Grand Prize Womxn’s Backcountry Scholarship Recipient

We’ve selected Vania Wang (they/them/their) as the grand prize 20/21 Womxn’s Backcountry Scholarship Recipient because of their non-profit work in Malawi and commitment to scientific research across East Africa. Vania’s transparency in their personal journey was powerful, from snow sports feeling inaccessible in their youth, to climbing being a reprieve from depression. We want to thank Vania for sharing their intimate story with us. We have a lot of respect for Vania and are excited to help Vania achieve their goals! 

Vania’s Essay

Snow sports have always held a special allure to me. I’m a competent rock climber, but I’ve dreamed of expanding my skills towards ascending snow and ice. Growing up in an immigrant household, snow sports were viewed as inaccessible and expensive. Though the interest was there, I wasn’t able to experience snow sports because of its high cost. Given the Brooke Jackson Scholarship presented by Voile, I finally see an opportunity to learn backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. Additionally, I see this scholarship as an opportunity to further expand snow sport access among historically marginalized populations. I’m currently a fourth-year PhD candidate studying human movement behavior and HIV service provision across East Africa. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was living in Malawi implementing my dissertation research. When the virus became an emergent threat, my partner and I evacuated within a 24 hour notice. Since returning to the United States, we were faced with a number of challenges including confronting a terminal illness of a close family member, being unhoused, and having no stable income. What held me together was climbing. I’m an avid trad climber and boulderer; and I deeply enjoy training for my climbing pursuits. Even while unhoused, I was able to train by using a portable hangboard and performing weighted pull-ups. Climbing kept me from my deepest depressions. Now, my partner and I have relocated to Oregon. We are in a stable living situation, and I’m again able to dream towards peak bagging and alpine ascents. Although I’ve traversed the Enchantment Lakes region in Washington State during September, I have coveted an ascent of Mt. Prusik during the winter. I imagine skinning up Aasgard Pass during the pre-dawn morning, climbing four pitches of pristine granite, and finishing the day carving down Aasgard Pass. That would be an incredible day. To expand access to snow sports, I’d mirror my experience volunteering with Climb Malawi, a non-profit aimed at building a local and inclusive climbing community in Malawi. Where many expat climbing communities can be racially exclusive, Climb Malawi’s goal was to encourage psyched Malawians to be route developers, climbing trip leaders, and climbing instructors. I had taken the AMGA SPI course, and was practicing to become a Single Pitch Instructor, so I helped train Malawians to be competent belayers and climbers at single pitch crags. Together with Malawians, we also developed a new bouldering area near the capital city of Lilongwe. Just prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were in the process of involving the villages surrounding the bouldering crag to provide a guiding, housing, and tourism infrastructure for the area. Although I helped contribute my knowledge and time towards Climb Malawi, I only make up a tiny subset of the aggregated effort that helped develop and sustain rock climbing in Malawi. The continued success of Climb Malawi–even through the COVID-19 pandemic–is largely driven by the hard work and consistent dedication of a small cadre of Malawians and expats. Together, they solicited pro deals from gear manufacturers, collected donations from expats, and volunteered evenings to staff the climbing center. As a future snow sport athlete, I aim to help expand winter sport access in a similar way as Climb Malawi: to pursue a collaborative and community-based approach towards inclusivity in the outdoors. But first, prior to leading, I need to become a competent, skilled, and safe backcountry skier. I’m confident that the Brooke Jackson Scholarship is the first step towards achieving these goals.

• 

  Vania Wang
• 

  Vania Wang
• 

  Vania Wang