Amanda Vestal

Joolee and Mandy outside the Pioneer Hut, Fox Glacier, New Zealand, 2012

Mandy grew up in northeast Ohio, and studied outdoor education at Hocking College. When she showed up to start as an apprentice guide with MICA Guides/Exposure Alaska in the summer of 2009, she could neither drive manual transmission nor legally purchase alcohol. Three years later, her horizons have gotten much broader than Ohio: she has guided kayakers in California, Mexico and Alaska, and recently spent six months climbing and guiding on New Zealand’s Fox Glacier.

She continues to demonstrates that bad-ass comes in pint-sizes. Although three years of professional guiding has made her an avid coffee drinker, as well as a regular at the Long Rifle lodge, and men old enough to be her father quiver in fear when she tells them what to do in the backcountry, we still don’t let her drive our Subaru with manual transmission.