Women and the Wild
Bringing a community of 9 women together to talk women and the wilderness.
November marked a turning point in our dream build.
A cool chill began to settle into the Tumwater Valley and Jon and I worked quickly to move brick pavers from the hefty pallets into the center of our geodesic “geo” dome. 110ish days into our project and our vision was finally becoming reality. We built a space that not only would grow our food, but would plant the first seeds of discussing what makes something wild and why it is important to preserve.
These first wilderness conversations took place a few days later. Nine women from the social justice, outdoor, non-profit, education, and federal fields converged on our property to participate in an interactive weekend of “collective envisioning”. The focus - to talk about women and the wilderness.
Ella, a long-time dear friend/adventure partner, and I had first hatched this idea over 8 months ago. Moving through similar life chapters, as well as sharing a passion for remote wilderness adventure and growing in our wilderness experience through women mentorship and comradery - we wanted to do something more with it. We proposed that one of Basecamp Cascadia’s first programs could be geared towards fueling women to be on the forefront of wilderness exploration. The goal to help women cultivate a wilderness connection that could also inspire wilderness preservation.
We both had visions of what this type of program could become, but still had so many questions - what did wilderness mean to different women? who should we serve- age, ability, background? how could we curate a wilderness connection through experience, while also minimizing our impact? how to better understand the barriers that kept women from exploring wild spaces? We thought one of the best first steps to help us answer these questions was to bring together a community of women that worked in these arenas and that were excited about our overall vision. With the nudge of a good friend - we had a date, one amazing facilitator, and a seed planted to create a rich weekend focused to help us further this vision.
The final product? One of the most beautiful experiences I’ve have ever participated in. For two days we came together to not only answer some of these bigger questions, but to learn from one another and to support our overall effort to connect women to the outdoors.
Some key highlights included:
Individual presentations on what wilderness meant to each of the participants when they arrived, followed by a more in-depth talk about what makes something wild and how can we preserve it.
A workshop on Infusing and Leveraging Equity Literacy in Women in the Wild - where we talked about equity and what we mean when we identify a program for women and exploring further the importance of inclusivity in our terminology, i.e womxn.
A presentation on Emotional Safety in the Outdoors - where we learned how individuals have different zones of tolerance and there are healthy ways to expand that zone of tolerance to help individuals grow outside.
An interactive program modeling brainstorm - where we split up into three small groups and began to put some of that weekend’s values and overall vision into a mock-up program.
The first all-women ski fitness class Ski Babes led in the geo dome.
Sunday (a week ago now) our community dispersed. As I hugged each woman goodbye I realized what we first set forth to create to help us answer questions on program design and who we should serve - became something much larger. Instead of answers, we were brought ideas that collectively made our vision so much more richer and fuller than we could have ever imagined. Sitting among sticky notes of “Barriers Women Face in the Outdoors” to large posters on “Values, Visions, and Goals” Ella and I could not stop smiling. Although it is still an “early” beginning our vision for a program to connect women to the wilderness ignited and with the help of nine women they helped energize Ella and I to feel brave enough to start the path forward. A HUGE thank you to all the amazing women who showed up for us and contributed to one weekend we will never forget.
