Angela has been climbing, skiing and working full-time as a mountain guide for well over three decades. She’s one of the most experienced women guides in the industry, and one of only 11 female guides in the country to have achieved certification in all three AMGA disciplines of alpine, rock, and ski guiding. As such, Angela earned the highly regarded international IFMGA license for mountain guides, which enables her to guide anywhere in the world.  Her favorite all-time adventure is a 12-day human powered ski mountaineering expedition to the Antarctic Peninsular with Ice Axe Expeditions. Angela is the lead guide and a veteran with 6 trips under her belt on this adventure of a lifetime that crosses the Drake Passage with 100 guests and 25 guides from all over the world to experience ski mountaineering, stunning landscapes and some of the most remarkable wildlife on the planet. She also frequents Powder South in the Chilean Andes with guests for both heli-skiing and heli-assisted ski touring but is equally fond of her backyard in SW Colorado, where she’s spent the last 25 winters backcountry skiing and the past 9 working for Telluride Helitrax as a heli-ski guide and avalanche forecaster.

Hawse has led over 25 high altitude expeditions throughout the world’s greatest ranges. She was deputy leader of the successful First Disabled Ascent of Mt. Everest in 1998 where she reached the South Summit at 28,704’ before being turned back by high winds. As part of this endeavor Angela raised money for Sherpa to remove 100 bottles of oxygen and over 2200 lbs. of trash from high camps on the mountain. In 2003, she led an unsupported, all-women’s expedition to the summit of Ama Dablam at 22,349’, which raised 20K for the dZi Foundation to build a school for young girls at risk. And in 2015, she led another all-women’s ski expedition to the summit of Mt. Elbrus at 18,510’, raising another 10K for the dZi and helping a friend achieve her dream of climbing the Seven Summits. For years Angela frequented many coveted high altitude peaks with guests including Denali, Aconcagua, and Carstensz Pyramid.

Angela’s world travels and personal endeavors have included a ski traverse across Lapland from Sweden to Norway, two expeditions to the Karakoram Mountains in Pakistan, eight expeditions to Nepal, five to Alaska and two climbing granite spires in Patagonia. She’s rock climbed all over the world and climbed big walls in Zion and Yosemite including an ascent of the Dihedral Wall on El Capitan in 1995.

Angela has a BA in Outdoor Education and Natural History as well as a Master of Arts degree in International Mountain Conservation from Prescott College. She’s a co-owner of Chicks Climbing and Skiing and a climate advocate for the planet and Protect Our Winters POW Climb Team. Hawse is an Instructor Team Lead for the American Mountain Guides Association where she’s worked training and certifying guides and climbing instructors since 2005. Her latest adventure is serving as AMGA president of the Board or Directors. Angela lives in Ridgway, Colorado with the cutest dog in the world named Grommet.