The XX Factor

Living in the mountains doesn’t mean we’re all experts at being in the mountains. Scouting trails, rafting rushing rivers, bicycling through primordial forests—becoming truly one with the mountains tends to be reserved for a choice few. Fortunately, in and around Southern Appalachia, an array of expert guides are more than happy to help others connect more deeply with this place by climbing, mountain biking, rafting, kayaking, hiking, and more. 

But forget about the outdated notion of mountain men with their hand-chiseled walking sticks and dog-eared moleskin notebooks. The following local women lead their industries in outdoor adventure with grace and skill—inspiring men, women, and children with their leadership, experience, and patience.

The Rock Star  |  Lisa Rands, climbing coach

Several years ago, clinging to the side of a granite rock face high in the mountains, Lisa Rands faced a point of no    return. Looking up at her next gear placement, ten feet above, the Chattanooga climber saw a blank and crumbly section of rock separating her from the next  “zone of safety.” Some 35 feet below, her climbing partner and protective belay equipment hung too far away to protect her from a potential slip. 

“I had to complete the next sequence of moves without falling,” recalls Rands. “I had to shut out the thought of plummeting 80 feet down, then swing across the rough granite cliff.”

A compact bundle of sinew and muscle, Rands delicately moved up, distributing her weight carefully on the poor holds. She reached her anchor point, belaying her climbing partner up through the same moves. 

“As my partner was climbing through that same friable section, he grabbed a small flake [area to grip in the rock] I had used both for my hand and then my foot,” she says. “As the hold broke, he teetered, and barely caught his balance to avoid falling. We looked at each other wide-eyed—knowing how thin that line was between success and disaster.”

That keen mental focus, especially in the face of danger, is what helps top climbers such as Rands rise above the competition. It’s also what makes her an exceptional coach and guide in addition to being a formidable athlete in her own right. “This is something that I have trained over the years,” says Rands. “But until you are actually in a dangerous situation, you never know which reaction your body will have—fight or flight.”

In addition to being a former open national champion, over the course of her 25 years as a rock climber Rands has become the first American woman to climb the elite bouldering grades known as V11 and V12 as well as the first to win a Bouldering World Cup, in Lecco, Italy. She reached the rank of No. 1 in the world at competitive bouldering and, in the process, raised the bar for women’s climbing across the world. In 2015, she and her husband, Wills Young, moved to Chattanooga to run the climbing school at downtown’s High Point Climbing and Fitness Gym.

Her love affair with rocks was carved into stone long ago, as a little girl in California. Always an outdoors lover, she amassed a small collection of rocks. In high school, she began climbing boulders. 

“When I was introduced to the sport of rock climbing, I realized it was the perfect sport for me,” she says. “Every new climb presented a new mental and physical challenge on the side of a pretty rock face in an outdoor arena. The adrenaline rush that came after a moment of staying calm while being afraid was something I had never experienced before, but really enjoyed.”

For college, she pursued a geology degree from Cal Poly Pomona in Southern California. Rands knew she was hooked on climbing when she began scheduling her classes to allow for a two-hour drive to climbing areas such as Joshua Tree or Taquitz. Geology taught her about the properties of rocks, helping her, she believes, to more fully gain a comprehension of how to conquer these natural obstacles. 

A pivotal moment occurred when she won the U.S. Bouldering National Climbing Competition and decided to quit her full-time job at a geotechnical firm so she could pursue the life of a professional rock climber—traveling for outdoor rock climbing goals and climbing competitions. 

“I started traveling and climbing, winning competitions, and I was kind of pushing women’s bouldering at that time, and it just progressed into a career,” explains Rands. Her competitive climbing career would take her far beyond the mountains of her native California—from harsh and rugged mountain environs in China to Patagonian and Australian peaks to the gritstone cliffs of England, and closer to home throughout North Carolina and Tennessee’s rock faces. She has forged bouldering paths in the emerging climbing area of Rocklands, South Africa, and teamed up with Canadian mountaineering and rock climbing legend Peter Croft to establish first ascents in the Sierra backcountry.

