Girls in Action: the mountains as a path to growth and freedom
Mountain Wilderness's initiative empowering young women in Pakistan through mountaineering and environmental conservation, with the support of Rock Experience.
For many young women in Pakistan's Swat and Chitral regions, access to the mountains and opportunities to take part in sports are far from guaranteed. This is where Girls in Action comes in. Launched by Mountain Wilderness, the project uses mountaineering and environmental education to open up new opportunities for personal growth, independence and empowerment.
Last September, the initiative brought three aspiring young female mountaineers to Italy for the first time, where they took part in a three-week training programme combining technical instruction, hands-on experiences in the Alps and insights into climate change. Rock Experience also supported the initiative by providing the technical clothing needed for the various activities.
Mountain Wilderness is an international organisation founded in Biella, Italy, in 1987 by a group of mountaineers and academics. Among its founders is Carlo Alberto Pinelli, a documentary filmmaker. The organisation promotes an approach to mountaineering rooted in self-reliance, respect for nature and shared experiences.
This philosophy lies at the heart of Girls in Action: introducing mountaineering culture to Pakistan's mountain valleys and giving young women the opportunity to explore the mountains, develop technical skills and gain a deeper understanding of their local environment.
In previous years, five female Italian instructors travelled to Pakistan between August and September to work with more than twenty young women aged 17 to 23. The participants, all students at a local college, had voluntarily signed up for the training programme. Alongside Francesco Cappellari, a mountaineering and ski mountaineering instructor with the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) in Padua, they took part in a range of activities, from rock climbing and glacier travel to navigation and mountain medicine.
These experiences led to the creation of SHEEN, Pakistan's first women-led mountaineering and environmental association, founded in Swat by the young women who had taken part in the courses. Its name evokes the idea of growth and renewal, reflecting the association's mission: to promote environmental awareness and conservation, monitor glaciers, protect biodiversity and contribute to the establishment of a national park.
Girls in Action is therefore about much more than teaching mountaineering skills. Its aim is to equip young women with knowledge and practical abilities that can benefit their local communities, while creating new opportunities for women in particular.
In September, Maria Rahim, Mehrosh Akhtar and Mewis Syed travelled to Italy for the first time to take part in a three-week training programme. The experience was designed to build on the skills they had already developed in Pakistan while introducing them to new environments and challenges.
On the climbing crags and glaciers of the Aosta Valley, they strengthened their climbing and safety techniques, practised rope handling, setting up belays and abseiling, and gained experience travelling across glaciated terrain. Training on the Giant Glacier (Ghiacciaio del Gigante) in the Mont Blanc massif also gave them the opportunity to develop their self-rescue and crevasse rescue skills, helping them become more independent and confident in handling different situations in the mountains.
Alongside the practical training, the programme placed a strong emphasis on understanding the Alpine environment. In collaboration with the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and researcher Lorenza Pratali, the young women took part in three days of educational activities focused on glaciers, climate change and the transformations affecting mountain ecosystems.
This experience brought together practical mountaineering skills and scientific knowledge, deepening their awareness of both the value and the fragility of natural environments.
To support the participants throughout the programme, Rock Experience provided the technical clothing they needed to face the varied conditions of the mountains. It was a tangible contribution to an initiative that reflects values deeply rooted in the brand: respect for the environment, care for people and the belief that the mountains can offer powerful opportunities for personal growth and shared experiences.
During the training programme in the Aosta Valley, Alta Quota, a television programme broadcast by Italy's national broadcaster RAI, interviewed the young women, giving them the opportunity to share what the experience meant to them.
Mehrosh, who holds a degree in environmental science, spoke about the changes she has witnessed in her home valley. In just five or six years, the landscape has undergone significant transformations: floods, sudden heavy rainfall, destroyed crops and a river near her village that continues to rise and erode more land each year.
Northern Pakistan is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Its mountains, with peaks rising above 6,000 metres, are home to extensive glacier systems. The ongoing changes affecting these glaciers have direct consequences for mountain ecosystems and the communities living downstream.
This awareness is also what drives the young women's commitment: understanding their own environment so they can play an active role in protecting it.
"For someone like me, coming from the part of Pakistan I come from, the mountains mean freedom. A place where I can challenge myself. Where I can simply be myself, rather than someone's daughter, granddaughter or sister. Here, there are no cages. I'm just me," says Maria.
For Mehrosh, the opportunity to travel to Italy and take part in a mountaineering training programme was something she could hardly have imagined until recently:
"For us, who rarely even travel outside our own city, suddenly crossing an entire continent to experience the very thing that was introduced to Chitral, my home region — mountaineering — is like a dream come true."
Their words capture what makes Girls in Action so meaningful beyond the technical training: the chance to discover new horizons, develop independence and envision a future filled with different possibilities.
The experience in Italy is just one step in a much broader journey. Through Girls in Action and the SHEEN Project, the aim is to continue training more young women, strengthen the association and develop practical initiatives to protect the environment.
Future goals include promoting sustainable tourism, creating new professional opportunities and working towards the establishment of a national park in the Swat region.
But there is also a less tangible, yet equally important ambition: to give more and more young women the opportunity to discover the mountains, build independence and find new ways to express themselves.
Because the mountains can be so much more than a place to explore. They can become a place to learn, to get involved and to open the door to new possibilities.
