MOUNT SHASTA, Calif.
hen a group of eight women — three of them complete beginners at backpacking — got caught in an October snowstorm in the Stanislaus National Forest, they didn’t panic. They might have wished for snowshoes or lighter packs or dry sleeping bags, but there’s one thing they weren’t wishing for: Men to rescue them.
“Not at all,” said Lori Burnett, co-leader of the trip, run through Outdoor Adventures at the University of California, Davis. “The other guide and I knew what we were doing.” The women got out fine, a little late, a little cold and exhilarated by what they had done. There always have been American outdoorswomen, but many modern women now are experiencing the outdoors in a different way: through women-only trips. They are climbing Mount Shasta, riding mountain bikes near Auburn, snowshoeing in the Sierra and kayaking the American River — all in the company of women. Women’s participation in many outdoor activities has jumped. A 1999 survey, for example, found a 56 percent increase in the number of women trying snowshoeing over the previous year and a 39 percent jump in kayaking. Group leaders say there are as many reasons for women-only trips as there are women to go on them. Three stick out: Such trips provide a chance to bond with other women, a less-threatening learning environment and an opportunity for physical activity without macho bravado. “We seem to stop and chat more, and it’s more of a social thing,” said Kelli O’Neill, president of Sacramento Singletrack Scorchers, a women’s mountain bike group. Men often approach a ride differently, she said. “They just want to put their head down and go for it.” It’s not that women aren’t athletic, it’s just that they add a note of sociability, many said. The women in Patti Smith’s real estate office decided they’d rather do something physical — a snowshoe trip together — than share a day at the spa. They went in January during a snowstorm. “It was more of a bonding situation because it was all women,” said Tina McBride, one of the women from the Patti Smith Real Estate Group. The women took a three-hour snowshoe hike led by Cathy Anderson-Meyers of Grass Valley, Calif., who also organizes a summertime women’s triathlon camp through her company CathyWorks. Snowshoeing is not very technical. “It’s pretty much like walking,” McBride said. When it comes to activities such as backpacking, mountain climbing and snow camping, technique and equipment are more critical. That’s another reason some women look to women-only trips. “They feel a little intimidated about learning backcountry skills around men,” said Justi Entenmann, a mountaineering instructor with Shasta Mountain Guides. “They assume men already know these skills or will catch on really fast.” Some women just feel more comfortable learning the skills around other women and less worried about asking questions, falling down or taking a longer time to catch on. “Lots of women are raised not being in the outdoors,” said Anderson-Meyers. “And they like to have women teach them. If a peer is teaching them, they feel, ‘If she can do it, I can do it.’ “ And, some say, learning and performing outdoor skills can differ for the sexes. “The way women learn how to do things is different than the way men do,” said Chris Burnett, operations manager for Outdoor Adventures, and Lori Burnett’s husband. “Men may emphasize a technique that emphasizes more power than finesse.” That is especially true for sports such as rock climbing or kayaking. “(Women) work more with the water rather than fight it,” said Lori Burnett, who also works as a whitewater rafting guide. “I don’t have the strength of one of my (male) co-guides, who is 6’5” and a black belt in karate.” Still, her approach — more process-oriented and less strictly goal-oriented — worked best on the unintentional snow camping trip. Among other difficulties, the women had to try to follow a trail buried under two feet of snow; without showshoes, progress was slow because they sank into the fresh drifts. So by the time they were supposed to be near home, they were near to their cars, but not yet out of the wilds. “A couple were really dragging,” Burnett said. “It was really hard for them to walk through the snow.” They could have opted to push on, bushwhacking to the road, but Burnett and her co-leader listened to the consensus of the tired women and decided to camp overnight. The next morning, they were at the road by 10 a.m., cold, but exhilarated by their adventure. The men at Outdoor Adventures confessed to Burnett that they might have made a mess of the trip by trying to go on at night — pursuing the finish, instead of the experience. “They basically said, ‘Our testosterone would have got in the way,”’ she recalled. In mixed groups, men often want to push ahead, said Catherine Stifter, who leads camping and snowshoeing trips. “The guys will be (saying), ‘How far are we going to go? Let’s keep going.’ Women are more concerned about how they feel,” she said. With co-ed snowshoe groups, she may tell restless men to cut across the switchbacks to use up excess energy, but she’s found single-sex groups tend to be more relaxing for the women. “They’re not worrying about the guys leaving ‘em in the dust,” she said. Entenmann agreed. Her clients often “share their experiences about going out with their brothers or husbands and feeling frustrated.” It’s not that these women never want to go with men, it’s just that sometimes they want a different environment. “There’s so many places for guys to be together, they’ll tend to be together,” Stifter said. “It’s just fun to be with other gals.”
