In Adventure Studies, we’re lucky to be surrounded by strong, passionate and supportive women who shape our community every day. While International Women’s Day is a moment to recognize women around the world, in Adventure Studies we celebrate the women in our community year-round — students, faculty, instructors and staff who challenge themselves, support one another and redefine what adventure looks like.
This year, we asked some of our students what it means to be a woman in adventure and what inspires their passion for getting outside. Their reflections highlight the power of community, mentorship and authenticity in the outdoors — and the importance of creating space for more people to see themselves in adventure.
Here’s what they had to say.
Karli Tluchak, Adventure Guide Certificate student
“I am so lucky to be surrounded by incredible women who share the same interests as me. The strength and resilience portrayed by women in adventure is so inspiring and pushes me to be better every day. I get to live my life to the fullest and be myself while doing it.”
Avery Burgess, Adventure Guide Certificate student
“For me, a big part of being a woman in adventure means taking up space and promoting inclusion. I refuse to make myself smaller or sacrifice my femininity to fit into a traditionally masculine space.
Sometimes that shows up in small but intentional ways — like keeping my gear pink or sparkly. It’s a reminder that femininity belongs in the mountains and on the water.
If I can use my presence and privilege in the adventure community to inspire girls or queer youth to see themselves here, then I feel like I’m fulfilling my purpose and helping create space for those who aren’t always represented.”
Izzy Heeney, Adventure Guide Certificate student
“To me, being a woman in adventure means showing others what’s possible for them. It’s also about creating community through shared joy. Sharing joy with other women+ in the outdoors and cheering each other on is my favorite thing in the world and has carried me through the challenges that come with being in these spaces.”
Amy Thompson, Adventure Guide Diploma student
“When I was younger I was scared of pink. I avoided it completely. I was afraid of the label it carried and what people might assume about me if I leaned into being girly. I worried people would think I was soft — or worse — that I was not tough enough for the spaces I wanted to be in.
Everyone who moves through wild spaces the way we do as guides will experience judgement, strain, frustration and overwhelm. But many people would say that being a woman in a male-dominated field means feeling those pressures even more. Yet in those moments, women rise far beyond what the world expected from us — and sometimes even beyond what we expected from ourselves.
For a long time there has been a gap between what I know I can do and what the world assumes I can do, and supports me to do. I am incredibly grateful to TRU for connecting me to women in this industry who have walked through that gap before me. They pushed through subjective ideas about what women could or could not do in adventure and quietly built a new reality.
Being mentored by women like Chelsea Sullivan, Kinley Aitken, Kathy Sanderson, Danielle Touche, Jenny Citherlet and others has shown me exactly what that reality looks like. They guide with competence, confidence and calm — with creativity, grit, patience, humour and strength. They are partners, friends, family members, leaders and mentors. Watching them move through this industry makes it clear that guiding was never meant to belong to one kind of person. It belongs to the people who show up with the heart and determination to do it well.
These mentors have shown us that this new generation of guides is growing up in a different story. Guiding is not a man’s world that women are trying to enter. It is a world that becomes stronger, kinder and more dynamic when women are part of shaping it.
Now I ski in a bright pink matching set. It is loud and impossible to miss. I love the smiles it gets from people on the hill. I love quietly proving that expectations do not define ability.
Watching the women who came before me move through the mountains with confidence and authenticity showed me something important: strength does not have one look, toughness does not require hiding parts of who you are, and simply by doing the work so well they proved that women belong in these spaces exactly as we are.
More than anything, it just feels really good to be a woman in this world of adventure — especially knowing I get to follow in the tracks of the mountain women before me.”
Catherine Foote, Adventure Guide Diploma student
“As a woman in adventure, I am deeply inspired and empowered by every other woman in this industry. Seeing other women accomplish incredible things and lead with confidence in an industry that is historically male dominated is so encouraging. Being a woman in adventure is rad.”
Across these reflections, a few themes stand out. Adventure is not just about the places we go — it’s about the people we go there with. For many students, being a woman in adventure means building supportive communities, learning from mentors who paved the way and creating space for future generations of adventurers to see themselves in these roles.
At Thompson Rivers University, that spirit of encouragement, leadership and shared exploration continues to shape the Adventure Studies community.
Today — and every day — we celebrate the women who challenge expectations, uplift those around them and continue to redefine what adventure looks like. Happy International Women’s Day!
