Embracing the outdoors and developing a lifelong enjoyment of adventure is at the heart of Holderness School’s mission. Rock Climbing Coach, Laurie Watt, has embodied this mission, striving to make the outdoors a welcoming and accessible place for all. Her hard work has been recognized by her peers as she was recently nominated for the American Mountain Guides Association’s Guide of the Year Award. The Guide of the Year Award is given to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution or achievement of significant value to the mountain guiding profession and has exhibited qualities of loyalty, integrity, and moral courage worthy of emulation.

A physical therapist in her first career, Laurie earned her first guiding certification in 2018 and made the transition to being a full-time mountain guide in 2021. She works for the New Hampshire-based organization Mooney Mountain Guides, leading rock climbing, ice climbing, and mountaineering trips, and joins the Holderness Climbing team in the afternoon for their adventures. For Laurie, the switch from physical therapy to guiding was a natural one: “I loved physical therapy, it was a great career for me. A lot of physical therapy involves teaching and helping people work to have a better relationship with their body and push through areas of uncertainty. Guiding is very similar. It’s about helping people with their process of self-discovery, using climbing as a vehicle.” The shift was driven by Laurie’s desire to revitalize her long-held love of the outdoors instilled in her as a child by her uncle: “As my kids were growing, I started to feel the callback and needed to spend more time outdoors.” Adventuring has taken Laurie all over the world, from Denali to hiking in Nepal, and the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. 

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In her work as a guide, Laurie primarily leads groups of people who are new to the sport of climbing and women-identifying groups. When working with these groups, she emphasizes creating a supportive and encouraging environment: “It’s really about meeting people where they’re at. Whenever you’re taking someone into the outdoors, and specifically into a technical climbing scenario, they are very far out of their comfort zone. It’s really about supporting them in that vulnerability of being stretched however you can provide them with the support so that they can be in that space of discomfort and learn about themselves and learn about climbing.” 

This approach fits perfectly with the goals of the Holderness Rock Climbing team: “I think, with the Holderness Students, it has played out in such a beautiful way because I can provide that softer side of support as they are taking risks and being vulnerable with each other. I think that what I bring to the team is a different skill set just because of who I am and what my life experiences are. We all bring unique things and together, it’s this incredibly well-rounded, supportive staff.” Now in her fourth year with the team, Laurie has seen the students grow and push both their physical and mental boundaries. For her, the outdoors is the perfect setting for this type of growth and allows students to escape the pressures of their everyday lives: “It is an environment in which we can facilitate and support risk-taking, which is so important for self-discovery and growth. Nature and climbing provide another environment where this can happen outside of a classroom. Nature in its best form is balanced, it has rhythms, it has incredible diversity, and no judgment. Nature is just nature and you have to meet it on its terms. I think nature is the ideal classroom for people to interact with and facilitate self-growth. It’s also in a lot of ways non-competitive. So much of what these students deal with is competitive: grades, colleges, teams. Being in nature allows students to just really compete with themselves and stretch themselves without that constant comparison to others.”

Reflecting on her journey to becoming a mountain guide, Laurie sees her nomination for Guide of the Year as a recognition of her abilities that extend beyond her technical skill: “This award means so much to me because it’s acknowledging, and seeing, and valuing all these other life skills that I can bring to climbing and guiding outside of just my ability to climb a rock, and that’s where my strengths lie. To have that be acknowledged by my professional community is just incredibly heartening, reassuring, and amazing.” She also sees this year’s award as a reflection of the ever-growing guiding community: “Both myself and the other nominee represent and reflect a broader, more diverse, and inclusive vision of what guiding can be, and it’s amazing to see the industry moving in that direction. Regardless of who wins this award, it’s a win already because the membership is seeing value in the diversity myself and the other nominee can bring.”

Follow along with Laurie’s journey as the winners of this year’s American Mountain Guides Association’s Awards will be announced on November 15th.