Mission

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Brown Girls Climb (BGC) is a national non-profit which strives to facilitate mentorship, provide access, uplift leadership, and celebrate representation in the outdoors and climbing for People of the Global Majority*.

Our process is adaptive and emergent with a focus on building equitable and just relationships in all the efforts we commit to, including meet-ups and mentorship, resource sharing and redistribution, and employment and industry practices

Historically, we have focused on Women of Color in climbing, but recognize that our work goes beyond women such that our hope is to have a wider impact for all climbers, specifically those impacted by patriarchal systems.

Vision

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Brown Girls Climb envisions an “outdoor” and climbing community that honors our individual relationships to the land, complex histories and truths, centers the experiences and voices of those most impacted by colonization and industrialization of the land, and provides a just redistribution of resources so that everyone can find their relationship to the land around them. 

Values

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Land-Community Connection

In our efforts to improve access to climbing and land, we strive to honor the current and previous ethnic communities which have contributed to the land that we appreciate today. We acknowledge the complexity of our own positions in this history, recognizing that our ancestral histories are rooted in the earth we enjoy and that we occupy stolen land from Indigenous communities and areas in which Communities of Color may have been displaced. We recognize that outdoor recreation and every extension of the outdoor industry is a colonial concept that can be both limiting and harmful to the communities we are connected to. We move forward with this appreciation and acknowledgement in all the work we do with the goal of reducing harm and restoring land and resources to impacted communities.

Celebratory & Respectful Community

As People of the Global Majority (PGM), we recognize the beauty of our diversity and attempt to celebrate our individual identities with respect to our similarities and differences. We acknowledge that the language we use today are still imperfect efforts to reclaim our autonomy in a society and culture that has used language to separate and erase us. We also recognize that our attempts to change or adapt to new language can still isolate some and provide barriers for others unfamiliar with these conversations who enter this space. We honor the original intent of our name Brown Girls Climb (BGC) as a way to amplify representation and visibility of Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color in climbing but acknowledge that this name or phrase fails to capture the various levels of oppression that climbers in the BGC community face. We recognize the deep rooted pain caused by colorism and colonialism amongst and between our cultures and the unique challenges faced by all genders who have been impacted by misogynistic and patriarchal violence. Through our efforts to celebrate and respect each other, we strive to humbly engage with one another, owning any unintentional harm along the way. We believe that our community strives through collaboration and empathetic dialogue that celebrates and honors these differences and this collaboration has driven much of the growth we see today. This effort is supported through empathetic dialogue, deep listening skills, and an awareness of our own status of power as individuals and organizations.

Responsible & Reciprocal Recreation

Land connection and outdoor recreation is at the foundation of this community. Our goal within Brown Girls Climb is to ensure that as we move into any outdoor recreation that we do so responsibly, with participant well-being and land past, present and future ancestral connections as primary values within any programs, opportunities, meet-ups, or content. Acknowledging that leading others and ourselves outdoors requires careful research, planning, and consideration to how we, as climbers, are impacting one another, the land, surrounding Indigenous communities, and other local groups and ethics.

Holistic Education & Awareness

Climbing for each of us, provides a special and intangible value to who we are and how we enter a space. We acknowledge that climbing culture as it was introduced to us, is not what we see it as today. We value our own interpretation and representation of what climbing is for each of us. We continue to educate ourselves about the rich and dynamic histories of climbing, the multitude of methods by which humans have interacted and appreciated the mountains over time, and the ways by which our cultures have practiced environmentalism in their own communities and language. We aim to continue this education so that we and others can appreciate this knowledge so that our identities as climbers can be uniquely rooted in our identities as people striving to learn, adapt, and treat others with the respect and dignity that we would like in the outdoors.

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