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Dani Rudinsky

@dani.rudinsky

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Apprentice Alpine Guide @amga1979
Aconcagua & Komo Kulshan @awexpeditions
Mt. Baker @climbingthesevensummits
Instructor @aiare_official

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Now that the heat of Mendoza has embraced me and the snowstorm of our summit day is feeling more like a distant memory, I thought I'd post some of the pictures from the 2024 @awexpeditions Aconcagua trip! 10 of us spent almost 3 weeks together on the mountain, hiking, acclimatizing, learning new skills, testing limits, and pushing past comfort zones. All of us made it over 6650m, and nine of us touched the summit (6961m, 22,831ft). I'm so proud of every woman that I had the privilege of climbing with and loved getting to co-guide alongside @luchi.marun and @shea.mccray , with cameos from "our favorite porter", the Aconcagua speed record-setting and AWExpeditions founder @sstroeer ! I'll forever be grateful for the work that I get to do empowering women towards ambitious mountaineering goals, and for the mountain community I get to be a part of here.
Thanks again for an unforgettable trip, @viviautumn18
@nadahfeteih @skhanathlete @kaylaroseholly Melissa, Urszula, and Angie!
Wish me luck as I launch another trip next week with a new group of adventurous women! by @dani.rudinsky

Another awe-inspiring trip as always with @awexpeditions! Loved getting to work with @sstroeer and @sierraabishop on Komo Kulshan again with another group of incredible ladies. We came, we saw, we got rained on--a lot-- we learned and we left. Nothing like riding out the storm and making the best of it with plenty of hot drinks and multi-hour crevasse rescue lessons! Though we were not able to summit, we did get to cover all the foundational mountaineering skills and spend some time on the glacier in rope teams. And of course practice resiliency and flexibility in the mountains!
Thanks @shea.mccray @tsmitia @manjumalik86 @marjana_tafader Stephanie and Sheetal for making it a beautiful time 💙
Photos courtesy of @sstroeer 📸 by @dani.rudinsky

And that's a wrap on another few laps on Komo Kulshan! We laughed, we cried, we bled, we cramped, we burned sweetgrass and palo santo, we shared book recommendations and trauma, we got soaked to the bone then dried out again (about 18 different times), we had sunshine, we had rime ice, we savored the glaciers that won't be here forever, and we made friendships that hopefully last a lifetime.

I love the work that I do and the privilege it is to do hard things with soft people.

I always feel so much gratitude when coming down from high places and this year I'm extra grateful to

@shelby_lowmann for an incredible climb and a dynamic ski. Thanks for letting me carry the rope ;)

To the @summitscholarshipfoundation for sponsoring so many young women to start their mountaineering journeys. The access you grant them at a formative time provides life-changing experiences.

To @awexpeditions for being a driving force behind women building a space that's completely unique-- a space to commune with a mountain rather to conquer it and to do so in community with each other.

To @rach4thesky and @cumbre.tv for so skillfully capturing the ethereal magic of this place

...and to everyone I had the privilege of guiding and climbing with this past month, it was an honor, and I hope it was our first mountain together, not our last 🤍 by @dani.rudinsky

A last minute pivot from the trip we wanted gave us the trip we actually needed: a tour of our home state, this time by motorcycle rather than truck or kayak (see previous excursions 🌊) Instead of a huge mission with long riding days, we chipped away at a circumnavigation of our home mountain range, the Sierra Nevada--or at least the southern half of it! We camped in some pretty iconic places including by the John Muir Trail and Tuolumne Meadows. We rode through three national parks and finished off the whole trip with a half-marathon mountain run through all of Yosemite Valley! We made s'mores at 1am, rode through rain and near freezing temperatures, and faced off with a spider as big as my hand. Every single day we rode at least 2 hours on our motorcycles, so after almost 1000 miles, we caught one last sunset that took us home--sore, tired, and ready to see our furry buddy 🐕. We love living in such a beautiful state and we'll never get tired of taking the time to see every corner of it. Here's to finally accepting the changing of the seasons and looking forward to cooler adventures soon 🍂 by @dani.rudinsky

Ladies, why do we do it?

