Supporting Equality and Diversity in the Outdoors

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This summer four women from Black Girls Hike joined the Intro to Mountaineering weekend facilitated by the Women's Alpine Adventure Club, staying at the Idwal Youth Hostel.

The course included two days of instruction, provided by female instructors and AMI Members from Leading Edge, who regularly work with WAAC. They were also joined and supported by a black woman who is interested in outdoor qualifications for an opportunity to shadow qualified professionals.

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The Alpkit Foundation and the Association of Mountaineering Instructors Charitable funding provided funding. Both organisations/charities are keen to support increased and more diverse participation in the outdoors, especially for those that may struggle to find ways to 'get outside'.

Day one was spent navigating and journeying off the path, including movement skills on rock and in steeper ground in the Ogwen Valley. The evening was spent enjoying a well-earned meal (and a glass of something!) at a local pub alongside another WAAC member to chat about mountaineering opportunities and how WAAC can support women from a range of diverse backgrounds. We discussed the Mountain Training pathway and qualifications and how to progress skills and confidence in the mountains.

For the second day, the group split into two smaller groups. One group scrambled up and over Tryfan via the North Ridge, and the other worked on building confidence in the steeper ground in the wild Carneddau.

This was a great weekend spent enjoying and exploring the mountains of North Wales and building confidence in the mountain environment. Whilst also helping to inspire potential future leaders from a more diverse background.

Some of the Positive Impacts of this weekend were:

• Gaining confidence in the mountains and off-path movement and navigation
• Gaining confidence in taking other people into the mountains and how to support them
• Empowering us to tackle new difficult things and then look back at them and realise how skilled we are to achieve and be in those places
• Increasing representation of diversity in the mountains and being role models for other women who might not see themselves in these places
• Opening eyes to all the amazing opportunities that the mountains can provide in terms of different activities and as well as places
• Meeting other women to go on mountain adventures with and making plans for more
• More likely to now come on mixed events and courses
• Seeing the outdoors as a place to develop a career in