Logo of Kootenay Wild Mentors featuring a white line drawing of a mountain on a black background with the text 'Kootenay Wild Mentors' below.

About Us

Kootenay Wild Mentors is a non-profit organization that facilitates one-on-one mentorship across the West Kootenays in the effort to reduce barriers to entry into backcountry activities for marginalized genders including women, women-identifying individuals, and non-binary and gender non-conforming people. Our programming currently consists of summer and winter cohorts that include hiking, climbing, ski touring and split-boarding.

We aim to provide a space for mentees and mentors to have opportunities for learning, skill development and to gain confidence in the backcountry.

Learn more
Two women smiling and hugging on a forest trail surrounded by tall trees and green moss.

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View fullsize As the sun starts to shine and the snow melts out in the valleys, we’re excited to share that summer mentorship applications are now open. Climbing, hiking and trail-running mentor and mentee applications are open to all marginalized genders
View fullsize Wonder what a day out as a mentorship pair might look like? In this case it involved building confidence in navigation work, snow science geeking, pow turns and a debate about the best kind of muffins.
View fullsize Kootenay Wild Mentors is looking to add a social media/communications board member to the team! We’re hoping to diversify the voices and lived experience within the board, which means our ideal candidate would identify within the BIPOC or 2SLG
View fullsize Skills Night ✨: Our winter cohort had the opportunity to build their navigation skills working with maps, compasses and Gaia. It was an awesome evening of community building and knowledge sharing. Made possible with assistance from @gaiagps and @mou
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View fullsize Our winter cohort kicked off last month with a skills event and social at the Hummingbird Lodge up at Whitewater. Mentors and mentees got a chance to meet, refresh companion rescue skills, learn about tree well rescues and what local guide, avalanche
View fullsize Kootenay Wild Mentors is looking to add a board member to the team! The new board member will be determined at our AGM happening online on Dec 15 at 7pm. If you are interested in attending the AGM please reach out and we can share the meeting link.
View fullsize Reminder that applications for our AST 1 & 2 scholarships close tomorrow night. You can find more info, and the application form through the link in our bio.
View fullsize We recognize that backcountry skiing and splitboarding come with significant barriers to entry and skill building. That’s why we are excited to announce that, with the generous support of @kootenaybackcountry_guides, we are able to offer: - On

Contact Us

Interested in our program? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly. We can’t wait to hear from you!