I've been training a lot this summer for a moto-mountain-run Shelby and I are doing soon and it's led to so many fun adventures around Tahoe. We did a hot lap of Tallac, an iconic mountain that presides over the basin. We've dipped in dozens of alpine lakes and taken Mongo on so many new trails. One week I even ran the Tahoe Triple Crown--twice! The second lap I took on it I passed an older gentleman on the way up who caught up to me on the first summit of the three peaks I ran that day. He seemed to be impressed by my pace on the 18-mile loop and asked if he could pick my brain about my motivation for staying so active. I wound up taking about my job as a mountain guide and all the women I get the privilege of climbing with and he explained his job as a personal trainer struggling to help women in their middle age find a sustainable motivation to keep them training through those years. From all I could tell he really seemed to be coming from a genuine place of wanting to learn so I figured I'd do a general poll on here to report back to him.

I know for myself I get so much out of the activities that I do, specifically the ones outside. I've studied psychology and read numerous books on the benefits that movement and nature have on the brain, especially in modern times. For me, climbing mountains challenges me to become more of the person I want to be-- someone resilient to adverse conditions, who doesn't shy away from a challenge or a scary step, but who's never too proud to turn back and live to climb another day. In general, my outdoor sports give me a mental relief not much else does. They align my brain and body, let me suffer, play, and connect with others. What drives you? What keeps you moving even when it's hard and life is busy? Specifically the ladies, why do you keep working out and getting outside? If you're comfortable sharing, let me know in the comments or my DMs! by @dani.rudinsky

Instead of skiing glaciers or climbing couloirs for my birthday this year, I did something a little different! 📸
Shelby planned a surprise trip centered around the vintage film camera he gifted me! We went to secluded beaches, secret groves of redwoods, and to forests where the trees grew like nests. Half the time I didn't know where we were going until we got there! One night we watched the sunset from a hot springs nestled in the hills of wine country. The next, we sipped cocktails from a bar in the woods you could only access by train! They even sold Mongo a ticket to ride 🐕
I shot a roll of film each day on my new camera and can't wait to see if any of them turned out! I'm so grateful to be seen, known, and loved exceedingly well 🤍 by @dani.rudinsky

Annual girls trip with @deuce__w was a hot, desert-y success! 🏜️
Built my truck out just in time to do some camping, canyoneering, and climbing based out of it which was a dream. We walked up rivers with towering sandstone walls that made us feel small and like we had escaped to another country for the day! Kept driving and found @shea.mccray and stole her for hot springs and red rocks and obligatory all you can eat sushi. 🧗‍♀️🍣
The trip was filled with beauty, emotion, intention, and so many canyons!! I'm so grateful for a little off-season escape to bring some refresh and re-connection I had been needing. But May shenanigans are just beginning! Stay tuned for more 🏵️ by @dani.rudinsky

Low Tide, High Season lately has looked like:
⛷️Skiing 60 miles a week
😮‍💨 Working 50 hours a week
✍️ Asistía una otra clase de español
👩‍🏫 Earned my @aiare_official Instructor Certification alongside many inspiring womxn
🫂 Supporting a community that has gone through so much loss this season
This all has kept me busy and tired, in good ways and hard ones. There's a lot of grief and also a lot of scarcity mindset in seasons like this but both remind me of so much that I feel fortunate to have.
×××
I'm grateful for the few storms we did get this winter and the water they brought to our basin, for the Sierra-at-Tahoe Patrol team both human and canine always giving compassionate care to people who need it, to the womxn I learned from and with about how to best teach people avalanche understanding and risk management, and for the community of outdoorsfolk I'm apart of locally and remotely that really takes care of each other. In a world with a rapidly changing climate both environmentally and politically, I'm damn proud to be connected to so many people staying soft with each other and ourselves while doing hard jobs day in and out.
❣️ by @dani.rudinsky

Sometimes climbing up to high points feels arbitrary, and to celebrate it, tone-deaf. But last week was about a lot more than climbing Pico de Orizaba. The staff of @awexpeditions including owner/founder @sstroeer, GM @shea.mccray, and my fellow guides and AWE staff @opalis121 and @carlyy.bd got together in Mexico to not only scout a new mountain and discuss leadership strategies, but to encourage each other as womxn in our movement of building affirming spaces in the outdoors and beyond. A movement that sometimes feels like it goes increasingly against the grain with rising levels of misogyny and hate in the country. It matters to keep gathering, to keep taking up space, to keep summitting big mountains and talking about it proudly, and to keep making intersectional spaces for us all to belong and find strength in.
That being said, last week we DID climb a big mountain--all 18,491' of it! We all pushed through a variety of ailments, from crippling period pain, persistent indigestion/questionable food poisoning, adverse altitude effects, and even mismatched boots! I love climbing in womens-oriented spaces for the grace, adaptability, and empowerment that is cultivated there. Of all the things that DO feel like they matter in present times, community is top of the list for me this year. I'm proud of all the decisions we navigated as a team last week and I'm proud I personally reached the summit on the terms I chose! I'm honored to be a part of @awexpeditions and beyond grateful for the community it has given me 🩵 by @dani.rudinsky

Hundreds of miles hiked, thousands of feet of elevation climbed, dozens of miles flown, driven, cliff-side motorcycle ridden, climbed, and paddled! I climbed in 4 states and 3 countries, had 2 surgeries, and flew a plane once! I added another professional certification to my name and have been fundraising hard for my next one! I've had countless setbacks with my health but accomplished some huge milestones in my outdoor career anyway, including summiting Aconcagua (and reaching a new personal high point of 22, 837') with a raging sinus infection, completing a 5-day kayaking trip AND a 3-week backpacking trip with two hernias, and continuing to build consistency in my gym-training regiment in and out of guiding seasons and surgery recovery!
I put on my first event and it felt AWESOME. I felt like I really did something to bring women together! I've been connecting with more professionals in my industry and starting to dream bigger about what I want to do with my career!
And I couldn't have done any of it without the people in my corner who have kept me afloat and even laughing through a slough of more invisible challenges that can't be fixed with a surgery. If there's anything I want to keep devoting myself to in 2026, it's these dreams and this community! Here's to another year of adventures, relationships, meaning-making, and community-building! by @dani.rudinsky

With a room full of over 70 ladies, we raised more than $1700 for Sierra Avalanche Center and my upcoming AIARE Instructor Training Course! But beyond what can be quantified by dollars or numbers, we connected as a community of women--as skiers and riders in South Lake looking forward to another winter of playing in the mountains together! 🏔️
I'm beyond grateful for the outpouring of community support...from the $3500 worth of raffle donations, to @ptrevolution_tahoe , @savycenter , @alpenglowexpeditions , and @tahoebackcountryalliance all hopping on as partners, to @tahoesnaps spreading the word, I feel proud to be part of a community that cares so much about our lady riders!
We had a great time watching the pros in @advice4girls_film demonstrate how to show up authentically for our community. Then we spent time laughing and discovering what kind of ShredChem™ we had with potential new partners for this upcoming winter! I also launched the Lady Shredders of South Lake Tahoe WhatsApp group (scan QR code to join!) for those who wanted to stay in touch with each other about future ski plans and with me about days I'm going out to practice rescue, dig pits, and generally nerd out on snow 🤓
The number of times I heard "this is exactly what we needed" made the whole experience invaluable to me. But the smiles on the faces of ladies who won that beacon they really needed to upgrade or that AIARE 1 that was hard to afford...those will stick with me for awhile. Probably all the way until next year's Ladies Avalanche Night!

Stay tuned for details on more events that may come later this season, but in the meantime I'm going to take a much-needed break after countless hours poured into such a beautiful community gathering 💖

#ladiesavalanchenight by @dani.rudinsky