Outdoor Allies: Aaron Mike

Ever wondered how you can do more for public lands but you aren’t sure where to start? Outdoor Alliance’s Outdoor Allies series explores how other outdoor adventurers got their start in advocacy work and their advice for how you can harness your passion for the outdoors into advocacy for the land and water you love. Aaron Mike is a veteran rock climber, owner of Pangaea Mountain Guides, and Native Lands Coordinator for the Access Fund. He has incorporated advocacy and volunteer work as core values of his rock climbing philosophy and as a positive means of influencing youth, especially in his homeland, the Navajo Nation.

I’d love to start by hearing more about where you grew up, your background, and what you like to do outside.

Yá’át’ééh, Aaron Mike here! I am a member of the Navajo Nation and I’m from Gallup, NM. I grew up both on and off of the Navajo Nation, spending any spare time outside on the land hiking, climbing, and sheepherding with my grandmother. The climbing part was more of scampering around on formations rather than the technical sport of rock climbing, which is currently illegal in the Navajo Nation. Spending time outside on the Navajo Nation in Monument Valley, Sanders, and Navajo Station laid the foundation for my adult life, which is spent as a rock climbing athlete, ski junkie, and all-around outdoor sports enthusiast.

You have a pretty full plate right now. Will you tell us a little about some of the projects you are doing with Access Fund, with Len Necefer, and with NativesOutdoors?

Currently, the projects are plentiful because there is a lot of work that we must do to protect our mother earth and become a responsible community in the outdoor space. I’m constantly learning new ways to become a better advocate in this process. My recent work has been geared toward both building the presence of indigenous peoples in outdoor spaces through athletic pursuits and story-telling, as well as codifying Tribal/ traditional knowledge into management plans for public lands. In reality, this means projects ranging from bikepacking to rock climbing to forest service management plan revisions to countrywide guidelines for responsible recreation.

It seems like a lot of your work is about building bridges between indigenous communities and outdoor recreation. Will you tell us about what led you to that work?

Honestly, I never expected to be working in the lanes that I currently am. For the majority of my life, I have been an athlete in one sport or another and when I found rock climbing 17 years ago, I approached it as such. It wasn’t until a good friend of mine, Erik Murdock, asked me if I was interested in advocacy that I realized my ability to use my passion for rock climbing to give back to my Navajo community and others. Since then, I’ve felt that advocating for indigenous opportunities and wellness has come organically and enhances my rock climbing experience.

From your perspective, what are the biggest issues in the recreation and advocacy space right now?

I think the biggest opportunities for improvement and growth in these spaces revolve around coming together to protect our environment and learning from one another on how to do this in a more comprehensive way.

What do you hope the future holds for the outdoors?

I hope that the future holds a more connected, evolved outdoor community. In order to achieve this, however, in the short term, our community needs to ask hard questions and accept the answers that the land provides to us. These questions include topics like capacity, sustainability, and appropriate recreational uses in areas that may or may not be high profile.

Lighting Round:

Favorite place to get outside: the North Cascades

Another activist you admire: Chris Kalman

Most used piece of gear you have: My trusty ATC Guide