A quarterly magazine uncovering untold stories of the outdoors, brought to you by the women of Coalition Snow.
We’re here to increase accessibility for those who wish to join us in the mountains, and to ensure belonging, safety, and joy for us in the outdoors now and forever.
If you’d like to be a part of what Mountaintop is building, head over to Coalition Clubhouse and request to join: coalitionclubhouse.com 🌟
We are here to build community among marginalized-gender skiers and riders of color. We are here to connect and amplify our voices, and experiences, and to listen, support, and build camaraderie and belonging.
🌟Learn more about Mountaintop in Issue 9 of Sisu! 🌟
Mountaintop is a virtual community created for underrepresented gender BIPOC snow lovers.
Sign us up 🙌🏾 🙌🏼
Curated by Hanna Saydek , Nia Brinkley, and Evin Harris .schmev, and supported by Coalition Snow .
“Plantains show the joy and love we bring to life through our colorful, fragrant, and delicious recipes.”
Find the full story of plantains, and how this plant represents strength and resilience in this Issue of Sisu!
Words by Vanessa Chavarriaga,
Plantains aren’t just for eating.
“The practice of conserving food with plantain leaves is older than any of us combined. It is a strategy of survival reciprocality to the land, using and honoring every part of a human being.”
Words by Vanessa Chavarriaga,
⭐️“Fried plantains, tostones, mofongo, plantain chips, patacones, mangu, tigrillo, maduros, desserts, soups. Green, yellow, spotty, and black; this fruit is consumed at all stages of ripeness.” ⭐️
Vanessa Chavarriaga (she/her), , goes into plantains and their many delicious uses in this Issue of Sisu Magazine.
“Photography offers windows into other worlds, other lives. Photographers are offered glimpses into worlds that even the family members of our subjects do not often get to see.”
- an interview with (she/hers) by (she/hers)
Read more of Nikki’s journey with photography and climbing in Issue 9 of Sisu.
“The great thing about climbing is it’s one of the few sports/activities where women are on the exact same level of performance as men. your size, strength, and gender are equalized by the different features of rock and ice routes.”
- an interview with (she/hers) by (she/hers)
🚨🚨 This is an interview you don’t want to miss!!🚨🚨
She first began photographing climbing after being injured and temporarily unable to climb, and is now proving she can adapt and continue to preserve in a male dominated industry as a trans-woman.
An interview with (she/hers) by (she/hers)
- First Ascents, Issue 9 of Sisu Magazine
Sweden, Norway, and Denmark organize their social systems around certain philosophies which promote the mental and physical well being of the individual and of the community.
Sound ideal? We think so too. Read more about it in Issue 9 of Sisu!
words by Samantha Romanowski
Here are five Swedish practices you can incorporate in your life to help foster a healthy and balanced life.
1. Coffee breaks through the day as a social ritual and moment to breathe.
2. Open air living. Spending time in nature is a time tested practice for reducing stress and increasing joy.
3. Be a morning person.
4. Hygge! Celebrate coziness and rest during the winter.
5. Everything in moderation.
To hear more practices and exactly how to build that balanced life, get your copy of Issue 9 today!
words by Samantha Romanowski
Why are the Swedes so damn happy?
Some think it’s the free healthcare, bike commuting and minimalist lifestyle- but in reality it’s actually their underlying cultural and social philosophies that encourage joy, contentment and experience over productivity and climbing the career ladder.
This feature in Issue 9 of Sisu is written by Samantha Romanowski,
Learning to Lead.
“Where is the ice thickest and straightest?
Is it near rounded areas that will make it weaker?
How tired is my body?
Can I have good leverage here?”
-
Questioning yourself, and your surroundings is part of the process of learning to lead. Elizabeth Sahagún, , explores this and her journey learning to lead on ice in Issue 9 of Sisu Magazine.
“Women face a huge achievement gap in alpinism, and it is even larger for women of color. I have had to learn how to navigate another predominantly white space, just to test whether I could trust a community to catch me if I fall.”
Elizabeth Sahagún, , set out to learn how to lead in the ice climbing community this year. Her mission to learn was simple: climb 30 ice routes with people of underrepresented backgrounds before she turned 30.
Photo credit: /
“Leading on ice is graceful, vulnerable, and liberating. Leading on ice can be feminine. There just needs to be enough of us leading to the glass ceiling that exists on mountaintops.”
-
Read more of Elizabeth’s story in Issue 9 of Sisu Magazine!
“Bringing the languages back that are rooted in traditional knowledge, love, and responsibility is how we protect and love Mother Earth for who she is.”
Meet Micheli Oliver. A descendent of the Amskapi Piikani Niitsitapi, Shawnee, Northern Italian and Southern Irish peoples. She tells Indigenous stories with photos and the reclaiming of Indigenous land through maps.
- , ,
🌟 Keep on reading in Issue 9! 🌟
🌟 Land, Language and Power 🌟
“When we are on the land, we see the importance of all of us in it. We see each fingerprint, a woven thread that Indigenous peoples have strung together, understanding the inner workings of each living being. Striving to work with, and work for this world, seeing all as equal- no hierarchy.”
