The Cairn Project: creative magic in the outdoors

‘Do what brings you to life.’ Brought to life is one way we’d describe the experience of standing atop Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the continental United States, on a blustery and unseasonably cold September morning. Exhilarated and exhausted are also adjectives that come to mind as we conjure up memories of the final moments of our John Muir Trail thru-hike in 2016. It had been a freezing early morning climb at the end of a long 212 miles through California’s High Sierra to reach the Mt. Whitney summit. And in that moment, on top of the US, we were celebrating the accomplishment of a goal more than a year in the making. It seemed like an end point — a triumphant one.

In retrospect, that triumphant end was just the beginning. In the course of planning this 12-day expedition, we’d stumbled upon the idea of turning the adventure into something bigger: The Cairn Project, an adventure-driven nonprofit that expands outdoor access for girls around the United States. Knowing how transformative outdoor adventure can be for young women — seeding self-esteem, inner strength, and the tenacity to embrace the unexpected — we based the mission of The Cairn Project on a vision of fostering our future leaders and environmental stewards.

From the outset, we wanted our effort to help reduce the barriers that continue to leave women and girls — and particularly women and girls of colour — significantly under-represented in outdoor education and the outdoor industry generally. We decided that the best way to do this was through a funding programme: we’d raise money from our friends and loved ones, and pass it on to community-based groups giving young women the chance to learn and explore outside.

As we worked through fastpacking food plans, gear lists, and itinerary tweaks, we also built a nonprofit start-up — branding, website, charitable status. A couple months prior to our departure out of Yosemite Valley in September 2016, we launched a crowdfunding campaign, and by the time we summited Mt. Whitney, we’d raised $30K USD, which we channelled to organisations getting girls and young women out mountain biking, backpacking, and rock climbing in several different states.

It was a spectacular hike and a successful initial campaign, but the real accomplishment has been in what followed. For both of us, the chance to turn an adventure into something bigger than us — something that gives back and passes on that very sort of opportunity to the next generation — grabbed our attention and wouldn’t let us go.

It turns out we’re not alone: since 2016, our growing cadre of more than 40 Ambassadors have catalysed self-powered outdoor adventures around the United States (and even in Mexico!) into crowdfunding campaigns that support The Cairn Project. Our ‘Adventure for Good’ model has been a banner for expeditions in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Bears Ears National Monument, along the US’s most famous long distance hiking routes, and many places in between. Each campaign has provided the woman spearheading it a chance to share her own outdoor story, to educate her network about the barriers and inequities that continue to keep too many girls off the trails and rock walls, and to call her community to action.

Our grants have helped to fund scholarships and gear purchases that allow young women whose families can’t afford these sorts of luxuries to participate. We’ve helped connect hundreds of young women to important ‘firsts’: first hike in the rain, first night sleeping in a tent, first time feeling comfortable and confident in their own skin, surrounded by a group of supported peers and mentors.

When the idea for The Cairn Project struck us, that notion of ‘Big Magic’ made famous by Elizabeth Gilbert’s book rang true. In the stripped-down simplicity of self-powered time outside, in landscapes where we feel most alive, we have the chance to see out beyond the horizons that normally hem us in. What’s lying out there, beyond the boundaries of the day-to-day limitations, routines, and expectations we all face? We want more young women to find out.

For more information about the work of The Cairn Project, and to find out how you can get involved, head to cairnproject.org.

Photos © The Cairn Project and Eileen Roche