Drawing on her own nail-biting experiences, Rands encourages her climbing clients to work through their anxieties with an authenticity that can’t be faked. “Coaching the mental side of climbing—the ability to control your nerves and your fears—so you can relax your muscles and focus on good body positions, while continuing to breathe regularly and not freeze up, is the greatest challenge that I encounter while training people to climb,” says Rands, who has taken a break from competing to focus on her coaching. 

In addition to their work at Chattanooga’s High Point, Rands and her husband, Young, who coached her through many of her big wins, have become unofficial spokespeople for the unique outdoors scene of their adopted hometown.

“There is balance that is required in all types of climbing, and there is the balance in everyday life that is required to become a good athlete while being a successful person in your everyday life,” Rands says. “Getting outside and enjoying and respecting nature is part of that balance.”

Lisa Rands

• What: Rock climbing classes, outdoor guiding, and personal coaching sessions.
• Where: High Point Climbing School at High Point Climbing and Fitness, 219 Broad St., Chattanooga, Tennessee
• Contact: 423.602.7625 and 760.920.5348; highpointclimbing.com

The Water Warrior  |  Anna Levesque, kayaking guide

Anna Levesque lives to navigate choppy waters—whether maneuvering rapids on a kayak, gliding over waves on a stand-up paddle board, or facing the tumult of pursuing the male-dominated world of outdoor sports. To all her pursuits she brings the poise of a yoga teacher as well as the focus of a student of meditation—both of which she just so happens to add to her credentials. 

“Whitewater kayaking is a practice in facing and maneuvering through challenges,” says Levesque. “The river mirrors life. How I approach challenging rapids—the fear and self-doubt—is how I approach challenges in other areas of my life.”

A member of the Canadian Freestyle Kayak Team from 1999 to 2003, Levesque earned a bronze medal at the Freestyle World Championships in 2001. Now based in Asheville, she has paddled in over ten countries around the world, placing in the top three in numerous freestyle competitions and extreme races during that time. Twelve years ago, she launched her company Girls at Play, which specializes in whitewater kayaking instruction and trips for women.

When she started whitewater kayaking in 1994, she often found herself as the only woman paddling with groups of men, especially on more difficult rivers. Her first encounter with the sport was during a summer job with a rafting company in Canada near her hometown. Though she worked in the kitchen rather than on the water, she quickly fell in love with whitewater kayaking and the guide lifestyle that summer. 

“I was blown away by how the guides lived in the moment, lived joyfully, and really loved what they were doing for work,” Levesque says. 

She continued as a receptionist there the next year, and after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill, spent the summer at a rafting company in West Virginia, ultimately completing her raft guide training. She has never looked back.

Since her early days on the water, she’s noticed a marked change in how many more women are kayaking. Large groups of women paddle together at events on challenging whitewater. Her original instructional video for women, Girls at Play, and her instructional tours have undoubtedly had a positive impact on women in the sport. Over the last four years, Levesque has added stand-up paddle boarding  (SUP) and stand-up paddle board yoga classes to her repertoire. She also trains instructors for the American Canoe Association in stand-up paddle boarding and whitewater kayaking.

She describes her coaching and guiding style as direct, yet compassionate, and says her unique background in whitewater kayaking, yoga, and personal transformation work has helped her develop tools that allow her to stay calm, trust herself, and focus on what she can control about a situation and know where she needs to let go. She prides herself on imparting those tools to others.

Patience and the ability to stay calm—balanced with a direct approach that holds people to their commitments and goals—is her winning combination to staying at the top of her field. 

Her ultimate pursuit has become coaching people to lead fulfilled, healthy lifestyles combining all of her life’s teachings—whitewater kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding, yoga, and Ayurveda (a sister system to yoga with historical roots in India).

Launched last year, her newest program, called Mind Body Paddle, takes place at the confluence of Hominy Creek and the French Broad Rivers. Practicing yoga on stand-up paddle boards enhances balance, strength, and focus. 

