An Interview with Jasmine Sandhu, one of our earlier leaders, Jasmine Sandhu. She has now taken on more a mentored role, guiding and encouraging the new leaders and volunteers.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your journey to the PNW.
I went to school at the University of Washington and then moved to the Boston area looking for new adventures. I loved climbing and was heading up to the White Mountains on a weekly basis for rock climbing. I also took a year off and went trekking in Nepal like the Annapurna Circuit, Everest Base Camp, Island peak etc. My friends and I would fly into Seattle to climb in the North Cascades. On one of the trips when we climbed Mt Shuksan and attempted Baker, I had this moment of “Why did I ever leave” and decided to come back to PNW to be closer to the mountains and my family.

2. How did you hear about Asha? Can you tell us more about how the idea for a Climbing program was born?
I knew Sandeep from my climbing days and met folks who were volunteering with other Asha programs. In 2010, we had a couple of friends from Asha, who wanted to climb Mt Rainier. At that time, Sandeep was heavily involved with the Mountaineers and volunteered to help train the enthusiastic new climbers for a summit attempt. Back in the beginning this was more like a private climb, but given their affinity to Asha, they decided to raise funds for Asha anyways.

3. So when did it officially became part of the Asha programs?
The 2010 attempt had some challenging conditions on the mountains and not all of them could summit. However they had a good time on the mountain and the next year the interest had spread and we had a larger group wanting to climb Rainier. In 2012, we officially became part of Asha. We had info sessions, fliers distributed and help train the new batch while doing our own climbs. As part of the training we would also climb St Helens and Adams. We would share our expertise and help them become comfortable for the big climbs. It was not as structured as the Mountaineers, but we had fun and raised money for Asha.

4. Back in the early days, the climbs were driven by experienced volunteers. How did we transition to enlist a guiding company to be our climbing partners?
It was not all completely volunteer driven. The growing interest to climb Rainier, meant that we had a lot of people signed up with us. Sandeep would enlist the help of his Mountaineer buddies to take some of our climbers, but we still had to outsource to a guiding company (KAF adventures) to support our other climbers.
In 2014, while on his paternity leave, Sandeep decided to quit his job and start Miyar Adventures. This also meant Sandeep had to cut back on his volunteer hours with Asha, to focus on his new venture. We continued to enlist KAF, who were accommodating of our climbers. Then Miyar came to Asha with a proposal to be the official partners. The advantage we got was reduced cost and leverage Sandeep’s expertise.

5. Can you recount a memorable trip from your volunteering days with Asha?
Gosh there are so many! There’s one in particular that stands out. We had scheduled for snow skills session with an early start of 6:30 AM. During the training days, we had some issues of folks not showing up on time and we insisted that people show up on time. Then the day before the session, Sandeep and I were cragging at Index. Sandeep, who was part of the Everett Mountain Rescue, got a pager alert about rescue at Wallace falls. We decided to stop by to check if everything was okay and ended up staying until 2:30 of the next morning. By the time we got back, it was 4 in the morning. We got a couple of hours of sleep in and rushed to make it to the snow skills session, given how we insisted that everyone be on time!

6. What motivates you to go outside?
It’s nice to be in the mountains. Fun to meet and talk with new people, develop special friendships while training and walking along a glacier. It’s just an interesting environment that lets people bond in ways unlike an office environment.

7. What does adventure mean to you?
A little bit of the unknown, to be challenged and get out of my comfort zone. I also love the problem solving aspect of it. Rock climbing is like a puzzle, there’s the initial butterflies, then you commit to it and make it happen.

8. Do you have a favorite place to go outdoors in the PNW?
I really like Shuksan and Mt Baker area. Fun fact I used to work there in the winter and learnt to snowboard there. For rock climbing I love Squamish and Leavonworth.

Time for our Lightning Round
1. Snow or Rock: Rock
2. Your 11th essential that you always bring on all your hikes/climbs: Chocolate
3. One outdoor activity you would like to excel at: Alpine rock