The Caroline Gleich Show Caroline Gleich

Vanessa Chavarriaga is a mountain athlete, skier, environmental sociology and Colombian immigrant. Last winter, I had one of my favorite days on skis with her as part of an informal ski mentorship program I did to support women of color in snowsports.

In this episode, we discuss mentorship, reciprocity, making the jump from being passionate about the outdoors to being an advocate, elevating women outside and gett more people involved as activists. She talks about her childhood, her backcountry, how she got into backcountry skiing and her advice for other folks getting into it.

Vanessa is a rising star in the outdoor world and you won't want to miss this podcast. 


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Dr. Michelle Guitard is a paleoceanographer interested in understanding the interactions between Antarctica’s ice shelves and ice sheets and the surrounding ocean. A paleoceanographer is a scientist who uses natural archives to study how the marine environment changed through time. The natural archive that she relies on are sediment cores, which contain layers of mud that provide a snapshot of the environment in which the mud was deposited.

Her work is focused on reconstruction the history of the Antarctic ice sheet through the Pleistocene (last 2.5 million years) and the Holocene (12,000-2.5 million years ago), studying how the outlet glacier systems in East Antarctica evolved. 

On this episode, we discuss her work and Antarctic fieldwork, getting her Ph.D., gender and racial diversity among doctorates in earth, atmospheric and ocean sciences. 

Her research has implications for understanding the stability of the entire Antarctic Ice Sheet, which be critical for predicting how Antarctica will respond to a warming climate.

Learn more and follow her work on her Twitter page:

https://twitter.com/mich_loves_mud








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Dr. Alison Banwell is a glacier scientist (aka ‘glaciologist’) who loves glaciers but hates the cold. She is from the UK and is currently a research scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Alison has been on five field expeditions to Antarctica, three of which she led. She feels particularly grateful for since women have only been allowed to do fieldwork with the British program since the 1980s! On this episode, Caroline and Alison discuss her background, experiences in the field and the parallels between gender bias in science and mountaineering.

In December 2021, my partner, Rob Lea, our friend, mountain guide, Jonathon Spitzer, and I will be in Antarctica climbing and skiing the highest peak, Mt. Vinson. As I was researching climate science in Antarctica, I was shocked to learn that women were banned from Antarctic climate research until the 60s in the US and the mid 80s in the U.K. Now, women are playing leading roles in Antarctic polar research, although there are still significant barriers, especially for women of color. These barriers are similar to those faced by women who want to get into ski mountaineering: implicit bias, lack of diversity of sizes in appropriate gear and equipment, and sometimes, outright harassment.

Going to Antarctica is an enormous privilege; I want to give back by communicating the importance of climate science through these women’s research. Because when women lead, we see better climate policies. How we treat women sets the tone for how we treat the environment. I want to see more women getting to the top.

This series features leading climate scientists who are Breaking the Ice Ceiling.

Follow Dr. Alison Banwell on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/AliBanwell

and on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/alibanwell/






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For Dr. Jennifer Kay (she/her/hers), global warming and ice loss brings up many headspaces. “I’m curious, scared, hopeful, frustrated, and inspired all at once.” As a climate scientist at the University of Colorado, understanding the physics of snow, clouds and ice is her job.

Growing up in upstate New York, she spent most of her days skiing, sledding, and loving snow. It’s not surprising that she loves all things cold. Now, she’s a doctor, professor, and highly cited researcher with a focus on polar regions.

In our warming world, polar regions are losing snow and ice. For example, the loss of land-based ice in West Antarctica and Greenland is currently causing irreversible sea level rise.

Because land-based ice sheets can melt and collapse so much faster than they can be rebuilt from snow accumulation, this current land ice melt is irreversible on human timescales.

Irreversible keeps Dr. Kay up at night. What will happen to the billions of dollars, lives, and ecosystems that depend on coastal environments?  What will happen to Island Nations and Coastal Cities?  Does everyone understand what is at stake here?

Dr. Kay stresses: “We have a shared climate future. Investing in infrastructure and committing to reduce greenhouse gases are encouraging steps, but more action is needed. Irreversible ice loss is just one of many reasons we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions now.”

On this episode, we talk about the climate crisis, how adventurers and scientists can work together and about gender bias in climate science.

Follow Dr. Kay on Twitter to continue learning about her work:

https://twitter.com/jenkaycu


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On this episode, I chat with Utah Avalanche Center forecaster and mountain guide Nikki Champion about her background, what it’s like being a woman in snow science, her favorite mountain adventures and her advice for people who want to get into backcountry skiing.

We also discuss how technology has changed the backcountry skiing game, how it can help us stay safer or make more informed decisions, and how it can lead us to take more risks.

The fastest-growing segment of the skiing market is backcountry. With more participation, we’re seeing unprecedented numbers of avalanche-related incidents. For forecasters, this means greater demands on frequency of observations, duration of the season they’re covering, and geography they’re reporting on. The opportunities for avalanche centers are bottomless—the funding, however, is not.

In November, onX Backcountry is donating $10 of every membership to support forecasting. By leveraging their Slope Angle and Avalanche Forecast layers you’ll have access to the tools that help inform safer backcountry travel this year.

Sign up here: https://webmap.onxmaps.com/backcountry/purchase/membership?promo=caroline20

Check out the Know Before you go program here:

https://kbyg.org/




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On today's episode, I catch up with my friend, former clean energy and climate advisor to the Obama White House, Molly Kawahata, to talk about the most significant climate bill in US history: the Build Back Better Act.

The Build Back Better Act will deliver environmental justice, create millions of jobs and lower energy bills. 

This podcast is brought to you by Climate Power, an advocacy organization focused on passing the most transformative climate legislation in American history.

Follow Climate Power on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/climatepower/

Follow Molly Kawahata on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mollykawahata/

We need your support. Text code SCIENCE to 434-266-8464 to call your elected officials in Congress and ask them to vote yes on the Build Back Better Act. 


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