Marie in her own words: Hi there, my name is Marie and I'm based in the North of England in Sheffield after moving from London in November 2019. Having spent most of my working life as a Consultant in the big smoke, I decided after 15 years it was time for a change. Whilst I still work as a Client Relationship Manager for a Sheffield SME 4 days a week, the move has allowed me to be much closer to the hills (timely with the current Covid pandemic) giving me the opportunity to spend so much more of my time getting outdoors and enabling me to achieve the sense of work-life balance that I was craving in the City. I describe myself on my Instagram bio as a skier, hiker and runner, but perhaps it would be more accurate to describe me as an avid outdoor and adventure enthusiast! I have been incredibly lucky to be able to ski and go on expeditions around the world. But I am conscious that not everyone has necessarily had that opportunity. I am also acutely aware that the outdoor sports and adventure world has typically struggled with a lack of diversity and whilst it's been great to see moves in a positive direction to redress the balance, it has been really great in the last year to be working with a team of others from Kit Collective, all passionate to be working on initiatives to help reduce some of the barriers facing people getting into the outdoors. After years of excitement of being on expeditions - searching locations, planning them, packing for them and then eventually going on them - this has led me to set up my own adventure expedition company, Three Peaks Adventures. We started in 2017 so are still in the early and growth stages of the company, and have like others in the travel industry, been particularly hit by Covid. But we're busy planning for the end of 2021 and going forwards so watch this space! I think it's incredibly important for people to be able to see other normal people, people with normal jobs and who try to squeeze getting outdoors into every available spare minute that they have, going out and doing lots of different things. Things from their doorstep but equally things that push them outside of their comfort zone. And that is what I hope to try to strive for in my roles as a Salomon Ambassador, Ordnance Survey #getoutside champion, Duke of Edinburgh supervisor and trainee assessor as well as part of my training to be a mountain leader. If people can see ordinary people like myself getting out there, hopefully it can give someone a bit of encouragement to just get out there and go for it! New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday and Thursday at 7am UK time - Make sure you hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss out. The Tough Girl Podcast is sponsorship and ad free thanks to the monthly financial support of patrons. To find out more about supporting your favourite podcast and becoming a patron please check out www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast. Show notes Who is Marie Growing up and not spending time in the outdoors Her first charity challenge Climbing Kilimanjaro The slow burn of the outdoors Reaching Gilman’s Point Wanting to do more hiking Signing up to do the Inca Trail in Peru Deciding to go and climb Mount Blanc Doing courses at Glenmoore Lodge in Scotland The importance of having the right group Having a back up plan in place Starting to hike more in the UK Learning more about the UK Mountain Leader Award (ML) Starting to make decisions about what she wanted to do Liking her job….. Escape the City Deciding to run her own expedition company 3 peaks in Tanzania Creating a film with Iona Rendall Doing courses Learning how to navigate The importance of logging everything in your log book for the ML Being an Ordnance Survey Get Outside champion Final words of advice to encourage you to spend more time in the outdoors Social Media Website threepeaksadventures.com Instagram @mariecheng27 @threepeaksadventures
