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 – Haute-Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€10,000 (2023), €10,000 (2024)
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 to 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.
‘Everyone is Heading for the Mountains!’ aims at educating 150 children on mountain environment (medical-educational institutions, priority education schools, etc.) by means of activities taking place in nature, in all seasons. Building positive memories in the mountains is the main goal. Three trips will be organised, with four to six groups of children, to watch, get to know, and discover mountains, as well as to create a connection with this natural space.
‘Everyone is Heading for the Mountains!’ aims at educating 150 children on mountain environment (medical-educational institutions, priority education schools, etc.) by means of activities taking place in nature, in all seasons. Building positive memories in the mountains is the main goal. Three trips will be organised, with four to six groups of children, to watch, get to know, and discover mountains, as well as to create a connection with this natural space.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€9,800 (2024)
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Haute-Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€8,000 (2024)
YAMBI wishes to facilitate the integration of exiled persons living in the French Alps by means of mountain sports, and social-professional guidance. This initiative relies on the therapeutic and friendly aspect of leisure sports, and on the force of the symbolical parallel between the effort necessary to reach a summit, and the difficulty the road to integration poses, in the hosting society.
This translates through sports, cultural, and artistic activities: skiing, snowboarding, hiking, rock climbing, mountaineering, paragliding, swimming, cycling, yoga, plastic arts, cultural visits, market gardening, etc. The association organises one to three trips per week, according to the season. These activities allow refugees to regain confidence in themselves, and in the future, to get out of their isolation, and meet the locals, practice French, and discover culture, finding a better physical and mental health.
YAMBI joins our 2024 winners with their ‘Mother and Child’ project. The goal is to help very poor exiled children and their mothers discover mountains surrounding Annecy. Hikes, ski classes, snowshoeing, rock climbing, a three-day trip in summer, but also market gardening in the association’s urban vegetable garden are on the list starting with May.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Isère
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€8,000 (2024)
Accompanying the ecological transition in the Vercors, from raising awareness to taking action, is the creed of the Vert&Co association in Isére, based at Villard de Lans.
Their ambition is to guide residents on the road to ecological action, and then supporting their initiatives in the long run.
Regardless of the information or commitment level, this guidance intervenes at various stages of the transition process: information and raising awareness, encouraging practical changes, committing to long-term actions, etc.
Vert&Co will gather 50 children ‘from the upper’ and ‘the lower’ parts of Grenoble around the subject of mountain environmental protection, with water being the central element. These students from CM1 and CM2 (6 to 11 years old) will exchange letters throughout the school year, sharing their vision on mountains, whether surrounded by them, or seeing them from the city. Then, they will make several trips together in the Vercors.
The project wishes to convey concepts like: respect towards nature, putting a stop to the use of mountain resources, and, instead, living in harmony with it, not considering it solely as a leisure environment, but also a valuable territory. And finally, feeling the mountains more than using them.
This project is led by Vert&Co in partnership with the mountain / cross-country skiing school in Méaudre, that works with public school students.
LOCATION
Pyrénées
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€7,700 (2024)
The association accompanies all persons with hearing disabilities (hearing and / or visual deficiencies), with or without an associated disability, of all ages, in Nouvelle Aquitaine. It aims at promoting fulfilment, well-being, and growth within society.
Next winter, ‘Together on the Summit’ will take 42 deaf children (with associated disabilities) in the Aure valley (the Pyrenees). Most of these children have never been able to see mountains, and even less snow: the disabilities they have allow very little hope for trips, as these need complex logistics. Challenge accepted!
LOCATION
Pyrénées
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€7,500 (2024)
The Izards Attitude association was created in October 2013, in the Izards neighbourhood, Toulouse, by three residents who wished to invest in the public space in a positive way, despite difficulties linked to drugs, and shootings in the area. The aim was to create a dialogue centre, and a place where families can be heard.
Within the association, around twenty young people were identified, with a high level of vulnerability, intra-familial, school, or social violence experiences. These young people are socially, and psychologically isolated. Their wish is to break this social isolation, and help sharing experiences, and mutual help. For this, hiking away from their daily environment proves to be a relevant tool. Therefore, the association built a project around this getaway day by means of hikes in the mountains.
The association wishes to organise these getaways in the mountains with young people from the priority neighbourhood in Toulouse, away from this environment. Along with facing a real lack of nature, these young people have a real need of getting away from the city, open their horizon, breathe, and re-build themselves. To this end, these regular trips in the mountains at Bagnères de Bigorre, or Laruns are a true breath of fresh air for them. Thus, walking and mountains become a therapeutic tool.
