4 Ways to Make Your Outdoor Community More Beginner-Friendly

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Outdoor community, we need to talk. 

While some of us stood up our first wave or climbed our first 14er before obtaining a driver’s license, that is the exception not the rule.

The rest of us made the conscious decision to become adult learners. That can be a scary experience; especially if the community is overly focused on the wrong demographic—the top 1% of athletes—to the detriment of everyone else. This is a big problem in many outdoor spaces, as non-binary writer Anaheed Saatchi has pointed out.

Why should you care about beginners? Consider the Curb Cut Effect, a term created by African American attorney and civil rights advocate Angela Glover Blackwell. It describes the well-documented phenomenon that everybody benefits when society focuses on improving accessibility for disabled people.

Curb cuts didn’t just make life easier for wheelchair users when they were finally mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. They benefited people pushing strollers, grocery carts, and luggage; and they were used by everyone, according to Blackwell. And that’s not the only example. Think about how often you use closed captions to scroll through social media with the sound off, or to watch your favorite shows in your primary language—even if you aren’t Deaf/HoH. Improving accessibility for smaller disadvantaged groups is good for everyone!

Beginners in outdoor sports often have higher accessibility needs. So why don’t outdoor communities do more to accommodate them? Some do, but others are indifferent or downright hostile towards newcomers who haven’t “proven themselves.” Is your outdoor organization invested in building safer, more inclusive spaces for all people? If not, here are four ways to make your outdoor community more beginner-friendly.

You have to start somewhere, right?

Benches atop Molly’s Knob, Hungry Mother State Park (Photo credit: author)

4. Add more beginner-friendly infrastructure 

The outdoor community needs more beginner-friendly infrastructure.

“But what do you mean? Nature doesn’t have infrastructure. It’s wild and untamed and must be conquered…”

You done? 

The myth of the ‘pristine wilderness’ is just that, a myth. It’s also bad marketing copy that’s used to sell everything from compact SUVs to moisture-wicking pants. But we’re in the business of building safer outdoor communities and that starts with the built environment. The obvious truth is we can make outdoor recreation safer and more convenient for people. And we should.

Some sports do this better than others. Ski resorts have green-blue-black ratings for beginner, intermediate and expert slopes. They have groomed and ungroomed runs. Their infrastructure supports a range of experience levels by design—from brand new snowboarders on bunny slopes to experts on double black runs.

Not into snow sports? Well what about hiking? Very few of us are out there hacking through brush. Instead, we rely upon people-made trails to get around—many of which were not designed with beginners in mind. Do we really need more high-grade trails with significant elevation gain and massive exposure? Or would the hiking community benefit from more accessible, low-grade trails with benches and water sources; trails that take advantage of existing fire roads; and trails that route through local parks and neighborhoods?

What about your local mountain biking scene? What is the ratio of steep, rocky singletrack to smooth, feature-less doubletrack? Which is a better fit for a first-time mountain biker?

And your local crags? Sport climbing routes don’t set themselves, after all. How many easy-to-moderate routes are there that would be suitable for top roping newcomers. 

State parks usually get this right because their biggest clients are families. They typically have a mix of amenities from cabins to car camping to RV hookups. Their facilities often include showers, bathrooms and trash cans. No one has to rough it unless they want to. There are usually multi-use trails ranging from easy to difficult that you might be sharing with riders on horseback or mountain bikers or both. There might be a multi-use lake with swimming, boating, fishing and a seasonal lifeguard.

The focus is on accessibility—not how hard it is to traverse the boat ramp, find the trailhead or shit in the woods. They don’t care about stoke, shredding or elite athletes. They care about whether families with children can access their facilities. Learn from them. The outdoors can be so much more inviting when the focus is on accommodating beginners and people with higher accessibility needs.

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3. Add more beginner-friendly social and competitive events 

Here’s an open secret: People who love the outdoors don't spend every moment outside at or above anaerobic threshold. We don’t spend every moment navigating switchbacks either—and, if we do, we’re usually talking. Outdoorsy people socialize a lot!—whether it’s at the crag, campsite, doubletrack, drop zone, deer stand, group chat or put in. 

We eat food, rest, tinker with gear, talk about gear, talk about other people’s gear, and socialize. We chat over beer, over warm-ups and cool downs and long road-trips. Those situations can be intimidating if you don’t know anyone or if you’re new to a community.  

Learning something new as an adult can be nerve wracking and, even though the Internet is full of warnings against hiking, climbing, kayaking or BASE jumping alone, it can seem like everyone already has their friend group locked down—or a ‘No New Friends’ rule in place. It’s also hard to make connections in outdoor communities where elitism and a general disdain for newcomers go unchecked. We see you snowsports and raise you, 90% of the online hiking community.

