Major support for Oregon Field Guide is provided by... [ ♪♪♪ ] MAN: My rappel!

MAN: Oh, my gosh, it's beautiful.

MAN: Good morning, everybody.

Woo!

Let's do it again!

MAN: Nicely done!

MAN: Oh, yeah!

Fourteen and a half.

Yes, that was awesome!

[ people cheering ] There you go, up, up... ED JAHN: Next, on Oregon Field Guide: It's all smiles as people of color embrace skiing, snowboarding, and camaraderie...

There you go, nice.

...on the slopes of Mount Hood.

Then, what are warm-weather olives doing growing in our rainy Northwest climate?

But first, icy waters beckon.

On Oregon Field Guide, we love to bring you stories that are a little different, maybe things you haven't heard before.

But when producer Ian McCluskey came to me with this idea to do a story about soaking in rivers in the middle of winter, I had the obvious reaction: why?

Well, here's your answer.

WOMAN: It started as a challenge, right?

It started more just kind of out of curiosity.

I-- I get excited.

I kind of picture myself and just getting myself more in the mindset, okay?

Like, "I am going to be in it, this is what I want to-- This is how I'm going to do it, this is what I'm going to get out of it."

So there is a feeling of some enjoyable anticipation.

McCLUSKEY: A lot of outdoorsy folks love to jump into a cold mountain lake on a hot summer day, and some are even brave enough to dash into cold water on a dare, what some might call a polar plunge.

But getting into painfully cold water has become a way of life for Ivana Maclay.

[ breathing deeply ] The body's first reaction to icy water is called cold shock.

It is often an intense minute of hyperventilation and sometimes can even cause cardiac arrest.

But Ivana has trained herself to control her breathing.

So, like, I would say after 20 seconds of that initial shock, it starts feeling different.

Your body just creates this warm bubble.

And then it feels right.

Like for a few minutes, I can just sit there, and the body feels actually really... really good.

This is going to be steadier.

Might be-- Whoo!

And when I start feeling more cold again or shivering, I usually get out, because it seems-- You know, that was enough.

I like the discomfort and pushing my limits, but when it gets too much, I do want to listen to body.

[ breathing deeply ] In icy water, the body concentrates blood flow to preserve its core temperature.

Arms and legs can go numb and muscles weaken after just a few minutes.

So as soon as she gets out, Ivana performs what she calls her horse dance to pump the warm blood through her body.

Yeah!

[ laughs, then sighs deeply ] [ women chattering indistinctly ] [ both exclaim ] I feel really good.

[ chuckles ] [ exhales sharply ] I'm a mom, I work as a mental health therapist.

That's probably also, like, why I love nature as well, because I just need to get out and get my energy back.

I always enjoy sauna and, you know, going to hot springs and hot tubs.

I'm still a pretty cold person.

Like, I have cold hands and cold feet.

I'm not going to lie.

I'm not, like, super comfortable to taking my clothes off and just getting in the water.

There's always this level of discomfort.

Ivana grew up with severe asthma and often felt her body was weaker than other people.

When her mom died of cancer, it deepened Ivana's fear about her body not being strong enough.

And, yeah, and probably behind the story, not trusting my body those years of my life that I was going through a divorce and times being a single mom and struggling financially and not really knowing a lot of people here and just being pretty new in Portland, so I was seeking and looking for something that would help me.

I have a way and a tool that I am more confident about my body and I trust my body and I know how to... how to help myself.

Cold dipping has become such a regular part of Ivana's life that she has her own backyard setup.

I'm choosing the level of suffering.

I am the one in control.

The opposite way of, "Oh, the things are just happening to me."

Professional athletes have long known that ice baths can help reduce swelling and sore muscles.

But mental health professionals like Ivana are especially interested in cold immersion as a therapeutic way to reduce anxiety and depression.

The discomfort of the icy water seems to trigger the body's fight-or-flight nervous system, releasing a rush of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine.

Folks like Ivana who have incorporated cold plunging into their weekly routine report elevated mood, energy, and focus.

It just became my daily routine.

It's something that I do to get energy and strength back to do the normal life.

And, yeah, face the normal stressors.

So this is the little training.

[ laughs ] [ women chattering indistinctly ] Ivana will invite anyone she meets to come together to share a cold dip.

What is this?

This is going to be fun.

One of the folks she's invited today is her neighbor, Priscilla.

I think I'm doing it because I think Ivana is-- just really got such a good spirit.

And it's good to learn about what that's all about.

[ all laughing ] -IVANA: Okay, ready?

