Planning your first weekend hike or a backpacking trip? Want to know what it's like to experience free fall from 13,000ft? Interested in swapping beta on some of the best bouldering locations across the US? Check out our Trip Reports for recent articles from our Featured Bloggers. Whether you’re venturing outdoors alone or with your family or friends, you’ll find something that matches your interests! We also tackle complex topics like racism, colorism, transphobia and queerphobia in outdoor recreation.
Do you ever read about racism in the outdoors and think, ‘well, that can’t be right, nature doesn’t see color’? Or maybe you’ve listened to someone recount their experience of discrimination, while waiting impatiently for a chance to interject and explain how they were wrong, and that didn’t actually happen. If that describes you then you should probably read no further. For everyone else, check out our official Guide to Outdoor Allyship.
Read MoreSo how do you know if your outdoor friends are good allies? And what do you do if they’re not? Here are seven reasons why they may be taxing the hell out of your emotional health.
Read MoreConservation starts with falling in love with America’s public lands. And there are far less racist techniques to manage public land than trying to play keep-away from urban hikers on social media. So here are five reasons why you should keep geotagging.
Read MoreOnce when I was alone, crossing the road, on the way to a Carolina football game, a drunk, white, frat-boy hanging half-way out of his friend’s Chevy pickup truck yelled at me, “Hey! Love me long time!”
Read More…recently, it seems more and more that Leave No Trace (LNT) is being misused to police black and brown bodies in the outdoors
Read MoreThe ensuing news coverage declared her the breakthrough performance of the world tour. There’s a photo of Dominique: quads tensed, long brown curls flying loose behind her. Goddess like. She ended 2018 as the 5th ranked woman in the world.
Read MoreSomeone very boldly asked me “What is your story? What got you outdoors?” Having been asked that question before, I automatically launched into the short synopsis of my brief outdoor career… I continued on with this neatly packaged story of how I fell in love with the Outdoors in my mid twenties. For so long I absolutely believed this narrative to be true, but looking back I now realize that...I lied.
Read MoreI cannot remember an exact moment in my life where I was taught to be afraid of white men and to keep my distance from them while playing outside or walking home from the school bus stop […] I didn't know the exact root of the fear, but it felt familiar, finely honed, and legitimate.
Read MoreHave you ever found it difficult to talk to outdoor “friends” about certain issues? It's not a matter of distrust; the outdoor community is all about trusting total strangers with your life—even as you climb 80 feet off the ground. Yet, I can’t trust outdoor friends enough to be honest about my feelings on certain issues, such as sexual harassment, racial discrimination and inequality.
Read MoreI write because I know I'm not the only one feeling the way that I do. I write because “I’m not Black enough.” I write because I love the outdoors. I write because our voices deserve to be heard.
‘No where are you really from’ is a familiar question for Women of Color who are constantly asked to either prove our American-ness or explain our Other-ness when we really just want to sit-fly.
Read MoreI can not even tell you how many times I have heard the statement, “stereotypes are based on some sort of truth.” As much as I’d hate to say it, I somewhat agree with this statement
Read More“We are not asking for it and women shouldn’t be expected to smile and silently put up with this harassment so we can be part of the skydiving community.”
Read MoreBlack people don't camp, hike, cliff jump, they don't skydive, kayak, nor do they climb!
Read MoreTeam Blackstar gave me the freedom to stop pretending I don't notice when I'm the only person of color at my drop-zone. Yes we see color. And we realize the lack of diversity isn't a neutral thing.
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