The Value of Your Guide’s Education

The Value of Your Guide’s Education   I have had the pleasure of being the Director of IRIS for over a year now. In that time, we expanded our vision with the goal to reach more people, bringing them into the outdoors feeling competent in their skills. This mission is one all of us at…

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IRIS Logo

Introducing IRIS

Dear Chicks Community, Twenty two years ago, Chicks with Picks started a revolution. Chicks provided a space for women to come together, learn from one another, and be challenged by frozen waterfalls, rock crags, and snow-capped mountains. This community grew, took on a life of its own, and upended the paradigm that adventuring in the…

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Backcountry Ice Climbing IRIS

The Power of Chicks

Why is Woman empowerment still a thing? How are we not yet past the necessity to highlight this concept? Is it because last week our nation swore in the first ever Madam Vice President? Is it because last week I attended a guides meeting where I was the only woman? Is it because women guides…

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Iceland Ice Climbing

Navigating Impermanence

As 2020 closes, a year filled with a different reality for us all (and an abundance of craziness), it leaves us reflecting on how our existence and interaction with the world has transformed. As any ice climber could attest to, these drastically changing, inconsistent times are analogous to ice climbing. Walking into the east fork…

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