A Lake District adventure group is breaking down the barriers holding women back from getting outdoors.
Wonderful Wild Women is a grassroots community that aims to get women of all ability levels outside to try adventurous outdoor activities from hiking to surfing and beyond.
The community was set up by Sarah Garrish, a 37-year-old architect who felt disconnected from the outdoors after moving back to South Cumbria and struggling with her work life balance when she became a new mum whilst working and studying.
She said: “I just noticed the impact finding that balance had on my mental health and I was really wanting to try and get outdoors and be a bit more active while also trying to meet other people wanting to do those things.”
Sarah initially set up the community’s Instagram account as a way to inspire herself, but it now has over 40,000 followers from across the world.
She added: “The following grew quite quickly and from that I thought we had a really good opportunity to network in real life and have a community that celebrates and shines a light on women in Cumbria who were feeling the same as I had in terms of wanting to do things and maybe not having the skills or confidence to get out there.”
Sarah went on to set up meet ups in the Lake District through a more localised Facebook group. In its early stages, Sarah would organise walks and runs before other activities were slowly introduced.
Most of the meet ups are entirely free with only a few of the specialist activities such as climbing having a small entry fee and women typically come alone to meet ups to start off with.
She said: “We try to remove the financial barrier as well as trying to help people’s confidence. One of the lowest impact events we have is a monthly coffee morning by the water’s edge at Windermere and it’s just a really nice informal way to come and get to know people in a way that doesn’t involve being suddenly active.”
Alongside the free meet ups, sports equipment company Salomon gifted the group a large stock of kit to help those struggling to afford items such as walking boots so they still have the chance to get outdoors.
Sarah added: “We’ve also been working with Speedo who’ve provided us with outdoor swimming kit to help us show that it’s not just a certain type of person or body in the outdoors and that there’s a whole mix of people who all look and act different, just to provide a bit of a more authentic image of what that looks like.”
Since first setting up the group, Sarah said it has grown to be a huge part of her life – but that the hardest part of getting outdoors was taking that first step.
She said: “We’ve all been there, we’ve all been a beginner and if you can find that confidence to just take that first step, then that’s the hardest part done. It can be so intimidating just getting out there for the first time.
“But the community has really positively impacted on my life, it has given me more confidence to get out and understand where we live more and be with people from all walks of life.”
The Wonderful Wild Women community can be found on Instagram and Facebook and events can be signed up to on their website or via their mailing list.
