High altitude isn’t the only thing mountain towns are known for. So are the high rates of suicide.

And for those working and living in the mountains, time has come to work for a change. Two organizations, Peak Serenity and Hug Your Homies, are spreading awareness on mental health issues and bringing actionable, accessible steps to the alpine community to begin decreasing the rates.

GJ Woomer, the founder of the holistic wellness nonprofit targeting alpine communities called Peak Serenity, has seen his share of tragedy. 

In his five seasons working at resorts worldwide, Woomer has witnessed many people lost to suicide. The burnout, isolation, financial strain, pushed friends and coworkers to points of no return, riddling the community year after year with grief. Woomer could no longer sit idle and see more of his community suffer. So he started Peak Serenity, using sound, breath and movement as healing modalities for the alpine community. 

“The origin story is honestly the amount of people that have passed since I have worked at the resorts, four or five years and there is almost 10 people,” Woomer said. “With breathwork and sound therapy, it is forcing you to look internally. Everything we need is inside us, breathwork and sound therapy are the next steps to healing.” Peak Serenity hopes to facilitate learning in order to tap those tools within ourselves. 

Montana, Alaska, Wyoming, New Mexico, North Dakota, Idaho and Utah are the seven states with the highest suicide mortality rate respectively, according to the CDC, with six of the those seven states being in the Rocky Mountain West. Utah’s death rate by suicide is 22.1%, ranked seventh in the country, with 22 deaths per 100,000 people, totaling 718 deaths in 2022. 

People living and working in remote mountain towns or communities can be more prone to struggle in isolation, disconnection, income inequality and substance abuse. With far scarcer community building opportunities and resources for treatment. 

Often, the so-called Paradise Paradox riddles the Rocky Mountain West with burnout, isolation and mental health struggles that get swept under the rug as people chase more powder or try to conquer the next highest peak. 

“Which is OK, but it can lead to alcohol, drugs, depression, waiting for the next powder day,” Woomer said. “It’s a hard reality we see all the time.” The working people face long, grueling hours at resorts and can turn after-work alcohol consumption into an everyday habit. 

The hazards of mountain work also plays a role in mental health decline. Little Cottonwood Canyon is the most avalanche prone canyon in North America, with 64 slide paths that cross SR-210, making the jobs of patrollers and mountain personnel exceptionally stressful and intense. 

“There is no other work place like that,” Woomer said. “Patrol goes through so much. They have to help broken people every day. Whether patrons or fellow employees, coworkers and friends are in honest danger. This year there was a patroller who broke his femur on the job. To be his partner on the job and see his femur snap, you go home and return to work the next day without any release.” Peak Serenity helps facilitate the different modalities to help release those inner tensions.  

“Coming back to the breath is huge,” Woomer said. “We’re always breathing, even when it goes unnoticed. So when you’re really going through something, if you can return to your breath, it’s always something that can restabilize you. If you could stand in awareness of your breath, you can be in control.” 

Same with movement. Innumerable amounts of ACL tears happen on the mountain every year. So offering a healing modality like movement through yoga and moving meditations can offer employees preventative measures, such as stretching. 

“For someone like a mountain patroller, when you get hurt, you can’t work,” Woomer said. “When you need to be healthy to do your job, why are we not creating a space to practice keeping our employees and community healthy?” 

The nonprofit wants to transition the resort work environment from long and arduous and grueling to healing and nurturing to employees’ lives. Those working full time have so much to do when they are down canyon, so Peak Serenity wants to bring that healing space to them. 

Another person onboard with healing high-altitude communities is Hug Your Homies founder Dan Parisi. People may have seen stickers plastered around Little Cottonwood Canyon and in the valley that say “Hug Your Homies,” and others reading, “Hug Your Homies, Tell Them You Love Them.” They are reminders of the power in the simple gesture of care for each—small actions leading to big changes. 

“Hug Your Homies started at Alta, Utah after we lost Jacob Guden in December of 2023 to mental health,” Parisi said. “You could feel the community grieving and unfortunately this has happened a lot at Alta, and suicide is not uncommon in mountain towns. Shortly after his passing, I thought it was nice to make stickers that say ‘Hug Your Homies And Tell Them You Love Them’ to pay respect to Jacob and to serve as a subtle reminder to hold your loved ones tight and be there for your friends. The intention was to open up the conversation more to the community that it’s OK to talk about your mental health.” 

Both organizations created by men whose demographic is especially hit hard in the fallout of losing too many loved ones in our alpine communities. Parisi has developed the Hug Your Homies brand to disseminate the simple approachable message to push us to be more regularly checking in with our people, donating large portions of the profits to local community-based organizations and suicide prevention nonprofits. While Woomer is bringing that awareness into actionable steps. 

“Talking about mental health can feel like a heavy topic, but it doesn’t need to be,” Parisi said.  “Showing up and being there for your homies can be pretty simple, and it can make a huge difference in someone’s life. I want mental health to be something that’s easier to talk about. I want people to see these stickers and apparel in public, and think to text that person they haven’t spoken to in a while, to give a little extra love out into the world, and to be there for their people.” λ