Peru 2024 Pt 4: Climbing for a Cause

This post is part of a series of blogs. To read all the posts in this series, click here!

Let's talk about our other mission (besides climbing rad mountains) - raising money to fight human trafficking.

For full transparency, I want to say that we are not, as a group, climbing for charity. We climb because it's our hobby. We each have different and personal motivations for climbing and for going on this trip specifically. Also, not all of us are part of the fundraising. Because of the difference in motivations and reasons, some members aren't actively fundraising, which is totally great too. This post will be about those of us who are fundraising, so if you're here for the mountaineering, stay tuned because there will be so awesome posts coming!

So why are we fundraising? When we started planning the trip, I through out that I would like to fit something more meaningful into the trip. Traveling and climbing do add to the economy and many of the local people benefit financially, which is awesome. I just hate the idea of being the white dudes who come to enjoy the natural resources of an economically disparaged country and leave without making some sort of positive change. The problem is, we have a very flexible schedule to account for weather changes and mountain conditions so it's hard to commit to helping an organization. Fundraising seemed like it fit the bill yet allowed us that flexibility. Alan had already climbed a mountain with an organization called AtlasFree, so we chose that.

Atlas Free is an organization that works around the world to fight human trafficking. It also provides a great fundraising platform perfect for adventure travelers to raise funds as part of a group. Alan had a profound experience climbing Mt Hood with an organization raising money for Atlas Free and it seemed like an obvious choice to add some meaning to iyr trip.

We want people to give if they feel compelled, but not to withhold anything from those who don't. The fundraiser is a great way for people to partner with us on our trip and do some good in the world. There's no special content for those who give to Atlas Free. We also don't make any money from it at all, as the money donated goes directly through the non-profit.

If you have any questions, please reach out. Let's do some good in the world!

Now, back to mountaineering. Click here to go directly to the next post about Peru!