The story behind
Women in the Wild
Origin point
What started out as a Facebook group with 63 members in/around Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada) has grown into a thriving community of over 100,000 all around the world. The majority of our members are in North America, but we're slowly making ourselves known across the waters, too!
Why we’re here
Honestly? Trish was tired of hiking with the guys and wanted to find some female friends to hike with, so she decided to take initiative to create a community of bad a$$ ladies. She invited any and all women to join her adventures, and eventually, the community grew into what it is today!
Where you fit in
No matter your age or experience, you belong here.
Let me say that again.
You belong here.
Since this platform allows members to create Meetups, we have the ability to run meetups at all levels, for all women, all over the world.
Hi :) I’m trish
I'm a 32-year-old woman living in British Columbia, Canada. I created Women in the Wild back in February of 2022 with a free Facebook group and a hope to find other women like me.
It's hard to believe now, but just a couple years ago I didn't have any female friends who were willing to go hiking with me. My girl friends felt overwhelmed and underprepared so I was always going alone or with guy friends, and I started really craving connection with other women.
Eventually, I decided to create the community I craved: one where I could facilitate growth in a comfortable group setting and we could all help build on each other's knowledge and skills.
The early days of Women in the Wild started out by making meetups (events) out of all my plans to go hiking in hopes that someone, anyone, would join me. For the first 5 months it was just me, and sometimes my roommate at the time joined me. After about 6 months of creating and hosting free meetups that no one showed up to, 5 women joined me on a hike to Cheakamus Lake, and the ball started rolling from there.
When my Instagram account exploded at the beginning of 2024, I started getting women from all around the world signing up and it made me realize something: my problem of not having female friends to go on adventures with is more common than I thought, and my desire to find those women and make friends is not unique.
To facilitate the growth of this community and have it not be dependent on me and where in the world I am, I created a way for the community to go international. Now, any member has the ability to create member meetups. Essentially, you choose the when and where, post it within the community, and other members can join.
It's as simple as that!
This is me
I've been an athlete my whole life, starting out as a gymnast from age 5 to 14 and a competitive cheerleader ages 10-16. I took a year of dance here, a year of softball there, but gymnastics and cheer were the only two that really stuck. After I left gym and cheer, I developed passions for working out in the gym, snowboarding, martial arts, and eventually hiking (shocker, I know). But I actually didn’t get into hiking until my mid 20’s!
My first job was coaching gymnastics, which I did for 5 years before fully parting ways from the gymnastics world. I worked random jobs here and there like pizza delivery driver, medical office assistant, and care aid. Now I work full time in the forestry industry. I was a tree climber and faller-in-training for the first 6 years, and now I’m the certified arborist and danger tree assessor for the company, as well as the administrator for our Health and Safety department.
Naturally, hiking lead to backpacking and climbing trees led to climbing rocks. Between high-risk sports and a high-risk job, safety has been an underlying fundamental throughout my life. Although some might see me as reckless, the risks I take are calculated and based on my own body, experience, knowledge of the subject, and a willingness to say "not today."
I came to the realization that not everyone has the risk tolerance or athletic history that I do, which is one of the reasons I started teaching hiking and backpacking skills in my online course, Trail Ready, and hiring certified guides to teach in-person courses so our members can learn and hone their backcountry skills in a safe, hands-on setting.
Women in the wild today
We’ve come a long way since that original Facebook group. I never intended for the community to turn into what it has, but I suppose life has a way of directing people to their purposes in life. The community has come along for the ride through 3 transitionary phases as we continued to outgrow the platforms I created for the community, and now we’re in phase 4.
Phase 4 consists of our own web app where the community lives with member meetups all over the world, 5+ international trips every year, an annual Reunion of International Wild Women, multiple online courses, and a few in-person courses every year with professional guides.
As we continue to grow, what I offer the community grows, too. This is no longer about me, it’s about connecting Wild Women all over the world and facilitating a safe space for us all to not only enjoy life, but to get the absolute most out of it, together.
The friendships that have developed through this community have proven to be some of the strongest, most supportive and uplifting bonds I’ve ever experienced, and I want that for you, too.
The point is, we're growing.
Come grow with us :)
Follow along
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Follow along ⦁
