The Daily - August 11,2021 - 20

Ideas
OUTDOOR RE TAILER S UMMER 2 0 2 1
B I G N E W S / B I G A C T I O N / B I G T R E N D S
" THE OUTDOORS IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF
MY DAYS OF BINGEING-IT'S ALL ABOUT TAKING
A STEP FORWARD, LIVING IN THE NOW, LOVING
WHERE YOU ARE, AND GOING FROM THERE. "
-KARA RICHRADSON WHITELY
Kara
Richardson
Whitely
B I G N E W S
The Heavy
Truth
Kara Richardson Whitely doesn't want you
to wait for her on the trail-she just wants to
hike. By Bevin Wallace
KARA RICHARDSON WHITELY WROTE HER 2015 BOOK GORGE: MY JOURney
Up Kilimanjaro at 300 Pounds-after climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for
the third time. She's also hiked 100 miles of Vermont's Long Trail and completed
the 25-mile round-trip trek to Havasu Falls, including the dicey down-climb
on Mooney Falls. ( " I didn't opt to take a helicopter in and out like Beyoncé, " she
says.) Whitely is an avid hiker; she's a wife; she's a mom; she's an Instagram
influencer, a brand consultant, and a motivational speaker; she's about to be
the subject of a movie; and she is also plus-sized-so what? Get used to it.
Because she loves the outdoors. She just wishes the outdoor industry would be
more accepting of people like her. " The outdoors doesn't have to be so extreme, "
20
/ OUTDOOR RETAILER SUMMER 2021
Whitely says. " Every day is an
adventure. Perhaps if we start to let
down these barriers, we will invite
more people to the outdoors. The
pandemic welcomed so many new
participants to nature. We need to
continue heading in that direction. "
Whitely, 47, a mom of three and
wife to Chris, grew up in Gananoque,
Canada, where her front yard
was a forest. " I would tromp in the
trilliums with my two older brothers
and search for salamanders in the
streams. We then moved to upstate
New York, an 80-acre property
with an abandoned sugar shack
in the woods, " she says. " I became
distanced from the outdoors when
my parents divorced and I started
bingeing. I became a latchkey kid,
sedentary-not because I didn't love
the outdoors but because depression
and anxiety started to take hold. "
Whitely says rediscovering the
outdoors has changed her life for the
better (massive understatement). " It
has forced me to keep getting out
there even when my mind is holding
me back, even on a day when I'm
struggling with my self-worth, " she
says. And she feels strongly that stories
like hers need to be told in order
for the outdoor industry to embrace
the last frontier of diversity inclusion.
" This is a topic that is so personal
to so many people yet hasn't
been told in an authentic manner, "
she says. " The outdoors is the exact
opposite of my days of bingeing-it's
all about taking a step forward,
living in the now, loving where you
are, and going from there. "
But she's been fat shamed on
trails ( " people making assumptions
I shouldn't be there and offhand
comments from kids " mostly) and
does not always feel the love from
the outdoor industry. As she wrote
in a recent (May/June 2021) and
very popular piece for Backpacker,
" Even when people weren't calling
me big or fat (which happened), I
could feel them looking at me like I
didn't belong. I had to buy a men's
jacket because it was the only thing
that came in 3XL. It was boxy, the
sleeves hung down several inches
beyond my fingertips, and even
though it zipped, it didn't fit around
my hips, so I had to pull it up, doubling
it over from my waist down to
mid belly. " This was what she wore
to summit the tallest peak in Africa
(19,341 feet), and it does not sound
like it fit or performed very well at
all. And it probably wasn't all that
flattering, either. She says she has
peered into " the darkest corner "
of outdoor stores-and conducted
vast online searches and ridiculous
workarounds-just to find clothes
in her size, but still with very little
COURTESY KARA RICHAEDSON WHITELY
The Daily - August 11,2021

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