- [Narrator] Fleet Feet believes that running changes everything, and we're proud to sponsor Crosscut's "Out and Back" with Alison Mariella Desir.

We host fun runs, training groups, and events.

Whether you're training for your first mile or your 50th marathon, we're here to run with you.

- All right, so let's put on your boots.

You'll hear people say that the ankle is the queen of skiing, right?

And it is.

You ready?

- I'm ready.

- Let's go.

(uplifting music) When Mom and I stepped foot on snow, I knew I was gonna love it, and I often knew that I wanted to change what I was seeing.

(uplifting music continues) I didn't see too many people who looked like me on a guest level, on a staffing level, I just knew I wanted to make that change.

(uplifting music continues) (upbeat music) - When you think about skiing, who do you picture making their way down the mountain?

Personally, I picture white people, and I'm not wrong.

Historically, skiing has been almost exclusively white and affluent.

According to a recent survey, only 1.5% of visitors to resorts were Black, while 89% of visitors to resorts were white.

Today, I'm here with Annette Diggs.

Annette discovered skiing in 2018 and has since dedicated her life to creating space for Black, indigenous, and other women of color in snow sports.

- Everybody who plays this sport knows that you have an athletic stance.

You know your legs are about shoulder width apart from your hips, right?

You know, you're nice and ready to go.

I'm gonna push myself and try to glide a little bit.

Wee.

I'm trying to get some.

- [Alison] Wee.

(laughs) - [Annette] All right.

- When you decided to take lessons, what was that process like?

Because I just wanted to take my son for a single lesson two weeks ago, and felt overwhelmed by the process.

- It is a challenge, you know?

It's incredibly expensive to afford snow sports.

When you're looking at entering, you're also looking at investing anywhere between 600 and maybe $1,000 just to try the sport, and that could be like the household expenses for you know, an individual or family for the month or two.

When I started off, I didn't have the gear.

I couldn't afford the gear, and so I just went to, you know, my local grocery store.

You know, they sell clothes in there, so I just, you know, got me some like 1999 rain pants, you know, a Rave jacket.

It was like the grocery store brand, you know?

'Cause I didn't know if I was gonna, you know, like this sport.

(compelling music) My mother and father were born in a time where they didn't have civil rights.

My grandparents didn't have access to mountain spaces.

Going outdoors wasn't a safe place for us.

And in my family, I could trace back, my grandmother was the help, her mother was a sharecropper, and her mother's mother was a slave.

I grew up what they call redline community.

I was being pulled from my school and being bused from one school district to another, and being the only Black person in that space.

After every holiday or every break, the teacher would ask, you know, "What did you guys do over the spring break?"

And I would hear these stories of these kids, you know, going to out of the country, going to all these different places, and it ignited like this curiosity within me.

You know, we would go venture around our neighborhood and make our own outdoors, because you know, we didn't have access to going out in the wilderness, so we would, in our apartment complex, we would jump off of the, I will tell you, we used to jump off of the second story of our apartment complex and believe that we were martial artists.

- I love it, we would make our own outdoors.

- We made our own outdoors.

(uplifting music) - Have your parents ever gotten on skis?

I know your mom paraglides.

- My mom and dad did not have these opportunities, so every time I learn a new sport, I'm dragging my mom and my dad.

(laughs) I'm dragging them along, and I'm like, you know, I've made my mom like paraglide at least four or five times already.

Like, even though she- - [Alison] God bless her.

- Yes.

(uplifting music) The point is, is that, you know, when I'm out here taking advantage of these opportunities, I also bring it back home because, you know, it wasn't presented to my mom and dad.

You know, I'm trying to heal them and their childhood and give them the opportunities, right?

I took them to their first ski area to expose them to that.

They never thought, like in their 60s, right?

That they would ever step foot in the ski area, and they find so much healing through the work that I do, and the opportunities that I bring back home for them.

(uplifting music) Are my knees slightly bent and my hips slightly bent and my arms out, right?

Am I picking the collard greens, where my poles are kind of behind me like this, right?

Right, this is the position I wanna be as I'm getting a really nice, forward glide, right?

Once you get a glide, you're gonna hold it, arms out, arms out, hold it, hold it.

Nothing's gonna happen to you.

The terrain is going to stop you.

You wanna make sure that you're not too far in the backseat, right?

And that's a total normal response.

- [Alison] Yeah.

- Protect, protect, protect, but in order to protect, that booty has to come in, right?

In a little bit.

You wanna get back in your athletic stance.

So this is a little steep, right?

You're essentially throwing yourself down a mountain.

- [Alison] Yeah.

- You're gonna have feelings of maybe anxiety, but I want you to calm that down.

Calm that heart rate down, calm your mind down.

So I'm gonna take off, I'm gonna push myself, right?

I'm just going and going.

(bright music) - [Alison] Ah.

- [Annette] Don't break your fall.

(Alison chuckling) Yes, yes.

Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it.

Nice work.

- [Alison] Oh my gosh.

- [Annette] Ah, nice work.

(Alison laughing) That is great, you even went to a baby turn at the end.

- Yeah.

- [Annette] Congratulations.

- Well, there's that moment where you're like, "Hold it, are you gonna let go?"

Am I gonna, it's very like mental practice of you just gotta let go.

- You gotta let go.

- If you go, you're gonna find it, you're gonna let go.

- I love to teach, watching somebody have those breakthrough moments of, "Oh, I could do this."

You know, overcoming psychological barriers.

I'm gonna tell you it's providing opportunity, but it's also healing me.

(upbeat music) When I walk into environments where I'm the only one, I think about the people in my community, I think about the strong women in my family, I think about the legacy that the Black people went through in this nation.

(upbeat music continues) Even though I walk alone in that space, I know that there's a whole community, a whole legacy that's behind me rooting for me, because it took a lot for me to even be here, right?

There was a lot of advocating for us to have this opportunity to return to the mountain.

(upbeat music continues) - [Narrator] Fleet Feet is on a mission to inspire the runner in everyone, and is proud to sponsor Crosscut's "Out and Back" with Alison Mariella Desir.