Holiday Gift List: Wrap Up an Outdoor Adventure

In just a couple weeks, Yankee Magazine’s January/February issue will be on newsstands. It’s a not-so-serious guide to loving winter and includes 43 reasons to embrace the season. This issue resonates with me for many reasons, primarily because I love everything about snow. Plus, who wouldn’t welcome a good excuse to eat doughnuts? (Reason No. 13 in Yankee’s guide to loving winter is: “It’s Okay to Eat Doughnuts.”  According to cold-weather expert Murray Hamlet, D.V.M., formerly of the U.S. Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, you need to consume more calories during the winter, especially slow burning foods. His solution: doughnuts.) But before we actually get to the January/February issue, we must deal with the complicated task of finding the perfect gift for someone who you may have already spent your whole (or close to your whole) life buying the most perfect holiday present for. I’ve rounded up some outdoor adventures for those on your gift list who love winter, love working off doughnuts, love a little adventure, and who don’t need another festive sweater or pair of slippers. An added bonus to giving an experience rather than an object for the holidays is you don’t have to buy wrapping paper! (That is unless you want to wrap the box of doughnuts that can accompany one of the following gifts.) Outdoor Adventure Gift List Ideas50+ Winter Sports Adventure Camp A week-long adventure hosted by the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) at the Highland Center in Crawford Notch, New Hampshire. Your days will include cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, yoga, stretching, plus historic and cultural programs. Catamount Trail Multi-Day Cross-Country Tours This season, The Catamount Trail Association is offering two week-long tours and two three-day tours where you will spend your days cross-country skiing sections of this 300-mile-long trail that meanders through the entire length of the Green Mountain State.  A list of lodging options will be made available, and participants will be responsible for arranging their own lodging and meals. To read more about the Catamount Trail, check out “Fresh Tracks to Cozy Inns” from Yankee‘s January/February 2012 issue. Road Scholar Adventures at Craftsbury Outdoor Center Craftsbury Outdoor Center, a non-profit offering outdoor activities in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, hosts week-long Road Scholar (formerly Elderhostel) programs.  During the winter, Craftsbury offers cross-county ski Road Scholar programs for newbies and experts alike combined with either yoga, astronomy, music & dance, or film & fiction. Kripalu Cross-Country Skiing and Yoga Retreat The Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health is located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. A world-renowned yoga center, they also offer a three-day cross country skiing and yoga retreat starting on February 17. Learn to Ice Climb in Connecticut Eastern Mountain Sports Climbing School offers ice climbing lessons in New England  in North Conway, New Hampshire, and West Hartford, Connecticut.  Winter Climbing 101 is a one-day program that gives you the basics to ice climbing. Follow it up with Ice Climbing 201 or Mountaineering 201 course. Before you go, read about my ice climbing adventure. Here’s to loving winter, Yankee Magazine-style.