Today we meet Christina Roh of the brand new Outdoor Asian Los Angeles chapter
A defining point in Christina’s journey to outdoor badass-ery was at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Between climbing at her school’s rock wall and taking classes in Environmental Racism, Christina saw the duality of the environmental and outdoor worlds: the beauty of the natural world and outdoor sports versus the atrocity of systematic racism and cultural genocide.
How could the spectacular La Jolla (“The Jewel,” in Spanish) coastline ever harbor dark secrets?
How could UCSD sit on the ancestral lands of the Kumiai, indeed right over their burial grounds, and not at the least acknowledge the history?
Why were the outdoor climbing spots around L.A. not as welcoming as her own school climbing gym?
Can the outdoors really be a healing place for people to share, confront, and eventually overcome their deepest anxieties and traumas?
These questions materialized in one form or another in Christina’s mind. Coupled with her upbringing, which included plentyof nasty ginger root tea that her mom made her drink and hiking mountains in Korea with her grandparents, she decided to join Outdoor Asian as a Chapter Manager for Los Angeles. In this role, she aims to connect the dots of the expansively diverse communities of HAPI’s (Hapa’s Asians, and Pacific Islanders) through meetups in and out of town.
Christina’s ideas for Los Angeles adventures include something for everyone: think brewery tour one week, sunrise hike to Griffith Park the next, and rock climbing big rocks at Joshua Tree National Park.
In her words:
“Let’s spice it up! Let’s not do one thing over and over. You can go out and find so many different types of landscapes in LA!”
Her ideal adventure day looks like this: waking up before dawn, hiking through Griffith park, and catching a sunrise over observatory with cup of tea in-hand.
“I’m Korean, so I also need kimchi involved, some sort of soup, maybe kimchi jjigae, a huge bowl of white rice. That’s my shit!”
She hopes that this new community will be a fun and healing space for HAPI’s to address prejudice in its various forms from sexuality to sexism, racism and familial expectations.
Welcome to the team Christina! You can catch her at the very first Outdoor Asian Los Angeles meetup in town being scheduled right now.