Alpha Female Adventures '08
27-08-2008 : Published in http://www.forbestraveler.com
From heli-skiing to surf safaris
Men routinely hunt, play poker, and golf with their pals. Women get
caught up in taking care of their families and everybody else but
themselves.
“I think men do a better job than women taking care of that man-only
bonding,” says Allison Pease of Durango, Colo. That’s why she thinks
women-only travel provides a valuable service. Fresh off one of the women-only rafting trips offered by O.A.R.S. (Outdoor Adventure River Specialists), Pease was still invigorated by her six-day vacation with other women.
“We were all so different, but we just laughed for six days,” says
Pease, who at 47 hit the midpoint in the range of ages (24 to 62) of
her fellow travelers. The oldest woman was on the trip with two
daughters in their 20s, celebrating the fact that one had just passed
the bar and the other had just passed a test to get into medical
school. “Her husband booked the trip for them,” Pease says. “I was just
incredibly proud to be around her, because this was out of her box.”
As an outdoors type herself, Pease fits the profile of “alpha
females” seeking adventure. And with a recent divorce in the picture,
she was looking for that adventure among fellow females.
“As a single woman, I didn’t want to be around families and men or
kids,” she says. “I just wanted to do something that was entirely for
me.”
Although recently split from her husband as well, Kathy Smeland of
Calgary, Alberta, has enjoyed women-only trips for more than 15 years.
Her getaways have included camping and running a half-marathon on
Vancouver Island, but last September she took her first dozen
helicopter rides as part of a heli-hiking adventure operated by Canadian Mountain Holidays.
She and two girlfriends enjoyed the women-only trip so much that they
recruited a few more friends to join them on another Bodacious in the
Bugaboos trip this September.
“I find it important, because then I can get away from my normal
routine and continue to grow those female relationships as well,”
Smeland says.
Smeland and two other women also grabbed an opportunity to go out
with a guide for a day of mountaineering across mixed terrain. It was
her first time wearing crampons and a helmet and carrying ice axes. “It
was probably one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life,”
she says.
After years of guiding coed adventures, Dez Bartelt founded Best of Both Adventures for Women.
“My flash of recognition that women would respond more
wholeheartedly to adventure trips in the absence of men came on a tour
in Patagonia,” she says. After watching the women get “fussy” about
crossing a river, she separated the women from the men as they crossed
a glacier. “All of a sudden, the women were listening to me, ready to
explore,” she says. “Then when we got up to where the men were, I
noticed they became reserved again. So I decided right then and there
all my groups would be women-only... Now everyone is open, and it’s the
most amazing feeling on our trips.”
While a number of adventure travel operators (run by women) focus
strictly on the women’s market, others have discovered the benefit of
including women-only trips in a larger repertoire. O.A.R.S. owner
George Wendt took the suggestion of a female travel agent in Florida to
offer women-only trips. Now offering two to three such trips a year,
O.A.R.S. (which has been in business 39 years) got its feet wet with a
women-only trip in 1999 for a group put together by that travel agent.
In the past six years, Patty Gabris of Chicago has taken 10 trips with women-only Adventures in Good Company, including hut-to-hut hiking in British Columbia, climbing Kilimanjaro
and hiking in Bulgaria. Married and 50 years old, she takes a trip
every year with a woman from Tennessee whom she met on her AGC trip in
2002. This past spring, the two hiked Havasu Canyon with Adventures in
Good Company.
But even when Gabris goes it alone, as she will on an AGC adventure
in September, she will see at least one familiar face. When she
received a list of her traveling companions, she recognized the name of
another woman on the Havasu trip. This time, they’ll be backpacking on
Isla Royale, a 45-mile long island in Lake Superior.
“The only way in and out is by watercraft,” Gabris says. “We take
the ferry out, starting at the east end of the island, spend five days
backpacking to the west end of the island and take the ferry back to
Minnesota.”
Although Gabris’ passion is hiking, Adventures in Good Company
offers a wide-ranging inventory of trips, including canoeing and
kayaking, horseback riding, dog sledding, rock climbing, multisport,
whitewater rafting and wildlife viewing.
AGC founder Marian Marbury agrees with Pease that women spend their
lives taking care of others and says that, as they get older, they are
ready to rediscover their adventurous side. She also finds the
female-only environment allows women to explore their potential.
“They do things that they would not do when men are around them,”
she says. “Guys jump right in and do things like setting up camp,
carrying canoes and starting [camp] fires.” Without men around, she
notes, women learn skills and then "they feel really proud and pleased.”
Women-only adventures typically require a level of physical fitness
that ensures the group can successfully navigate whitewater rapids
or reach a mountain summit. Canadian Mountain Holidays, for example,
offers a British Columbian adventure that includes crossing a 160-foot
span on nothing more than a series of wooden slats and a cable
handrail. Beyond that is a via ferrata system of iron ladders up the
face of a mountain.
Fortunately, women are very supportive of one another. Even men recognize it.
“Women are more nurturing and more supportive and say, ‘Yeah, we can
do it as a team,’ where male egos get in the way and there’s
one-upsmanship,” Wendt says. “Women are happy to see other women
succeed.”
Source: http://www.forbestraveler.com/adventure/alpha-females-2008-story.html
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