“It is a very peaceful, mindful, active way to be outside and connect with nature,” Levesque says. She also teaches traditional yoga (on a mat, rather than a paddle board) and graduates this August from a program as a Ayurveda Wellness Counselor.

“We are not separate from nature, although we like to think that we are,” says Levesque. “We are made up of the same stuff. Whitewater kayaking is a beautiful way to learn to dance and connect with the water. Stand-up paddle boarding is the closest we get to walking on water. It’s not about not giving up, but about letting go and allowing ourselves to connect with what is truly important to us.”

Anna Levesque

• What: Everything from introductory whitewater, stand-up paddle boarding, and SUP yoga experiences in Asheville, North Carolina, to six-day wilderness trips in Idaho and more advanced eight-day trips in Costa Rica and Ecuador. Group size can be as small as one-on-one private instruction or as large as a twelve-person trip, always with a five to one participant to instructor/guide ratio. 
• Where: Girls at Play in Asheville, North Carolina
• Contact: 828.333.4482; watergirlsatplay.com 

The Life Preserver  |  Anne Sontheimer, paddling instructor

“What sport do you do?” That’s a typical conversation starter for Anne Sontheimer, who teaches and coaches rafting and kayaking skills at Nantahala Outdoor Center in Bryson City, North Carolina, where she has worked since the early 1990s. In her free time, she also mountain bikes, runs, skis, and otherwise lives and breathes the outdoor life.

In other words, Sontheimer simply assumes that everyone she meets “does” a sport, too. To not challenge oneself in the elements is unthinkable for her. As one of the best instructors at Nantahala (now at its Paddling School), she has spent the past two and a half decades teaching scores of people—from beginners to swiftwater rescuers and experts in the field—to believe in themselves, adapt, be flexible, gain awareness, and enjoy themselves while doing it. 

“Winning and the pressure to win was not appealing to me,” says Sontheimer, who first came to paddling by way of canoeing in Pennsylvania, where she grew up, as well as while visiting relatives in North Carolina. In 1990 she participated in a pivotal Outward Bound course. The educational outdoor expedition program, which fosters personal growth and social skills of its participants, altered the course of her life.

“That opened a lot of doors for me in showing what my role in a group is,” recalls Sontheimer, noting that she demonstrated early leadership skills. “It changed my path.”

It was also the first exposure of truly challenging outdoor activity. As a child in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Sontheimer had lived a mostly urban childhood, participating in organized sports like field hockey, softball, basketball, and maybe climbing the odd tree in the backyard. 

At the age of 19, she worked at NOC’s famed Slow Joe’s Cafe, where kayakers, rafters, hikers, mountain bikers, and day-trippers converge for a quick burger or taco overlooking the water. That experience introduced her to the guiding community, and she found the excitement of learning new skills and being on the water daily an intoxicating combination. 

Still, she led whitewater rafting tours for six years before getting in a kayak. Sontheimer continued to educate herself in whitewater on the Chatooga River in South Carolina, but kept coming back to the Nantahala.

Besides guiding all over North Carolina and the United States, the athlete has taken groups on waters throughout Europe, South America, and the Caribbean. For a while, a typical year would include guiding here until November, selling Christmas trees until the holidays were over, and leaving for Costa Rica, Brazil, or Jamaica for international guiding until March.

“I call what I do guided discovery,” says Sontheimer. Her charges range from 6 to 75 years old and from 40 to 350 pounds. Her own son is seven, and he’s already started rafting and kayaking under her guidance. Her four-year-old has yet to man a kayak but has certainly spent time on the water.

“We’re akin to interpreters—I really consider myself more of a coach than an instructor,” she says. “It’s dynamic, and it’s about opening different doors. The water teaches people a lot.”

Known as a tough teacher, Sontheimer says she backs off when her guests reach the point “where learning is based on fear” or being overwhelmed. She gives the example of her seven-year-old not wanting to paddle with a spray skirt. The flexible cover for a kayak fitting around a rider’s waist, essentially connecting them with the vessel, can make some people feel claustrophobic or hemmed in.

