Asher Brown grew up in Lyme, New Hampshire, just up the road from the current Northern Woodlands office. He’s worked as a ski patroller at the Middlebury Snow Bowl, on the Hut Croo for the Appalachian Mountain Club, and as a surfing instructor. He graduated from Middlebury College in February with a self-designed degree in Narrative Studies and has also studied with the Maine College of Art’s Salt Institute for Documentary Storytelling. Among the stories he’s told are those of the young professionals featured in the North Country Calling series, a collaboration between Northern Woodlands and the Northern Forest Center. The first four installments in the series are on our YouTube page, and Asher is working to complete two more this summer.
I really like getting to know a physical place. Surfing, ski patrolling, and working with AMC in the huts – all those revolve around being in an outdoor space for a long period of time in the same space. I think I’m a little bit less drawn to the adventure side. I really enjoyed working up in the AMC huts and living at one hut all summer long and really getting to know the few trails around that hut and seeing the changes that happen during the season. Surfing is similar. If you surf a spot, it will be different all the time, but there will be different geographical features and aspects of the ocean that make repeatable circumstances, so you can actually get to know a surf spot and its unique qualities and how it reacts. The same is true of skiing. You’re skiing the same trails, but it’s always a little different. And that’s cool. I think that’s definitely a through line in all my outdoor activities – a sense of place and a sense of coming back to that same place and having it be even more special the next time.
I would never call myself a woods person, necessarily, but I’m in the woods a lot. I think I’m fortunate that it doesn’t have to be an identity that I have to seek out, that it’s been so available to me all my life – spending summers at Post Pond and winters at the Dartmouth Skiway, and growing up in New Hampshire, and working in the Whites. It’s just my backyard.
I really only picked up a camera around the end of high school. I started getting interested in photography and pretty quickly in filmmaking. It’s kind of wavered, to be honest. It wasn’t until I came to college, and I was starting to study math and geology, that I realized that I really like the process of making films and telling stories. I majored in what’s officially called Narrative Studies. I like to call it Storytelling.
I’ve come to storytelling in different ways. And I’ve come to realize that all the methods of storytelling are valid and important, and it’s often about choosing the right tool. That in itself is a skill that I’ve been developing: choosing the right tools to be as effective as possible. I’ve found doing radio stories is great, because it’s easy to just put a microphone in someone’s face, rather than a camera. It can be much easier to get more interesting stories with audio, because there’s a lower intimidation factor.
Just listening to people is the biggest thing. Listening to people and really hearing what people are saying, because you never know what you don’t know. Telling a story about something you don’t know I think is the most interesting thing. If you can get in a space where you’re telling a story about something you don’t know much about, I think that’s where it gets interesting, because you’re taking people on a journey about learning something.
With the North Country Calling series, I interviewed all the subjects before we started filming just with a microphone. That made it easier for them to be candid and to open up and talk more freely. I think that’s really important. I sat down for about an hour and a half with each person for a conversation, which seems maybe a lot for three-minute pieces. Part of that was for what would be the finished audio, and another part was learning more about how I could film them on the day. It helped me inform what my priorities were and ask them more questions during filming and think about what things would be interesting visually.
The thing that struck me in doing these films is how cool these subjects are and how each of them has found a niche that they really enjoy. Those niches can also be a little hidden away, and I hope that this series gives opportunity to see that there are pockets of all sorts of activity and work and hobbies in this area. I grew up in New Hampshire, and it’s a really cool place to live. There’s an assumption that it’s not a great place, necessarily, to be in your 20s and 30s, and these people are saying the opposite, and I think that’s cool. I also am a big believer in, just because your career will benefit from being someplace else, you don’t have to be only in one location. I’m a filmmaker, and everyone says you have to go to New York or Los Angeles. You could do that, but we’re also living in an age when so many things are more available. I could be anywhere and be a filmmaker.
Recently, I went to Morocco and was able to exchange my filmmaking tools and skill set in return for accommodation and other expenses. Surfing is one of those things that I kind of knew I would enjoy before I ever tried it. When I got accepted to Middlebury, they offered me this program where I wouldn’t start until February, and I found a surf camp in Morocco that hosted a surf instructor course. That’s where I learned to surf and be confident to the point that I am an independent surfer – and it’s where I returned earlier this year. I’ve also been to Spain, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, and California to surf. The biggest thing I like about surfing is it’s really hard. There’s a high pay off. It’s something that takes a lot of developed coordination and maintained fitness, but also takes a lot of active knowledge and learned intuition. It’s a focused sport. And it connects you to another amazing natural resource. Hiking, you’re up in the mountains and in the woods. Surfing, you’re in the ocean, which is the other major thing in our world. It’s a way to connect with that.
I’m moving out to Salt Lake City in the beginning of July and hoping to be working in documentary films and/or documentary radio. I hope to keep ski patrolling. I really find a lot of joy in that. I value the medical service and the value you can provide to people in that way. I’m hoping to develop a balance between working on freelance projects and also being in the mountains and doing something more hands-on and maybe not as much to do with storytelling. With this COVID dynamic, moving to a bigger city with higher rent prices was looking less and less realistic, and I knew I wanted to be somewhere new. Salt Lake City is a relatively low-cost place to live, and two of my close friends from college have jobs out there, so it’s a combination of having a little community to move with during this uncertain time and fresh powder.
This interview is part of a bi-weekly series exploring the many ways that people’s lives connect to northeastern forests. It is edited by Meghan McCarthy McPhaul and made possible through generous support from the Larsen Fund.