For Parents

The 1000 Weeks of Summer program and the other programs of Cascade Challenge are designed to empower youth to engage in meaningful, responsible outdoor adventure. For many young people, it's a life-changing experience that allows them to come back more confident and engaged people.

SAFETY IS OUR NUMBER ONE GOAL

1000Weeks and Cascade Challenge trips and expeditions are led by highly experienced youth and adult volunteers. Our leaders are trained in first aid, Leave No Trace travel, working with teenagers, and the skills relevent to the trip. We carefully research or scout the location of the trip before we take youth out. Not only are our trips well-planned and well-led, we also use high-quality equipment that is safe and dependable. And when conditions aren't right, we turn around. As we say, the mountain will always be there to climb another day.

PAYING FOR TRIPS

Cascade Challenge is not a commercial, money-making outfit. We're just a small outdoor-advenure nonprofit. All of our trips operate on a cost-sharing, volunteer basis which helps us keep costs down and serve more kids. Most of our expeditions are six days, so typically you can multiply the below figures by six.

We estimate that the average bare-bones trip cost is about $25/person/day. This just covers the cost of food eaten, gas burned to get around, and access fees to various facilities and programs. We ask the participant, the family or a sponsoring organization to pay this amount. This is enough to run a trip, but not enough to keep the organization going between trips or buy and maintain our equipment.

So, we ask families or sponsors to consider paying an additional $25/person/day to help us pay for insurance, rent for the Cave, equipment, vehicles and such so we can keep our program running.

We know that this is still way-cheap as these kinds of programs go, so we also ask of people who are willing to kick in another $25/person/day so we can extend scholarships to kids who would otherwise never have a chance to experience these kinds of adventures. If there's a will there's a way, and we're committed to making sure that these unforgettable programs are accessable to everyone.

More information on specific programs and will be coming soon. In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .