For Your Mountain: Bronwyn Hodgins

When La Sportiva asked me last winter to write an article about a goal I was pursuing (any goal!) I was deep in the middle of something. It was a different sort of project than I had taken on before. I was learning a lot. I was also hitting a lot of hurdles. What is Your Mountain? That was the posed question. Could this project be My Metaphorical Mountain?

I completed the Rock Guide certificate under the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides in September 2021. In my final exam, there were 8 candidates: myself (a white middle-class female) and seven white men. I began working under my own business, creating course curriculums around topics I was passionate about. I launched a Big Walls Course, Fear of Falling Clinics, a Rock Rescue and Wilderness First Aid combo weekend, and more.

I offered a few women-only programs and they were immediately a big hit! I enjoyed them too, although it was hard to put my finger on just why that was. I would see women connecting in my courses, exchanging numbers so they could form adventure partnerships outside of the class. They would say things like, “I want more ladies to climb with!” Or “I’m always climbing with my boyfriend…”

Photo Credit: Pim Shaitosa

I related to a lot of these comments. I, too, had learned to climb from my boyfriend and his friends, mostly dudes. Many of my early climbing trips had been based around supporting him on his goals. I didn’t really have my own goals back then. But somewhere along the road that changed. I gained confidence and became incredibly ambitious and determined. I began orchestrating my own big trips, in particular some all-ladies missions!

From 2020-2021, my girl friends and I completed a major big wall restoration project in the Mexico desert, from which we created the documentary El Gavilán, which is currently touring festivals internationally (you can also watch it here). In 2022, on a 65-day expedition to Greenland, my girl friends and I established a new 350m alpine-style wall over two days with a shiver bivvy (I made a short film of this too which you can watch here).

What made these trips so special? I think a large part of it was that, in the realm of remote big wall free climbing and route development, the female gender is still poorly represented. So the missions feel bigger somehow: like we are empowering not only ourselves but also other women who want to do this sort of thing too.

Last winter my good friend Pim Shaitosa and I decided to put on a climbing festival in our hometown of Squamish, Canada, for women and genderqueer climbers. Both incredibly passionate about the project, we dove in and got to work. But the more we dug, the deeper we realized we wanted to go. We wanted to make sure we represented not only non-dominant genders, but other minority groups as well — as many as we could! We wanted everyone to feel like they could belong within climbing.

We wanted to make the event accessible, so we reached out to sponsors. We also implemented a large scholarship program. We reached out to local community groups that were already doing the work; we wanted to support their networks and learn from them too.

Photo Credit: Pim Shaitosa

But with every step of good intention, the festival grew… Unfortunately it grew a little too quickly. By the time summer came around, Pim and I were completely exhausted and had to make the tough decision to call off the festival, for 2023 at least. We were devastated but also grateful for everything we had learned and everyone we had met throughout the process.

And so, with a deep breath (and after a couple of months to reset), I’m excited to face this mountain again. That same mountain that was slowly crushing me in the spring, appears much clearer now; the morning fog has lifted, revealing her in all her diverse beauty. It’s still a daunting ascent, but my energy gravitates towards it once more, bolstered by the vision that together we are stronger.

If you’d like to follow along, you can find information about our 2024 festival at www.treelinecommunity.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bronwyn Hodgins is a member of the La Sportiva Climbing Team