Category: Features
Representation is a key piece to making the outdoors a more inclusive and welcoming place. While seeing more diversity in the world of professional athletes helps, it’s equally important to have this diversity in the groups we join in the outdoors. That’s where the mission of Inclusive Outdoors Project starts, as they strive to bridge […]
Earl B. Hunter Jr. knows how to bring people together. He is widely recognized for his exuberant personality, hard work ethic, and non-traditional approach to building relationships, which has proved effective in his efforts to increase diversity in the outdoors industry. Hunter is the founder and CEO of Black Folks Camp Too, a marketing-driven business […]
Growing up in Maine, I always understood the pull of Katahdin—which means “Greatest Mountain” in the Penobscot language—rising above Millinocket. She beckons, timeless and remote, for explorers and wanderers to visit. Katahdin was secured by Gov. Percival Proctor Baxter in 1931 “for those who love nature and are willing to walk and make […]
In 2011, Jennifer Pharr Davis set the overall fastest known time on the Appalachian Trail, hiking the 2,185-mile footpath from Georgia to Maine in just 46 days. Today, she continues to wow athletes with her accomplishments, including backpacking 700 miles pregnant, walking across North Carolina while nursing her newborn son, and hiking in all […]
Fans of ultrarunning might be familiar with athlete, speaker, and author of the best-selling book ‘A Beautiful Work in Progress,’ Mirna Valerio. Also known as ‘The Mirnavator,’ Valerio promotes body positivity, health awareness, and diversity in the running and outdoor industry as she runs marathons and ultramarathons around the country and advocates for inclusion for […]
In 2018, Mario Rigby completed his two-year trek walking and kayaking the length of Africa—from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt—and adventure that for many would seem wild and impossible. This expedition allowed him to connect with communities and share their message and stories with the world with a mission of bridging the […]
My earliest memories of the outdoors were of the dense forests that encroached upon my grandparents’ home in Ilesa, Nigeria. I watched torrents of rain obscure the leafy dimensions of the forest. Precipitation of the day would mist at the floor of the jungle, creating a billowing white carpet for my capricious dreams and nightmares […]
Returning for a second episode on the history of Black explorers, J.R. Harris takes us on a journey to the California Gold Rush, where we meet freed slave and Black frontiersman James Pierson Beckwourth, then to the Arctic Circle to meet Matthew Henson, possibly the first man, Black or White, to reach the North Pole. […]
When recalling the history of Black explorers, J.R. Harris says the list is short. That’s not to say that that Black explorers weren’t out there, just that their stories are overshadowed by the familiar names that live in our history books. Harris is working to change this. As a Black explorer for more than 50 […]
Growing up in rural South Africa, Sibusiso Vilane knew little of the world outside his own village. He had never hiked, never slept in a tent, never even seen a photo of some of the mountains he would later climb, yet on May 26, 2003, he became the first Black man to summit Mount […]
I awaken my children from their car ride-induced slumber as we approach New Hampshire’s “Old Man of the Mountain”—back when you could still spot a face in the Cannon Mountain outcropping—on the highway below. “Now we get to climb up to touch the clouds,” exclaims Jian, my youngest at six years old, from the […]
As told to Steve Holt, senior editor for engagement content. Edited for clarity and length. Chapter: New York–North Jersey Favorite spots to Be Outdoors: Fire Island, N.Y.; Montauk, N.Y.; Central Park, Manhattan; Riverside Park, Manhattan Next big adventure: Hawaii, Ecuador, or Panamá I grew up in Long Island. My first real taste of the outdoors […]
Kim Nilsen is leading me into a buzzing marshland, a couple of klicks northwest of New Hampshire’s White Mountains, when he suddenly nods toward a heaping pile of animal pellets. “One time,” he says, “I was up near Dixville Notch in my sleeping bag, on the ground, and I woke up around midnight just […]
New York’s 47,500-acre Harriman State Park—the Empire State’s second largest park—is an outdoor lover’s dream, offering pristine hiking, quiet water paddling, and remote camping a 30-mile car or train trip from Manhattan. AMC’s first camp in the area, the Stephen & Betsy Corman AMC Harriman Outdoor Center, opened in 2016 unlocking Harriman’s wonders to even more New Yorkers seeking the fresh air and quiet it […]
When the largest wave of Appalachian Trail (A.T.) thru-hikers rolls into downtown Hanover, N.H, in early July, their agenda will look something like this: shower; wash clothes; eat something besides dried food and energy bars; and, if the budget allows, sleep in a warm, dry bed. Most years, hikers are able to find what […]
Joe Cruz pedals into the unknown. His mud-caked shoes slosh with river crossing ice melt as he spins up loose scree toward the Tian Shan range in Kyrgyzstan. The Mountains of Heaven lance the clouds at a peak of 24,406 feet and bound the country from neighboring Kazakhstan and China. Cruz is cycling 600 […]
Note: “Redlining” also refers to the discriminatory practice of denying services, such as bank loans, to residents of a certain area based on their race or ethnicity. For this reason, this story will use the term “tracing” to describe the White Mountain hiking tradition. Two months into her attempt to hike 1,420 miles of […]
From virtually the moment the Appalachian Mountain Club formed in 1876, members were trying to make maps of the White Mountains. “Being unable to find a reliable map of the White Mountains, I made up my mind to try and make one for myself,” wrote AMC Recording Secretary John B. Henck in the April […]
AMC is committed to increasing access to and engagement with the outdoors for all people. That requires grappling with the hard truth that the outdoors has often not been a safe space for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)—a history that has deeply affected the relationship between these communities and the land today. Many predominately white outdoors and conservation organizations, […]
The AMC Photo Contest spotlights the different ways we experience the outdoors and the views we take in along the way. For all of us, that view changed over the past year. We announced the winners of last year’s contest just weeks before we found ourselves locked down and deeply uncertain about what the coming […]