Flash Foxy Trad Fest Event Recap

Flash Foxy Trad Fest Event Recap

THANK YOU for making the 2025 Flash Foxy Trad Fest presented by Patagonia in Mammoth Lakes, California a super special weekend full of community building, care, and fun! This was our second festival in Mammoth, and our first climbing event there, and it felt so good to be back. We hosted a trail running event back in 2022, and missed sharing the alpine views with the Flash Foxy community.

We were joined by 150 women and genderqueer climbers from 18 states for a weekend of climbing, learning from one another, and playing in the mountains! We awarded 8 full scholarships, raised funds for 5 Lower-cost passes with Pay-it-forward passes, and were assisted by 30 badass volunteers and event assistants. We learned from 23 guides, athletes, and community members, and hosted 5 clinics, 8 meetups, 2 yoga sessions, 4 workshops, 2 presentations, a panel discussion, a film screening, and a classic Flash Foxy Dance Party! As always, all clinics and workshops were led by women or genderqueer athlete instructors, guides and facilitators. All of our clinics were hosted in partnership with a local woman-owned guide service, FIFTH class Climbing School. Our meetups were generously led by 3 local community partners and 5 affinity climbing groups. You can learn more about our sponsors and partners here, athletes and facilitators here, and about our festival programming here.

We supported and were supported by 25 local small businesses, vendors, and organizations. This includes but is not limited to local breweries, food trucks, catering, coffee shops, guide service, lodging, non-profits, Indigenous organizations, the Town of Mammoth Lakes, and Mammoth Lakes Tourism. The local community in Mammoth, and the Eastern Sierras, was incredibly welcoming and generous and we are grateful to have so many wonderful local partners.

It’s no secret, we LOVE fundraising, and the Flash Foxy community continues to amaze us with their generous donations to our fundraisers! THANK YOU to all of our sponsors who donated goods to make the raffle fundraiser so enticing! During our Saturday evening raffle we raised $2,182 to be split evenly between Three Creeks Collective, a local Indigenous Land Back and stewardship organization; and Friends of the Inyo, a local stewardship organization. As additional recognition that all of our events take place on native lands, we donated $5 from every ticket sold and every volunteer ticket; raised $444 at the Patagonia Fix It & Its Yours workshop; and donated $550 from generous facilitator honorariums – this made our total donation to Three Creeks Collective $2,585. We also raised $600 via merch sales before and during the event to support ASL Interpreters, which combined with support from Arc’teryx allowed us to pay ASL Interpreters fair wages to provide event access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing community members. Finally, we raised $705 for the Flash Foxy Scholarship Fund at our Sunday raffle fundraiser! The Flash Foxy Scholarship Fund provides cash travel stipends to help participants get to our events.

We started off the fest with Friday morning Nature Yoga led by local foxy friend Jean “Tucky” Redle outdoors at Mammoth Creek Park. Then we gathered to connect with new friends, and get caffeinated, at Climber Coffee supported by Stellar Brew Cafe. Climber Coffee ended with participants breaking up into Meetup groups to carpool to the crag for an afternoon of climbing!

In the evening, we gathered inside the Community Center at Mammoth Creek Park for our official Opening Party!! We dressed for joy, the theme was “Nowhere to Wear It,” and our attendees came through in hot dog costumes, shark onesies, tutus, bright patterned dresses, and so many sparkles! We snacked on empanadas from a local food truck; enjoyed bevvies provided by Mammoth Brewing Company, June Lake Brewing, and Mountain Rambler Brewery; mended and upcycled used goods with Patagonia Worn Wear; and colored, painted our nails, and made friendship bracelets at the Flash Foxy Sparkle Station! Managing Director, Lou Bank, opened up the floor with a welcome presentation which was followed by a land acknowledgement from local Two-Spirit member of the Bishop Tribal Youth Council, George Brown; and learned stewardship tips from Izzy Brown, stewardship director for Friends of the Inyo and Bishop Area Climbers Coalition. Then, we got groovy with our new friend Patrice Ringelstein during an epic Line Dancing Workshop, and finished off the night dancing to tunes by our old pal DJ MJ!

Saturday morning started off with fresh locally baked sweet and savory pastries from Little Dove, and coffee from Stellar Brew Cafe. We spent the morning strolling the Foxy Fair, checking out climbing demos, talking to community partners, and getting DIY at the Garment & Gear Glow Up Station and Flash Foxy Sparkle Station. We fixed gear with Katie Lamb and Worn Wear at the Fix It & Its Yours Tea Talk, learned about local medicinal plants at the Intro to Herbalism Tea Talk, and gained tools to keep each other safe at the Active Bystander Intervention Training Tea Talk. After a morning of learning and connecting, we headed out for clinics and meetups! The evening brought the foxy crew back together for Acro Yoga, dinner provided by local food truck The Rolling Chef, a presentation by Three Creeks Collective about purchasing Tribal Land Back and Indigenous led stewardship, the aforementioned epic raffle fundraiser, and a film screening of Ground Up featuring Amity Warme presented by Arc’teryx!

After a short night’s rest, we met back up for breakfast burritos from local small businesses, Latin Market, and more coffee from Stellar Brew Cafe! We eased into the day with a panel discussion about the process of projecting – both in climbing and in other aspects of life – with Amity Warme, SJ Joslin, Allie Oaks, and Sam Haines moderated by Flash Foxy Managing Director, Lou Bank. Unfortunately, smoke from wildfires on the west side of the Sierras blew into Mammoth overnight and poor air quality forced us to cancel our stewardship project with Friends of the Inyo and Arc’teryx. Despite a smoky start, the day cleared up and we were able to head out for clinics and meetups as scheduled! After an awesome last day of climbing, we gathered at Mammoth Brewing Company for a presentation by Lor Sabourin about their experience working on a multi-year project, Stranger than Fiction (5.14). We finished off the fest with a classic raffle fundraiser, and then we headed to bed exhausted but fulfilled from a weekend that reminded us that kindness and caring for one another makes climbing, and just about everything, a lot better <3

A big thank you to all of our sponsors and partners who made this event possible: Patagonia, Mammoth Lakes Tourism, Arc’teryx, FIFTHclass Climbing School & Guide Service, Scarpa, La Sportiva, Ocun, Adidas Five Ten, Renewal By Andersen, Motel 6 Mammoth, Stellar Brew & Natural Cafe, Bottle Roller, Goodr, Eastern Sierra NOW, Rhino Skin Solutions, ONCRUX, Physi Vantage, Rocky Talkie, Gear Aid, Kula Cloth, Zig Zag, Snowcreek Resort, Outbound Mammoth, Mammoth Reservations, Empeiria High Sierra Hotel, Davison Guest House, The Hostel California, Wild Iris, Friends of the Inyo, Bishop Area Climbers Coalition, Mono Lake Committee, Sierra Forever, MoBiBo, Queer Crush, ASL Climbing Network, The Venture Out Project, Trans Senders ABQ, Eastside Student Center, Eastern Sierra Climbers of Color, Climbers for Palestine, Wall Dolls, The Blue Heron Project, and Three Creeks Collective.

News Staff