Ladies we Love: Aspiring Mountain Guide Sheldon Kerr

December 8th, 2014 • BY Erinn Morgan

[This Ladies we Love profile is the tenth installment in our monthly series featuring the highly inspiring roster of female athlete ambassadors from Outdoor Research. They are skiers, climbers, mountaineers, and more—all breaking down barriers and pushing the edge.]

Sponsored Love from

Sheldon Kerr’s favorite expedition is a surprisingly gnarly one. “My partner Mark Allen and I flew into Glacier Bay National Park a couple of years ago in May and were going to base camp and ski for a few days, but a huge storm came and sat on top of us,” says the ski guide and aspiring mountain guide.

“Our pilot radioed and said ‘Sorry, I can’t get there to pick you up—you have to get to the ocean so a boat can get you.’ Knowing we had limited food, we had to do two 20-hour days in a whiteout in high-consequence terrain over multiple passes working our way around brown bears to get to ocean to get picked up.”

Sound tough enough? The stakes were raised even higher as Kerr and Allen had only 300 calories of rationed food per day.

“It was so rad because it was super high stakes and it was the first time I was like ‘Oh, I’ve got this,'” says Kerr, an AMGA Aspirant ski guide.

“I knew ‘I’ve got everything that I need, I can pull Mark out of a crack if I have to, I can use my GPS like a wizard, I’m not afraid of bears because I’ve been around them enough, and I can operate for 20 hours straight with no food on board. At the time I was like ‘Oh God,’ but looking back I’m psyched I had the ability to be plopped in the middle of nowhere and not freak out when things went south.”

A backcountry ski guide in Silverton, CO, in the winter and an alpine climbing guide in fairer seasons, Kerr has excelled at making her passion her profession. We caught up with her—while she was living in the basement of and training with Carbondale, CO-based Gym Jones trainer Carolyn Parker—to get a few more details on her inspired life.

WomensMovement.com: How did you get started climbing + skiing?

Sheldon Kerr: I grew up in Westford, Vermont, did the summer camp thing as a kid, and got stoked on going outside. I also had parents that are hiker/biker/skier people. I went to college in Colorado and started climbing there—and when I was 19 my two best girlfriends decided to climb Denali having never tied into a rope. So, we spent a year throwing ourselves at learning to mountaineer and climb. A year after learning to tie our first figure eights we climbed it. We knew just enough that we were okay if nothing went wrong. Luckily, it didn’t.”

WM: What do you do professionally today?

Sheldon Kerr: I’m an AMGA Aspirant ski guide—I make my money by guiding, skiing, and alpine and rock climbing—my personal interest is in combining all 3 of those to ski mountaineer on expeditions.

I work at Silverton mountain like a crazy person from mid-January to mid-March then I go to Norway or Chamonix or Alaska and ski for myself. [See our coverage of Sheldon’s all-women’s AK Ski Project here.]

Then, in summer, I work from July to September for International Mountain Guides and mountain guide multi-week, high-altitude peaks in Alaska and on Mt. Rainier and other cascade alpine objectives. I take the fall off and train with Carolyn Parker, live in her basement, and get my butt kicked.

 

WM: Do you love what you do?

Sheldon Kerr: I’ve been doing this for 10 years and the highs are super high and lows are super low. My motto is to just say ‘Yes’ if there’s an expedition to go on or travel to be had. I imagine as life evolves I may have different priorities, so maybe this life is not forever but right now the itch to have a home to come home to isn’t overriding the itch to go to Baffin Island or ski in Japan or Antarctica.

WM: What adventurer has inspired you most?

Sheldon Kerr: It’s a gal named Mary Harlan. She’s a really incredible athlete—a mountain guide, ice climber, skier, and really fantastic big-wall climber.

She is a mountain guide and athlete and mom and she gets after it really hard. She is the most encouraging person too—I find her incredibly inspiring. I watched her go through this heinous car accident when she was 7 months pregnant and where another person died. Not long after she had the baby, she freed Moonlight Buttress [in Zion National Park]—she’d had a baby and had a horrible car accident but she was still so driven.

WM: How does it feel to be one of the only women going through the American Mountain Guides Association certification process?

Sheldon Kerr: It’s really brutal—all the pieces you have to get in place in order to get that pin to turn you into a really well-rounded skier and outdoor person. When I started this process I was a strong skier but maybe a 5.7 rock climber and I’d never held ice tools. Now, I’m climbing 5.11 and water/ice 5. I’m hoping to be done two years from now.

 

WM: Best women-focused ski tip for a scary skiing descent?

Sheldon Kerr: When you’re talking to yourself before engaging that terrain you need to talk to yourself the way you’d want your ski partner or your friend to talk to you. The dialogue you have with yourself in your head needs to be the most positive one.

WM: Playing in your car right now?

Sheldon Kerr: I’m a podcast junkie and I’m listening a lot to the Savage Love podcasts—Dan Savage is a relationship and sex columnist in Seatttle that does hilarious hour-long podcasts.

WM: Favorite ski jacket this season?

Sheldon Kerr: My favorite thing on the earth is the OR Floodlight Jacket. It’s a down jacket that’s waterproof—it’s THE answer.

WM: Favorite in-your-pack energy snack?

Sheldon Kerr: I’m a huge fan of Epic Bars. The bison bacon and cranberry is my fav. I think they’re hidden in all of my clothes and everywhere in my car; I’m sure there are like 20 of them in various pockets.

 

Kamagra oral jelly Online something to buy the most convenient way. He doesn’t demand from you any actions except how to visit the website. And in separate with goods necessary to you to put the end. To specify your address and to wait for the supplier to whom you will give money.