With Expedition Denali right around the corner, the suspense and anticipation is building every day. There’s no doubt the nine climbers who make up the team are focused and are preparing themselves mentally and physically. Although these spirited and courageous individuals are the nucleus for the entire expedition, have you stopped and asked yourself who makes up the instructor team? One man comes to mind right away. He is a senior NOLS instructor. He is an avid backcountry skier. His extensive winter camping experience has led him to teach the NOLS professional level one avalanche course and Winter Instructor Seminar. He is the NOLS Teton Valley program supervisor. This spring he will be the first African American to lead a NOLS instructor course. His name? Drumroll… Robby Rechord!

Robby grew up in Chicago and was introduced to the outdoors at a young age by his grandfather, who often took him fishing. Sometimes when his grandfather would fall asleep in the heat of the day, Robby would wander off and venture through the few acres of woods surrounding the pond, exploring every nook and cranny like he was the first to have discovered it. His thirst for adventure continued to grow into his college years when he attended Colorado College. There, he discovered his true passion: skiing the pristine, unmarked backcountry slopes of the West, which led him to settle in Jackson, Wyo. in 1994.

Expedition Denali marks a sort of culmination for Robby. He is intoxicated by thought of being the African American instructor on this team and delivering such a crucial and significant message to the world. He hopes the expedition will play a pivotal role in exposing the outdoors to more African Americans. His mindset is simple and straightforward: “Why not try this? Take a look at the cultural standing of black people in America. We are playing the race card on this one. We need to get more black people outside to create advocates for our beautiful and natural places.” A chord also struck Robby when two of his fellow climbers made comments that Expedition Denali, “Is a way of giving permission to black people to do something outside the norm,” and “Could help combat the obesity epidemic among black women.”

Now, with all this in mind, we must also recognize that going into the backcountry for a 30-day expedition isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. Robby knows we must meet people where they’re at. So instead of creating the misconception that Expedition Denali is going to generate an army of young black mountaineers, he suggests making alternative choices when planning a vacation. How about instead of going to Vegas or on a cruise, try visiting one of our national parks? If you live in the city, Chicago for example, get out and go for a walk along the lakeshore and listen to the birds and watch the sunrise (or sunset), and reap the numerous benefits of that simple act. Robby hopes that those who take a liking to the natural world also consider it as a career option, not only as an avenue of recreation and reflection. From a field biologist to a forest ranger, we need people of color in these positions to welcome more people of color as the years pass on.

It’s true for all of us that we need to unplug from our laptops and phones more often. With the ever-increasing technological advances, it is often an oversight that nature will become more and more important as well. We are a generation that is “logged in and tuned out.” Nature, whatever arrangement you seek it in, is raw and true. It has therapeutic benefits undiscovered by many. Our lands are sacred treasures that need to be kept close to our hearts. So, if you are someone who isn’t currently keen on the thought of wilderness, just ask yourself, “Why not try it”?

With only six weeks until I climb Denali, I have a growing anxiousness that inspires action. If I’m not moving, I’m wasting time, losing muscle.

These days I have no problem walking up and down the steps in my local park with a 70-pound pack, strength-training with weights and workout videos, or running long distances. When I think about how comfortable I now feel pushing my body in this way, I am reminded of how I used to resist embracing this kind of physical strength.

Before my mountaineering course in the Patagonia region of the Andes last January, I hired a physical trainer who I couldn’t afford because truthfully, I was scared. My body is built for running. It is what I am good at, and what I like to do.

So when I learned I would be carrying 70 pounds of weight on my back up mountains, I realized I would need to start pushing my body in a different way by training for strength. But I didn’t know what that really meant or where to start.

The gym is an intimidating place for any rookie, but entering the weight room as a woman is downright frightening. When I walked into a male-dominated weight room for the first time, the sideways glances were more than enough to make me feel like I was in marked territory.

Still I persevered. I guess I was scared enough. Strength training was foreign but it felt good.

I learned proper form. Instead of the heart-racing, lung-expanding feeling of a run, I learned to appreciate the burn of a goblet squat and the tight feeling in my chest after a push-up.

Soon I was no longer embarrassed about grunting if I was exerting all of my efforts or trembling after a long plank. But why did I feel that I didn’t have the permission to push my body this way before?

I remember a conversation I once had with my trainer and some of the other male trainers in the gym. One spoke of how he didn’t usually enjoy training women because they were often afraid of “bulking up.” He even told me some of his female clients quit because they didn’t want to sweat out their hair.

It couldn’t be more apparent that women (even I at one point) were prioritizing society’s ideals of beauty and femininity over their own health. This was shocking and upsetting to me but also highlighted a greater societal flaw. Why is it that women feel they have to sacrifice aspects of their beauty and femininity to be healthy or strong?

