To celebrate forward momentum in diversifying the ski industry, we wanted to take a moment in Black History Month to highlight an organization which A-Basin is proud to partner with.
Blackpackers is a Colorado Springs based organization that was started in 2019 by Patricia Ann Cameron. But Patricia’s desire to get people out into the backcountry started well before Blackpackers became an official non-profit.
“I decided I wanted to start backpacking and I was raising my son. Knowing I was raising a son in Colorado Springs, I wanted him to get outdoor access and I had to research that. So, I started Googling how to backpack. It took a lot of trial and error.”
As an EMT and single mother, Patricia saved money to get used gear and went out for her first backpacking trip that spring of 2017 alone. She went into 11 Mile State Park, hiked into woods, and spent a night alone and freezing. But when she woke up and saw the sparkling lake underneath the mountains at sunrise, she thought, “I survived, and it’s so beautiful, and I fell in love with it.”
After that, she spent every weekend in 2017 backpacking alone or with her son. She made it work anyway she had to. She wanted to teach her son how to fish so she Googled it. She needed a tent so she got one on Craigslist. She started asking her friends to go with them and they all said the same thing: I’d love to go but I don’t have the gear.
“So, I started getting donated gear and buying used gear to take all my friends.” That’s how Backpackers initially started in 2013, as an officially unofficial club where she brought friends camping and fishing and helped them see how unintimidating the outdoors can really be.
“We have so much fun all our meetups end up being cookouts or reunions and we all watch each other’s kids, we bond together, we already have that shared experience of being Black in Colorado.”
In 2019, Patricia made Blackpackers an LLC and took 35 people into 11 Mile State Park, where she had her first experience solo backpacking. Now, in 2025 Blackpackers is a non-profit with the mission of economic equity and outdoor education.
“We try to find people who historically have not seen themselves outdoors and give them gear, risk management education, and wilderness medicine. Get people access to these things and it’s not just for fun, but the outdoors is a huge economy in Colorado and if we can get them involved in the economy then they can have more equity.”
Their first ski trip was in 2021 and have been coming back to A-Basin ever since. In 2013 Patricia came to A-Basin for the first time with her son and a friend. While she didn’t fall in love with skiing or snowboarding that trip, her son did and she wanted to keep him coming back to the mountain.
“We picked A-Basin because it's accessible to both Denver and Colorado Spring folks. And it’s a mountain that felt comfortable. It’s not the most beginner mountain but we found it’s so comforting there. We can all see each other in the base area. And we have had so much support.”
Blackpackers visit A-Basin 2-4 times a year with their next visit on April 12, 2025.
Historically, winter sports have been an exclusive industry. With locations often based far from metro areas, unaffordable equipment, and a lack-of accessible education, most disenfranchised communities – especially Black and Brown communities – are kept from engaging. No ski area, including A-Basin, is immune from this pattern.
To try to break this pattern, we have to continue to be out loud with our support for groups that diversify the industry and support the economic equity of our local, state-wide, and national communities.
“The goal is to not to tokenize people. Try not to make it this thing. It’s weird to say, ‘hey we don’t see Black people here a lot.’ You can be supportive without doing that. Just being kind, not drawing attention, and tokenizing.”
“I think of Blackpackers as a school.” Patricia, who is 5 times Nols certified and still sits on the Nols board, is now leaning further into the education aspect of the group than ever before. “I want to get people doing this on their own. So, they’re not just hanging out at Blackpackers events, I want to see people do this on their own.”
She knows the best way to empower anyone in a new adventure is through knowledge and giving them control over their own situation whether that be on the ski slope, backpacking the Colorado Trail, or in a classroom learning wilderness first aid. “There are industry standards – all the things that I see as an industry standard I’m trying to pass along to other folks to do what they need to.”
Patricia’s passion is Blackpackers. It’s a collection of learning, exploring, and having fun to build a community of empowered people.
“It’s very much not just for Black people but for everybody who finds themselves in a marginalized group. We know what it’s like to be othered so we do a good job of not othering.”
And even while pushing the education component, she admits:
“No matter what I do, it becomes a party. It’s a really good time…But that’s what cultures are, it’s shared experiences.”
More about Blackpackers:
Blackpackers was started in 2019 to address the gap in representation in the outdoors. Patricia, a single mother, struggled with the means and knowledge to take her young son on outdoor adventures. Patricia saved up money working weeks of overtime as an EMT to buy her initial set of backpacking/gear and took herself on her first overnight backpacking trip–alone, and in a snowstorm. Mostly self-taught, she hopes to make it easier for families to access the outdoors by making the initial investment for them. Follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and X.
