Wilder Women Project

We are Carey Favaloro and Sammy Podhurst, two adventure-seeking women in Aspen, Colorado. We met while bootpacking the Highland Bowl in 2015, and instantly connected over our shared enjoyment of slogging uphill all day in the snow. Since 2015, we have shared many outdoor pursuits, from crack-climbing in Indian Creek, to skiing steep couloirs off Taylor Peak, to competing in endurance Skimo races, such as the Power of Four and Breckenridge 5 Peaks.

This year, we return to the Skimo race circuit with a specific goal in mind. We will be racing the Grand Traverse as a charity team, and hope to raise $5000 for the Wilder Women Project, an Aspen-based non-profit that seeks to inspire and connect women through adventure, spirituality, and outdoor recreation. Founded by Aspen native Ashley Dwight, the Wilder Women Project operates multi-night wilderness retreats in Colorado and Utah. With the offer of scholarships and excellent guides/facilitators, WWP trips draw women of all ages, backgrounds, and outdoor comfort levels, and engages them in transformative workshops, discussions, and adventures. Though the retreats themselves are invaluable, each WWP trip has significant monetary expenses-- from outreach, to booking huts, to buying food. By fundraising, we can help offset some of these costs, and provide more scholarship opportunities in the future.

Both of us-- Sammy and Carey-- have dedicated ourselves to the mission of empowering women in the outdoors. From a young age, we each had female mentors who helped us forge connections to world of outdoor recreation. Now, we each operate as female professionals in industries that have traditionally been, and largely continue to be, male dominated-- Sammy as a guide with Aspen Expeditions, and Carey as an Aspen Mountain Ski Patroller. We love our work and our co-workers, both men and women alike! We are also particularly attuned to that special magic that comes of all-female environments, and want to empower more girls and women to feel at home in the outdoors. Our own passions align perfectly with the mission of WWP, and we are dedicated toward raising money for this valuable organization.

The Elk Mountain Grand Traverse offers an opportunity to put our passions into action, as we take on one of the most grueling ski mountaineering races in the world as a female team. The 40-mile skimo race begins at midnight on March 29th in Crested Butte. Racers-- who compete in teams for safety reasons-- trek up and over the mountains, finishing at the base of Aspen Mountain 7 to 17 hours later, depending on fitness. Physical and mental challenges abound during this endurance odyssey. We couldn’t be more excited.

Please help us in our quest to support and empower women in the outdoors! We welcome donations of any size. Your contributions will help motivate us during our own epic journey across the Elk Mountains, and 100% of the proceeds will go toward creating more meaningful retreats for women through the Wilder Women Project. 

To learn more about the Wilder Women Project, visit their website  or facebook page. To learn more about the Grand Traverse, click here.  And follow us on instagram to track our race-training adventures: @goldenbean39 and @sunny_sam.