Andrea Ference

I was raised on the side of a hill in southern Alberta with my parents and three brothers, we had a big bay window in our front room overlooking the Rocky Mountains that I would gaze out of and daydream about first ascent routes (long before I would learn what an ascent route was) and the animals I would encounter on my adventures. As the only girl I became fiercely independent at a young age,  often found long after my mom called for dinner in the woods behind our house wandering about, covered in dirt collecting branches from trees and rocks that I deemed to not belong outside. I always joke that it is in my blood, wandering in mountains that is, my grandparents were born and raised in the Austrian Alps...  from the North America Rockies to the European Alps there is something comforting about being a part of something so immense.