“So you take what’s making them afraid and peel off the layers,” she says. Later she will reintroduce those elements, once the paddler has reached a comfort level.

Sontheimer’s guiding style contains a good deal of logic, giving folks lots of choices, and laying out what the variables in such a dynamic environment can be. Quite often, a more experienced or intermediate kayaker won’t want to “swim” out of a tough spot. In other words, they’d rather use their training to roll out of the situation (righting themselves in the kayak even if they are upside down). 

“For guests it’s often about their ego,” she explains. “ If you can’t get out of a roll, you have to make the conscious decision to swim, or your body makes it for you. In skiing or mountain biking there’s no choice—you fall off.”

Sontheimer’s philosophy means encouraging clients to be flexible in that environment. “You get to watch that evolution, and it makes you more dynamic and more forgiving. There should be no judgment. In nature there is only feedback.”

Anne Sontheimer

• What: Paddling lessons and courses (all skill levels) as well as private instruction and swiftwater rescue training.
• Where: Nantahala Outdoor Center Paddling School, 13077 Highway 19 W, Bryson City, North Carolina
• Contact: 828.785.5020; paddlingschool@noc.com; canoeandkayaklessons.com

The spin doctor  |  Eva Surls, mountain biking guide

Eva Surls will be the first to tell you that she was a sickly child. Today the co-owner of the Bike Farm near Brevard, North Carolina, leads half-day and all-day trail rides at difficult technical endurance levels for pros and beginners alike.

Growing up, Surls was in and out of the emergency room from asthma attacks and severe allergies. Yet that hardly stopped her from riding around the hills and dirt roads of her East Texas home and eventually the mountains of Colorado, where her family moved when she was in her teens.

“I was one of those kids who always wanted to be outside,” says Surls. “But it was problematic.” 

Thanks to her Colorado high school that placed a premium on outdoor education, class trips centered on backpacking, cycling trips, hiking, and other encounters with nature, which slowly built up Surls’s stamina. At 16 she discovered yoga at a local recreation center. “With that,” she says, “the doorway to holistic preventive medicine was opened and I’ve never turned back.”

Her early health challenges, in fact, influenced her decision to study alternative healing. She graduated from New York University with a degree in Integrative Health focusing on Somatic Practices, then returned to Colorado to attend massage therapy school as a logical continuum. It also quenched her thirst for getting back outdoors.

When she met her future husband, Cashion Smith, their first date was “lady’s choice.” She found herself saying the words “mountain biking,” an activity she had yet to try.

“I was so frustrated and challenged on that first ride and I loved it,” recalls Surls. “ I realized that in that frustration I was totally independent. It was up to me to make it up the hill. That challenge to myself, while frustrating, was exhilarating. I was seeing what I was made of and what I could accomplish.”

To master this intense sport, she applied all she had learned over the years—including dance training from her days in New York City, her many years of yoga, and the need for speed. 

“I had always been someone who liked to go fast and [mountain biking] hit that part of me,” says Surls. She liked it so much so that she broke her hand in the first month, which taught her another valuable lesson. 

“Right after I told my husband he should go faster, I was on the ground with cactus in my face and a gnarly broken hand. We were outside of Boulder, so I went ahead and got back on the bike and balanced my wrist on the handlebar and rode back down a difficult descent,” she explains, having listened to her husband who didn’t think the hand was broken. At the ER the next morning, the intake nurse whisked Surls away as soon as she saw the hand dangling at an odd angle. 

“That was the start of mountain biking teaching me to listen to myself,” Surls says. “I really know what’s best, and it will tell me how much farther I can go and push myself or if I need to stop. The days of listening to my husband were then over.”

These hard-earned lessons have made Surls into the leader she is now. She and Smith and their team run bike tours into Pisgah National Forest and Dupont State Forest. The Bike Farm is a comprehensive guide service, bicycle-centric eco-resort, and base camp for cyclists from beginners to highly-seasoned professionals. 

