The Snowleader Foundation has been promoting young people’s access to the mountains since 2021 by means of general interest associative projects. Our wish is to make mountains accessible to all children, particularly to those who do not have the means to discover this part of nature, outdoor activities, and the values that come with them.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€15,000 (2023)
The Batterie Fort lies at 1,400m altitude, in Marthod, a commune in the Savoie department. The State offered the Fort to the commune in 1958, which then acquired it with no specific plans for the future, leading to its gradual deterioration. In 1998, the ‘Pour que Vive le Fort de la Batterie’ association is founded with the purpose of rehabilitating the fort. Volunteers do everything to keep this place alive: they offer sports, educational, cultural, and tourist activities.
Today, volunteers of the association wish to transform this place into a hut to share, a living space in altitude, accessible (close to Albertville), that allows locals to enjoy the mountains. Works that are necessary to bring building conformity to the fort started in November 2023, and continue in 2024. This hut will be certified to receive a public of young age. Overnight accommodation will be provided to meet the demands of the local stakeholders: the 6th grade (Year 7) classes looking for a hut adapted to their integration stay, the end of the year trip with a first night in the hut, and introduction into hiking for children, etc. The objective is to provide an easy access to a location in the mountains, by eco-friendly means (walking, biking, public transport, etc.), and a hike with a small elevation gain.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Haute-Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€10,000 (2023)
En Passant Par la Montagne aims at helping youth and adults in a vulnerable situation discover the mountains with the purpose of finding new resources within themselves.
Its mission is to make mountains accessible to everyone, whether it is people with social, or economic challenges, illness, or disabilities.
Grouping several activities, the ‘I Love My Mountains’ programme aims at providing access to the mountains to young people who live in the mountainous areas of Haute Savoie, Savoie, and Isère, but who have not managed so far visit these areas due to cultural, social, physical, or professional reasons. For this, the association proposes initiatives in the area, gently raising awareness of the mountains, and providing access to the surrounding natural habitats. At least 120 young people, passionate about mountains, have access to these areas, to appreciate them, overcoming challenges, and thrive, we hope.
Recognized as a public utility foundation, OVE (Œuvre des Villages d’Enfants) has focused for the last 75 years on adapted teaching, and on providing accommodation for children, teenagers, and adults with all forms of disabilities or vulnerabilities.
The association is also committed to promoting access to sports for the disabled.
With the goal of making mountains accessible to 16 young disabled people, as well as to 12 young people so-called ‘able’ from the urban area (near Lyon), the OVE foundation partnered up with the Esprit Montagne association, to launch a big adventure: ‘Embracing our Differences’. For this, they organised a trip in the mountains, from the 3rd to the 7th of July 2023, between Col de l’Arpettaz and Crest-Voland (73), with multiple mountain-related activities. ‘United’ is a concept that speaks about bringing together everyone’s various talents, challenging each other, sharing, discovering, and having fun together. Discover the teaser of this week in the mountains!
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€8 000 (2023)
Les Enfermés Dehors is an association that speaks to the young generations, mainly living in the areas around Albertville, more specifically, those who do not have the possibility to engage in mountain activities. The association helps young people to connect to their surrounding environment, and to become aware of the local and global stakes of our time… For this, it offers the young public of all backgrounds access to sports, humanitarian, and collective activities.
The objective is to offer a path of experiences to the young public, allowing them to immerse in the mountain ecosystems that surround them, and that they see from afar in their every-day life, without ever reaching them. The final purpose is to better protect these areas. The association has designed an Academy with trips in the mountains every Wednesday afternoon during the school terms, for youth between 6-9 years old, and between 10-16 years old, as well as 4-day immersion trips during school holidays.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€7 800 (2023)
€3 000 (2022)
Based in Apt, Un Pas de Côté is an association welcoming children between 11 and 18 years old, and who are under a prevention, or childhood protection order. These are teenagers who face and present difficulties in their normal environment. Their capacity to project themselves in the future can be minimal and undermined by the feeling of living in a spiral of failure (from a family, social, or educational point of view) and / or due to stigma.
