I am very excited to announce that on June 1st, 2009, Outdoor Bunnies will declare its existence by launching the Outdoor Bunnies magazine. This magazine is powered by accomplished and passionate female outdoor educators and enthusiasts. It is also the first step for Outdoor Bunnies to fulfill its mission.

I am the founder of Outdoor Bunnies. Founding a community for outdoor women to discover and empower prospective outdoor women has been a goal in my mind for over a year. As a female raised by a generation in which traditional family values are held onto tightly, wandering in the woods or dreaming about exploring the world was discouraged or even prohibited. Not until I stumbled into the States, thousands of miles from home, did I load up a backpack and camp right next to a stream. I experienced great satisfaction. What nature offered me was so simple but indescribable and it is beyond anything materialized society promises to deliver. I knew I wanted to be there and ever since then I kept coming back trying different activities.

However, during those occasions, sometimes I still held back and experienced nerve either because I happened to be a minority in the activities in which I participated or I had an internal debate about how a woman should behave. It was very comforting and helpful for me to witness that other women around me were simply being themselves and enjoying the experience. I believe that many women can relate to my experience and can benefit from a community dedicated to them.

Outdoor Bunnies magazine is the first step. I am grateful to many people for their support, which makes Outdoor Bunnies possible. I especially want to acknowledge all the contributors for their dedication to share and help grow the community despite their busy schedules. Although I am the founder of Outdoor Bunnies, from this moment on the true stewards of the community will be all of the contributors and members. I can not wait to see what Outdoor Bunnies will become.

Szu-ting Yi - Founder of Outdoor Bunnies

What is Outdoor Bunnies?

Outdoor Bunnies is the safe and supportive community for women of the wilderness (outdoor bunnies) to connect and grow with each other. At Outdoor Bunnies, outdoor bunnies share their thoughts, insights, emotions, and wisdom inspired by their outdoor endeavors. Its purpose is to empower fellow bunnies to take initiatives to pursue wilderness adventures, to engage intellectually with nature, or to simply enjoy what the great outdoors has to offer.

What does “Outdoor Bunnies” represent?

Outdoor Bunnies represents the combination of strength and beauty. A common impression people have towards women who engage in outdoor activities is that these women are powerful, hardcore, determined, committing, and strong. Outdoor women do possess all the above qualities. In addition, women of the wilderness are also cute, easy to get along with, down to earth, beautiful, energetic, cleaver, and sexy. The name “Outdoor Bunnies” embraces our uniqueness as women, and our ability to be determined and rise to the occasion when put in a serious environment.

What is the vision of Outdoor Bunnies?

The short term goal of Outdoor Bunnies is to establish and grow the community for outdoor bunnies via the following:

A. Launch Outdoor Bunnies magazine on June 1st, 2009. We will keep recruiting passionate and insightful female outdoor educators and enthusiasts to join the team of contributors. We believe that a magazine contributed to by such a team will help ease the anxiety of prospective outdoor bunnies, as well as strengthen the confidence of current outdoor bunnies.

B. Create a discussion sphere and a social network channel. This will encourage exchanging of ideas exchange and further connection among outdoor bunnies beyond the scope that an online magazine can cover.

BOLD, the Sierra Club and Passages Northwest are hosting famed environmental and human rights activist Winona LaDuke and celebrated photographer and educator Subhankar Banerjee at the Rainier Beach High School on March 18th at 7:00 pm for a celebration of diversity in the outdoors.

For details: check here.

On July 15th I finished instructing a 2-week advanced climbing trip for YBOYS in Squamish BC Canada. This was my first time at Squamish and I have to say the climbing there is really sweet — I will definitely do my personal climbing trips out there to get some multi-pitches done. Everybody climbed a bunch, including me. (If you’re interested in what I’ve climbed, check out Little Po’s climbLog)

My next trip for YBOYS is not until the coming Saturday. You might think I have much time right now for blogging, yes and no. If you’re an outdoor blogger, will you climb more or blog more? Not too difficult to answer that, isn’t it? I will spend the next two days doing some objectives over Washington Pass. If you can’t wait to get a taste of the Squamish trip, check the report written by my awesome co-instructor, Ian.

Until next blog article, keep enjoying your life, my friends!

- Little Po

Robby Grossman, one of the NOLS 2007 Denali expedition members, recently released the first batch of his professional and artistic Denali shots. The pictures are breathtaking; therefore I want to share with you all:

Robby Grossman’s Denali shots

Readers, how many LittlePo’s do you find in the photos?

LittlePo also presents you:
Photos from other expedition members:
1. Erin Murphy’s photos
2. Dan Ruth’s Denali photos

When I saw the first snowfall on the night of Dec 7, 2006, I almost cried. I had been longing for snow since my paddling season was over. I have planned many winter activities on my calendar and shaken off the dust on my ski boots. However, the first snowfall hasn’t gotten any followers. Maybe now it’s time to cry.

This winter has been very odd – oddly warm. Therefore we have been skating, biking, rock climbing, and I almost went kayaking in December. It was great to be out, and it was fine not to have a white Christmas. I just don’t feel funny anymore when I recalled the story told by a friend from New Zealand that on their Christmas cards Santa either enjoys his sun bath in beach shorts or rides a dolphin and races with a shark.

