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Shaina Sutton

@shainasutton

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Irish Adventurer | Forever in awe of our natural world 🥰🌱
🧗‍♀️ Outdoor instructor in training
📍 Kerry, Ireland

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Slieve Foye, Carlingford & Sauna @thehotboxsauna
A great day ⭐️
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#hiking #hikingireland #carlingford #slievefoye #sauna

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Life lately ….🥾⛰️

St Kevin’s Way ❤️

Camping in Wicklow ⛺️

Camping sunrise ☀️

Start point of the West Highland Way🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Honesty Box & Caps 🧢

Glencoe ⛰️

Scottish Mountains

Staying at a train station

Tent with a view ⛰️

Top of the Devils Staircase

The WHW ❤️

154km later …. West Highland Way complete

Quality Mountain Day for my Mountain Leader in Wicklow ⭐️✨

🌳🌳

QMD in Donegal

Bluestacks weather ☔️

Wild camping in Donegal ⛺️

❤️

Lough Bray ❤️

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Because Donegal didn't quite finish us off, it just made things challenging enough to send us home, we decided to continue the adventure in Wicklow.

Seven hours navigating through the Wicklow mist and fog today. Quality Mountain Day indeed!

Again with the most supportive women @niamh_hikes and @shainasutton
I would definitely not have done it without you ❤️❤️
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#moutainleader #hikingireland #mountaintraining #mountainleadertraining

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All business. All rhythm.

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Too much hiking

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At the Intersection of Becoming
There is a quiet kind of peace in choosing what I am willing to carry.

Some weeks I feel my strongest. Other weeks, my weakest. I've come to believe they both belong here.

Last weekend left something unnamed in me: small towns, unhurried miles, conversations that felt destined, and laughter that lingered long after the silence returned.

Cherry season in Mosier. A stop at Treebird. Strangers who smiled and stayed awhile. The world felt slower, and so did I.

A 50K in training. A body asking for patience. Four pounds gone; not dramatically, just quietly, like something I no longer needed to hold.

Now I stand at another intersection: a clinical study on one path, another race on the other. I don't know what comes next, and I'm learning that certainty isn't required to move forward.

By Christmas, I hope to arrive where I once imagined I'd be. Until then, my work is simple: keep showing up.

The purpose was never the finish line. It has always been the living; the willingness to stay when fear arrives and choose the next step anyway.

I'll keep choosing kindness.

I'll keep choosing curiosity.

I'll keep becoming.

Because the truest thing I know is this:

I never felt brave.

I just kept going.

And somewhere along the way, I became someone who no longer needed to stay the same.

Maybe that's how a life is built; not through extraordinary moments, but through quiet mornings, open roads, small choices, and the courage to keep going. #poetry #dontgiveuponyourself

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"One moment that made me feel truly proud was watching the newer climbers, who were very nervous at the start, progress from climbing 5.5s to willingly trying 5.10s, all on their first outdoor climbing experience. Seeing them push themselves in this way made me realize just how important a safe, supportive, and welcoming space is." - Shaina, Beyond Trails 2025

If you’ve ever wondered “could I do that?” - come find out in a space built for you.

👉 Applications for Beyond Trails 2.0 are now open. Visit our bio to learn more.

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A big thanks to this amazing crew - full on support for everyone to learn and have a wonderful experience.

#adventuresthatshapeus #beyondtrails #xcskiing
#lakelouise

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I've said this many times now, but I honestly think that 2025 might have been my best year yet. I did not travel the world or do very extravagant things, but as you get older, the more the little things really start to matter, the moments that you can't capture in a photo but make a giant impact on your life.
It's hard to capture an entire year in 20 photos, but I took some from each month.

January - Completed my first ever "Dry January" which started my "Sober Curious" journey, kicking off with a ski trip to Kimberley.
February - My best friends flew in from across the country and we celebrated my birthday with another ski trip in Kimberley. Was my best birthday in years.
March - Many pow days at Lake Louise with friends.
April - Hiked with friends, and joined the Emergency Response Team which truly enhanced my work experience.
May - Lots of climbing!! First outdoor climbing trip + a few group trips. Made lots of great friends through the Alberta climbing community.
June - Camped at Ghost Lake, hiked alot and biked Moraine Lake Road, started another 2 months of sobriety.
July - Attended my first Shambhala (and first real big rave)
August - Watched our friends get married, flew home to spend two weeks climbing, travelling, and hiking with friends and family. Also got my Dry Suit Diver certification. Cam officially started his sobriety journey.
September - Completed a multipitch climbing course.
October - Spent a week in Yellowknife with my Northern family and had the best time playing babysitter.
November - Tried ice climbing for the first time, and checked off some personal career goals.
December - Bought my own ice climbing gear and did a fun trip with friends in Nordegg.

2025 was the year of following through with goals. Was it perfect? No. Is there still lots of work to do? Yes. There were times where I felt like giving up on many things because they felt unattainable, whether it was cutting out daily drinking, improving in snowboarding, healing my relationship, or evolving at work. But I never gave up, I slowly crossed items off my list (some that had been on there for years), and changed my life around.

Here's to continuous growth in 2026

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For Shaina, the outdoors wasn’t always easy to access.

As an immigrant woman who moved to Canada on her own, she felt held back by limited access, expensive gear, an intimidating outdoor culture, and the quiet doubt of not feeling “experienced enough.”

Through the Beyond Trails project, that began to shift.

She discovered that for beginners, it’s not just about sending the hardest routes. It’s also about creating spaces where others feel supported and encouraged to try.

On her first women’s rock climbing day, Shaina brought together a diverse group of women with the support of an experienced volunteer. By the end of the day, women who had never climbed outdoors were confidently pushing past their doubts.

Today, Shaina is committed to continue supporting others through volunteering, hosting women’s hikes and climbs, and working toward her dream of building inclusive outdoor spaces for newcomer women.

Way to go, Shaina! We can’t wait to see the ripple effect you continue to create.

📸 @shimizuimg

#beyondtrails #womensadventurenetwork #WomenWhoAdventure

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Last week felt a bit upside down and when on Thursday afternoon I got a last moment opportunity to join the ladies with @womensadventurenetwork for a Friday dry tooling session, I almost bailed…

Thankfully, ALMOST. So I joined. And I had a blast! It obviously is a very different activity from rock climbing, but I expected more “foreign” feeling of the process. It wasn’t easy to figure out but didn’t feel too hard either (on those simple beginner routes we tried). Plus it requires lots of pulling up and this kind of exercise isn’t my favorite tbh but I managed! (And who needs to mention the upper body soreness days after, right?)

Our guides @huens and @global_alpine were absolutely amazing and our group was, as always, loud, supportive, and an absolute joy all around. We even had a climbing photographer with us! @shimizuimg demonstrated the mind blowing magic photographers are doing on the wall (I only saw it online before)

Thankful for the days like that 🩵

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We recently wrapped up the Beyond Trails project with women gaining skills and confidence to lead their own climbing adventures with their family and community.

The community-driven effort saw over 100 individuals - many were first-time climbers and/or experiencing barriers accessing the sport.

Grateful to @arcteryx, @alpineclubcan, @calgaryclimbing Rocky Mountain, our volunteers, community partners, for opening up opportunities for more women to lead in the outdoors!

#adventuresthatshapeus #beyondtrails

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