-Yes!

[ Ivana exclaims ] [ all whooping, shrieking ] IVANA: It's really inspiring.

It's super nonjudgmental.

You know, sometimes we just needed people that they've never done it before, they're first-timers.

[ speaks indistinctly ] Some people just go in the water for a few seconds, and that's it.

I'm done.

[ laughs ] I'm allowed.

IVANA: But no one cares, right?

We're all having fun.

-It's freezing!

-We're done!

-MAN: Beautiful!

-[ all cheering ] It's amazing!

IVANA: Taking the cold dip with other people, it brings me so much joy.

PRISCILLA: I just think it's good to know that there are other people that can share this.

[ all laughing ] To help take the cold off, they set up a portable sauna tent.

-MAN: It's way too hot.

-Oh, this is cool!

This is really nice and warm.

So, yeah, what?

-MAN: Two hundred.

-IVANA: Two hundred?!

-[ man laughs ] -IVANA: Oh, my God.

MAN: But it's only up there.

IVANA: I mean, some people know each other and some people never met, right?

So we have all this collection of people.

That is just pretty amazing.

The laughter and the giggles and the happiness, I mean, it's pretty contagious, right?

-Cheers!

-Cheers.

Thank you.

Thanks for coming out.

Ivana hopes that she can make these types of community dips a regular thing.

I can't wait to go swimming every day.

IVANA: And then it's time to put the clothes on and... [ chuckles ] start hiking back.

When I get in the cold water, there's just no yesterday, no tomorrow.

It's only now.

It's going to hurt for a little bit, but it'll pass, it's only temporary.

And that's probably what's been the most important things that I learn from the cold exposure.

It's a good combination of the coldness and the feeling of being alive.

[ ♪♪♪ ] On this beautiful day on Mount Hood, one group is doing more than just enjoying the slopes.

They have a goal to increase accessibility in winter sports, specifically for people of color.

WOMAN: Yeah!

Good, good, good!

[ laughs ] You did it!

Nice!

This group of people were mostly strangers just a few hours ago, but you can't tell.

There you go, nice.

They've bonded quickly.

They're all people of color new to skiing and snowboarding.

WOMAN: Nice!

-Whoo!

-[ woman cheers ] -Now, fall!

-Good job!

I just thought a lot about how I think so many BIPOC people feel like in order to participate in certain activities, especially ones that are in predominantly white spaces, you feel like you have to showcase exceptionalism to feel like you even have a seat at the table.

And I'm just going to look this way... Everyone is here because of Open Slopes PDX, a grassroots group getting people of color out on the mountain.

Mai Li O'Keefe helped organize the second event of the year.

Just seeing, you know, as many as like 20 BIPOC people just all hanging out, whether it's in the parking lot-- Today we were front and center as people were walking into the resort.

It's just so cool.

And it's just like something that I really haven't experienced before.

-Yeah, you'll get it.

-Eventually.

-It'll come.

-We have time.

Going to stick our butts out a little bit.

Kind of get low.

The day is starting with some nerves for Muri Rodriguez.

This is my very first time snowboarding.

In fact, my first time touching a snowboard.

Got it?

-[ yelps ] -[ laughs ] This is really happening.

I'm going to put-- put my gear on, put the snowboard on my feet, and I'm going to go down, like, a tiny hill, but still a hill.

And I'm going to try not to hit anybody on the way down.

We'll get out of your way.

You're already an other, and then if, also, on top of that you're new to the outdoor sport you're trying, then it just kind of adds an extra layer of discomfort, and you just-- it'll be much harder to relax and learn and ease into it.

We've all fallen so far, so we know it's no big deal, right?

So this time we're just going to try it again.

-Nice!

Good.

-Nice!

MURI: We all have something in common.

Either we grew up with our parents, were not able-- or didn't even know about winter sports or just culturally, there's similarities there.

You just feel like you understand each other on a different level.

It's a special feeling of pride for Mai Li, bringing this group of Black, indigenous, and people of color, commonly known as BIPOC people, to a space they describe as largely white.

MAI LI: The ski culture has predominantly relied on white generational wealth.

And I think that there is sometimes a certain level of comfort and even ownership, and I think that making more room for these BIPOC outdoor groups and queer groups as well, I think that it sort of disrupts that and it makes for a richer experience.

Putting this event on took a lot of work, a lot of donations, and a lot of passion.

We provide lift tickets, we provide all the rentals.

We can gift $100 credits.

That way participants can get their own gear ahead of time.

They don't need to be super tight right now because we can definitely tighten them up.