- , ,
This story explores the connections language has to our understanding of the world, and why the current revitalization of Indigenous languages is so damn important.
“Two Indigenous women from different parts of Turtle Island discuss the power of language, Indigenous words and how these words embody relationships to the world around us.”
Meet Myia Antone. Currently 1 in approximately 40 speakers of Skwxwú7mesh Sníchīm (Squamish Language). She is passionate about reconnecting Indigenous peoples to their lands and roots because it allows an opportunity for healing.
- , ,
So much more found in “Land, Language and Power” in Issue 9 of Sisu Magazine.
“Every single person is different, every single pair of earrings is different, and that is just the point. We are our ancestors wildest dreams.”
- Micheli Oliver,
Want more? Each women featured has been tagged in these posts. Follow them, admire their work and learn.
To keep reading this story and more, get Issue 9 of Sisu today!
“Through ceremony, we reconnect to our ancestors, to a way of life that has been systematically stripped. And although a system has tried to change us, to get rid of us, with resiliency we are still here.”
- Micheli Oliver,
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Read more about indigenous jewelry and the incredible women who create it in Issue 9 of Sisu.
“To be Indigenous is to be on the land. Our ways intertribally connect us, in unique ways, to the land our ancestors are from. Our resilience is connected to a place, connected to our world.”
- Micheli Oliver, , in Issue 9 of Sisu
This story is about the culture and the history connected to Indigenous jewelry. It is a collection of portraits of femme, non-binary and trans women made throughout Turtle Island.
Indigenous jewelry is resiliency.
It is beautiful.
📢 SAY IT LOUDER
"As popularity for the outdoors booms—especially backcountry skiing—we are asking ourselves if we’re employing the same bu****it exclusionary practices that made SheJumps a necessary thing in the first place.
How are we pushing for a new understanding of what mentorship is to make it more accessible and inclusive? I’ve been backcountry skiing for more than 15 years, and it became clear very early in my experience that any misstep would be attributed to my gender, furthering the stereotype that women don’t belong in the backcountry.
As an example, one of the easy runs from the parking lot in Rogers Pass (outside Revelstoke, British Columbia) is called the Girlfriend Line. Maybe I missed the adjoining Boyfriend Line, but I’m willing to bet that it doesn’t exist.
This example further demonstrates that mentorship seems to be a one-way, predefined street."
~ , the ED and co-founder of , sharing her vision for mentorship in snowsports in Issue 9: Mountaintop.
PC: for
WE WANT IT ALL 🔥
And we damn well deserve it.
PC: for
How do you get more people excited about skiing?
If you ask , one of the founders of the non-profit , she'll tell you that it's all about mentorship.
And for it to be successful, we have to start re-evaluating these mentors. Because if they don't represent the very people we want on the hill, well then...
Get more in Issue 9: Mountaintop 🏔️
PC: for
"My mom figured out the pieces so we could share this experience together. In a true, bold act of love, my mom dove straight into the deep end of the world of snow sports to make one small pocket of our lives more comforting. She saw the ways that we were outwardly different from the community and wanted us to connect with others in a way where we could stay true to ourselves. It was one of the
greatest gifts my mom taught me."
~ .o.slow in Issue 9: Mountaintop
The pressure created by the media and snowsports industry to look a certain way, to fit in, is just one form of gatekeeping that turns people off from finding joy in the mountains.
How do you overcome the pressure to show up in a way that isn't true to you?
In our latest issue, Kiki Ong shares how her mother chose to ignore the noise and instead focus on her children's experiences in the outdoors. And the impact? Well, you'll have to read Kiki's story to find out.
In Issue 9, Kiki Ong shared the story of how she got into skiing: her mother's deep desire to create crystallizing moments in her children's lives. Today, she realizes how special these childhood moments were to her finding this love of skiing.
"The intergenerational bond we shared for our love of skiing is something that I recognize is not a common experience. Access, affordability, and resources were all fundamental in our family’s ability to try out the sport and it’s a privilege my mom reminded us to never take for granted. She acknowledged that we were all visitors and that these beautiful spaces needed to be respected."
What are your earliest childhood memories of being outside and how has it shaped you to this day?
What would it be if our looks truly didn’t matter? What would we do? What would we want?
Raise your hand if seeing yourself on a computer screen the last year in all of those Zoom calls has made you question your appearance.
✋🏿✋🏼✋🏾✋🏿✋🏼✋🏾✋🏿✋🏼✋🏾✋🏿✋🏼✋🏾
It may seem stupid or shallow, but it's not, and in Issue 9 of Sisu Magazine, Jenny Bruso breaks it all down.
"Few things matter as much as a viral pandemic, it’s not exactly a fair bar. Your feelings and your quality of life matter and a worldwide crisis can trigger us in confusing ways.
Ugliness, in the physical sense, is a social construct. So is beauty. Patriarchy and capitalism decide what is and isn’t attractive, how we might go about “fixing” it, and then drag us as shallow and vapid for caring.
It’s an unending circle jerk designed to keep us disempowered and forking our money over to the $93.5 billion beauty industry. The gag is that these standards are always changing so that no one, even the people categorized as attractive, will ever be able to completely chase beauty down."
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