by Bridget McGinn for The Bulletin Special ProjectsPhotos by Kevin Prieto

Growing up in a small town in south Texas, Emilie Cortes was always the last one picked for dodge ball. When she ran track she finished last in every race.

“I did get the spirit award, though,” said Cortes.

It is this determination, enthusiasm and sense of humor that fuels Cortes’ pursuit of challenging goals both personally and professionally. At just over five feet tall and self-described as “chubby,” Cortes, 39, doesn’t look the part of an accomplished mountaineer.

In fact, she has climbed on six of the seven continents and leads backpacking, trekking and snow camping trips for her company, Call of the Wild Adventures, Inc. and nonprofit organizations such as the Sierra Club.

She holds an MBA in finance from the University of California at Berkeley, as well as CFA and CAIA designations. She’s a member of the Financial Women’s Association, the Outdoor Industry Women’s Coalition and has served on the National Association of Women MBAs Board.

After 16 years of high-powered work in the quantitative finance world that included handling $7 billion in investment assets, Cortes decided to take a risk and become an entrepreneur. In 2012, she purchased Call of the Wild Adventures and relocated to Bend from San Francisco.

“My biggest fear is the loss of financial security,” said Cortes. “But I thought, ‘What happens if I feel this fear and do it anyway?’”

The courage to undertake this major life transformation came to Cortes in 2010 via a climbing expedition to Makalu, an 8,000 meter peak in Nepal.

“That journey brought me to this place where I learned about myself, I learned how to face fear and it totally transformed me,” said Cortes.

Her previous altitude record was 19,300 feet, but she had harbored a secret desire to climb to greater heights. Makalu represented a huge challenge.

“Only serious climbers even have the guts to try,” said Cortes. “And I could have held myself back. But I found that in some cases I have even more toughness than the guys, they suffered more than I did. I may not have brought as much brute strength, but I brought other things. Like a map.”

It turned out that she was the only member of the team who had brought one, and by default she took on a leadership role as the men checked in with her each day to learn the details ahead. Cortes recalled how as a newbie to the Himalayas and the only woman on the team she was very conscious of not being a burden.

“I wanted to contribute to the team and I felt like there were extra expectations of me as a woman, not unlike what women can feel in the corporate world,” said Cortes.

She made it to Camp Two at 23,000 feet, and thought to herself that she hadn’t done too shabby.

“I’m half the size of these guys and I felt really good. Yeah, I’m a small woman, but I acclimatize well to high altitude,” said Cortes. “That experience completely re-framed the way I looked at opportunities in my life.”

Around this same time, Cortes was experiencing dissatisfaction with her work environment.

“I had had it with the corporate world,” said Cortes. “And there was a lot of stress.”

A torn ACL and lack of support from her employer to ensure a good recovery meant that Cortes was unable to get outdoors to refuel and refresh herself. She had to face her work without her “release valve” of climbing, and it gave her a new perspective.

“I thought to myself that if I kept going like this I would have a heart attack by the time I was 50,” said Cortes.

A friend of hers had purchased Call of the Wild in 2008, and Cortes had been serving on their advisory board. She started to think seriously about how she could manage to purchase the business, and began saving money with that goal in mind. In 2012 the deal was finalized.

“It has a been a huge shift,” said Cortes. “People always ask me, ‘How does it feel to be living the dream?’ and I have to say that I’m not sure I’d call it the dream yet. There is a lot of work involved in running a business. I spend a lot of time promoting, there is accounting to do, bills to pay, staff. … I work long days and have no days off. In the past I used to rejuvenate by going climbing, but when you are running a business you can’t just leave and go climb.”

Climbing for Cortes is an activity that sparked something within from the very first time she tried it.

“As a child I always felt very disconnected from my body. I didn’t believe I was athletic. And when I started climbing it was really the first time I connected with my body,” said Cortes. “I realized that I might actually be powerful. I began to believe that if I could do this maybe I could do anything. It was very confidence building.”

Her first climbing experience was with a friend climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. They researched and trained for the 17-mile, 4,800-foot elevation gain. She had been working out a bit, but the 8,800 foot height seemed daunting.

“We really researched how to do this climb. We trained for it, figured out all the logistics and at the time it seemed very intimidating,” said Cortes.

During the climb she really felt the altitude for the first time, and when they reached the last section — which involves cables — her friend decided not to go on. Cortes faced a decision point.

“I have a healthy respect for heights, but I thought, I have worked hard for this and I don’t want to regret not doing it,” said Cortes. “I looked at the other people and thought if they could do it I could do it.”