The association wishes to spend more time with them in the mountains, to practice activities that encourage a spirit of adventure, as well as a solidarity feeling, and respect between mountain buddies. For these young people, mountain huts are a place of freedom, where responsibility is shared, where they can reflect, etc., all this providing them with a positive attitude. Mountain wardens also appreciate the chance to welcome this type of unaccustomed public.
In July 2023, they organised a glacier trip on the Blanc Glacier (Écrins), and then, in September, a hike in the South Alps. Other trips, with overnight stays in huts, are to planned for 2024.
LOCATION
Alpes du Sud
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€7 440 (2023)
LOCATION
Alpes Maritimes
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€6 000 (2023)
Based in Nice, this association wishes to facilitate and to ensure a continued existence of the access to the mountains for people who are socially or geographically far from this specific environment. For this, it collaborates with institutions from the Priority Educational Network.
This second edition of the project ‘From the Neighbourhood to the Summit’ took place on one of the most beautiful hiking itineraries in France: The Grand Traverse of Mercantour, with 23 students (12-13 years old) from the 5th grade (Year 8) of the ‘Les Muriers’ secondary school in Cannes. Teenagers went on a multi-day hike, with 17 stages, covering more than 200km, and 12,000m positive elevation. With a lot of courage, abnegation, and mutual help, they managed to reach the finish of their epic. After 17 days of walking, they reached Menthon on the 14th of July 2023. Students have all progressed by means of various learning experiences, and meetings with naturalists. Yet another proof that mountain hiking is a formidable vector that drives discovery and emancipation, regardless of the origin.
LOCATION
Alpes du Sud – Hautes Alpes
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€6 000 (2023)
Lead The Climb is a club affiliated to the FFCAM (French Federal Association for Mountaineering Clubs), created by women with the goal of prioritising women in mountain sports. The association offers courses with the purpose of rendering women autonomous in the mountains, allowing them to meet other women who share the same vision, and to form future rope teams.
Their project, Ride & Climb, helped 6 teenagers who were socially disconnected, to prepare and experience a bike-and-hike trip. This eco-friendly experience, that combines biking and rock climbing, was a success, but the whole access trip was an important part of the adventure too. From the 23rd to the 17th of October 2023, the group left from Gap by bike, heading to Orpierre, to spend four days at the climbing crags. A film is in production.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Haute-Savoie, Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€5 000 (2023), €10 000 (2022), €5 000 (2021)
Ma Chance Moi Aussi accompanies children at the most vulnerable age (5 to 15 years old) coming from families with educational fragility every evening after school, every Wednesday, and during half of the school holiday period. Their actions aim at re-establishing opportunity equality. They look after around 200 children from 9 school institutions, between Île-de-France and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
In the last three years, the Snowleader Foundation has been accompanying these children for trips in the mountains. The aim is to help them discover this specific environment, often close to their home, and yet that they are not familiar with. Snowleader collaborators organise entirely trips like winter and summer hikes, or even rock climbing. We work hand in hand with the networks from Alberville and Chambéry. In 2023, it’s the Annemasse network that benefited from our support for their project ‘With Mountains at Heart!’.
Based in La Rochelle, Ocean Peak is an association born from sailors’, mountaineers’, and teachers’ goodwill to transmit their passion to young people in social, school, or family difficulty. During an adventure at sea and /or in the mountains, young people from everywhere are living an experience with intense moments, facing the reality of elements, with the challenges and opportunities that these ones impose. Living an adventure and a life experience that allows them to bring out the best in them, to regain self-confidence and believe in the future again – these are Ocean Peak’s end-goal. In short, they wish to establish a break in their lives to imagine a new beginning.
The association wished to develop its mountain activity. For this purpose, they offer trips for young people, through the services of Aide Sociale à l’Enfance. After so-called ‘escape’ trips, in October 2022 they organised a seven-day hike in the Pyrénées, and then, in June 2023, a second trip in the Arrens-Marsous area, with activities such as rock climbing, via ferrata, overnight stays in huts, etc.
