Exum guide took monk's word
Vermont native finds calling in climbing, guiding planet's peaks
This article by Angus M. Thuermer Jr. was printed in the August 11, 2004 Jackson Hole News & Guide.
send this page to a friend

Exum Guide Amy Bullard fondly remembers the "forbidden cliffs," through the woods behind the organic beef farm where she grew up in Chelsea, Vt. Through the woods and just out of sight of the house, the forbidden cliffs were refuge for her sister and herself as they grew up. Named by the parents, they were out of bounds for young girls who might get hurt in a tumble.

"My parents were worried we'd fall off," Bullard said this week as she recalled her youth and the path she chose that has led to the summit of some of the world's famous peaks, including Everest. "When I was 16, I decided I never wanted to work indoors," she said. "Life is too short."

Even as Bullard advanced her career, climbing awe-inspiring routes in the Himalaya with the world's gnarliest hard men, the folks didn't quite understand. "They always thought it was a passing phase," Bullard, 36, said, "even when I went to Everest." Parents didn't tell their friends of her mountaineering accomplishments, until the wiry alpinist claimed the top of the world this spring, working as a guide and film crew member.

Suddenly, all her folks' friends were in the loop. It took a name like Everest for them, and even sponsors, to see her climbing record in a new light. "I'm getting a lot of rewards from it now," Bullard said. "Everyone says congrats on your success."

For years a sponsored athlete for Sierra Designs, Bullard began climbing at age 18 after a growing up on the forbidden cliffs, swinging from the Tarzan rope in the barn, and earning the nickname "Supy" for her tendency to jump like a kangaroo or marsupial. After some college at the University of Vermont studying anthropology and environmental studies, she went to Europe where she rode a bike from Germany to Turkey. The heat in Turkey was unbearable, and a short stint designing a telemark ski soon thereafter exposed her to the glaciers of the Alps. "When I go back to school I'm going to study the arctic," she told herself.

Bullard, who had already begun ice climbing, now studied snow science back at college, earning a bachelor's degree. She realized her dream of moving out West, securing a job as an avalanche forecaster at Vail. Bent on furthering her education, she earned acceptance to graduate school in Montana, then "freaked out."

"Two more years indoors - no way," she thought to herself as she packed her backpack for Nepal and Thailand. That year she summitted Island Peak near Everest on the first of what has since been eight trips to the tallest range in the world.

It was among the Buddhists of Thailand that Bullard learned her calling. At a 10-day silent meditation retreat with a monk, she asked why she couldn't just climb instead of meditate. "Sure," her mentor said. "As long as you use the energy to help other people."

Guide Bullard was born. Ensuing years, working out of Bozeman, MT, she worked in archeology, as a ski patroller at Bridger Bowl and earned a scholarship to a NOLS instructor's course. Hard-core expeditions filled in her spare time. After one grueling two-month episode with three men, she realized on the hike out that she hadn't seen a woman in two months.

"I was quite lonely," Bullard said. "Even though I was with the greatest group, I missed my girl friends." An idea was born. "An 8,000-meter peak was the next step," she said. "I wanted to know what it was like to climb with women up high."

Bullard's requirements involved more. She didn't cotton to using bottled oxygen and she had never relied on porters, other than to get to base camp. The result; the summit of Cho Oyu, a peak in Tibet that's one of the world's 14 giants taller than 8,000 meters. She reached the top with Teton climbers Kathryn Hess and Georgie Stanley, part of an all-woman American team.

From Cho Oyu, Bullard could see Everest. And when she climbed that peak a few years later, the view back to her first 8,000-meter summit was fulfilling also, though little more was visible.

"I expected to see the whole world," Bullard said, but visibility was limited to a couple of monster peaks. And while she hadn't harbored a burning desire to reach the top of the world and compromised by using oxygen and porters, summitting fulfilled a subconscious desire, the alpinist admitted.

Married for six years to Peter Carse, also an Exum Guide and Bridger ski patroller, Bullard guides women ice climbing in the winter and spends summers in Jackson Hole. "This actually feels more like home," than Bozeman, she said. Bullard has followed her monk's advice becoming a guide. With clients on the Grand Teton, "I want to help facilitate their dream," she said.

Bullard said she tries to pass on "a sense of respect for the earth," sharing observations about storms, animals, flowers. "People are humbled," she said about their first experiences in the mountains. "It's a great equalizer." Telling them of the values of nature at such times is "a sneaky way to make a change for the earth," Bullard said.

Today the guide has her sights set on a trip to the Southern Patagonia ice cap. By now, however, others have figured out when she's onto something good. "It started out as four women," she said. "Now it's three women and two husbands. They got jealous."