A New Adventure: The Lady Alliance

I have recently embarked on a new adventure. I have started working with The Lady Alliance. The Lady Alliance (TLA) is a group founded by Kieren Britton with the goal of using the outdoors and mental wellness to bring confidence and community to women. It focus on collaboration instead of competition. My role with The Lady Alliance is to be the Calgary Chapter Coordinator. As the chapter coordinator I plan and run free events once a month. These events can be things like the hiking, running, climbing, yoga, wellness talks or as simple as getting together for coffee or drink. In addition to these monthly meet up, the global section of the TLA is collaborating with local companies as well MEC, Mammut, and Arc’teryx. The past collaborations have included working with Arc’teryx women empowerment talks across North America, and working with MEC at the Banff Mountain Film Festival to chat about diversity in the outdoors and taking part in sunrise hikes.

Now why is this a journey I wanted to be a part of? Well let me tell you; the outdoors have always been a huge part of my life. Everything about them engages me! Just being in nature can give us many different things; often things we did not even know we needed. My outdoor experiences (weather from camp, sports or my personal adventures) are what I use to draw my strength from; where I go to find my peace and further they are where I most happy. They have taught me to be resilient, strong, to be leader and what peace is. When anything unexpected or challenging comes into my life; I seek the mountain ranges to think and find my calming energy.

The most notable experiences I had occurred at camp or on the ski hill growing up. In both cases they taught me just how strong I could be both physically and mentally. These very same experience showed me I was not alone in my pursuit. One of these particular experiences I am referring to was when I was 15/16 (I had my birthday on that trip) years old on an 18 day long canoe trip through the northern Saskatchewan river system. The days were long but fun. They were spent amongst 6 other girls my age and two fearless female leaders in their twenties. We chatted about everything from books, to boys, to our fears and to our dreams. We were stuck in the mud with each other and I mean that literally on one more than one occasion. They help hauled hall canoes over miles, and paddle them down rapids. They were both my safety net and the ones pulling me out of my comfort zone.
The times I spent on the ski hill showed me that I could push body physically, that if I was dedicated enough I would achieve my goals. It was about the day in day out effort, not everyday was amazing but they were in purist of greatness. I loved ski racing it was so fun, it as such challenge, it provided me with a second family.

After all the excitement, love, friendships, and challenges I wanted to give back and continue to develop a community I am so fond of. I wanted to work with like minded people. It has been close to my heart to show women, how strong, fierce, independent and not alone they are in their pursuit of outdoors and finding themselves.

Today was my first time hosting an event with The Lady Alliance. We went on a short hike in Kananaskis. I personally was super nervous about leading my first hike with the group. I have lead hikes before but not with adults and not for a few years. Furthermore, I have never had to be involved in recruiting people to come with me on an adventure. Inviting people, some of whom I have never meet personally to come join me on this hike; was nerve racking for sure. What if no one showed up, or we did not get along, or the weather conditions were bad? There were many what if scenarios running through my mind as I was planning and marketing the hike on our local facebook page. The biggest one was what if no one showed up. I just kept telling myself that if it happen, I enjoy hiking alone, so it really wouldn’t be a wasted day. I find it hard to not let these insecurities take hold and limit myself from trying new things. When I find myself in a place of what if’s, their is a voice that keeps pipping up saying yes but what if everything goes right! That voice has always been more encouraging and stronger than the other. Listen to that voice!

The day of the hike finally came, last Saturday and I was luckily enough to have four other women join me. In my books having them show up it was already a successful event. It would have been really cool to have a larger group of women come, but these things take time to develop and I need to stay patient. I want to say how impressed I am with everyone that did come out on Saturday. I know it is not easy to come out when you do not know anyone and or you are not used to doing that particular activity. There is always reasons not to do something so I truly appreciate everyone who came. My goal is have people to feel safe, that these adventures are a safe place, place you can explore, and open up and just as importantly a place that you have loads of fun!! I think Saturday’s hike was a good first step into creating this environment for the Calgary Chapter.

The hike itself was about 10km up and down to the viewpoint. It is wide trail, well-trafficked with a steady incline. Snow covered the path. It was light and fluffy, on hard packed in few more trafficked areas. There was a thin layer of ice under the snow in some areas, making it quite slippery; micro-spikes would have been helpful as well. Just past the first hour of the hike we made it to the first viewpoint. We stop to have a snack and take a few pictures. We continue on a short distance up the steepest section of hike to the final viewpoint. This section is quite short maybe a kilometre but it is the most challenging mainly due to the slipper conditions. Nonetheless we made it up without too much trouble and we were able to take in the gorgeous views, and experience the joy of summiting. I love how when you get to the top of a peak your body automatically relaxes, all your troubles seem to slip away, thoughts slow down, you are simply in the moment. It’s just perfect. Once we taken in our fill we headed back down. It was a slower process going down than it was coming up. Things got much easier again when we got back to the first viewpoint. Overall the hike was about 3 hours.

The day was excellent, good weather, excellent views and even better people. It was exhilarating to meet these ladies coming out, to see an event I planned come to life. It was very positive experience for me, and I hope for everyone that came out as well. I have already started planning our next adventure for January. I hope to get more ladies out next time and to continue to grow our community through the outdoors and mental wellness.