I am now realizing more and more that Expedition Denali isn’t just about developing role models of color. It is about developing female role models who equate strength to beauty.

I think about how pursuing outdoor opportunities has allowed me to change my perspective of my own body. I now feel beautiful after a hard workout. My body has become more of a system than an object. I find no shame in doing anything I need to do to keep my body strong and healthy.

With the current obesity epidemic and the nation’s health problems affecting black women most detrimentally, we need to encourage and empower women now more than ever to embrace health and strength.

GirlTrek is one example of an organization that holds this as their mission. And in ways, Expedition Denali has the same goal—it’s about creating a space, where anyone, regardless of their color, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or the multitude of other facets of diversity, can feel welcomed to push themselves, to embrace challenges and to develop strength.

You can do something to help rewrite the narrative of female beauty. By donating to the Expedition Denali Kickstarter campaign by May 10 to make a feature film about our expedition, you will not only be helping us tell our story to a broader audience, but you will be helping us show more young woman that strength is beauty.

Expedition Denali: Inspiring Diversity in the Outdoors will happen. How many people know about it—how far the team’s inspiration and awareness reaches—is another matter.

Through a Kickstarter campaign launched yesterday, Expedition Denali will raise funds to create a powerful, far-reaching documentary on the team’s journey to the top of North America’s loftiest, most iconic summit. From putting a camera team on the mountain with the expedition to producing, promoting, and distributing the resulting feature-length film, this project will increase awareness of the importance of exploring natural environments and make clear that it’s high time to invite all races, all ethnicities—all people—to inspirational outdoor playgrounds.

Learn more at Kickstarter.

Given the powerful, reverberating echo of media—how it can trigger conversation and spark awareness to the furthest corners of our planet—this Kickstarter project and the resulting documentary is for anyone who has tapped into the inspirational, transformative, healing power of our natural environment. More specifically, it will create aspirational role models for African American youth and shine light on our great outdoors and the future they deserve.

Brad Christensen photo

Funding through the Kickstarter campaign will run for one month, ending May 10. People interested in making tax-deductible contributions to the production of the film can do so here.

Pledging to the Kickstarter campaign is incentivized by prizes that directly relate to the expedition and the film. Prizes include 30-day, fully transferable Wind River NOLS courses; downloads of the film; climbing equipment used by the athletes on the mountain; summit flags and Skype sessions with the team.

Wynn was first introduced to NOLS through her involvement with GirlTrek, an organization dedicated to promoting health and fitness among young black women and a NOLS Gateway Partner. When asked to join Expedition Denali, Wynn didn’t hesitate to accept, as it seemed like a sensible next step in the role modeling process. Wynn knows the biggest challenges she will face are the mental and physical aspects, but will rely on the companionship and bond with her fellow climbers. She is confident in her ability to pull her weight and support her team in any way needed.

We all draw inspiration from somewhere. Wynn has always looked up to her mother as a role model. From a young age, she saw how strong, intelligent, and confident she was. The same goes for her sister. Wynn says when her sister puts her mind to something she follows through with it every time. Being surrounded with people like that inevitably increases mental strength in an individual. Wynn currently attends American University and is majoring in clinical psychology. Her dream would be to some day own her own body and mind wellness center.

Wynn has gained a lot of perspective from her two NOLS courses. Getting away from the city allows her to view her life through a different lens so she can clearly see where she stands in the world. Wynn believes being in the outdoors connects us to one another and that is what’s most important. No matter how “different” someone’s story might sound, we can all relate in some way and it is important to listen. Whether we are climbing mountains together or catching the subway for the morning commute, this is the only world we have to share (for now), and the more we communicate and live in peace and harmony the happier we will all be.

NOLS’ very own neighbor in Fremont County, Wyoming, Brunton’s support of Expedition Denali will go a long way to defray the costs of the Expedition Denali climb and following outreach efforts across the nation. Thank you, Brunton!

If you are interested in supporting Expedition Denali, learn more here or contact Expedition Denali.

“You need to be ready to go all day long and really hit it when the climbing gets hard,” he wrote in their latest training plan.

The team trains with Steve Bechtel in Lander in late February.

The next three months will combine cardiac output, high-intensity continuous training, strength resistance training, metabolic training, and interval training. If you’ve checked with your doctor and are prepared to train alongside the team, your week might look something like this:

Monday: strength training and interval training

Tuesday: cardio output

Wednesday: strength training or high-intensity metabolic training

Thursday: cardio output and high intensity continuous training

Friday: interval training and high-intensity metabolic training

Saturday: cardio output, high-intensity continuous training, and strength training

Sunday: rest

Cardiac output is easy exercise for an extended period, for example easy running, hiking, or cycling for 45 to 90 minutes. As the climb nears, the team will add more hiking with a backpack into this aspect of training. Closer to the expedition, the team will also added an extended day of cardiac output (five to six hours) once a week.

