6 minute read
Great Ideas for Winter Fun
the branding and the selling,” as she says, adding, “Walking in the woods got turned into hiking and backpacking.” And when a grizzled AMC caretaker in Vermont advised her to check out the White Mountains, the idea stuck.
“I think they were referring to the amount of terrain that we have above tree line,” Fuller says, “and the relatively high peaks — at least East Coast-high — and peaks of prominence compared to the number in Vermont. I don’t really believe in comparing beauty that way, but I knew it was a place I wanted to see.” That planted seed was tended carefully until germinating during an overnight on Mount Liberty in October of 2004. Just below the summit, and in sight of the Presidential Range, the idea rooted firmly; Fuller knew she would be back to New Hampshire’s White Mountains, and would need to experience them during the starkness of winter. Still, now, that feeling keeps her coming back.
Walking in the wild winter backcountry is not traditionally where Black people find enjoyment. I had to ask her: Why winter?
“I’ve always loved winter,” Fuller says. “Snow is my favorite weather. And I think there’s some residual nostalgia of childhood
and getting to have a snow day to play, sled, Fuller and friends get close to finishing off another 4,000-foot peak in the winter at Mount Osceola.
Fuller hiking one of the many frosty miles she experienced while exploring the White Mountains
— Mardi Fuller
make snow people, drink hot chocolate, hang out with the neighbors — all of it. I remember when someone put the idea in my head about winter hikes. I loved the challenge of being in the backcountry far away from roads and cities, having that experience of myself as nature.”
“I am a very busy person,” she continues. “A multitasker; I have a lot of relationships and I’m always on my phone. I have trouble slowing down, and I really need the rhythm of walking and the simplicity of being away from devices and modernity to feel my feelings and know myself. I have a hard time even focusing to do my work. Just being in the woods and moving in a rhythmic way helps me slow my mind down, simplify and rest.”
The direct delights in observing the intricacies of nature are an essential part of her creative process. “I feel really inspired by natural processes that I observe,” Fuller says. “I love colors and flowers and mushrooms — these expressions of nature that feel improbable — like alpine flowers, cryptobiotic soil, rime ice. They help spark my creativity in ways that sitting at my computer cannot. I can’t always identify how it happens, but when I’m outside I feel like I can let go and be at peace, which allows the creative space.”
Fuller is bold — bolder than me. She completed all 48 of the 4,000-foot peaks here in New Hampshire during the winter. But rather than her physical accomplishments, it’s how she calls out the white supremacy baked into outdoor recreation that makes her truly bold. Specifically, the way the outdoors have been “mediated for Black people, and for all people of color, furthering white supremacy ideologies,” she says.
To her point, unconventional joy can be found in learning the names of ordinary things. In tropical environments, her father can name the common plants, explaining their uses and where they’re found.
“I don’t know the names of many of the plants here,” Fuller says. “I’m still learning so much. We’re cut off from this land because of how the country treated Indigenous people. We lost or erased an abundance of knowledge and injured the land egregiously. We toxified the land in so many ways that something as simple as my lack of knowledge of the vegetation is not a priority to the education system. That connection is broken, and I’m trying to personally and communally restore it.
“I grieve for the disjointedness the Black community experiences in our connection to nature. I hope, in the future, we can self-determine what our culture and expression look like in outdoor recreation, rather than having to be approved by white gatekeepers.”
It’s not always easy, but I hope my tale, and my adventures in the outdoors, are messages of warm winds: a love story told to tend and mend this space we all share whenever we tackle a winter adventure, or observe raspberry brambles on a mercurial fall day — or simply step outside, hoping to clear our heads. Meanwhile, I look up to the hills from whence my health comes; and if you’re lucky enough to be in the mountains, you’re lucky enough. NH
Can messages of optimism from the Depression-era book “Snap Out of It!” help steer today’s Americans toward a cheerier outlook for tomorrow?
Thus concludes a peppy little book, published in the depths of the Great Depression, called “Snap Out of It!” Its author had seen the sun rise and set on his own aspirations several times by then, but by all accounts he always followed his own advice.
Much of what we know about Billy B. Van’s personal history comes from “Snap Out of It!” which presents the trajectory of his life as a moral fable. Its aim is to motivate readers, for by then Van, who had once been a legendary figure on the vaudeville circuit, had embarked on his latest of many careers, this time as a motivational speaker.
The book begins with a jaunty race across three centuries of U.S. history that illustrates how the country has gone through periods of boom and bust since even before its founding. In a not-verysubtle jab at F.D.R.’s New Deal policies, Van maintains that periods of bust have always been endured with the grit, hard work and optimism of individuals — with no thanks to shortcuts proposed by irresponsible politicians. He claims to see these traits embodied in the thrifty, resourceful and conservative temperament of his New Hampshire neighbors.
In Van’s view, a spell of political and economic depression had led to a collective psychological depression mostly because Americans were conformists when it came to rhetoric: People often complained about problems not because they were personally affected by them, but because they heard others complaining about them and joined the dismal chorus. Such depressions, Van was convinced, would take less of a toll if everyone kept a cheery outlook, stayed busy and learned to deal with a little bit of adversity. →
Billy B. Van’s popular on-stage character “Patsy” (seen here) made that name into a synonym for “fall guy.”
