Outdoor Allies: Brennan Lagasse

Photo credit: Brennan Lagasse. Ski Guiding-Lyngen Alps, Sami Land 

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. Brennan Lagasse wears several professional hats but is most regularly identified as a backcountry skier and ski guide, as well as an Assistant Professor of Sustainability at the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. He lives with his partner Jillian, and their four-year-old daughter Mika on the traditional lands and territories of the Washoe tribe.  

First and most important: what do you like to do outside?

Nature is a gift. Every day I make time to be outside. It is fully a part of my daily life and a center of gratitude. Ideally, I am backcountry skiing. When there is no snow, I would rather be surfing (unless there is surf at home on Lake Tahoe during the winter!). For a few months in summer and fall, I also really enjoy time spent rock climbing, mountain biking, and walking to the lake with my family. 

You are a professor at University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe and also one of the most trusted ski guides and instructors in northern California. It might be easy to see one as the life of the mind and one as the life of the body. How do these two roles connect for you? 

For me, they are not separate. Skiing is an energy source for me. The mountains are different every day, and being in them is a gift. There is reciprocity between my work outside and my work at the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. I channel the energy the mountains bring me into my academic work. Higher education can be a powerful form of resistance and a part of building a better world, one that prioritizes community and action. 

Arctic Refuge- Out in the Arctic Refuge, observing and photographing climate change induced permafrost melt with Sarah James, Charlie Swaney, and UNR students Izzy Prestonn, and Sonya Hernandez. Gwich'in Land

Can you tell us more about your work with tribal leaders? What have you learned?

I have learned that “sustainability” as a word never existed in languages from people like the Washoe, Inupiat, or Gwich’in. Why? The original stewards of these unceded lands were already living it; they embodied it. There was no need for such a word to describe a worldview and way of being. I have spent the majority of my adult life either outside in the backcountry, or inside as a student or educator. The time I have spent with land, water, and air defenders of the sacred San Francisco Peaks, The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the areas surrounding Lake Tahoe have shaped how I see the world as much as the time I have spent in the mountains. They are not separate in their influence. Over the years of visits to Arctic Village, Alaska to work with and learn from my dear friend and mentor, Neets’aii Gwich’in Elder Dr. Sarah James I have learned what it means to truly live in sustainability, and flight for regeneration. Sarah has supported me to develop relationships with many allies, accomplices, and co-conspirators including other leaders who overtime have also become friends and mentors, such as Inupiaq Elder Robert Thompson. This battle, this way of life, and the daily efforts to support sustainability, justice, and peace are long-haul endeavors. 

Brennan skiing Yosemite Valley- PC Clay Josephy Ahwahnechee Land

You do a lot of work and advocacy on climate change. It can be such an intimidating issue to work on, because it is global at scale. What do you suggest for individuals to do to be part of the solution to climate change? Do you have any wisdom on not getting overwhelmed by the scale of the problem?

It is overwhelming. The institutional and structural systems that profit from the continued destruction of the planet want us to see climate change as an individual issue. Combatting the climate crisis is not an individual battle, but individual voices are needed to advance the macro scale of policy and systems change. Start small, and ramp up as best as you can handle from there. There is a vast community of people in the world working for the climate. And our sense of hope keeps the movement going. 

Lightning round 

Favorite piece of gear right now: Praxis-3D Powderboards (ultralight layup, hand crafted custom skis built in Lake Tahoe: https://www.praxisskis.com/ )

On your reading list: SlingshotCollective Zine  

Best close-to-home destination: West Shore