Empowering Women in Outdoor Adventure

Empowering women in outdoor adventure

Nepal’s mountain landscape provides countless opportunities to empower women in outdoor adventures, but progress still remains. We must advocate for more women in the outdoors.

As an outdoor professional in both Nepal and the USA, I frequently seek outdoor experiences to work with female leaders in the Himalayas, but I rarely get the opportunity to learn from them and their experience. In the USA, women work more often in positions of leadership in the outdoors. This inspires me to advocate for progress in Nepal and to evolve our existing systems.

Here’s what we know: There are many women who want to take training in the outdoors, including basic skills of outdoor living and self-efficacy in the mountains. Unfortunately, there is a lack of targeted training for Nepalese women in our tourism industry, especially in outdoor adventure.

In my opinion, many organizations (both for-profit and non-profit) have created such training for decades, but haven’t provided enough foundation and understanding of outdoor tourism. One or two pieces of training are hard enough to keep women in the outdoor adventure industry.

Navigate Outdoor’s goal is to provide a solid outdoor foundation and understanding for women in the tourism industry. We want to enable women to thrive in long-term careers in the field, and to lead our outdoor tourism industry, as is the case in western countries.

Adventure tourism is an outstanding income source, and the skills gained from time outside can be applied anywhere. Women who receive professional training in the outdoors can represent Nepal well in the global economy, serve as a role model for other women in Nepal, and create freedom in one’s own personal life.

Our aim to organize outdoor leadership skills training that includes at least 50% of women. This will provide practice and mentorship in the field, and bring more female leaders into the industry. By including women, we help grow tourism in Nepal: not only do we expand our client base to guests who may want female guides for their time in Nepal, but it also expands the community and opportunities for mentorship of future guides. In our training, we will be a focus on outdoor living and technical skills and bring participants into a level of confidence to lead trips in the Himalayas.

Navigate Outdoor is confident we can collect funds for the training from our internal sources (i.e. commercial trips), as well as other non-profit organizations in Nepal and worldwide.

Our aim is that the groups we training will be at least 50% female, and provide job opportunities to 100% of participants who pass the training. This helps them start their own careers within the same season.

Our training summary

Training hour: 112 hours

Minimum participants: 6 people

Training period: 14 days (both in the classroom setting and in the field)

Skills learned:

  • Leadership and communication
  • Building professional relationships with clients and staff
  • Risk Management
  • Navigation (Map/Compass and Routefinding)
  • Analyzing weather
  • Basic Rock Climbing
  • Basic first aid
  • Outdoor leader responsibility and liability.

Itinerary

Day 01: Meet at 9 AM at the Navigate Outdoor Office.

  • Introduce participants brief training session
  • Gear talk and organization of personal and group gear.
  • Lunch break
  • Sharing expectations and interests: (why we’re here, what we’re doing, what we hope to get from this training)
  • Leadership and Communication

Day 02:

  • Risk Management:
    • Hygiene: especially food on the trekking and restaurants in general)
    • Cultural differences and awareness
    • Natural calamities/disaster
    • Other risk factors in the field),
  • First Aid

Day 03:

  • First aid continued
  • Basic Navigation

Day 04:

  • Navigation Continued
  • First Aid Continued

Day 05:

  • Finish First Aid, Other Classes

Day 06:

  • First Aid Exam
  • Practical Test: CPR

Day 07:

– Rest Day

Days 08-10:

  • Trekking experiences in Kathmandu Valley (Chisapani, Nagarkot, Dhulikhel and back to Kathmandu)

Days 11-14:

  • Rock Climbing Training (At Hattiban or Bimal Nagar depending on our budget and days)
  • Daily Climbing: 6 Hrs
    • Basic climbing skills
    • Belay, rope safety, and communication
    • Top roping and sports climbing/lead climbing
  • Evenings:
    • Guest services
    • Hygiene
    • Leave No trace/ Environmental issues
    • Knot Tying
    • Leadership and risk management in the field.

Day 15: Meet at the Navigation Outdoor Office

  • Write feedback for each other and instructor/organization
  • Talk about opportunities/share our personal experiences

Note: For further information please contact us and sign up for your course a minimum of one month in advance.