Frequently asked questions

No! We are excited to offer this festival at a location where a private vehicle is NOT required. Simply take a bus (or ride share app) from Vancouver to Squamish downtown or the Adventure Center. The festival grounds and the clinics are both within reasonable walking distance from either location. If access to the festival (or moving between the basecamp and the clinics) poses a challenge for you, please do not hesitate to reach out and we are more than happy to help find a solution together.

We are thrilled to be collaborating with Indigenous Women Outdoors to offer climbing skills instruction and participation in the entire festival to you for FREE. First Nations people are extremely underrepresented within our Sky to Sky climbing community, and even more so in leadership roles. Please reach out to sandy@indigenouswomenoutdoors.com for more information and to sign up!

Yes! The Treeline Community has been and always will be a space for cisgendered women to feel safe and supported in the still-male-dominated world of outdoor adventure sports. It is a space to celebrate and grow together, but also to challenge the stereotypes and fight for change. Our dream is that projects like Treeline can shift the landscape and that we will see more women and non-dominant gender folks not only at the crags, but in leadership roles across all disciplines of our sport.

No. Although we strongly encourage Squamish locals to take part for the entire festival experience, we understand that this may not suit everyone. You are welcome to attend the clinics and evening programming/entertainments and then retire to your own home (or other accommodation) if you choose to do so.

Please come prepared for a weekend outdoors and be ready for sudden changes in the weather. This means: a jacket and warm layers, sunhat and sunscreen, comfortable shoes for walking and a water bottle. If you choose to camp, you will be required to bring your own basic equipment (tent, mat, sleeping bag). If you register for a clinic, your mentor will reach out with an equipment list prior to the weekend. We send out a weather update in the days leading up to the festival. Also see our answer to 'Will there be food provided?' below.

Nope. A big part of our motivation behind the festival is to create an opportunity for people within our community to meet climbing partners and make new friendships!

Yes! All ages are welcome at the festival grounds and for camping overnight. For the clinics (with the exception of our parent/child clinic), it would be best to leave the kids at home or with a partner/friend. However, if this poses a barrier for your participation, please reach out and we are happy to chat about options or make accommodations.

Yes! Subscribe at the bottom of our website. You can also follow us on social media (links below too) for any updates about our festival and the Treeline Community!

We’d love to chat and find out more! Adaptive climbing programs for people living with physical or mental barriers have innovated some pretty incredible tools and strategies. If you haven’t yet, we encourage you to check out the Canadian Adaptive Climbing Society (www.canadianadaptiveclimbbing.com). Don’t hesitate to reach out to hello@treelinecommunity.com and we can talk about if this festival is a good fit for you and how we can work to accommodate your needs.

We are currently working on the food options, so we do not have an answer for you at this time. However, we are looking to accommodate with vegetarian and vegan options and will make sure to have information available about ingredients such as gluten, lactose, and nuts. Our waiver form will include a space to inform us of any allergies and existing or previous medical conditions, so that we can do our best to make this a safe and welcoming space for all participants.

Yes! There will be an option to select this camping set-up during the registration process.

We (Bron and Pim) took a step back to assess where we were at mentally and emotionally with less than two months until the big event. We both came to the tough conclusion that we are feeling overworked and that doing the final push for the festival could cause at least one, if not both, of us to burn out. Taking over the Treeline Community festival in December was a dream come true, and we feel absolutely devastated that we are having to pull back, this close to the finish line. As much as our hearts want us to charge forward, the reality is that the final months are going to be busier than ever. The worst outcome would be to have something important slip through the cracks, and crush ourselves in the process. All this being said, we are looking forward to running the festival next year, with more hands on deck and with everything we've learned so far! We hope you’ll join us in summer 2024!!

After a brief hiatus during the covid outbreak, the Treeline climbers’ festival is back under new leadership. As we reflected about why we were passionate about creating this space for women, it became clear that other non-dominant gender expressions were substantially less represented within our climbing community and that these members often faced much greater social and historical barriers than female climbers experienced. We thought: why not come together and build a diverse community that challenges the stereotype of the cisgendered male climber? At Treeline, we are committed to fighting toxic cultures around gender and identity, and we will continue to learn and grow in order to support this greater community.

The festival will run rain or shine! Of course, we all hope for perfect weather, but in the case of rain we feel confident that we can still foster an incredible community weekend. The District has kindly offered us the use of their big festival tent, should we need to shelter during the evening programs. In terms of the climbing clinics, our mentors will do their best to relocate under overhangs or tarps and focus on “ground school lessons,” such as practicing technical systems or talking about risk assessment and mental management. Also, the Smoke Bluffs face the south and are exposed to the wind, so some routes are dry within minutes of the rain stopping! In the unlikely event of extreme weather warnings that pose a true hazard to the festival and participants (such as dangerous highway travel or forest fires), the festival will offer refunds in full.

We are currently working to collaborate with some local food businesses and will update this information here once we know exactly what food/drinks will be available. Our hope is to have coffee and baked goods available Saturday and Sunday morning, as well as dinner options for the Saturday evening. Outside of this, you will be expected to bring your own food. There will be no cooking equipment provide on site, however you are welcome to use a personal camping stove to cook on.

Yes! The Treeline climbing festival welcomes climbers of all experiences levels and abilities. We will be offering clinics from beginner to advanced. Stay tuned for when we announce our stacked line-up in the coming months!

The Treeline Community was originally created in 2017 with cisgendered women in mind. However, we have since grown and evolved and are very excited to be expanding our community in 2023 to welcome all non-dominant gender expressions. This includes non-binary, gender non-conforming and transgender folks of all identities.

Probably. If your dog is friendly with people and other dogs, and not loud, aggressive or menacing, feel free to bring them along to the festival grounds! If you wish to bring your dog to a clinic, please reach out to your specific mentor about this.

No. We believe that all members of the climbing community, including cis-gendered men, will ultimately benefit from initiatives, like Treeline, that strive to diversify our outdoor community. But in order to address barriers that stifle minority groups from not only accessing, but also progressing to their full potential, we feel it is necessary to remove the dominant gender to make space for these often overlooked voices. We believe the real exclusion is built into the current system that protects and supports some groups while pushing away or even harming others. Treeline is a fluid space for experimentation and discovery, where we come together to shift the mould and create new norms.

Yes! We are currently working hard behind-the-scenes with sponsors and other funding sources to ensure that we can offer options for woman and genderqueer folks who are unable to participate due to financial barriers. We don’t know exactly what the structure will look like yet, but as soon as we do, we will share it here!