Angela Hawse

Marmot Athlete Angela Hawse is a professional mountain guide and one of only 9 women AMGA Certified Rock Guides in the U.S. Pursuing the highest levels of internationally recognized standards in her profession, Angela is close to completing full UIAGM / IFMGA certification.

Angela has been involved with many projects with Marmot, spanning back to 1993 when she was selected as one of two Americans to participate in the UIAA International Himalayan Camp in Pakistan. John Cooley provided her with some key products for the expedition and thus her relationship with Marmot was born. She has worked on the Design Board, helped with product development and feedback, taught clinics, presented slideshows and most importantly, been a proud ambassador for Marmot in the field, at work and play.

As a guide, Angela’s passion for nature and the mountains is contagious. She’s a dedicated teacher and steward of the wilderness, and beyond teaching just technical skills for the pursuit of climbing, she thrives on sharing with clients the magnitude of the entire mountain experience to learn and transcend preconceived boundaries.

With 22 years of full-time guiding, Angela is one of the most experienced and accomplished women guides in the U.S. She has led over 20 high altitude expeditions and her endeavors have taken her from ski traverses of Lapland to the second highest point on earth, the south summit of Mt. Everest, at 28,875ft. She has climbed and guided throughout the Andes, Himalaya and Karakoram Ranges, Alaska, Canada and the U.S. Angela has worked with some of the countries top guide services including Exum Mountain Guides, Mountain Madness and the American Alpine Institute. As an Outdoor Educator, she taught for Prescott College’s Adventure Education Program and worked many seasons for Outward Bound.

Women’s programs and teaching skills for self-sufficiency are some of Angela’s specialties. She has been a Chicks with Picks guide for 7 seasons, taught Women that Rock, Chicks on Cracks, women’s clinics for Marmot at the Ouray Ice Festival and developed a women’s program for Exum Mountain Guides. She has many private clients that continue to climb with her every year, taking their skills to the next level.

Angela is a member of the elite Instructor Pool for the American Mountain Guides Association, in the rock discipline, training aspiring guides. She is currently serving her second term on the Board of Directors as Vice President of the AMGA. She is a member of the Certified Guides Federation and with that guides independently in some of the most desirable climbing venues in North American and throughout the world.

A perfect fit for Marmot in many ways, Angela is a specialist at wedding service with adventure. In 2001, she earned a Master of Arts degree for her work in International Mountain Conservation. Much of her work has been carried out in the Nepal Himalaya. In 2003, she organized and guided an all-women’s ascent of Ama Dablam, 22,494ft., outfitted by Marmot. This group of women, mostly Chicks with Picks alumni, climbed the mountain without the support of high altitude Sherpa and over the period of a year and a half while training for the climb, raised $23,000 for the dZi Foundation to start a safe house for young girls in Sikkim. Angela worked with Eco-Himal in Nepal training young women to work as guides and for several years served as the U.S. representative to the International Porter Protection Program. In 1998, Angela was deputy leader and instrumental to the success of the Everest Challenge Expedition, which made the first disabled ascent of Mt. Everest. With Angela’s leadership the team’s Sherpa carried out a major clean-up high on the mountain. In conjunction with the expedition, she organized and taught an 18-credit course for a small group of Prescott College students who carried out service work in the Khumbu Valley while the expedition was on the mountain. In 2001, she organized another clean-up expedition with a small team on Aconcagua and successfully removed over 1000 kg. of garbage from high camps on the mountain.

In addition to full-time guiding, Angela works as a motivational and inspirational speaker, ski patroller, technical climbing rigger, and teaches clinics on rope safety and self-rescue. In addition to Marmot, her sponsors include Scarpa, Sterling Rope and ProTech Skincare. She also works as a field-tester for Black Diamond Equipment and Alpinist’s Mountain Standards. Her most recent accomplishment was building her own website. Here (http://www.alpinist007.com) you can find more about Angela and her work.