They're also providing free lessons taught by people of color to people of color.

If you jump and you land... that landing is where you should be.

Nice, nice.

Nice.

MAI LI: The instructors are incredible.

Like, they do such a good job meeting people where they're at.

Even if you don't quite get it, you can still tell that everyone's having such a great time.

Like, it's been really, really special to see people playing in the snow like this.

-Boom, done!

You did it.

-[ sighs ] Look at that, you did it.

Good job.

And now we're going to slide down.

[ laughs ] WOMAN: There's a lot of opportunity for diversity, but I would say that people need to see themselves represented.

It's becoming more and more diverse, which is awesome and amazing, because one of the things that I want to be able to see is people who look like me not just skiing but also teaching and leading.

With some patience, Destinie has the skiers ready to go on their own to take on the Bunny Hill.

There you go.

Yeah, girl!

I feel like we need the Rocky music or something.

[ hums "Eye of the Tiger" ] [ shrieks ] Everyone is killing it.

I have been, like, just blown away by how quickly everyone's picking up on things.

Including me, as a person of color myself skiing for just the second time in my life.

Okay.

Here we go.

I'm taking part in the stumbles and falls and laughs... -[ all laughing ] -It's like the sliding-- The sliding gives-- Everybody gets up, and then they start sliding.

...and smiles.

DESTINIE: [ whoops ] Good job!

Goofy's awesome.

Oh, yeah!

You're ready for the half pipe!

This was so sketchy the first time I tried it.

I was-- almost fell down.

Jeremy Gomez is a little more experienced than the other participants.

JEREMY: I come up here because I need a thrill.

Like, I like to have fun, I like to go fast, I like to learn something new.

And I like that feeling of being scared sometimes because when you try something new, it's scary.

But the unique experience of skiing with other people of color is fresh.

I feel comfortable with people who I can talk Spanish with.

I'm from the Dominican Republic, so if I can find somebody to talk Spanish with, it gives me a little bit more confidence that someone has my back out here.

Oh, yeah, that was so dope!

That's so fun.

[ both speaking in Spanish ] MAI LI: Overall, people have just showed an immense amount of gratitude.

They're so excited to even be given this opportunity.

Because, again, I think that just the opportunity to try it out even isn't really afforded to most people.

As for what's next, Open Slopes hopes to have more of these events, potentially for kids.

WOMAN: Vegan chili!

And then I was like, "Okay, I haven't heard from Jeremy, so it's probably fine."

Thinking about long-term, I don't really want to see a group like ours as an exception.

I want to see communities already established because we've always been here.

It's just making it more of a normal part of the outdoor scene.

[ ♪♪♪ ] You think olives and you think sunny Mediterranean, right?

Our typically rainy Northwest climate isn't usually what comes to mind when we think of good growing conditions for olives.

But thanks to science and a little agricultural ingenuity, that's changing.

JULE GILFILLAN: The Willamette Valley is a great place to grow just about anything.

But there's a new crop on the landscape that some are betting will be Oregon's next pinot noir.

MAN: Olives are an interesting story.

I think it's a crop that drags you in and it pulls you in and makes you very passionate about it.

That's right, olives.

OSU researcher Javier Fernandez-Salvador turned that passion into the Olea Project, a program designed to put Oregon olive oil on the gastronomic map.

Mmm!

We want to make the crop viable and cost-effective so that we can grow the industry a little more.

Yeah, with this size trunk... You almost can't even tell on this tree that you lost anything, you know?

Yeah.

But the thing is, this is a tree that's native to the Middle East.

JAVIER: It's a region where it's very dry in the summer and not particularly cold in the winter.

So in Oregon, we have the challenge of dealing with the winter.

You see where there's no leaves and it looks dried and ugly?

Yeah, that's cold damage.

Oregon's chilly winters can damage the buds that become olives in the spring or kill the trees outright.

This bottom part is looking great, but this top, look at that.

Case in point, the ice storm of February 2021.

-Oh, my God!

-Look at that, it lost all... -Lost all of its top.

-It lost the top.

JAVIER: The idea of the project was to see if there's varieties that are more tolerant and then to see if there are techniques that we can use to establish the orchard faster so that it doesn't get hit by the cold as much.

Some of that work now happens in OSU's greenhouses and fields here in Aurora.

But it started in the early 2000s with some adventurous growers.

-How was the storm?

-It was bad.

This is the guy that fell down?

Well, there's quite a few of them.

There's about 15.

And you can see, like this guy toppled over completely, so we're just trying to support it.

