We were lucky to catch up with Nicole Blaser recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicole , thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

I co-founded the Karuna Project, a boutique adventure travel company. We want Karuna Project to be a role model for the multibillion-dollar tourist industry. Our mission is to leverage travel to directly and effectively empower the global communities that tourists visit and impact. Many of these communities are under-resourced and watch tourists pass through, enjoying their landscapes and culture while gaining no benefit or indirect harm from the tourist industry. Too often, tourist dollars land in the hands of a few, often not local, giant business owners. There are new and effective avenues for putting those tourist dollars directly into the hands of the local communities. To be truly effective, the following factors must be involved in this form of “community tourism.”
1. Empower local leadership and community
2. Provide capacity and sustainability strategies for long-term self-sustaining local success
3. Support the space of human and cultural exchange instead of the disempowering facade of a more powerful group serving a less powerful group.
4. Accountability strategies

Karuna Project is currently piloting and exploring several avenues of “community tourism.”
1. We are partnering with bigcitymountaineers.org. They are amazing. I worked there for many years. They take inner-city youth on mentored wilderness expeditions. We are also partnering with Planeterra.org. They are also on the cutting edge of “community tourism.” So much can be said about their work. They are accomplishing all four factors above. Our clients can opt to fundraise for these two organizations. Karuna Project is offering all clients a scaled discount on our trips depending on how much money they raise. The fundraising is completed directly with our partner, so these funds do not pass through Karuna Project.
2. Karuna Project also has a sister city in Nepal, and we have ongoing projects there. This is funded directly by our support company, Himylana Mountian Gear. We sell puffy jackets made in Nepal, fairtrade, and profits are invested in this sister city. Currently, we are installing a water filtration system at their Primary School. Their schools have no clean water. We have a local Nepali partner who is a leader in this city and supports our efforts to be sure the projects meet the four factors listed above.
3. We have partners with solar-providing companies when possible and appropriate; we act as a direct delivery service to get light directly into the hands of people who need it most. Often in transit, supplies do not trickle down into these hands.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Since I can remember, I have had a deep love of adventure and nature. These passions naturally grew into care for our planet and its fantastic diversity of people. Currently, I have over 20 years of experience and 200+ remote unsupported weeks instructing and guiding wilderness expeditions worldwide. My outdoor career began at 18 years old, trail building with the Student Conservation Association. I was a technical trainer in a variety of advanced climbing, snow science, wilderness, remote medical, and risk management skills. My high-elevation technical mountain ascents include Kilimanjaro, Mt Kenya, Denali, Logan, Illimani, Sajama, Everest Base Camp, etc. Career highlights include training 15 Navy Seals on a 30-day mountaineering expedition in the Eastern Alaska Range, being the first female to snowboard down Denali in 2001, sailing the world’s longest ocean passage for 34 days in a 30ft boat – Baja to Marquesas, and ascending Mt Logan on a split board with the only 2003 team to successfully traverse the technical icefall. With director roles at Big City Mountaineers, the Conservation Corps, and the National Outdoor Leadership School, I have been immersed in nonprofit and business management. Through all these avenues, I dedicated myself to providing transformational opportunities and supporting the global movement toward a sustainable planet to elevate human well-being. Pursuing an Environmental Law and Policy degree and running the business operation for the Karuna Project are my current adventures.

My business partner, Seth Quigg, and I met in 2007 as wilderness instructors for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). We worked 30-day remote expeditions for the National Outdoor Leadership School for over a decade. Reunited in Crested Butte, Colorado, in 2016, our shared passion for wilderness exploration and a desire to make a positive impact ignited a daily ritual. As we trained together for the Grand Traverse 40-mile ski race, countless alpineglo mornings were spent discussing the complexities of our rapidly evolving world. With Seth at the helm, owning a large international adventure travel company, and myself leading outdoor education and land stewardship nonprofits, the formation of the Karuna Project was a natural culmination of our shared experiences. Together, we sought to create a platform for immersive travel experiences that would foster meaningful connections between travelers and local communities while also contributing to positive, long-lasting change.​ Karuna is the Sanskrit word for “compassion.” Seth Quigg and I chose Karuna Project as our Crested Butte-based company name because it harnesses the power of the travel industry to uplift humanitarian efforts worldwide. Our company is also a project as our world is at the forefront of a revolution in new, more effective, and meaningful ways of making a positive impact.

I believe everyone has something to teach. During trips with Big City Mountaineers, intercity youth taught me important life skills, such as never giving up on oneself. While I was teaching them wilderness skills, they were showing me a kind of resilience I didn’t know existed. I learned that everyone, given the opportunity, can succeed. Whatever position a person has in life, we all have gifts to offer.”

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As a 49-year-old woman, I have and continue to unlearn that I am supposed to “people please” and tailor my voice to meet deeply seeded cultural expectations. Honestly, I have had to confront both shame and fear that was culturally wired into my nervous system from the get-go. This silent shame and fear operated behind the scenes and helped me develop excellent people-pleasing and high-achievement skills based on popular opinion. These skills, however, did not allow my heart-felt expression to fully open. The work I have done to release the underlying shame and fear is liberating my voice so that I can speak to what is truly in my heart. I believe this ongoing effort makes me a better change-maker in our wild and rapidly changing world.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

There are so many influential resources that I use and that continue to inspire my journey professionally and personally, I focus on the Eastern philosophies of presencing, breathing, and sensing the world around us without our past stories that cloud and color the truth of what is happening at any one time. These Eastern philosophies of the yogic and Buddhist arts are now becoming more integrated into the Western mainstream business scene. It’s awesome! For example, the popularity of mindfulness in the workplace has launched countless wellness programs that support businesses to integrate health and wellness into their workforce. I always work to blend my yoga and meditation practices with business. When I am successful, the results are truly amazing, like a flow state.

Here is one summary resource example: https://isha.sadhguru.org/en/wisdom/article/the-fundamental-business

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.karuna-project.com

Image Credits

All photos are by Seth Quigg and I