A Summit Scholarship rope team
Summit Scholarship Foundation · est. 2019

Expedition scholarships for women and girls

Since 2019 we have sent women and girls from around the world into the high mountains — and covered the cost that kept them out.

Our mission

We remove the barrier that keeps most women off the big peaks: cost.

The Summit Scholarship Foundation funds guiding, travel, and gear for all-women expeditions — then hands the rope to the next woman behind us.

A scholarship is never only about a summit. It is about who gets to belong in the mountains, and who gets to see herself there afterward.

On the Matterhorn
$225K+
awarded in scholarships since 2019
58
women and girls funded onto the mountain
82
countries reached
2,150+
applications in the 2026 cycle
How it works

One application. One rope team. One summit at a time.

01

Apply

Tell us where you want to go and what is standing in the way. The application opens December 15 and closes January 31 — six weeks, short on purpose.

02

Get funded

Recipients are announced in mid-March. A scholarship covers the guiding, the travel, and the gear a big-mountain expedition demands.

03

Climb

Join an all-women rope team on peaks from Komo Kulshan to the Cordillera Blanca to the Matterhorn — and come home to tell the story.

See who can apply and when →
From the mountain

Every recipient comes home with a story.

Women of Mountaineering

The calendar that funds the climb.

Twelve months of women in the high places. Each edition prints once, no reprints.

See the calendar
One family

Part of something larger

The Summit Scholarship is one initiative of the GEA Alliance — a family of programs working toward gender equity in outdoor adventure.

GEA Alliance

The alliance for gender equity in outdoor adventure — the Summit Scholarship's parent.

Visit →

The Cairn Project

Funding the next generation of girls and women outside, one adventure at a time.

Visit →

See Her Outside

The biweekly podcast telling the stories of women who adventure.

Visit →
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