Pros sometimes want to visit the area and be set up with a quick ride: Surls will be their eyes and ears, adjusting to their speed and technical capacity. Other clients are families or individuals up for a challenge.

“I don’t just want to take people out and watch them struggle,” she says. “Most of our rides are a blend of a skills lesson and a guided ride. We have folks on their first mountain bike ride to a group of guides who travel everywhere together and don’t want to look at a map, so it’s like showing up and riding the trail with a friend.” 

Surls knows the frustration of not being able to keep up. Beginning at age 24, she rode with a cyclist at a higher skill level who had been racing for years. “It was not fun until I realized it was a really an individual sport and was up to me to gain the fitness and technical ability to keep up.”

Surls feels well-equipped to handle all sorts of hurdles that trip up would-be cyclists. 

“The most serious challenge has been overcoming personal beliefs about what we are capable of,” she says. “Supporting people as they face those beliefs and fears, that’s the biggest challenge as a leader—they get out in the woods and have a meltdown…get off their bike and say, ‘I’m not sure I can do this.’ It’s a moment of frustration that I know so well.

“The biggest change I see is their energy shift,” she continues. “There is a kind of a calm about them. What most often in the beginning is a tense energy—they are nervous about the experience they are about to have or maybe [they] rushed to get here—turns into a relaxed sense.”

Eva Surls

• What: Guided half, full, and multi-day (private) mountain bicycling rides in Pisgah National Forest and DuPont State Recreational Forest.
• Where: The Bike Farm, 160 Sutton Creek Road, Pisgah Forest, North Carolina
• Contact: 828.577.3673; bikefarmpisgah.com 

Leading Ladies

Check out these top tour companies run by women

Cataloochee Valley Tours

Master naturalist Esther Blakely of Waynesville, North Carolina, leads eco-tours into Cataloochee Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. As a longtime volunteer with the Elk Bugle Corps, which offers presentations about the reintroduction of elk to Cataloochee, she discovered a need she was happy to fill: a way for visitors to discover the remote valley without having to navigate its curvy gravel entry on their own. Groups of five or smaller are transported in a hybrid SUV and practice responsible and ethical wildlife viewing practices. Featured tours include evening elk viewing, spring wildflower hikes, and synchronous firefly night walks. cataloocheevalleytours.com 

Velo Girl Rides

Black Mountain road cyclist Jennifer Billstrom has rarely met a challenge she didn’t tackle with enthusiasm—whether as a participant in the Assault on Mount Mitchell, a 102.7-mile ride that summits the highest point of the eastern United States; or as the creator of Cycle to Farm, a metric century group ride that connects local farms in Western North Carolina. As the co-founder of Velo Girl, she designs and leads group and custom rides on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia’s Crooked Road, and other scenic roads of Southern Appalachia. velogirlrides.com 

A Walk in the Woods

Outside magazine called Vesna Plakanis a “modern-day John Muir of the Smokies.” Along with her husband, Erik, Plakanis has been offering guiding services in the Smokies since 1998, boasting to have helped some 73,500 people enjoy the national park. A TV reporter turned trail guide, Plakanis is an expert in everything from Cherokee legends to medicinal and edible uses of plants and animal tracking, as well as being a wilderness first responder and certified in non-lethal aversive bear conditioning. Services range from hiker shuttles to guided nature walks, backpacking trips, driving tours, classes and seminars, and “Women in Wilderness” trips. awalkinthewoods.com 

RiverGirl Fishing Co.

Fisheries biologist Kelly McCoy founded this full-service fishing and rental shop in an historic train depot in Todd, North Carolina, where Elk Creek joins the South Fork of the New River. The company’s motto—“Live. Learn. Fish!”—speaks to McCoy’s goal of helping customers enjoy the water while also teaching them how to be stewards of it. RiverGirl offers tubing trips, fly-fishing lessons and excursions, and boat and bicycle rentals. rivergirlfishing.com