Summits are reached everywhere in nature, not just at the top of mountains. We all have our own inner peaks that we want to climb, or barriers we want to break through.
We asked you to tell us your dream summit, which we could help you achieve with adidas TERREX expertise, support, and products.
We were overwhelmed by the ideas you sent in. Due to the number and quality of the entries received, we have decided to bring five projects to life, instead of the three we originally planned.
From empowering teens to climb a mountain in Colombia, to cleaning up hiking trails in rural China, here are the five winning entries chosen by the judging panel:
SUMMIT OF THE SENDERO STORYTELLER (ADVENTURE)
NS DAVID
PROJECT LOCATION:
EL POTRERO CHICO, MEXICO
NS David is a rock climber, writer, and artist who grew up in the Philippines, but is now based in the US. Her dream summit is to climb Sendero Luminoso, a highly technical limestone wall in El Potero Chico, Mexico. It’s a feat way out of her comfort zone, but NS is proudly strong-willed and stubborn, traits she honed during childhood as the extremely small sister of older brothers.
Why does she want to do it? “I like taking on big daunting things and what’s more daunting than endless lines of rock reaching into the sky?”. For NS, climbing is as much about the wall as it is an exploration of herself. “I wanted to find something that’s at the absolute edge of my limit, throw myself at it and see what becomes of me,” she says.
SUMMIT OF THE IMPOSSIBLE (ADVENTURE)
FRANZISKA BETZ
PROJECT LOCATION:
MONT BLANC MASSIF, FRANCE
Franziska Betz is an aspiring mountaineer from Berlin. She decided to take up the sport following a trip to Nepal in 2019 and two years later climbed her first peak over 4,000m. During that week-long trip, they were the only group on the mountain to have an all-woman rope team. “It was such an incredible and empowering experience and I knew I wanted to do it again and again,” she says.
Her dream summit is to climb a peak in the Mont Blanc massif, again with an all-women rope team, overcoming the health challenges and self-doubt that arrived when she was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease. “I want to encourage people to face that thing that seems impossible to reach,” she says.
SUMMIT OF THE MOUNTAIN VILLAGE CHILDREN (COMMUNITY)
YAO JIA
PROJECT LOCATION:
RURAL VILLAGES, CHINA
Growing up in a remote mountain village in China, Yao Jia hated the steep tracks and seemingly endless trails on his daily commute to school. However, he now realizes those daily climbs provided him with the perfect foundation for trail running, a sport he grew to love as an adult.
Yao’s dream summit is to inspire a new generation of trail runners and outdoor enthusiasts in rural China, by organising a series of introductory events for young people on local trails. “I want to enable them to explore their home villages from a new perspective as outdoor lovers,” he says.
SUMMIT OF FREEDOM (COMMUNITY)
MIGUEL ANGEL ACOSTA RUEDA
PROJECT LOCATION:
SIERRA NEVADA DE SANTA MARTA, COLOMBIA
Working as a community organiser with teenagers in Colombia, Miguel Angel Acosta Rueda knows only too well the challenges that young people face there, especially when it comes to mental health and addiction. But he’s also a big believer in the power of outdoor sport and spending time in nature to change these young lives for the better.
For his dream summit Miguel has chosen to take 25 young people from the city to climb Cuchilla de San Lorenzo in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. It is a 2,200m peak with a tough 40 km approach at the start. “Through nature and sport, we can help young people get away from the things that have been overwhelming them,” he says.
SUMMIT OF THE MOUNTAIN CLEAR UP (SUSTAINABILITY)
YANG QIN
PROJECT LOCATION:
TRAILS AROUND CHINA’S BIGGEST CITIES
Since 2016, Yang Qin has spent every weekend hiking or trail running in the mountains around his home in Chengdu, China. But whenever he’s there, he’s shocked to see plastic bottles, food packaging and other litter scattered besides the trails. It’s a problem which he believes is getting worse as more people spend time in the outdoors.
“For a long time I have been picking up waste on every outdoor trip I do,” he says, “but the power one person has is limited.” For Yang’s dream summit, he wants to educate and mobilise hikers and trail runners from China’s biggest cities to help clean up the mountains, fostering a new community of environmental stewards.
THE EXPERT JUDGES
1. KAREEMAH BATTS (Climber and founder of the Adaptive Climbing Group)
2. RASHAD FRAZIER (Co founder Camp Yoshi)
3. RUTH CROFT (adidas TERREX trail running athlete)
4. DEMARCUS PAUL (Professional adidas BMX athlete)
5. MELISSA LA NEVÉ (adidas TERREX athlete and professional rock climber)
6. RAPHAELA HAUG (adidas TERREX athlete and alpinist)
7. YADI GUAN (Trail runner and filmmaker)
8. LISE BILLON (adidas TERREX athlete and mountaineer)"