LOCATION
Alpes du Sud – Hautes-Alpes
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€6,000 (2024)
‘Or Du Temps’ works to support everything that is alive. And this work starts with the human and social connections that they build. Their mission is to unite people beyond stereotypes and clichés. It is why the association works mainly with young people facing challenges (in children homes, under legal protection for minors, etc.), people with disabilities, non-accompanied minors, etc. Their main goal is to reinstate the concept of living together, convey mutual respect, self-respect, and respect towards the living all together, reduce inequality in accessing outdoor activities, educating through sports.
Today, ‘Or du Temps’ focuses on get-away / team growth projects and trips, 2 to 5-day long, with young public. They go from the connection with nature via camping, rock climbing, hiking, to the connection to the living, a discussion group, workshops, etc.
‘Youth on the Path to Resilience’ is the project that the association proposes; a beautiful promise for young people coming from priority neighbourhoods in the Lyon region. From Gap to Mont Viso, passing through training sessions in Chamonix, the programme is dense, and extending over a few months: rock climbing, ridge traverses, mountaineering preparation, skyline trails, etc. The objective is to climb Mont Viso, 3,841m high, with the way to the top being more important than the final destination! In the beginning of the adventure, each member of the project will define their own summit, their own intention. Why this adventure? What are my goals? My dreams? Who do I want to become?
A documentary film will be made to tell the story of the group, to share their joys, their fears, their difficulties, and their success. Its goal is to keep the project alive, once it reaches its end, and to inspire other young people.
LOCATION
Alpes Maritimes
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€6,000 (2023), €6,000 (2024)
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.
In 2024, we are renewing our support for a new multi-day trip: another group of young people from the ‘Les Muriers’ (REP) secondary school in Cannes La Bocca will enjoy 3,000m peaks (Balcon du Gélas, Malédie, Clapier, and Mont Ténibre) between the 6th and the 13th of July this year. Along with hiking, students will discover life in the hut.
The second stage of this action consists of a hiking programme, with primary school pupils, from the working-class areas in Nice, to discover natural areas, and hiking in the Alpes-Maritime mountains, and in the Mercantour National Park. 100 pupils, aged 6 to 12 years old, will be accompanied for at least three hiking trips during the 2024-2025 school year.
The Fouque association welcomes and looks after children in difficulty, associated with the services provided by Aide Sociale à l’Enfance, or delinquency. These young people are entrusted to their care by social services, or by juvenile judges. It manages in particular seven centres for young people in social difficulty, in Marseille and one in Aubagne.
‘Ulysse’s Voyage’ is a project that offers young children from shelters the possibility to access the mountains. For this, they will start by discovering rock climbing in the Calanques National Park, and in Sainte Victoire, as of April 2024. Lastly, for young people (13-16 years old) who are more motivated, the project will continue with a mission: they will go on their first multi-pitch climb. To achieve this mini-adventure, the approach is done on a sailing ship, to raise awareness on eco-friendly transportation. Upon their return, the young people will learn to calculate the carbon footprint of the trip.
LOCATION
Alpes du Sud – Bouches-du-Rhône & Corse
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€3,000 (2024)
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 – Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€15,000 (2023)
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 connect to their surrounding environment, and 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)
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 Sud – Hautes Alpes
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€6,000 (2023)
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!’.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Haute-Savoie, Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€5,000 (2023), €10,000 (2022), €5,000 (2021)
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
Mountain Ranges
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€6,000 (2022)
Mountain Riders is an educational association focusing on ecological transition. The association acts mainly by encouraging children and young people to become actors of change, with the goal of preserving mountains, that are both essential, and fragile.
‘Mountain us!’ took more than 200 young people from Chambéry in the mountains during the school year, helping them have an outdoors experience, but also learn a team dynamic. The trips in the mountains were an immersive experience, with at least an overnight stay. The goal was to contribute to the youth’s fulfilment, and development of a civic awareness.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€3,000 (2022)
The teachers from the Gustave Rivet school in Domène have decided to stand up from their desks! Therefore, during the 2021-2022 school year, they helped 50 students (9-11 years old) discover mountains through several hikes, peaking with a final push to the Étendard hut, 2,430m high, where they spent their first night in a hut.
