Venturing into the backcountry used to be a little too wild for Sarah Jones.
Jones was 21 when she moved to Revelstoke from Saskatchewan, drawn to the area for its skiing. She wanted to learn how to ski tour, but didn’t know anyone who could teach her how to safely and was a little sheepish about asking.
“It’s hard to meet people, and then it’s hard to find people where you have similar risk tolerances, feel comfortable asking questions, and then all of a sudden the avalanche hazard is like, high, high, high.”
Jones now volunteers with Kootenay Wild Mentors, a Nelson-based non-profit group that pairs self-identified women and non-binary folk interested in learning backcountry activities with experienced mentors.
Kootenay Wild Mentors was founded in 2023 by Jones, Renée Filpot, Hannah Boomer, Caitlin Tatham and Heather Hackett. The group prioritizes a safe, inclusive space for women to learn backcountry skills in an outdoor recreation community that Jones says is still male dominated.
That matters for women who feel more at ease learning from their peers.
“To be in a space where you know you are getting together with somebody and they are there to help support you learning and growing, you feel more comfortable testing things out.”
Participants 19 and older from the Nelson, Castlegar, Rossland, Slocan Valley, Nakusp and Kaslo areas can sign up for trail running, hiking and rock climbing in the summer, or ski touring and splitboarding in the winter.
The program is similar to Ascent Mentorship in Revelstoke, which Jones also participated in and credits with helping her understand how to prepare for and safely play in nature.
“It’s that piece when you realize there’s something that you would have loved to have when you were just starting out, and I’m now in a place where I can build that.”
They also encourage people to sign up as mentors, who commit to going out with their mentee three days over the course of a season.
“It’s that idea of giving back. The fact that they have these skills and they wish that someone had been there to help them, or they just love being out there.”
There are still some barriers to entry. Participants pay $60 (which covers their insurance as well as their mentor’s), they need to own activity-specific equipment such as their own skis if they are touring and avalanche gear, and winter courses require completion of the Avalanche Skills Training 1 course.
Jones said the group is working on ways to alleviate those barriers, and plan to offer a scholarship this fall for avalanche training. Kootenay Wild Mentors also hosts a kickoff event at the beginning of every season and monthly skill nights.
At the end of every cohort, Jones has been inspired by the connections that are built between participants and their mentors. Eventually, she hopes more women who have taken the program become mentors themselves.
“I think that would be one of the coolest things for me to see.”
The winter cohort application deadline is Nov. 11. For more information, visit kootenaywildmentors.ca.