Summits Are Optional, Sisterhood Is Not: We’re Shifting Mountain Culture for Girls and Women
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When 6 in 10 women struggle to name an outdoor female role model, how are girls supposed to know they belong in adventure spaces?
For teen girls, the barriers to wilderness adventures are real. Some are physical, like lack of gear or access to transportation. Others are cultural, like not seeing women adventurers celebrated in the media. In 2024, Cheri Heng and Aubryanna Jarchow were two of the young adults selected for the Summit Scholarship Foundation’s Mt. Baker youth climb, funded by our Trailblazers at The Cairn Project.
We believe that investing in youth isn’t just good for the next generation—it’s the key to shifting mountain culture to become more inclusive, more accessible, and more representative of the world we live in. Spoiler alert: This all-women’s rope team didn’t reach the physical summit of Mt. Baker. But they gained something just as powerful. We explore that transformation in this episode of See Her Outside. Angie sat down with Aubryanna and Cheri to talk about ambition, fear, belonging, and what it means to come together in sisterhood on top of a glacier.
We talked about:
Data from a 2017 REI study on women in the outdoors
What it was like to apply for a Summit Scholarship as a teen
The story of the climb and the AWExpeditions team and guides
The decision to turn around and not reach the summit
Biggest lessons from their first mountaineering experience
The difference between all-women’s and coed wilderness trips
Send this episode to somebody who you think should turn their adventure into a force for good by becoming a Trailblazer!
Mentioned in this episode:
AWExpeditions: AWE organizes mountaineering and remote adventures for women, by women.
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