Kate W

Kate hails from Pennsylvania but calls Burlington, VT, home, where she’s attending the University of Vermont. There, she leads outdoor adventure trips for the Outing Club and has completed several technical skills programs for ice climbing, sea kayaking, and leadership development. She’s also a part of the social justice coalition branch of the Outing Club, where she works to make the outdoors more accessible to all. She has also worked as a field hockey coach for kids of all ages. Additionally, Kate is a former Adventure Treks student, having completed four trips including the Leadership Adventure Semester.

  • Education: University of Vermont, currently studying environmental resources
  • Certifications: Wilderness first responder, ACA coastal sea kayaking levels 1 and 2
  • Favorite outdoor memory: Oh my! No matter where I go, my first summer with Adventure Treks when I was 14 and stomping around the Pacific Northwest, stumbling over my own feet, resurfaces in my body over and over again. I still feel my cheeks aching from grinning so big, my ribs shaking with laughter, eyes pooling with wonder, and arms holding onto this community I’d found in the biggest hug. It’s the first place my mind goes when I close my eyes and think about a moment I felt joy far bigger than just my body.
  • Favorite outdoor achievement: I think about a backpack I led on the Olympic Peninsula last summer often. We had a long couple of days and one very long 11-mile “it’s just around the bend” kind of day, that ended with us soggy and just making the tide crossing, but the belly laughter I shared with some of my students at the end of it I won’t forget.
  • Favorite place you’ve traveled: The Olympic Peninsula, WA, and Blackstone Bay, AK
  • Favorite hobbies: Writing, stories and storytelling, stomping and squishing around in the mud, dancing, playing outside in all forms, sun basks, cold swims, movement, creating, reading, cooking, walks, hugs.
  • What are you most excited for this summer? I am most looking forward to the big bone crushing hug that is the Adventure Treks community. I’ve never found the words to describe the feeling of being present in this space with the kind of lovely humans who are a part of it except for a big hug. All the actual hugs of old friends I
    can’t wait to see again, new friends I can’t wait to meet, and metaphorical hugs of the lived moments we create and share together.
  • Previous Adventure Treks trips include Pacific Northwest Adventure, California Challenge, Ultimate Northwest, Pacific Northwest Explorer, Leadership Adventure Semester
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