecca Ross Instagram
Rebecca Ross Photography Instagram
Leading the Way Up Pico de Orizaba, by Rebecca Ross
Mazamas
Mazamas BCEP (Basic Climbing Education Program)
AIARE American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education
She Moves Mountains
American Alpine Institute
Mongolia Mountains in Tavan Bogd National Park, Trekking account by Two Stay Wild blog
Tetnuldi, Georgia
Mt Kazbek, Georgia
Smelling sulfur on Mt Hood
Melanin Base Camp
Melanin Base Camp Instagram
Three Fingered Jack loop hike — lots of pics
Sony 6000a
Nikon 7200
Peak Design camera clips — Jen Gurecki in Ep58 also mentioned Peak Designs. Clearly, it’s a thing.