In parallel, mountains were approached through other school subjects: calculating elevations in maths, reading the history of mountains in French, studying alpine geography, etc. The question of global warming was raised in class, along with water cycle in nature, and analysing old and recent photos to observe receding glaciers.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Isère
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€2,000 (2022)
‘Les Cartables du Soleil’ is an association created to respond to material and social challenges that disabled children face. In the winter of 2022, volunteers organised a trip in the mountains with an introduction into sit-skiing, that provided children with a feeling of fulfilment.
Together with Comité Handisport 05, Les Cartables du Soleil organised in March 2022 a ski class for 12 children with motor disabilities, but also with associated cognitive disorders. Most of them were not familiar with the mountains, and had never sit-skied.
*Unités localisées pour l’inclusion scolaire: Local Institutions for School Inclusion
LOCATION
Alpes du Sud – Hautes Alpes
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€1,700 (2022)
The Grenoble French Alpine Club, the Youth section, helps young people from the working-class areas, and often far from mountain-related activities, discover all the richness and values that mountains nearby have to offer. It also facilitates experiencing the concept of ‘collective’ and a sports evolution by means of a discovery programme including 5 to 7 trips. (One being an overnight stay in a hut)
By their side, the Snowleader Foundation covers all the costs of overnight accommodation in huts for young people, as well as the fees for mountain guides and mountain leaders participating in trips.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Isère
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€7,000 € (2022), €7,000 (2021)
The 82-4000 Solidaires association’s mission is making hobbies available to all. It offers an immersion in the high mountain environment to people who are not at all familiar with it (young people in difficult situations, from poor families, etc.) by means of a 5 to 7-day discovery programme, overseen by volunteering mountain guides. A special attention is given to connections arising from the rope team dynamic: trust and solidarity.
In 2022, 82-4000 Solidaires created a branch in Annecy, Haute-Savoie. We have decided to support them in this process by accompanying them on a high-mountain course in collaboration with the ‘Les Écoles de la 2e Chance’ network. The course took place in September 2022 above Chamonix, with 10 young people between 16 and 26 years old.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Haute-Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€5,000 (2021)
The association promotes social and professional inclusion for young people from Seine-Saint-Denis using sports as an inclusion vector. For this, they organise ‘Fraternity Expeditions’ abroad, aiming at providing a professional and sports challenge. In 2021, they headed to Peru, in 2015 to Nepal, and in 2018 to Africa. Each time, the members of the expedition, aged between 18 and 25 years old, had to reach a summit.
The Snowleader Foundation supported them in their 2021 challenge: Bolivia, with the ascent of Huayna Potosi, a 6,088m peak, in March.
LOCATION
South America
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€7,000 (2021)
LOCALISATION
Alpes du Nord – Haute-Savoie
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€15,000 (over a period of 4 years)
This association works towards a sustainable management of the Haute-Savoie alpine pastures, maintaining a dynamic agro-pastoral activity, preserving the quality of landscapes and of the mountain environment, as well as maintaining social life in the mountains and alpine cultures.
The ‘A Shepherd in My School’ project is an environmental educational initiative, in collaboration with the National Education. The objective is to raise awareness among children concerning pastoralism, mountain agriculture, and the natural areas that surround them.
Following educational workshops in class, children head for the pastures in spring, thanks to our support – schools could not afford the cost for such outings. In numbers, we are talking about more than 700 pupils from 3 to 11 years old.
LOCATION
Alpes du Nord – Hautes Alpes
SOUTIEN FINANCIER
€9,000 (2021), €15,000 (over a period of 3 years)
Based in Marseille, this association works in the field of associative holidays for everyone, as well as educational trips for schools.
Given the lack of engagement of territorial collectivities at this level, the association wanted to relaunch the discovery classes for schools in the Priority Educational Network, inviting families to bring a very small financial contribution thanks to our support. Students from schools in the 3rd district of Marseille (National, Busserade-Masséna…) could therefore discover the mountains of Hautes Alpes
LOCATION
France
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
€10,000 (over a period of 3 years)
‘Baskets aux pieds’ accompanies children admitted in the cancer ward during their daily activities and helps with their care, thanks to nature seen from the sky, and to outdoor sports in an immersive version, through VR goggles.
Making mountains accessible to all is possible. And what if we moved mountains to a place where they can also express themselves, inspire, help, relieve and accompany? At the Snowleader Foundation, we decided to push boundaries and accompany this association so that sick children can have access to the mountains, even if just virtually.