That’s why beginners need social support. They need official and unofficial mentorship programs. They also need beginner-friendly meetups that are free, reduced in cost, or the cost of food. They need Saturday night meetups, First Friday coffees, Thursday night climbing sessions, Wednesday maintenance nights and more. 

Lastly, beginners need a chance to compete. The chance to test skills early on boosts confidence and helps build social connections. Many outdoor sports have competitions that are solely for the elite athletes who qualify to compete. Others—like gravel racing, ultramarathons, skydiving, hiking—have competitions or challenges that are open to amateur athletes. You don’t have to qualify. You just have to show up and do your best. That’s empowering.

“The way forward requires a redesign of infrastructure, events, organizations and practices that center white men, in order to make space for others. ”

2. Hire professional instructors—not predatory ones

It’s hard enough learning something new as an adult. It’s even harder when you’re worried about being hit on by predatory instructors, coaches and guides. This is more common than you might think because too many people in positions of authority or seniority think it’s okay to view their students as a dating pool. It’s not.

Absorbing the technical skills you might need to save your life is difficult when your instructor is making unsolicited comments about your body, asking for your number or standing closer than strictly necessary. It’s not just unprofessional behavior, it can seriously compromise the safety of the student. It can also compromise the safety of the other students or group members. 

Not every outdoor activity requires instruction or guides but plenty do. That means, if you’re a hiking group leader, you shouldn’t be hitting on group members. If you’re a climbing coach or guide, you should be coaching and guiding—not exchanging socials or numbers with select clients or students. If you are a BASE jumping mentor, focus on providing unbiased feedback and advice for your mentee. Don’t sleep with them. 

Some outdoor communities have a bigger issue than others when it comes to addressing inappropriate behavior from instructors. SafeSport isn’t perfect but if your outdoor community has no oversight, accountability or reporting procedures for sexual harassment, then it isn’t safe for beginners. If your outdoor community doesn’t even have a bare-minimum values statement condemning sexual harassment and sexual assault, it’s not safe for beginners. If your outdoor organization doesn't empower participants to identify harassment, speak up, and avoid the bystander effect, it’s not a safe space for beginners. 

This is especially true for high risk outdoor sports where sexual harassment isn’t just limited to instructors. It can also come from “older and more experienced athletes who will try to throw their weight around or make sexual demands of newer people.” 

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1. Decenter white men in your organization

Many outdoor adventure sports have been predominantly white and male for a long time. That was by design. So any changes must also be structural. The way forward requires an overhaul of infrastructure, events, organizations and practices that center white men, in order to make space for others. 

Centering white men is not a beginner-friendly approach, especially when People of Color are underrepresented in outdoor spaces and increasingly showing up as newcomers. A recent National Park Service 10-year survey found that only 23% of visitors identified as People of Color. In 2023, the Outdoor Industry Association released data indicating that “…new and young outdoor participants are significantly more diverse than the current outdoor base.”

It could look like the following:

Examining ‘set in stone’ practices that lack cultural competency

Acknowledging that following the outdoor community’s “unwritten rules’ doesn’t make you a morally superior person. It just means you grew up with caregivers who had access to them. Also, these rules are not universal

Reviewing communication practices for 508 compliance. It’s the standard for the U.S. federal government and it ensures your digital communication doesn’t violate ADA

Designing gear for bodies that don’t fit the standard white male, 5’9”, 180 lbs

Considering intersectionality when hiring DE&I leads

Recruiting people with intersectional marginalized identities to work at all levels of your organization and compensating them fairly

Including salary ranges in job descriptions

Educating staff, guides, coaches, and participants about microaggressions

Recognizing the hypocrisy in offering affinity spaces and scholarships for veterans or women but not for People of Color, disabled people, 2SLGBTQ+ people, etc.

Being mindful that people who experience oppression can also perpetuate it; often by using very similar language and methods as their oppressors. 

Standardizing processes for reporting and addressing racism, ableism, misogyny, queerphobia and transphobia 

Addressing tone policing through education, over and over until it sticks. Recognizing that minorities/marginalized people already tone police themselves before bringing up concerns due to fears of not being believed, and of being perceived as aggressive.

Recognizing that intersectional forms of oppression contribute to the perception of dark-skinned people as “troublemakers” or “aggressive” while white people get the benefit of the doubt

Creating official social events to circumvent the ways that certain marginalized people are held at an arm’s length and excluded from unstructured socializing. Using icebreakers to integrate new people into existing groups

Using name-tags and stressing the importance of learning people’s names–including names that are typically viewed as “too ethnic”. Leading by example here is important

Reviewing the practice of holding most or all social events at bars

Hiring People of Color instead of defaulting to white friends, friends of friends, and people you went to school with

Hiring People of Color across the organization instead of limiting them to entry level and mid-level positions 

Addressing implicit bias which fast-tracks white men for promotion and career-advancing opportunities while People of Color–especially Women of Color are overlooked