What we do

Mountain Mentors facilitates one-on-one mentorship. Each season, we pair mentees and mentors and provide the programming necessary to empower pairs to define their intentions and objectives and to experience growth. In addition to one-on-one mentorships, at the heart of what we do is community. Our program offerings seek to energize, deepen, strengthen, and grow community both in our cohort and broader outdoors community.

Who we serve

Mountain Mentors offers programming to people who are committed to growth and skill development, in the backcountry and beyond. Our programming is offered to marginalized genders including women, women-identifying individuals, and non-binary and gender non-conforming people who are comfortable in a space that centers the experiences of women in the outdoors. We recognize and acknowledge the intersection of race and gender identities and it is our hope that we can provide programming that is inclusive and accessible.

Mountain Mentors serves communities in Greater Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton. We acknowledge that we operate on the ancestral and unceded lands of kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Semiahmoo, Tsawwassen, xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), St̓át̓imc Tmicw (St’at’imc), and Líl̓wat (Lil'wat) Peoples. For an understanding of the geographic areas of these lands, please visit native-land.ca. This acknowledgement is not an endpoint but rather a starting place for our reflection of the history of this land and of the places we learn, recreate, and are in relationship on.

Learn more about mentee and mentor requirements here.

To learn more about the commitments and behaviours that guide our work, read on!

Our program commitments

Core Behaviours

Equity

We fill representation gaps by promoting equal opportunity and equal voice in our programming, the relationships we facilitate, our community events, and in our organization. We are committed to supporting everybody with what they need.

Development

We elevate confidence, encourage learning, enhance backcountry skills, and grow leadership capabilities.

Partnership

We promote cooperative, supportive, and deeply-rooted partnerships. We have each others' backs and are champions on each others' behalf.

Community

We are united by our love for being in the outdoors. We create and nurture uplifting, empowering, and local relationships to generate a network of support and strength.

Accountability

We recognize ourselves as our own agents of change and pursue our goals with integrity.

Safety

We recognize the inherent risk of outdoor pursuits and have a steadfast commitment to returning safely. Our commitments and behaviours are central to this outcome.

Our Roots

It all started (perhaps ironically) in Dude Chilling Park on a sunny spring evening, when two friends, Brett and Thea, were having an impassioned conversation about how to create more women leaders in outdoor sport. Instead of complaining about it over beers, they decided to turn their conversation into reality. They set out to fulfill their vision of applying a formal mentorship model to the backcountry after recognizing that they themselves had benefited from being ‘taken under the wings’ of many women before them in the mountains. Hence, Mountain Mentors was born. After receiving nearly 200 applications within the first week of launching the program in the fall of 2016, they realized that the desire for long-term skill development, mentorship, and community was shared by many. 

For five years as Co-Founders and friends, Brett and Thea created space for women to lead. In 2020, they recognized that one of the most important leadership lessons is knowing when to step back. They continue to remain proud and in awe of the community around them, and enjoy watching the next generation of incredible leaders take the organization to new heights. Both Brett and Thea still spend ample time in the backcountry, whether on skis, bikes, roped up, or by foot, and plan to continue mentoring, sharing, growing, and ‘summiting together’ for the rest of their days.