Last night at the Majestic Montana 2 week adventure camp session, we had an awesome Alpenolympic talent show! There was a tie for “Gold Medal” between Via (she performed rap-style song about each camper and staff at camp) and Maddie + Alana (they performed Phantom of the Opera singing and more). One more day of camp before the girls return home, great memories!

Alpengirls in Hawaii and Montana are backpacking under clear skies and with much Aloha! All is good at camp!

Alpengirl logo novelties such as bumper stickers, hats, hoodies, t-shirts, patches, Alpengirl recipes, Alpenyoga routine, bags and more will be available for sale to campers during mid-camp on Montana and Washington sessions. Typically we are not able to sell these items in Alaska, Hawaii or Norway due to a restricted number of bags allowed for air travel. There are no pre-ordered items available, all novelties are “first-come, first-served” and re-orders for different sizes and colors are not available. Once these things are gone, they are gone.

Alpengirl offers a 3-day overnight horse pack trip into the Centennial Mountains of SW Montana as a part of the Montana Girls Horse Camp session.

Here’s just a few photos that demonstrate preparing for the pack trip - the girls are packing their gear in a “manty”. These are positioned on the mules that pack all our gear for us into the mountains, the girls ride horse behind the mule train into the wild.

When Montana Alpengirl’s are not crushing through wild Class IV white water rafting rapids - there’s all this other fun stuff the girls get to do while rafting on flat water stretches of the Yellowstone or Gallatin river… floating next to the boat in the water, sun tanning, watching for wildlife, and participating in Alpenolympic water events!

The pictures here capture the other side of rafting that you’d don’t normally see on summer adventure camp brochures, ENJOY!

Ranger Danger

[Play during Yellowstone or Teton Nat’l Park tour days. This is and Alpenolympic Event]

Equipment:
Ranger Danger Fact Sheets, Ranger Hat & Glasses, & “Hi, I’m Ranger Danger” name tag.

Set up:
Part One: Ranger Danger Fact Sheets are dispensed the night before entering the Park. Each player is asked to study the fact sheet they are given, to become relatively knowledgeable about their given subject, and are informed that they will be asked to relay some of that knowledge to our group in the Park tomorrow.
Part Two: Upon entering the Park, Alpenguides will introduce the game, by explaining that “when you see your subject we will stop and you will wear the Ranger Danger costume and be asked to provide a brief presentation upon the subject. You should be prepared to share information on your subject at a moment’s notice. You will be earn points according to overall presentation, creativity, delivery of clear and memorable facts, & delivery of a false fact (or lie) intended to mislead the group.”

Begin:
‘Rangers’ will present their 5-minute Ranger Danger talk to the group. After the ‘Ranger’s’ talk, each player must state one (1) fact learned during the talk. (Each fact will be unique and not a repetition of the same fact or facts.) Each player must recall a correct fact to earn her chance to guess the false fact. After the players recall actual facts, each player verbally announces which fact she guesses is the false fact.

Points:
The ‘Ranger’ earns one (1) point for every correctly stated fact recalled by the audience. The ‘Ranger’ also earns one (1) point for every incorrect guess of the false fact. All players can earn one (1) point toward their own ‘Ranger Danger’ score for correctly guessing the false fact. Overall presentation and creativity points are given to each ‘Ranger’ at Alpenguides discretion.

“All of Alpengirl’s delicious meals, chosen from the special Alpengirl cookbook, are not only tasty but healthy for your body too. The low-sugar foods taste just as great if not greater than the high-sugar, high-calorie, high-carb stuff. Pancakes made with whole grain, oats and fruit are sinfully good, while remaining healthy and giving you enough energy to get through all of the camp activities before lunch. So, to anyone who believes health food will never be as good as unhealthy food, you obviously need to spend two-weeks at an Alpengirl Camp. The food made for campers, or rather, mostly by campers, is also very unique. Foods and flavors I would have never thought to put together touch bored taste buds and create powerful flavor explosions! Such as Breakfast Quesadillas with melty cheese and fruit salsa or a Chinese Chicken Salad. Many times girls event try foods they haven’t ever heard of, opening them up to new palettes. Even in the rare occasion that someone doesn’t like a meal, there are always other options. All in all, the food at Alpengirl is above and beyond any other camps food, and most other food for that matter. If not go to Alpengirl for any other reason, at least go to try the delicious camp food.” ~ Athena, Alpengirl 2009

All Over the World ~ by Camilla from Colombia, an Alaska 2009 Alpengirl Camper

One week before I came to camp I was really nervous because of being from another country. It scared me that the other girls wouldn’t accept me because I was not from U.S.A.

