AMC Outdoors, November 2002

By Katharine Wroth

She had never considered herself a "people person"; she avoided crowds, and worked in an isolated medical research job in part because it gave her time to be alone. But then Amy Hsu found AMC. "Actually, AMC found me," she says. "I got a brochure in the mail and thought, great, I want to do this."

That was the mid-1990s. Hsu, a downhill skier who had long considered winter the only season of import, was curious about outdoor activities in "the off-season" — a.k.a. the rest of the year. She began hiking every weekend with the New York-North Jersey Chapter; two years later, she became a leader, and today she is the chapter's Hiking Chair.

"To my surprise, I enjoyed guiding people," she says. "Not only where to go and how to get there, but on the spirituality of being with nature, and the physical, mental, and emotional demands of climbing a mountain."

Moved by her experience and noting a need for more volunteers, she began encouraging others to offer their time — in face-to-face encounters, in chapter newsletters, and, most recently, by helping young leader Jim Orsi found a Young Members Committee. Hsu, 47, says the group welcomes all ages, though its main purpose is attracting and developing a new generation of leaders.

Hsu, who emigrated from Taiwan to New York City at 12, surprised her "non-athletic" family with her leanings. It was while attending City College of New York that she took up skiing, and her love for the outdoors — winter is still her favorite season — has baffled them ever since. She has performed research since college, spending the last dozen years studying the causes of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases at Mount Sinai Medical School.

As part of her escape from that grueling work, Hsu has instituted half-hour "shut-up breaks" on her hikes, which were often chatter-filled. The silence, she says, is "therapeutic and calming — people are astonished." It offers a chance for them to get in touch with themselves — and the chance, relished by their leader, to be alone together.

—Katharine Wroth is Senior Editor of AMC Outdoors.