LOCATION
Pyrénées
FIANCIAL SUPPORT
€11 800 (2022)
Because of accessibility, means, and opportunities to reach the mountains, people with disabilities or vulnerabilities are still very far from these areas and the adventures that they offer. The OVE Foundation has made including people with disabilities in sports activities the heart of its associative programme. In parallel, the association En Passant Par La Montagne regularly organises events to provide access to the mountains for people in a vulnerable situation, particularly at a young age.
In 2022, these two actors shook hands on a new challenge: the medical-social relay of the Northern Alps Grand Traverse.
Between the 12th of June and the 12th of July 2022, 56 hikers, between 8 and 67 years old (39 minors and 5 under 25 years old), with disabilities or in a vulnerable situation, have relayed in teams to link Servoz to Menton. The trail was divided in 10 stages of various levels. Each stage (between 2 and 5 days) was covered by a relay team.
In figures, the trail is 500 kilometre long, it has 17,450m positive elevation and 18,130m negative elevation, that these teams had to cover with various challenges: overcome their limits in an environment that was more often than not unknown, hike as a team, create new human connections, help each other… This collective success showed that mountains are accessible to everyone.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Alpes Maritimes
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€8 400 (2022)
The programmes organised by Sport dans la Ville are in favour of a social and professional insertion for the 7,000 young people who are part of the association. They actively take part in their own progress and personal development. Their objective: from sports to a job.
The idea of the project is to enjoy mountains and help with insertion. ‘Towards the Summit’ is a window that opens to an unknown world, a world that can also remain far for them. The impact of the trips in this natural universe can be felt in the long run. Far from a daily life that is often limited and violent, in the outskirts, young people can discover themselves and show their character to others.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€8 000 (2022)
Educ’alpes’s aim is to develop and to promote education in the French mountains, with their diversity, the end-goal being sustainable development. Educ’alpes’ missions are: connecting alpine-related stakeholders, facilitating information flow, access to resources, exchange, and meet-ups.
‘1001 Alpine Nights’ is an event dedicated to the Alps that allows a large number of young people to live a first experience in the mountains by means of a short or long trip, an overnight stay up there, in a hut or camping. The operation takes place each ear from the 21st of June to the 21st of September. The ‘Youth’ stakeholders (recreational centres, social centres, school institutions, sports clubs, etc.) are invited to put together a local project with the aim of having groups of young people discover and practice mountain-related activities. It is an immersion that allows young people to create a connection with the mountains and to raise their awareness with regards to its conservation. Educ’alpes coordinates the collective operation and accompanies every project based on their needs.
LOCATION
Massif Alpin
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€6 000 (2022)
Mountain Riders is an association for educating about ecological transition founded in 2001. Its goal is to encourage children and youth to become agents of change, to invite practitioners to engage in responsible practices, to support tourism stakeholders, and to involve citizens and elected officials in preserving the mountain, which is as essential as it is fragile.
“Montagnez-Nous!” is a program integrated into the youth policy of the city of Chambéry and the department of Savoie, and carried out at the scale of Greater Chambéry through the city’s youth policy service. This project is part of what is called “rupture stays,” which offer a different response from the traditional or institutional care of young people. It aims to re-engage participants around activities that become the basis for educational, re-engagement, or insertion projects.
“Montagnez-Nous!” took nearly 200 young people from Greater Chambéry to the mountains during the school year to provide them with both outdoor and group experiences through at least one night of mountain immersion, while contributing to their personal development and fostering their civic awareness.
This project aims to address observations made on the ground during educational interventions by Mountain Riders in schools and extracurricular settings. “We encounter many young people from Chambéry who are unfamiliar with or know very little about the mountain environment that surrounds them. Their perception of the mountains is mainly associated with effort, boredom, difficulty, physical exertion, and disconnection. Yet, at the same time, they seek adventure, a confrontation with reality, autonomy, and individual and collective challenges.