When I arrived to Anchorage and I met the other 5 Alpengirls I realized that this camp is now internationally known because there were girls from all over the world (India, France, Colombia, USA) and we all had something in common. We were all going to be Alaska Alpengirls of Summer 2009!

The days passed and we got to know each other; we couldn’t stop talking about how our lives were back home. That’s when I realized that we were all different and equal at the same time.

With Alpengirl I learned to respect other people; I realized that the world is huge and that there is amazing people all over the world. At the beginning we were only 6 strangers and 2 Alpenguides; but, two-weeks later we had become a family; an international family of Alpengirl.

Dear Alpengirl,

My daughter likes the Alpengirl camp session descriptions, but she is skeptical about a girls’ camp. She is a bit dismissive of “girly-girls” and thinks that a girls camping experience will have too much gossip, talk of hairstyles, etc. What would you say to her?

- Parent of a non-girly-girl

Dear Parent of a non-girly-girl,

Your daughter has a valid concern here, Alpengirl is an all-girl camp and very social due to our constant contact with each other for typically 14-days. However, most girls that join us are already outdoor-minded girls who are interested in bonding over things beyond hairstyle talk or gossip.

There are all types that join Alpengirl - some are already Alpengirl types and others are brand new to wilderness and tent camping adventure camp and are willing to give it a try to find out if they are an Alpengirl. Girls easily move away from make-up and “girly” needs at camp, but, they seem to like to talk about it and for some it is just talk and for others it’s a real challenge to them. They end up feeling pretty great when it’s all said and done and the experiences lasts a lifetime and builds great self-esteem for girls.

At our all girls camp, each girl can be a leader, in fact, one camper is selected to be a “Leader of the Day” each day at Alpengirl. There’s no competition over boys. Girls feel confident in trying new things and pushing themselves in the small all-girl group led by fun outdoor minded positive female role models who many girls keep in touch with beyond camp session dates. These women are the key to the success of the group - their bios are on our website and these women are mature professionals who lead lives full of adventure, education, health and fitness.

Our groups are limited to 10-12 girls and 2 Alpenguides, so, social dynamics and how people are fitting in or not, is easily supervised with such a small group. Our trips are busy and active and we are constantly mixing and mingling the girls and challenging them to branch out and embrace each unique person in the group as a sister. Alpengirl is NOT comparable to a traditional “sleep-away camp” with lots of kids and a few inexperienced younger staff to assist in creating positive female teen interactions.

This said, “girls will be girls” - and certain conversations can be in a direction that some girls may not be interested in, such as talk about hair, make-up, boys, etc.. All I can say to this is, girls that join Alpengirl are willing to try being an “outdoor girl” and true blue Alpengirls and our Alpenguides are a great influence that shows them a way to do it.

Alpengirl Camp is an outdoor, nature-minded all girl camp that encourages girls to find their inner-Alpengirl and display their innate abilities as an “Adventuress!”

Read what teen girls say about Alpengirl

- Alpengirl

A “Dear Alpengirl” email letter received today at Alpengirl…

Dear Alpengirl,
I am a vegetarian and was wondering if there will be vegetarian food, but I’m not a vegan so dairy is fine.
I was also wondering if it will be easy to change contacts.
-Vegetarian & Contact-Wearer

Dear Vegetarian & Contact-Wearer,

Thank you for your excellent question!

At Alpengirl, there is ALWAYS a vegetarian meal option. Many of our Alpenguides (camp counselors) are vegetarian too and are accustomed to preparing delicious, filling and nutritious vegetarian camp food. There is usually at least 1 vegetarian camper in every Alpengirl camp session, vegetarians are more than welcome to join us.

There are usually a few people at Alpengirl that wear contacts during camp – campers and camp staff. We always have soap and water available for washing hands before and after cooking, using the bathroom, changing contacts, etc. Back-up lenses and back-up eye glasses (in a hard sided storage case) are recommended just in case a contact lens is lost during camp in the wilderness. Changing contacts at home is easier of course – but, girls do it all the time in the woods at Alpengirl without much issue – it’s a great place to ask for help from your fellow campers and camp guides.

Contact lenses and vegetarianism should not restrict you from attending girls overnight wilderness camp, these things are easy to accommodate at Alpengirl.

Looking forward to learning more about you and to adventuring with you this summer at girls camp!

- Alpengirl