Meet Anna Berez
Limits aren’t what we believe they are. Expanding them is like walking toward the horizon. You move forward, but you never actually reach them. For me, life isn’t about staying inside what feels safe. It’s about choosing to experience, to learn, and to grow again and again.
Creating the experience itself
Anna brings vitality, steadiness, and a strong sense of presence to Athara Adventures. She has a natural ability to read a situation, anticipate what is needed, and act decisively for the good of the group.
People often describe feeling both supported and energised in Anna’s presence. She brings warmth, clarity, and a grounded confidence that helps others trust themselves and the path ahead, especially when things feel challenging or unfamiliar.
“For me, being in the mountains is where everything becomes clear,” Anna says. “You’re responsible for yourself, your choices, and how you move forward. That’s where I feel most alive.”
The Path That Shaped Her
Anna’s relationship with the outdoors began early. From her teenage years onwards, some of her most formative experiences have taken place in the mountains, through hiking, biking, climbing, skiing, and moving through wild places in all seasons.
Again and again, these experiences reinforced the same lesson: strength is built through steady decisions. Learning to move deliberately, trust her instincts, and continue step by step became a foundation not only for outdoor pursuits, but for life.
During a demanding point-to-point hike along the Sentier Cathare in southern France, that foundation was tested. On a long, sustained climb in the heat, she noticed the familiar internal voice urging her to stop. She kept moving at her own pace. Reaching the top confirmed something she had begun to understand: her capacity extended further than she had assumed.
“That experience changed how I see myself,” she reflects. “It showed me that I get to decide which voice I listen to.”
Her love of movement through landscape has always been paired with a deep curiosity about the wider world. Anna grew up listening to her father’s stories of travelling with the Peace Corps, and from an early age she saw international travel as a way of broadening perspective and challenging assumptions.
In college, she lived and travelled in France, tracing parts of her family history. She later spent a semester in Ghana in a cultural immersion programme, living with homestay families and travelling across the country. An independent study project took her to Ireland, where she lived and worked on a farm within a sustainable community for adults with disabilities.
Since 2006, she has returned to France year after year, with occasional seasons in Norway. For Anna, experiencing new landscapes and cultures is not leisure. It is a way of seeing more clearly, and of continually stretching beyond what feels familiar.
How She Guides the Athara Experience
At Athara Adventures, Anna creates the practical and experiential container of each retreat, tour, and holiday. She brings a strong operational mind alongside deep care for the human experience, ensuring that everything works smoothly so participants can immerse themselves in the experience without distraction.
Her background spans outdoor guiding, hospitality, and operations management. From group safety and logistics to pacing, communication, and guest care, Anna attends closely to the details that make an experience feel both seamless and secure.
She has a particular gift for reading group dynamics and responding in the moment. Whether that means adjusting plans, offering encouragement, or creating space for rest, her decisions are guided by what will best support the group as a whole.
“I want people to feel proud of what they’ve done,” Anna says. “We create the conditions carefully, so they can sink into the experience and discover what they’re capable of.”
Working in Partnership
Anna leads Athara Adventures in close collaboration with Seoka and Sarah. Their shared leadership allows the work to be held with depth, meaning, and practical confidence at the same time.
She values clear communication, mutual respect, and loyalty within the team. This way of working allows each founder to focus on what they do best, while knowing the whole experience is being collectively created.
“Trust between us matters,” Anna notes. “When that’s in place, everything else flows.”
Relationship to Place
Anna feels a deep connection to place, particularly in the Pyrenees, where landscape, history, and human resilience are closely intertwined. She is drawn to regions that carry stories of courage, resistance, and people who chose to stand by their values, regardless of the personal consequences.
For her, the mountains are both teacher and mirror. They ask for honesty, attention, and respect, and they offer clarity, strength, and perspective in return.
These places shape not only where Athara Adventures works, but how it works: with care, integrity, and a commitment to doing things properly.
A Closing Reflection
Anna believes that growth comes from choosing to engage fully with what is in front of you, even when it feels difficult. That expansion happens through the combination of both reflection and action.
“I want people to leave feeling stronger and more capable than when they arrived,” she says. “Not because we pushed them, but because they discovered what they can do.”
At Athara Adventures, Anna brings this grounded, capable presence into every retreat, walking or cycling holiday, and cultural journey, helping people move forward with confidence, connection, and a sense of earned pride.
