Mountain Mentors celebrates 1,000 new faces into backcountry spaces. Words :: Kara-Leah Grant
Pop quiz: What’s the most common way to get into the backcountry—whether skiing, climbing or hiking? Hint: It’s not via a map, a gondola or even your feet.
It’s through friends, contacts and cultural context. It’s because you grew up in a family where it was the norm. It’s because your peers did it, so you joined in. It’s because your school offered it and taught you the basics.
But if you have a yearning to get out there and it’s not something you grew up with, none of your friends partake and you don’t know where to start—then what?
Founded in 2016, Mountain Mentors is a nonprofit organization that supports Sea to Sky and Vancouver women, women-identifying individuals and non-binary folks who want to get into the backcountry.
While the core of Mountain Mentors is a seasonal one-on-one mentorship program, participants additionally benefit from “interpersonal skills shares, leadership workshops and conversations on how we talk about conflict or feedback,” says Monika Tesiorowski, president of the organization. “We also offer opportunities to build hard skills with industry professionals, such as anchor-building and wilderness first aid.”
Summer 2024 marked 1,000 humans making their way through the various programs, both summer and winter. For a nonprofit with an annual budget south of $30,000, that’s an outsize impact. It’s evidence of the passion of the volunteers who run the organization (only one employee is paid, for all of 12 hours per week) but also the value of the concept, not just for first-time participants but also for mentors.
“Mentors have reported that they received more value than the mentees,” explains JoJo Das, program development director. “One of the most consistent pieces [of feedback] is, ‘My mentee didn’t objectively need me. The skill was there, and the knowledge was there.’ What they needed was a supportive human to be affirming, to share with and to talk through situations.”
Tesiorowski herself started as a mentee, transitioned to mentor and then became secretary for the nonprofit before taking on her current role as president two years ago.
“‘My mentee didn’t objectively need me. The skill was there, and the knowledge was there.’ What they needed was a supportive human to be affirming, to share with and to talk through situations.”
“I did a year in the backcountry on my own and experienced what many females of my age do,” she explains. “I’d go into the backcountry with dudes and I didn’t feel safe enough to speak up or ask questions. The culture is so different. It was like ‘We’re charging to the top and eating cookies—and don’t slow us down.’ I was like, Oh my god I’m scared, and I don’t know how to evolve in this situation.”
As Tesiorowski discovered, Mountain Mentors isn’t just about getting humans into the backcountry or teaching people efficient ways to fill a backpack or read weather. It’s about fostering a culture of emotional and psychological safety that creates empathetic and wise leaders.
“For the first time I experienced morning check-ins that included, ‘How are you feeling about today and about making decisions in the backcountry?’” she says. “I felt super-encouraged. Those women brought such safety and made it really okay for me to be me.”
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That development of empathetic and wise leaders is the core of Mountain Mentors and the cultural shift it’s envisioning. Strategic success over the next ten years has two distinct levels that reflect that vision—one is expanding reach and the second is becoming obsolete.
“Ideally we don’t exist anymore,” Das says, “because we’ve triggered a large enough cultural shift in society that it’s no longer difficult to find people to reach out to and show you the ropes, literally and figuratively, to get into the backcountry.”
One thing that would help is funding. “Every dollar makes a big difference,” says Das. “For example, I’d love to pay our program manager a full-time salary instead of contracted hours, so they have greater job security.”
The power of nature meets the momentum of inclusivity and empathy. Maybe it’s time to send a few politicians through the program.
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