Mountains to Mountains launches to connect and heal global mountain communities

Claudia Bouvier, founder of the new nonprofit Mountains to Mountains, with her husband Charles Mumford and their two sons, Oliver and Sebastien, in Park City’s fall landscape. Photo: Claudia Bouvier

PARK CITY, Utah — An emergency physician who grew up in the Rocky Mountains has launched a nonprofit aimed at connecting mountain communities worldwide through trauma-informed training, cultural exchange, and shared outdoor expertise.

Mountains to Mountains, founded by Dr. Claudia Bouvier, a doctor of osteopathic medicine and adjunct associate professor at the University of Utah, plans to offer a “holistic wilderness medicine” course that pairs traditional backcountry care with tools to process traumatic events.

“We are offering traditional wilderness medicine — how to apply a splint, how to do a carry, how to cope with injuries in the backcountry — but we are also incorporating the mental health side of that traumatic incident,” Bouvier said in an interview. “How do you approach the incident to minimize the long-term mental health effects?”

Bouvier, the nonprofit’s acting CEO, said the organization will serve as a bridge for people who live in or love visiting the mountains by building a community that shares knowledge, offers support, and responds to what local residents say they need. The mission, she said, is grounded in “whole-body health — mind, body, and spirit.”

The startup team is small and geographically spread out. Chief Operating Officer Casey Odell, a licensed counselor with a background in wilderness and addiction counseling, is based in Taos, New Mexico. Advisors include emergency physicians and a psychiatrist with decades of experience in carceral mental health. Bouvier said fellow ER doctor Anne Flower, whom she named chief medical officer, is among those helping shape the medical content.

Initial programming will roll out close to home. Bouvier said the organization intends to offer its holistic wilderness medicine course in Utah and New Mexico at rates below the typical market, using the proceeds to underwrite no-cost training in remote or underserved mountain regions abroad.

“After-action debriefs, communicating what happened, and making it OK to acknowledge that an incident can affect you in the long run — those are the tools we’ll teach alongside splinting and carries,” Bouvier said. “We’re looking at the whole person.”

Bouvier said a recent volunteer trip to India reignited her drive to form an NGO she could steer with like-minded partners. She is collaborating with Jeeva Raksha, an Indian organization that offers basic and advanced life-support courses, to help develop a disaster management curriculum.

The nonprofit’s broad vision reflects what Bouvier described as both a need and an opportunity. She said private giving and memberships will be critical as some public and international aid streams have tightened.

“With recent cuts to the USAID and the government really minimizing how much money they’re giving for nonprofit organizations, especially the smaller ones and people that were reaching the most remote areas of the world, there’s a gap,” she said. “You can’t go from zero to replacing government support, but you can step in, fundraise, and help people who have been left without.”

Memberships are open to health professionals, students, and community allies. Perks include workshops, training materials, discounted referrals to partner services, volunteer opportunities, and a member newsletter highlighting stories from mountain regions.

Bouvier, who grew up in Vail, Colorado, ski-raced through high school and later skied professionally before attending medical school. She said her path to emergency medicine suits both her temperament and the nonprofit’s focus. “We deal with trauma every day in the ER,” she said.

“Sometimes it’s physical; sometimes it’s emotional. Often it’s both. That’s why we’re building programming that addresses each piece.”

As the organization formalizes partnerships and curricula, Bouvier said immediate priorities are fundraising for course materials and recruiting collaborators who share the mission. “Doing anything on your own is impossible,” she said. “If we all work together, we can make a change.”

How to get involved: Donations and memberships are available at mountainstomountains.org.

The group can be reached on Instagram at @_mountainstomountains.