High-intensity continuous training entails slow-cadence, high-resistance training to prepare for slowly carrying heavy packs up the tallest mountain in North America. Exercises to satisfy this aspect of the training will include steep hiking with a pack or weight vest, cycling at a low cadence and high resistance, or walking lunges for 10 to 15 minutes.

The strength resistance training the climbers will be doing until June will keep their legs and backs in shape for hard moves and their arms ready for hard work. Bechtel gave them pairs of exercises to do back to back, followed by 60 to 90 seconds of rest before repeating two more times. He provided a variety of exercises to choose from during these training sessions:

A1: 8x Upper Body Pull (such as pull-ups, inverted row, dumbbell row, pull-downs)

A2: 8+8x Lower Body Single Leg (such as pistol squats, step-ups, lunges)

 B1: 8x Upper Body Press (such as bench press, push-ups, push press, dumbbell shoulder press)

B2: 8x Lower Body Hip Hinge (such as kettlebell swing, Romanian deadlift, deadlift)

 C1: 60­90s Carry (such as farmer walk, sled push, weighted stair laps, suitcase carries)

C2: 8x Lower Body Knee Dominant (such as front squats, goblet squats, back squats, step-ups)

Rosemary Saal sweats it out in a metabolic workout at Bechtel’s gym.

The “biggest bang for your buck,” according to Bechtel, is high-intensity metabolic training. With medium weights, these sessions will increase work capacity through circuits. This type of training can easily be gained in a class at your local gym.

Interval training helps athletes like the Expedition Denali team members get comfortable at a variety of intensities. Stationary bikes and steppers are the best for alpine training.

“Start with four rounds of one minute hard and two minutes easy pace,” Bechtel recommended. “As you get more fit, increase to six to seven rounds. Beyond this, you’ll want to increase the intensity of the interval rather than the duration of the workout.”

As the team makes the final push to Denali, join them in the gym, on the trails, and in classes to support the mission of Expedition Denali. Happy training!

Tyrhee Moore, for example, hails from Washington, D.C. The youngest member of his team, he was fortunate enough to attend a summer camp in Wyoming in middle school. Had he not had that exposure to the backcountry, he might never have discovered all the wilderness has to offer. Now a NOLS student, a former NOLS fellow, and the NOLS catalog “cover boy,” he is in a unique position to expose his peers to the excitement, accessibility, and “coolness” of outdoor adventure.

Ryan Mitchell has long been a driving force in bringing underrepresented youth into new fields, ranging from math and science (which he teaches at DeVry) to cycling. Expedition Denali is another step in a lifetime of making a difference for future generations.

Adina Scott didn’t realize not all families treasure the outdoors like hers did until she was an adult. Casually and through outreach organizations, she has introduced friends of all ages to the wonder of the Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors. She believes in the power of adventuring in the wilderness and sees Expedition Denali as a means of bringing many new friends into her playground through Expedition Denali.

This is just a taste of the rich insight and experiences the team members and instructors will bring to the climb and outreach efforts. The reliability of each and of the team as a whole will fuel the mission of Expedition Denali—to inspire diversity in the outdoors—as they and their cause climb to new heights.

There was Sophia Danenberg, the first African-American woman to ascend Everest, and Rue Mapp, whose organization Outdoor Afro is devoted to reconnecting African-Americans with natural spaces and each other through recreational activities. What about Pioneer Climbing Expedition, the first team of African-Americans whose mission is to conquer all seven summits?

Needless to say, my mind was blown, but then I was slightly taken aback. At a young age, my dad took me hiking and fishing along with my siblings, and as I matured I decided that I wanted to explore the outdoor industry and make a career out of it. However, I took notice of the lack of role models who looked like me.

I was wary when thinking of making a career of the outdoors. While I had amazing role models of other races in the field who were more than willing to help me find my way, I needed guidance of other sorts. I had questions! Who would give me advice on specific things, like what I would do with my hair on camping trips? And do I really have to wear this sunscreen that makes me look like a zombie when I wear it?

Okay, those questions are a bit trivial, but the need for cultural relevance is real. Drawing a connection between what I was doing and my identity was imperative to me. Because I rarely saw people of color in the outdoors, I yearned for those connections in order to feel a sense of belonging. My passion for Expedition Denali stems exactly from those internal struggles I dealt with.

With my newfound exposure to African-Americans in the field, I can’t help but get excited about the mission of Expedition Denali. It is a huge step toward closing what journalist and writer James Edward Mills has coined, “the adventure gap:” the racially significant divide between those who choose to recreate outdoors and those who do not. The importance of highlighting African-American role models in the outdoors is the very first step in diversifying the outdoors.

There is a Ugandan proverb that states, “That which gains the attention of a leader will be solved.”All it will take is Expedition Denali member Ryan Mitchell wielding an ice axe to balance himself while scaling the slopes of Denali for a young child of color to want to try that. Imagine how this image could inspire a child to start asking questions and to go outside to explore to see what he/she can do to make that possible.

As the demographics of the United States begin to make a dramatic shift, so will the demographics within the outdoors. It’s imperative that we begin to identify innovative ways to illuminate new diverse leaders in the outdoors in order to draw a more diverse demographic into the field and to make sure the outdoor industry remains (or becomes) relevant, to all.  I’m excited to see doors swing open through Expedition Denali.

At a young age, Shobe had a big imagination and was highly adventurous. He and his brother used to walk the tracks by their house pretending they were explorers in another world and camp in their backyard. One day in junior high, Shobe and his friends thought it would be a good idea to ditch school. They spent their day reading Revelations and conversing about the end of the world. On that day, Shobe decided he was going to do as much as he could in life before the end of the world. He also had a bucket list by seventh grade.

Expedition Denali aims to promote diversity in our great outdoors. Shobe’s strategy is just to keep doing what he loves to do and spreading the word. After climbing Kilimanjaro Shobe visited children of a local village and told the story of his voyage to the top. Given his knack for storytelling, his words grabbed hold of the children and they became mesmerized. Then they all asked if they could accompany him when he climbed his next mountain. That’s what really does it for Shobe. He truly values how raw and pure those types of experiences are.  “It only takes one,” he said. “If I can hook one kid and he hooks three or four of his friends it’s going to usher in a new color in the outdoors.”

Shobe believes people need to exercise themselves in many areas of life. Unfortunately, black people rarely see anyone in the outdoors they can relate to, so they just don’t participate in such activities. He knows everyone has a flame, however, some decide to put their thumb over it. Sometimes we all need someone to help expose that flame so it can burn brightly and we can experience what this world has to offer.

This blog post first appeared on the REI Blog.

If you had asked me to a climb a mountain when I was growing up, I would have totally been down for it even though I had no idea what a mountain even looked like.

I grew up in Washington D.C. where the closest thing to a mountain was the pile of clothes that built up in my room. I grew up loving basketball, baseball and soccer because those were the sports offered at the nearby recreational center. My mom kept me doing activities and different programs to keep me from falling into gang violence and drugs like some of my friends did growing up.

Once I was old enough, my mom put me in a public boarding school in D.C. where I was surrounded by positive role models. It was during the summer of my 7th-grade year that my school sent me to a camp in Wyoming. That was when I had my first real encounter with the outdoors.

When I first got to the City Kids camp in Wyoming I had very little outdoors experience and almost everything was new. Even little things like tubing in the Snake River were amazing. I had never been in moving water like that before. Riding horses was really exciting—before Wyoming I had only ridden ponies at fairs.

One of my favorite memories was when my group went on our first backpacking trip. It was supposed to be a 4-day 32-mile trip but we made a bet to our camp counselors that we could finish it in 3 days. When I think back on all of us setting a goal and planning to get up at dusk on our last day and hike 15 miles to carry out bags half our size, I’m still amazed at the thought. I guess we must really have wanted ice cream… haha. It was really cool to get back to the camp and feel like we sort of made our own history at camp by doing that route in 3 days. We had all worked so hard and put our everything into achieving such a tough goal for us.

In Wyoming I camped, hiked, rock climbed, went horseback riding and canoed. It was amazing. On the flight home after that summer I couldn’t help but wonder why I never knew places like that existed. With all the time I spent at the rec center trying to find activities to be a part of, not once had we gone on hiking or camping trips, nor had my parents suggested it.

I had the time of my life in Wyoming; I definitely knew I was going to go back again. I returned for the next 6 years and each year just got better. During my last 2 years at the summer camp I worked as a junior staff member and also help teaching kayaking at a school in a nearby town.

While working at the camp, I was offered a scholarship to do a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) wilderness course in Alaska. It was a great experience! I had never been camping for such a long period of time or been in such close quarters with complete strangers. By the end of the course I felt as though I could do anything.

The following year I was given another scholarship to do an NOLS Outdoor Educator mountaineering course in the Pacific Northwest. When I got there I wasn’t sure what exactly mountaineering was but I just went with the flow. I left that course with a lot of knowledge and had a new appreciation for the outdoors. One of the things I like most is that you have to find yourself out there, and you have to work for what you want—nothing is given to you.

While on that course, I talked with my instructors about working for NOLS and received a Fellowship to work at the NOLS Alaska base for the summer and an invitation to join Expedition Denali. It was amazing.

I’m not only climbing Denali for myself but I’m also climbing it for those kids who are growing up without exposure to the outdoors. I just want people to know that there are so many things the world can offer.