LOCALISATION
Northern Alps- Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
3 000 € (2022)
The teachers of the CM1 and CM1-CM2 classes at the public elementary school Gustave Rivet in Domène (38) decided to take their students out of the classroom! Thus, during the 2021-2022 school year, they introduced the mountain to their 50 students (aged 9 to 11) through a series of hikes, culminating in the final ascent to the Etendard refuge (in the Grandes Rousses massif on the commune of Saint Sorlin d’Arves), at an altitude of 2,430 meters, where some of them spent their first night in a refuge.
In parallel, the mountain was also integrated into other subjects: calculating elevation gains in mathematics, reading mountain stories in French, studying alpine geography… The issue of climate change was discussed in class, as well as the water cycle and the analysis of old and recent photos to observe glacier retreat.
LOCALISATION
Northern Alps – Isère
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
2 000 € (2022)
The “Les Cartables du Soleil” association was created in 2004 to address the lack of resources necessary for the education and development of children with disabilities. Today, this lack of resources remains real and prevents access to many activities for these children. The association is therefore a response to the material as well as social difficulties faced by these children. To address this, volunteers organize a winter trip to the mountains for them to learn about adaptive skiing.
Les Cartables du Soleil, in collaboration with the Handisport Committee 05, organized a snow class from March 21st to 25th, 2022, for its Ulis class (special needs) from Le Pradet (Var), comprising 12 children with motor disabilities and associated cognitive impairments. Most of them had never been to the mountains and had never tried adaptive skiing.
They were able to enjoy two full days of adaptive skiing, as well as a day of skiing for those who were able to stand, or sledging for others. The rest of the week was dedicated to exploring the mountain environment.
LOCALISATION
Hautes Alpes
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
1 700 € (2022)
Since 2011, CAF Jeunes, supported by the Mountain Mission of the city of Grenoble, has been enabling young people from Grenoble, living in popular neighborhoods and often distant from mountain activities, to discover all the richness and values that the nearby mountains offer. It also provides them with an experience of “collectivity” and an opportunity to experience sporting progress through a discovery program consisting of 5 to 7 outings (including one night in a mountain hut).
Committed alongside them, the Snowleader Foundation covers all the overnight stays in mountain huts for the young participants, as well as the services of mountain guides and accompanying professionals during the outings.
LOCALISATION
Northern Alps – Isère
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
7 000 € (2022)
7 000 € (2021)
The association 82-4000 (named after the 82 Alpine peaks over 4,000 meters) has been dedicated since 2012 to making leisure activities accessible to all. It offers an immersion in the high mountains to people who have no previous experience with them, such as disadvantaged youth or those living in poverty, through a discovery program lasting 5 to 7 days, led by volunteer guides. Special attention is given to fostering trust, solidarity, and teamwork among participants, with the guiding principle being that the mountains serve as educators but not the association itself.
In partnership with organizations committed to ending extreme poverty and building a fairer society, such as ATD Fourth World, Pluriels 94, Le Refuge, or L’École de la 2e chance, 82-4000 organizes around fifteen courses each year to provide moments of adventure in the mountains to those most in need, with a team of about sixty volunteer mountaineers, guides, climbers, and hikers.
Today, 82-4000 is expanding to Haute-Savoie by establishing its new branch in Annecy. We have decided to support them in this initiative by accompanying them on a high mountain training course with the “Second Chance Schools” network (Paris), which aims to combat exclusion for young people who leave the education system without employment or qualifications. The training took place in September 2022 in the heights of Chamonix, with 10 young people aged 16 to 26.
LOCALISATION
Northern Alps – Haute-Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
5 000 € (2021)
The association, based in Tremblay-en-France (93), promotes the social and professional integration of young people from Seine-Saint-Denis using sports as a means of integration. They organize “Fraternité Expeditions” abroad, aiming to achieve both a professional and sporting challenge.
In 2021, they went to Peru, in 2015 to Nepal, and in 2018 to Africa. Each time, expedition members, aged 18 to 25, had to reach a summit. To do this, they must prepare physically and mentally for many months before the trip. In parallel, the ambition is also professional, as these young people must pursue their project by obtaining long-term training or employment. At every step, the association is by their side to support them.
