A day at height with Cintia, rope access entrepreneur

Cintia, Brazilian, is a rope access professional. Her passion for technical maneuvers led her to participate in rope access competitions. As a woman in a predominantly masculine profession, she’s also devoted to helping women feel empowered to accomplish their dreams.

Your name ?

Cintia 

Your nationality ?

Brazilian

What is your profession and your experience, and anything else you would like to share like your passions or favorite pastimes?

Today, I am an entrepreneur and supervisor of works at height. My passion started in 2002, when I began to climb. I followed an international championship in 2012, watching a Russian woman with great technique and efficiency in her maneuvers. She was the one who inspired me. It became our dream to compete in international competitions so we decided to create a team. In 2018, after much dedication and training with my rope partners Eduardo and Tiago, we finally made this dream a reality. 

My greatest passion besides rope access is motivating women to fight for their goals, not to give up on them. Sometimes the path is difficult and many will tell you that you will not succeed, but don't believe it. You are the only person who knows what you can do or not.

What is your company's expertise and/or industry?

It is called Axis Serviços em Altura LTDA, in Brazil.

We are a company specialized in integrated solutions for work at height. We offer solutions in access by ropes, training, anchoring systems and PPE inspections.  Axis has its roots in climbing and mountaineering.

Could you please tell us about one of your work sites

What is the goal?

Use rope access to perform technical maneuvers in difficult to reach places.

What means are being used? 

Techniques for rope access, speleo-rescue, climbing, arboriculture, performed with the experience of climbers.

What are the specificities, constraints, challenges?

As we really like the techniques, equipment and training, we always try to do our maneuvers in the cleanest, safest and fastest way. One of the restrictions in our country is that many people don’t take difficult-to-access jobs seriously, so there’s a low level of professionalism for people and companies. About the challenges, I face a certain prejudice for being a woman, I have to prove all the time that I am capable of doing the same or better than men, this would be one of the biggest challenges.

What are the highlights?

Well, on the other hand, the fact of being a woman doing activities in places of difficult access always raises some eyebrows, and this ends up differentiating our team from the rest. Moreover, I believe that the fact that our team participates in competitions makes us have an expertise in more complex job executions.

What does a typical day in your profession look like?

Go to the office, plan and organize the work team day, always thinking about the best option to have a good performance, without much wear and tear and with great security. Motivate the team to have a successful day. As we have a variety of jobs and places to work, every day is different: some days we are out cleaning windows, giving training, doing an inspection, while others we are in theaters helping artists with their choreography. Working at Axis motivates me every day, as I love the diversity in our line of work.

Could you tell us the story about a funny, personal, or unbelievable experience at work?

One day I had an experience that moved me a lot. My husband and I went to install a banner in a shopping mall and the person responsible for releasing the service first did not want to release it, as she claimed that both of us would not be able to perform the service, that we would need strong men, who would have the same service again. Four men would have done it; We had to argue a lot, explain the whole procedure and show the equipment and techniques that we were going to apply. After much conversation, she gave us the banner and said that she would follow the execution, as she still doubted the possibility of it working out. I love challenges, proving that I can. It hurts a lot more when women like me judge me as fragile.