It Takes a Village
At the core of every unforgettable adventure with AWExpeditions is the concept of deep partnership and trust – from partnerships between you and us to partnerships amongst the team, partnership between our expedition leaders and local guides, and partnerships with trusted lodging providers, gear brands, and more.
Here at AWE, we produce women’s expeditions from the high Andes and the snow-capped roof of the world (Nepal!) to the red rock deserts of the American Southwest. In the process, our on-the-ground operating partners are the lifeblood of what we do. These are the local experts who know every contour of the land, every shift in weather, every hidden magic spot you’d never find on your own – and they show up with heart, grit, and world-class professionalism.
We’re honored to work with Dreamland Safari Tours in Utah & Arizona, INKA Expediciones in Argentina, Peruvian Mountains in the Cordillera Blanca, and so many others who care as deeply about their landscapes and communities as we do about ours. They’re more than logistics providers and local guides: they’re part of the AWE family, and we trust them with our people, our purpose, and our dreams.
How Our Work Helps Normalize Women’s Presence And Achievements in the Mountains & Beyond
It’s been particularly rewarding to see the impact that AWExpeditions teams have on the emphasis that our local partners put on hiring and supporting female local guides and staff.
Why? Because our work of creating all-women spaces also increases the demand for female guides and staff, which creates a trajectory for more women to work as guides, which in turn makes the world of big mountains and remote backcountry trails more welcoming to all women. Talk about a virtuous cycle!
Side Note: Why Not Just Book Direct?
You totally can. If what you’re looking for is just the adventure – versus the all-women community, connection, and women-led mission that we provide – booking directly with our partners can be a great move; we’d even recommend it.
What we bring at AWE is something layered on top: a deeply intentional space where women can grow, connect, and be fully seen. We build each expedition to hold that space. Our community is why people return again and again. It’s more than an adventure or an expedition: it’s belonging. It’s empowerment. It’s showing up exactly as you are, in wild places, with people who get it.
AWE’s Brand Partners:
Gear That Holds Up and Lifts You Up
In addition to our local operating partners, we’re also deeply grateful for the incredible brands that make the gear we’ve tested, trusted, and loved in some of the world’s harshest and most beautiful environments; this is the gear that we like to recommend to our team members (you!). By choosing to climb with AWExpeditions, you may receive discounts to some or all of the below brands.
GEAR
- LOWA Boots keeps our feet happy and blister-free on summit pushes and long trail days.
- LEKI USA gives us the trekking poles that save our knees (and maybe our sanity).
- PEAK Refuel keep our bodies fueled and ready for whatever the mountain throws our way.
- Nite Ize helps us stay organized and dialed in, even in the dark.
TRAINING
The Uphill Athlete provides top-tier mountaineering training plans designed to get us strong, safe, and summit-ready.
INSURANCE
We partner with Global Rescue, our trusted source for rescue insurance and travel protection. Global Rescue is an industry leader, providing medical and security advisory and evacuation services to travelers around the world. Global Rescue offers field rescue from the point of your injury or illness. With operations centers staffed 24/7/365 by experienced personnel, when you call Global Rescue you speak to a real person on the first call to get you the help you need.
Giving Back: The Summit Scholarship Foundation
At AWExpeditions, we believe that mountains are more than places to stand on top of; we like to think that they’re places to rise into who you are. Mountains, to us, are catalysts for transformation, and powerful stages to reclaim belonging, visibility, and voice in the outdoors.
We also know that, for a lot of women, the path to those high places is blocked by barriers they didn’t build. That’s why we don’t just guide mountaineering expeditions and backcountry adventures; we partner in a movement.
The Summit Scholarship Foundation
Our roots with the Summit Scholarship Foundation run deep. It began in 2019 when AWExpeditions founder Sunny Stroeer launched a single $5,000 expedition scholarship. It was just one opportunity, for one woman, to climb a high-altitude peak she might not otherwise access. That one spark garnered hundreds of heartfelt, powerful applications and lit a wildfire.
The Summit Scholarship isn’t charity, and it’s not a footnote; it’s a slow and deliberate revolution that shifts who gets seen, heard, and celebrated in the outdoors.
Why It Matters, And How You Can Be Part of It
Though the Summit Scholarship Foundation now operates independently, we remain proud partners in this work. Many scholarship recipients still climb with AWE, while others join expeditions with different operators across the globe, creating ripples of change far beyond our own trips.
This is how we shift the culture: one climb, one story, one barrier-breaking experience at a time.
If you want your next adventure to be about more than just the summit, and if you want it to be about building something bigger than yourself, we invite you to join us. Learn more at SummitScholarship.org.
AWE donates 10% of the profits from any AWExpeditions climb or adventure to the Summit Scholarship Foundation in order to create more women’s mountaineering & adventure scholarships.