Donated climbing helmets (Photo by Kris Kristofferson - Khumbu Climbing School)
In an era when the blank spaces on the map are all but gone, when very little true wilderness remains, and when too many people stay indoors with their TVs, those of us who play in the backcountry might feel compelled to act as stewards of the backcountry by taking care of and preserving the places we love. To continue with yesterday’s list of outdoor organizations we like, we’ve compiled a few more favorites and other ways you can get involved.
Khumbu Climbing School
Under the auspices of the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation, this school trains the unsung heroes of extreme high-altitude mountaineering: the indigenous population of Nepal that works as sherpas and porters. These people are superbly adapted to the high, thin air of the Himalayas but are not trained climbers. Among the indigenous Nepalese, even those guides who’ve summited 29,035-foot Mount Everest multiple times lacked basic safety and climbing skills.
Jenni Lowe-Anker and mountaineer Conrad Anker started the Khumbu Climbing School in order to encourage responsible climbing practices and to increase these Nepali guides’ competency on the big E. KCS teaches technical ice-climbing skills, medical training, and rescue procedures, as well as provides English lessons. Classes take place in January prior to the climbing season, and the students learn from world-class mountaineers on frozen waterfalls.
Photo by Kris Kristofferson - Khumbu Climbing School
Get Involved: Visit the Alex Lowe Foundation and click the Donate Now link in order to give money. If you have new ice screws or ice tools to donate, email alcf@alexlowe.org. You can also follow the Khumbu Climbing Center on Facebook.
More: They might not be as tall as the Himalayas, but Colorado’s fourteeners are nothing to sneeze at. The Colorado Fourteeners Initiative sponsors weekend maintenance projects along fourteener trails. You can even adopt one of the state’s 14,000-foot peaks or become a peak steward, volunteers who patrol high-use fourteeners.
Salt Lake Climbers Alliance
The Salt Lake Climbers Alliance promotes climbing opportunities in the Wasatch Mountains, as well as works to preserve access and manage Wasatch climbing areas by maintaining trails and replacing bolts.
Get Involved: Go to the Salt Lake Climbers Alliance site and become a member and active participant in various SLCA projects, such as crag clean-ups and trail maintenance, or you can donate cash.
More: If you don’t live in Utah, get involved where you live by visiting the Access Fund web site for information on how to participate in an Adopt-A-Crag event (trash clean-up, trail maintenance, bolt replacement). Also see how to join a local climbing organization, start your own, or become a regional coordinator.
Denali Education Center
This educational organization, located within a stone’s throw of the 6-million-acre Denali National Park and Preserve, leads experiential outdoor programs in the national park for kids and adults. Denali is an ideal classroom in which to learn about the subarctic ecosystem and about the world’s other remaining wild places.
Get Involved: Contact the Denali Education Center to volunteer during the summer season on projects ranging from gardening to graphic design, or hit the Donate Now link on the website to give financial help. Attend the fundraising auction in Alaska next August (this year’s event just happened), and make your bid.
More: Interested in volunteering in our National Parks? Visit the National Parks System volunteer page for information on how to volunteer as an interpreter, campground host, ranger, or other jobs.
Winter Wildlands Alliance
This national organization works on behalf of snowshoers, skiers, snowboarders, winter hikers, and other outdoor adventurers who use their own power to get around in the winter landscape. The WWA’s actions run the gamut from providing snowshoes and a winter ecology curriculum to elementary school students to advocating the phase-out of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park.
Get involved: Go to the Winter Wildlands Alliance site to become a member and find out about WWA’s legislative campaigns. Or hit the Take Action link to find out what you can do right now to preserve wintry solitude.
More: Surfrider Foundation works on behalf of surfers, wind surfers, beach combers, swimmers, divers, and other water lovers. The nonprofit environmental organization advocates for low-impact beach access, clean water, and coastal preservation. Visit the foundation’s chapters page to find a chapter near you and volunteer for a beach cleanup or water testing or to write the newsletter or attend city council meetings.
If you happen to live near a river rather than the coast and love river-running, check out American Whitewater in order to volunteer for river stewardship projects.
Bay Area Wilderness Training
Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, this nonprofit provides wilderness training and outdoor gear to youth agency staff. In turn, these staff members can then take their charges—often kids who’ve never left a city—into California’s wild places. Each year, BAWT raises funds through its Climbing for Kids event.
Get Involved: You can sponsor a climber. Or, you can climb Mount Whitney—or Mount Rainier or Mount Shasta—and raise funds to benefit youth and youth leaders. Visit www.climbingforkids.org to learn how.
More: If you’d rather work directly with youth, join Big City Mountaineers on one of its eight-day backpacking trips with inner-city kids. Trips are in Colorado, California, West Virginia, Washington, Minnesota, and other states.
If you’re a snowboarder or skier, take kids on the slopes through the SOS Outreach Society, which operates at ski resorts across the country, including Heavenly, Steven’s Pass, Mount Hood, Snowbird, Arapahoe Basin, Ski at Santa Fe, Hunter Mountain, and Waterville Valley. In January, the organization merged with Meet the Wilderness and now offers year-round activities to youth, including rock climbing, hiking, and camping. So you can sign on for summer, too.
Kids climbing with SOS Outreach
Do you have other favorite organizations that we missed? Post them below.
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Tags: climbing, environment, mountaineering, non-profits