Happy New Year! Happy 2007 to all my family members and friends.

and happy new year links to outdoor blogs (the order is maybe random):

Tom @ Two-Heel Drive
Rick @ Besthike.com
John @ Fedak.net
Climb_ca @ GetOutdoors
Russ @ winehiker wikiculture
cyberhobo @ cyberhobo.net
Kevin @ bastish.net
Jon @ Weekendblogger
Tom @ Trout Underground
Wade @ Outdoorzy
Mark @ OutdoorsPro
Cutter @ Cutter’s Blog
Raven @ Adventure Spirits
WaterGrass @ Whispering Wind
and many others … (leave a comment and I’ll add your site to the list.)

I really like this article “Beginners are people too” which I recently came across on the Backcountry Blog. The author, an experienced climber, finds herself reconsidering her behavior towards new climbers after she becomes the rookie on the surfboard.

For many sports I do, I still consider myself a novice; therefore I appreciate all the suggestions and comments I can possibly get from the pros. At times, I have to share my experience with or instruct a pure newbie to some sports I indulge, for example, I taught a few friends how to ski and last Saturday I ran a beginner gym rock climbing session for my club. Facing beginners, I usually find myself worrying about two things: 1. I worry whether I can help create a good first-time experience so that they will decide to come back; and 2. I worry whether I am giving them too much information which they might consider worthless. Then I start to worry that maybe I worry too much.

It is a common plot in many Chinese martial arts novels that an aged kung-fu master gets excited and gratified when he finally locates a quality pupil. They always say that people naturally know that it’s difficult to find a good master but people don’t usually understand that it’s more difficult to find a satisfying pupil. Even so, skilled kung-fu masters never stop searching because they don’t want their skills to fail to pass down to later generations. We might feel “the frustration of attempting to help someone who is completely unreceptive to suggestions” from time to time but we know we’ll never stop sharing as long as we’re passionate about what we are doing. Also there is always someone like me who really appreciates advice on safety and efficiency.

Congratulations to Jeremy, who won the first place of the amateur group last weekend while he was participating in the freestyle skate slalom festival in Berman, Germany.

Not until last summer did Jeremy start doing freestyle slalom. Within only few months he has matured from being extra cautious and nervous on moves towards complete relaxation. His growth was contributed by his solid skating foundation he obtained by many roller skate competitions in his youth, and years of street inline skating history; however, without his determination he wouldn’t have progressed so rapidly. I was surprised when I heard that he placed the first among the amateur skaters, and this event was only his second slalom competition.

Congratulations to Jeremy, and I am counting days left for him to compete in the professional group.

Related Link:
Jeremy and Denni’s Slalom Blog: theSlalom.Com

I know Joe from a hut-to-hut hike in the White Mountains led by my MLS (Mountain Leadership School) comrade Mike, and the next time I heard this name again, he was thru-hiking the AT (Appalachian Trail). He is back home now and what is fantastic is that he has a blog all about his AT journey. From the photos, he doesn’t look like the Joe I used to remember probably it’s due to some weight loss, but he mentioned in one of the post-journey entry that he is back to his pre-hike weight. Next time I see him, I’ll be able to recognize him again!

Here it is: Joe’s AT Adventure

I do not participate in a hike if the time spent on commuting is longer than that spent on hiking, so how should I account for my participation in Outdoor Bloggers’ First Annual Ho Down – thirteen hours on the plane and about twelve hours in Tom Mangan’s new Honda Element for just two day hikes?! Well, it is certainly more than just day hikes although I did feel it might be impulse participation the moment I booked my flight, but just as what I expected it turned out to be a very good investment.

For both nights camping near Gumboot Lake in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, we bathed in moonlight, crisp fall air, comradeship, and bottles and bottles of superb red wine (Salute to the professional wine hiker, Russ. He upgraded me from Miss half bottle to a wine taster). We chit-chatted and we also talked about big pictures – how and what we could do to contribute to the outdoor community as a collective? No concrete plans have been concluded yet; however, the discussion I had with these quality people kept stirring in my head and several of my personal outdoor projects have been inspired since then.

The weather was gorgeous, and it made Mt Shasta look so friendly and tempting. On Sunday, we hiked from the parking lot at Bunny Flat to Horse Camp, where the trailhead to Mt Shasta is. Most of the snow on top of the summit had melted, I heard this voice as if Mt Shasta was talking to me, “Come up here, girl, to examine what you just learned about mountaineering.” I felt sorry that I didn’t plan better and bring some gear; however, this is an excellent excuse to revisit this place. Oh, my bad, why should I need an excuse? The beauty of this place already serves as a good reason for people to visit or even to reside. Tom at Trout Underground, the local Ho Downer, will tell you how privileged he and his wife, Nancy, are to live so close to this pristine wilderness.

To learn more about our first Ho-Down and check out some photos:

• The Outdoor Bloggers Hike to Brookie Heaven
• Outdoor Blogger Ho-Down a Fine Success!
• photos - Shasta bloggers meetup
• Images from the Ho down
• Ho Down Update: Outdoor Bloggers Plan World Domination

A glance of the Ho Downers by Tom Mangan:

climb_ca, John Fedak, Rick McCharles, Tom Chandler, Russ Beebe, and me.

What to participate in the Second Ho Down? Here are some appetizers:

• Second Annual Ho-Down in Damascus, Virginia
• Prospective Ho-Down Organizer, Cutter

Photo credit: Nancy & Tom Chandler

Update: more photos from John Fedak