Marni Redding is one of those early pioneers.

I've been doing this for about 14 or 15 years.

There was a group of us that talked with each other and communicated, and it just felt like a fun project to learn something completely new.

They were all fluffy and pretty, and now they look like they've had a hard winter.

And they have.

Two have died for sure so far.

Keeping these heat-loving fruit trees alive demands patience and a willingness to adapt.

JAVIER: That's what I would do.

I have about 75 trees in my barn basically just to replace trees that I lose in the winter.

Sometimes you see damage to a third, a half of your trees.

That's why it's so challenging in Oregon.

And over here, you start to get up the hill and they start to look fantastic.

Yeah, that's a great tree.

Look at that tree.

MARNI: It's harder than it looks.

I mean, when you come out here, it looks like a really successful olive grow, but I know all the years that it's taken to get it just to this point, so it's... it's a process.

But I love bringing home my own olive oil that's grown on the property and just trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.

I'll be curious to see what the yield is this year.

JAVIER: Yeah.

Like Marni, wine maker and now olive grower Paul Durant has learned a lot of this the hard way.

JAVIER: Oh, my!

That is some trimming.

Yeah, we really whacked 'em back.

[ Javier chuckles ] -For sure.

-Wow.

In 2005, we planted our first few thousand trees.

Got super excited because they did so well.

And then the real learning started to happen.

It was a series of cold winters and incorrect varietals and all sorts of things, but you have to just keep iterating around where can we borrow, beg, steal ideas?

And so we're spreading our trees out further apart now.

We're continuing to try things.

You know, even this weed mat was really put down not so much for weed control but for heat retention.

If we can get them to wake up maybe even two weeks earlier in the spring, that gives us two weeks more ripening in the fall.

JAVIER: Another big problem for us here in Oregon is our season is much shorter than what it would be in California, so it bears fruit later in the time where we're starting to get really cold.

So we have to harvest it quick.

Growing olives is tough, but experts used to say wine grapes wouldn't do well here either.

And we all know how that turned out.

Could it be the same for olives?

The reason why people didn't want to grow grapes here, it's because of our rain.

But there are grapes that you can grow with those limitations and still make a fantastic product.

The limitation is not so much the cold.

With olives, that's the main limitation.

That doesn't deter Paul Durant.

PAUL: For anybody that's in agriculture in Oregon, it's a long-term venture, and you've got to be thinking what crop could be adapted into a changing climate.

And honestly, the olives are just at the beginning stages of that.

Okay, so does a changing climate mean olives might thrive here someday?

We don't know.

Our summers may be drier.

That's great for olives.

[ laughs ] Where do you want to start, Javier?

This good?

JAVIER: Will this make winters warmer?

We don't know.

It's not a crop where you're like, "Oh, will I get a good harvest or not this year?"

No, it's a crop where, like, "Will I lose all of my trees this year?"

So you probably have to ask a climatologist, and they're not going to be able to predict it either.

All right.

After the icy winter, a mild fall has given Marni Redding just the harvest window she'd hoped for.

So are they different varieties?

Yeah, about five different varieties.

-So you blend them?

-Yep, mm-hm.

-It's a Tuscan blend.

-Tuscan blend.

-Mm-hm.

-Right here in Oregon.

I know.

Scientists tell us our overall climate is getting warmer, but they're also seeing more extremes in temperature and precipitation.

JAVIER: So are we going to find the next pinot that will make Oregon oil famous?

One full tote.

If we didn't have those cold winters, but we do.

So we're constantly struggling.

So why do we do it, right?

There are so many different flavors and tastes and textures and qualities that you can get out of an olive oil that it just involves you.

-So this is your 20... -2020.

-2020 harvest, yeah.

-Yes.

Yeah, wow.

Look at the color.

-Isn't that beautiful?

-It's so vibrant.

The magnificent thing about Oregon is because of all our limitations, we produce some fantastic oils.

Look at that.

Greatness.

[ chuckles ] And that gives the growers an opportunity for that really high-end, high-value niche market.

Like fresh-cut grass.

-Mm-hm.

-Mm!

I get a little bit of clover now, too.

Then peppery.

Peppery, peppery, peppery.

And then the finish is very nutty now.

It's fantastic.

MARNI: It really is.

And that's why we do it.

Yeah, this is why we do it, exactly.

[ laughs ] [ ♪♪♪ ] You can now find many Oregon Field Guide stories and episodes online.

And to be part of the conversation about the outdoors and environment here in the Northwest, join us on Facebook.

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