Community focused Women's Alpine Adventure Club addressed diversity within their club by running a mountain skills weekend and help broaden representation within the mountains.
There's a real power in community based ventures to support growth and build both skills and confidence. Specifically focused on skills for the Alpine environment, the Women's Alpine Adventure Club looks to support and inspire women through adventure in alpine pursuits. Run by volunteers, they build a network of qualified leaders, trainee leaders, outdoor enthusiasts and outdoor beginners to help support each other. As part of this they host winter and summer meets, while their online platform serves as resource for ‘How to’ videos, articles, interviews with amazing women.
As a club the strength lies in being inclusive and accessible, built so that they can all support each other. It also means that it can really help address broader representation within both the activities and the community as a whole. At the start of 2024 Jenny Dart approached the Alpkit Foundation for some support as they looked to be proactive in addressing a lack of diversity that they had recognised within the club.
"At WAAC we have been running UK Skills weekends and Alpine Meets for around 4 years now, but we have noticed that our community isn't very diverse and we're really keen to do something about this. I wanted to invite women from other outdoor communities to a bespoke mountaineering weekend in Eryri as the first steps at promoting inclusion and offering opportunities, with the hope that they in turn will influence many others in their own communities and walking groups. "
"In this first weekend we really wanted to support walk volunteers who have good access to the community as a whole to talk about their experiences. It's really important to have more diverse representation, so we can talk about what barriers to participation are in place and how they can inform our outlook and what we can do at WAAC to reduce these."
To kick things off Jenny linked with Black Girls Hike to run a weekend in June based from Idwal Youth Hostel, with two Intro to Mountaineering courses on offer for those women who have done some mountain walking and would like to take their skills further, opening up bigger and more technical objectives. We were delighted to come on board and support the weekend with a grant of £500 that was used to help cover accommodation costs.
Over the weekend, 5 women from Black Girls Hike completed an Intro to Mountaineering Course with instruction from the local female led company Leading Edge, where they worked on navigation and off path journeying, including movement on steep ground and scrambling in Grade 1 terrain. On the second day they then split into 2 groups to focus on different skills and aspirations, with one party went and built confidence in the Carneddau, while the other went up Tryfan via the North Ridge.
It was brilliant to hear back from Jenny on how successful it had been and the impact it made, with the quote of the weekend apparently being "I thought it would be much worse"!
"All came away with an enthusiasm for more technical terrain and with new aims for where their hiking skills could take them. Summiting Tryfan was a huge achievement and the enthusiasm that all participants showed for more mountaineering adventures was wonderful.
We also discussed mountain safety, equipment and different ways of gathering information about routes. In the evening we were joined by WAAC members and discussed alpine mountaineering, trekking and how to take those next steps. It also gave us the opportunity to discuss the barriers for black women in mountaineering and how WAAC can become more accessible for those who might not see a place for themselves in this space.
So overall 5 women directly benefited from the course and will now go back to share knowledge about mountaineering and suitable next steps. These women are also interested in coming back to our meets and other courses and encouraging others to join."