The Snowleader Foundation supported them for their 2021 challenge: Bolivia, with the ascent of Huayna Potosi, at an altitude of 6,088 meters, in March.
LOCALISATION
South America
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
7 000 € (2021)
LOCALISATION
Northern Alps – Haute-Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
15 000 € (for 4 years)
This association, founded in the 1920s, works to preserve and evolve alpine techniques and culture in harmony with urban centers. Their work focuses on sustainable management of high-altitude pastures in Haute-Savoie, maintaining a dynamic agro-pastoral activity, conserving the quality of landscapes and the mountain environment, and preserving mountain social life and alpine cultures.
The project “A Shepherd in my School,” led by the Alpine Economy Society of Haute-Savoie, is an environmental education initiative in partnership with the National Education system. The objective is to raise awareness among children about pastoralism, mountain agriculture, and the natural environments around them.
To bring a physical and sensory experience into this initiative, they offer field trips to mountain pastures at the end of the program (around the month of June) following classroom educational workshops. However, this field trip has become a financial obstacle for schools due to insufficient funds, as the cost falls on them.
To ensure that this mountain excursion is no longer a financial barrier for schools, and because it is essential for children to visit the mountains, our board of directors has decided to support the association in this project for four years. This represents more than 700 schoolchildren aged 3 to 10 years old each year.
LOCALISATION
Alpes du Nord – Hautes-Alpes
SOUTIEN FINANCIER
9 000 € (2021)
15 000 € (pendant 3 ans)
Created in 1969, this association, based in Marseille, operates in the nonprofit sector of holidays for all and educational trips for schools.
Observing the disengagement of local authorities in this area, the association Loisirs Provence Méditerranée has aimed to revive discovery classes for schools in Priority Education Network, offering a very low out-of-pocket cost for these families.
During the winter of 2021, 20 students (CM1-CM2) from the National Elementary School in the 3rd arrondissement of Marseille went on a snow class from January 24th to 28th at the Loisirs Provence Méditerranée center “Le Val Saint-Paul”, located in the high alpine village of Baratier, in the Hautes-Alpes department. The program included skiing lessons with the ESF of the Réallon ski resort (between Chorges and Orcières), snowshoe outings, mountain-themed games, and a ski medal at the end of the stay!
Next, it was the turn of Édouard Vaillant school in Marseille, which organized a trip from May 2nd to 6th with its 21 students. Then, it was the turn of Busserade-Masséna Elementary School, also located in the 3rd arrondissement of Marseille, to go to Baratier. There, 53 students attended a nature and sustainable development class from May 9th to 13th. For them, it was the discovery of the mountain environment, hiking to meet marmots, nature days focusing on the water cycle, etc.
Our financial support significantly reduced the out-of-pocket expenses for families as the Snowleader Foundation covered an average of €80 per child.
What a pleasure it is to share with these children their first discovery of the mountains: from simply seeing peaks for the first time, to observing marmots up close in their natural habitat; their wonder is genuine, touching, and contagious.
LOCALISATION
France
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
10 000 € (for 3 years)
“Baskets Aux Pieds” (BAP) is a non-profit organization that supports and relieves the daily lives of children hospitalized in hematology-oncology (cancer care) units, thanks to nature viewed from the sky and outdoor sports experiences in virtual reality goggles.
Its mission: to accompany hospitalized children affected by cancer, by alleviating painful treatments and attempting to break the isolation in their rooms. BAP’s action is to create a window of calm, immersion, and unique inspiration beyond the hospital walls.
Making the mountains accessible to everyone is possible… what if we moved the mountains to where they can also express themselves, inspire, help, relieve, and accompany? At the Snowleader Foundation, we have decided to push the boundaries and support this organization and the children so that they can access the mountains, even virtually.
BAP aims to be present in the 21 French hospitals with pediatric oncology services: six remain to be opened. Their new project is titled “From Virtual to Reality” for children in remission.
