Salt Lake City, UT

Hikes & other events for the SLC area will be posted on the main social media pages as well as the Eventbrite page, ‘follow’ Fat Girls Hiking to receive an email whenever a new hike is posted:  https://www.eventbrite.com/o/fat-girls-hiking-8629131029

Kylie & Melissa can be reached at:  fghsaltlakecity@gmail.com

Kylie (She/Her)

For many years of my life I had a tenuous relationship with the outdoors. I spent six years in a small mountain town where the outdoors community was deeply rooted in diet culture and held specific expectations of ability. I could never keep up and ultimately felt like a failure.

I then moved to Portland, OR and joined the Fat Girls Hiking community, where I immediately felt like I had found home. The amazing people in this community taught me that hiking—or any other activity—can be healing, supportive, and an incredible way to connect with people and nature. It transformed my outlook on movement and what it means to be a hiker. I cannot wait to help create that same community in Utah.

I grew up in southern California, not far outside of LA. I spent my entire childhood and adolescence trying to change my body through restrictive diets and over-exercising. I went to college in northern Arizona, where I developed an eating disorder, but could not find adequate help because of the bias against my weight. Finally, I moved to Portland where I got treatment and am now in recovery, which is an ongoing process. A huge part of my healing was reconnecting to movement and the outdoors, and FGH made that so much more accessible. 

Now that I am in SLC, I want to create a space for people to move without shame and come home to their bodies without worrying about expectations or judgments.  I want to offer support and safety to people who have been marginalized. I want to build a community of people who show up for each other and connect in authentic ways.  I want everyone to know that they are welcome here.

Melissa (She/Her)

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Growing up in a small town where sports and image were what classified one as successful led to years of depression, anxiety, and eating disorders. Unfortunately getting out of that small town may have masked the problems but they always were there.
I moved to Salt Lake City and met my husband, the love of my life. Shortly after we were married we were joined by our beautiful daughter. Being a stay at home mom to her while my husband worked and went to school full time never really allowed me time to address my demons that were still in me.
A few years ago my depression reached the worst place it had been in my adult life, one of the few places I felt free while my depression consumes me was in the outdoors doing something as simple as watching a campfire burn. I had amazing friends surrounding me encouraging me to be outside and hike. I never thought I could. Never thought I was good enough to join.
In the past few months I have felt that depression coming back, one day I found FatGirlsHiking and with tears in my eyes knew this was a community that I needed and I can’t wait to watch it grow in the Salt Lake area!