She continued the climb on her own, but soon had doubts.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing? Is this such a good idea?’” said Cortes.

She decided to ask two women on their way down about the remainder of the climb, and they encouraged her, advising her to rest on each plank. Cortes then focused on each plank, one by one, and made her way to the top. The feeling she experienced was unlike any she had had before.

“I thought, ‘This is amazing. This is the culmination of all that effort training, planning, facing and overcoming my fears,’” said Cortes. “I knew at that moment that I was ruined forever for regular hiking.”

She had never been backpacking before, but she took classes and sought out other women who were experienced climbers to ask them for input on which mountains to climb.

“I sought advice from women because I thought I would believe them more,” said Cortes. “I trust someone from my own gender. I treasure the time I spend with men, and most of the time I spend climbing mountains is with men and I love my male climbing partners. But I also enjoy the camaraderie with women and feel that in my work I can have the most impact on women who might otherwise choose to opt out of an experience like that.”

It was during an ascent of Mt. Rainier that Cortes realized that her words could have an impact on others. The only woman in the group, she was also the only person to have climbed a mountain before. The others looked to Cortes as a leader. At one break, a young member of the group approached her and told her that he was feeling tired, hungry, thirsty and discouraged. He asked how she was doing.

“I told him that I was feeling tired, hungry and thirsty too, and that I was doing great,” said Cortes. “That’s mountaineering. They don’t just give these mountains away.”

She watched as realization dawned on the young man’s face.

“He said ‘Oh, you mean I’m doing great, too?’ and for the rest of the climb he was fine. All that shifted for him was his perspective,” said Cortes. “I realized that my words had impact on him, they had power. In that moment, I saw myself as a leader and a role model.”

Cortes sees herself and her business as helping to provide women with examples of other women in leadership roles and overcoming challenges.

“I’ve done some mountain climbing and really feel like I’m qualified to say that I’ve never traveled with a better guide than Emilie,” said Alix Buckley, 54, an experienced adventure traveler. “She works really hard to make sure that everyone feels very successful. I am a pretty powerful person to begin with, but every trip with Emilie I feel that much more confident. And I see it in the other people I travel with, too.”

Providing a safe space for other women to experience the self-realization and empowerment that she herself felt during her Makalu adventure is key to Cortes’ leadership of Call of the Wild. Understanding that we each have the power to overcome obstacles is one of her key messages.

“Obstacles never stop,” said Cortes. “Life is a series of obstacles. What I am interested in is how we can overcome obstacles continuously to achieve our goals. What are the ways that we can think about obstacles differently?”

“Emilie has a wonderful sense of humor and she can make anything fun,” said Buckley.

She recounted a trip down a mountain in Nepal after many days hiking. Everyone was hot, tired and in desperate need of a shower.

“We were in this little rickety jeep and we had a flat tire,” said Buckley. “Emilie plugged her iPhone into some speakers and said, ‘How about we dance by the side of the road?’ So there we were, in Nepal, dancing by the side of the road while we waited for help. She can make even a disaster situation fun. I’ve traveled enough to know that these are the experiences you will remember. I will never forget that day.”

For Cortes, it is the opportunity to help other women experience what she experienced on her Makulu climb — learning about herself and facing her own fears — that makes her vocation with Call of the Wild worthwhile.

After a recent snowshoe trip to Yosemite, one of the participants shared with Cortes that she could tell that she was clearly the least fit person on the trip.

“She told me that if she had been with her husband or friends she would have turned back,” said Cortes.

With the encouragement of the guides and the other women on the trip, she kept going, and was proud of her achievement. It helped her to realize other areas of her life where she was selling herself short.

“I ask all the participants to write a postcard with the one thing they want to remind their stressed out, overworked, multi-tasking self back home,” said Cortes. “I mail the postcards to them after our return. On her postcard this particular woman wrote a simple message: ‘Stop turning yourself around.’”

Through outdoor activities and adventure travel, Cortes has experienced her own personal growth and achieved greater self-realization about the ways she held herself back. Helping other women to gain this type of insight and move beyond their fears is highly satisfying to her.

“I think I am like a lot of other people in my generation,” said Cortes. “We want to have an impact. It’s not enough to just make money and go home. Owning a business is tough, but that is part of following your passion. When I recall that soul-sucking feeling of the corporate world I am determined to see this all the way through.”

Not surprisingly, Cortes likens her life transition to business owner and entrepreneur to climbing.

“I just keep taking steps every day,” said Cortes. “The summit is still on the horizon.”