11 minute read
MENTAL HEALTH AND THE MAZAMA COMMUNITY
by Aimee Frazier
Many of us know intrinsically that we feel better after a hike or climb (although our legs may beg to differ). But why is that? Why do outdoor experiences have a lasting impact on our mental health?
In this article, I explore how the outdoors, mental health, and the Mazama community all intersect. I draw from my experiences in the Mazamas, the stories of others, an interview with our most recent past president, Greg Scott, and my work as an ecotherapist. What I have found, and perhaps you have experienced as well, is that the Mazama community offers a healing salve for the ways that our mental well-being is strained by modern-day life and past difficult experiences.
Community
One of the most foundational and important needs we have is a sense of belonging and community. The loneliness epidemic, fueled by technology and modern culture, leaves many feeling socially disconnected; friends move, and work hours are long, making it challenging to build social connections. But the Mazamas brings people together through experiences in the outdoors. “What makes the Mazamas so meaningful to people is the community that we build. We provide a really easy place for adults to make friends, through the shared interest of getting out in nature,” says Greg. Many find connection through affinity groups that align with important parts of their identities, while others are weekly downtown Ramblers or regulars on the full-moon snowshoe treks. Many Mazamas find themselves in pockets of smaller communities within the whole.
Bonding on the Trail
Nothing brings people together quite like time on the trail. The shared experience and the ease of connecting while walking in nature removes a barrier between the self and others. Our defenses
Above: Mazama climbing team on route to climb Stone Peak, Olympics, Sept. 2024 lower—sometimes not by choice, but by circumstance—as vulnerable challenges leave us with no alternative but to show up fully unguarded. Take, for example, the time my crampon fell off hundreds of feet up a steep and precarious no-fall zone on the side of Mt. Hood. I white knuckled my ice axe as my teammate worked frantically to reconnect my crampon to my boot before my quaking biceps gave out. Was it comfortable to be that vulnerable? No. But were my defenses removed as I became dependent upon my teammate? Yes. If we show up to the trailhead with any amount of relational inhibition, the shared experience is sure to reduce it and create opportunities to bond.
The Gateway to the Outdoors
The Mazamas serves as a gateway for adventurers to take their outdoor activities to the next level.
“For those that want to get outside, but feel like it’s dangerous to go on their own, they can join the Mazamas—it’s a
place where people can feel that there is competency and safety, so it really removes a barrier that many people face in getting outdoors,” says Greg. For those new to mountaineering, the Basic Climbing Education Program (BCEP) experience provides climbing skill development within the context of community. If it weren’t for the Mazamas, the Portland area wouldn’t have nearly as many skilled outdoor adventurers connecting with nature.
A Relationship with Nature Improves Mental Health
Why is there value in connecting people to nature? The field of ecopsychology believes that having a relationship with nature is essential to our well-being and mental health. It posits that we, as humans, exist within delicate ecosystems, which modern-day culture inevitably interferes with—disconnecting us from nature in ways that strain our mental well-being. We spend more time interacting with screens than with people; more time indoors than out; more time sitting than moving. In many ways, this works against our biological hard-wiring.
Our culture promotes a lifestyle that leaves us chronically stressed and overstimulated through fast-paced careers and technology. Our society tends to exploit people’s insecurities as a means of marketing to them, leaving us feeling that we are “not enough,” shaking our sense of confidence and making us question our belonging. At times, this can be a contributing factor to mental health conditions such as anxiety or depression.
The cure for these toxic elements, from the ecopsychology perspective, is reconnecting with nature, including our community, the environment, and the land, and reciprocating care for the earth—aligning with many values of Indigenous cultures. Time in nature grows our confidence, offering a respite from the daily grind, as well as a sense of belonging to something larger than ourselves. The entire nervous system may respond profoundly to time in nature—when given the opportunity to slow down and breathe deeper, we may notice muscle tension dissipating as stress and cortisol levels drop.
Western science is beginning to catch up with this innate knowledge. Research has shown correlations between spending
time in nature and a significant decrease in stress, symptoms of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and ADHD. When exercise is added to the equation, the results are even greater.
Think back to your last Mazama excursion: How did you feel? Did the silhouette of the mountain that you were setting off to climb fill you with awe? Fear? Did the Milky Way above the night’s route stir a sense of wonder as your crampons crunched through the snow? Did your weary spirit celebrate when you unclipped your 25-pound pack for the day? Did the ancient mountains remind you that you are a part of a larger story of nature? Time in nature offers us perspective. It sparks creativity and reconnects us to the larger world.
Recharge
Time on the trail offers an escape from the demands and roles of everyday life. As a mom of two young kids and an owner of a private practice, I find that joining the Mazamas on a climb is an opportunity to step away from the high level of responsibility that comes with everyday life. On the trail, I reconnect with a sense of inner-aliveness that often lays dormant underneath laundry piles and emails. I return from climbs physically tired but mentally energized, refreshed, and fulfilled. Can you relate?
Personal Growth
Think back to a climb or hike where you faced a significant challenge—a long nofall zone, a crevassed glacier crossing that required meticulous attention, or a bear blocking the trail ahead. What barriers did you overcome in order to reach your destination? Not only did these challenges make for a great story (and please send them to the Publications Committee so we can publish them!), but they also made reaching the destination all the more rewarding.
