I’ve spent most of my adult life asking questions in places that don’t always welcome them.

As an independent journalist, that has meant listening to stories that sit outside headlines. Stories about power, exclusion, health, safety, and the quiet ways systems fail people. As an outdoor practitioner, it has meant asking similar questions on trails and mountainsides. Who gets to be here? Who decides what is possible? Who is told this is not for you?

This Substack sits at the intersection of those two worlds.

I work in the outdoors, but not the glossy version of adventure. The real one. Stone steps, uncertain weather, long descents, and decisions that matter. I design and lead outdoor programmes across the Sahyadris and the Himalaya, including with people often told they don’t belong outside. Persons with disabilities. First-time trekkers. Older adults. Families. Young people are still learning to trust their bodies.

Here’s what experience has taught me. Nature doesn’t exclude. People do.

Adventure has been sold as extreme, elite, and image-driven for too long. That framing quietly shuts doors. It makes inclusion feel optional. It treats safety as secondary. It mistakes courage for recklessness.

I don’t believe that.

In this space, I’ll be writing about disability and inclusion, outdoor culture, safety and risk, human-interest stories, and the social questions that emerge when we look closely at who gets access and who doesn’t. Some pieces will be reported, some reflective, all grounded in lived experience and accountability.

This isn’t a how-to guide or a highlight reel. It’s a thinking space.

If you care about the outdoors, inclusion, and the stories beneath the surface, you can follow along here.

On Equal Footing: Essays on access, ability, and belonging, in the outdoors and in society. Some Questions are worth asking again and again.