“There’s beauty and awe in what you see while climbing, but also in the acknowledgment of what you’ve accomplished to get there—the places we go are never easy to get to,” says Greg. In day-to-day life, we are usually able to avoid discomfort; however, that comes at the cost of being stagnant. Conversely, discomfort requires something from us: problem solving, flexibility, putting a new skill to the test, or a whole lot of courage.
And it rewards us with growth. When we overcome challenges, our comfort zone and self-concept expand to include a new narrative about ourselves.
Healing from Trauma
For some, the outdoors is a place of profound personal healing—a refuge in times of trouble that acts as a buffer from difficult life circumstances. At the Mazama Gala last fall, speakers shared their personal stories of healing in nature and through experiences within the Mazamas. The themes revolved around connecting with community when feeling isolated, growing the capacity to trust others after experiencing abuse, recovering from addiction by setting personal goals outdoors, and finding meaning and connection to something larger than oneself on the trail.
Research shows that time outdoors nurtures the nervous system, offering grounding in the present moment through calming sensory stimulation— hearing the wind in the trees, feeling the crunch of rocks underfoot, witnessing a bright sunrise, smelling pine needles, tasting freshly filtered alpine lake water. Community and nature do a lot for the mind.
Trusting Others
Many of us, myself included, arrive at adult life with some wounds from life experiences that can make it difficult to fully trust others. One thing I see frequently in my work as a therapist is the pattern of people building up relational walls as a means of self-preservation. These walls have a positive intent—to protect against the many relational vulnerabilities we have as humans. However, over time, this guardedness often grows to the point of becoming more restrictive than protective, resulting in feeling disconnected from others or lacking authenticity.
Climbing provides opportunities for growth in this area. Many of the skills that we develop as climbers transfer back to our daily lives in ways that enhance our relationships: assertive communication, transparent feedback, self-disclosure, directly asking for what we need, attuning to our internal state to identify our needs, the ability to set boundaries, a willingness to try new things. When these skills are tested in the context of climbing, we grow more comfortable trying them in our relationships on the ground. The ability to trust others, and the underlying life skills that make that possible, are critical in climbing, and can translate to everyday life.
“Everything we do in climbing requires you to trust the people that you’re with,” says Greg. “Trust is validated by seeing that people have the capacity to care for each other at a higher level than we commonly experience or witness in our society.” Tying into a rope team or being on belay are both vulnerable and healing experiences—an expansion in trusting others.
Meaning and Risk
Time outdoors doesn’t always improve mental health. Sometimes experiences end in trauma or grief, taking a toll on the mind. On the trail there is always a risk: pushing too far past a skill level, unpredictable acts of nature, exposure to the elements. To enjoy time in the mountains often requires some acceptance of risk.
I am reminded of risk often: a loose rock whizzing by just above my helmet; fumbling my belay device into a steaming fumarole hundreds of feet below me; my left crampon being irresistibly attracted to my right crampon’s strap. My brain conceptualizes this concept of risk by visualizing a teeter-totter. On one side is risk. On the other side is meaning: what the experiences in the mountains mean to me, and why I choose to climb. I need a balance between these two realms in order to enjoy the experience and to want to continue. For me, the meaning I find in my experiences is an inner-aliveness that I don’t find elsewhere; a way of reconnecting with myself, the awe of nature, and community. I leave trips feeling empowered, recharged, and having experienced valuable personal growth. When my experience is unbalanced, and the risk outweighs the meaning, I find myself anxious on a route—a cue to recalibrate my limits.
An evolution of attitudes toward mental health within the Mazamas:
The Mazamas has evolved a lot since 1894. As with the wider mountaineering community, the general attitude toward experiences of grief and trauma was to keep “a stiff upper lip.” The expansion of education regarding mental health, along with climbers’ personal stories, has normalized this once-hushed topic. Beginning in the early 1990s, the Mazamas adopted an intentional support system to address climbers’ needs for processing incidents that took place on trips. The Critical Incident and Stress Management (CISM) committee began offering debriefs to individual climbers and climbing teams with the aim of supporting the processing of traumas or losses that happen in the mountains.
Seeing the value in outdoor experiences in people’s mental wellbeing, the Mazamas began partnerships with Peak Recovery, and now Recovery Outsiders, founded by Mazama member Ali Koch, in 2023. The program launched a BCEP cohort specifically for people recovering from substance use or seeking support for their mental health. “Adventure activities and outdoor pursuits have been demonstrated to develop important coping skills to support folks who are in recovery from substance use. Outdoor adventure activities can provide a healthier form of sensation seeking that promotes physical and psychological wellness,” says outdoor therapy researcher Daniel Cavanaugh. The Mazamas continues to offer training to leaders about supporting participants' mental health, and some leaders are trained in psychological first aid.
The Mazamas offer more than just a trail to the summit—the journey provides community, connection to nature, and personal growth that leave a lasting impact on our mental well-being.
The next time you're out on a climb or hike, take a moment to pause and reflect on the mental health benefits you might be receiving—often in ways we don’t realize until after the mud on our boots has dried.
