CRAFTING BEAUTY THROUGH AUTHENTIC ADVENTURES

“Me and my partner work a lot together,” explained outdoor creator AJ Cutler. “We’ll go out with certain expectations around lighting, rock formations, trees, everything around us. But when we don’t come in with those expectations, I feel like whatever we make is always so much better. We work with the environment rather than trying to force something that’s not there. That’s part of the creative process that’s really fun, just going with the flow.”

Hiking, camping, and skiing have long been a part of Cutler’s life. As the daughter of a volunteer ski patroller, days spent shredding down the bunny hill and munching on apres-ski fries make up a majority of Cutler’s childhood memories. Riding on skis the size of snowblades, the sport soon became as natural as walking. “[When] I was a ski instructor for a little bit, I had to learn how to teach skiing,” she laughed. “Because it’s just muscle memory for me. The only memory I have [learning to ski at] ski school is getting my first black eye because some guy hit me with his pole.”

Thus, it was a stark transition for Cutler when she moved to pursue her degree in marketing at Utah State University. Her priorities shifted to school and other extracurricular activities, rather than spending time outside. However after a two year hiatus, Cutler craved that time in nature and wanted a way to share her experiences outside with others. So, she started her blog, Nacforadventure. “I wanted a way to share my experiences for people who were just getting into [outdoor activities] and had questions,” she explained. “But to be honest, it was mostly for me. I’m a creative, so writing, taking photos, and sharing my experiences is very cathartic for me.”

From her blog, Cutler began to cultivate an online audience during her off hours, expanding her reach via various social channels. But when the world was in lock down during the pandemic, Cutler decided to download the new, hip social app, TikTok.

“I had a video go pretty viral and that’s when I started getting so much traction,” she said. “If I think about it too much, it freaks me out. Because even 2,000 people watching a video, if I filled a room with 2,000 people I didn’t know? Then one million? Three million? I just can’t think too much about it.”

With that sudden larger reach, Cutler’s videos were presented to a swathe of viewers, each with their own unique opinion. “When you reach that many people, there’s obviously going to be people that don’t understand you,” she explained. “So they’re going to be critical. I’m obviously presenting very feminine, which opens [the door] for more criticism. But I think all the people [that leave negative comments] have some deeply rooted insecurities where they don’t realize that, [more likely than not], they have the power to make their life whatever they want. But instead they’re mad at me, some person online.”

Even with the influx of criticism, there was the drive to produce, to appease the TikTok algorithm for those high engagement stats. “I was creating all the time,” said Cutler. “It took it out of me. Following trends, creating for other people rather than for myself.”

Now Cutler allows herself more space in her creative process, focusing on the messages she wants to put out into the world. “Social media is all about expectations now,” she explained. “People have insane expectations about life, but in reality, if you don’t [bring those] expectations, any adventure is going to be good.”

She continued, “[For me], authenticity and aesthetics are intertwined. There’s beauty in literally everything. We just need to stop and look around. It’s a little hunt to find those moments and capture them.”

It’s a perpetual balancing act, working as an outdoor content creator. Cutler, like many outdoors enthusiasts, uses skiing and mountain biking as a way to escape the chaos of the modern world. But at the same time, her creative brain is always running in the background. But as Cutler explained, “When [my partner and I] do commercial ad work, we’ll go on a camping trip and film stuff. Then, after we’ve wrapped, that’s when we’ll be able to sit back, watch the sunset, and take it all in. The fact that we have the opportunity to do both, I think that’s pretty cool.”

Making the jump to work freelance full-time has opened a world of opportunities for Cutler. It was that choice, along with the connections she’s made through social media, that allowed her to work on the film Advice for Girls and create her own ski film Renaissance Woman.

“Back in the 2000s my parents [always said], ‘Don’t meet up with anyone online’,” she laughed. “But Addy Jacobsend, the producer and creator of Advice for Girls, I met her because she commented on one of my videos saying, ‘Hey, I’m AJ too, and I like to ski. Let’s go ski!’ That was four years ago and now we’re good friends and have done so much together.”

Working on the film, Cutler was surrounded by a community of supportive women who could all commiserate about the haters online and the realities of being a content creator in a predominantly male space.

“There were so many times when we were filming at the ski hill and people would come up and ask us if we were filming for Instagram,” sighed Cutler. “If it was guys filming, I feel like they maybe would’ve respected it a little bit more, but [the frequency at which] we got heckled as a fully women team was just so obnoxious. That stands true filming phone content too. It’s cool when the guys do it, but when girls do it, they’re just looking for attention.”

However, those frustrations didn’t stop Cutler from fulfilling her lifelong dream to create her own ski film that same season. “It’s crazy how organic it all happened,” she smiled. “The people who helped me on Renaissance Woman, most of them I met in college. It was really cool to see my community rally around me and be willing to help me.”

Cutler’s goals for the film was a combination of authenticity and exploration. To show all the facets of joy skiing brings her each winter, including the mess-ups and bloopers.

“We went out and did a June mission, it was the last ski segment we had to film,” recalled Cutler. “[But because it was June], we were racing against this thunderstorm. But then, it turned into the most beautiful day. We couldn’t have asked for more.”

She continued, “Every single shoot day for that film, it was: this is the day we have set, so whatever we get, we get. I liked filming that way. We were just there to capture how the day went, which I thought was a good way to mesh authenticity and aesthetic.”

With the goal of creating a ski film completed, Cutler is now taking a step back to figure out what else she wants from life. “Now that I’ve made my ski film, gone skiing every day for a season, I’ve found other things I would like to enjoy,” she explained. “I would love to live on an off-grid property, grow some of my own food.”

But of course, skiing and mountain biking also have their place in Cutler’s future. “One of the big goals the past couple of years is to work on style,” she said. “Find my own style instead of [emulating] the style of someone else. When I was younger, there wasn’t much representation in women’s skiing. I longed [to embody] that classic, male, very aggro style of skiing. But I don’t think I could ever move my body in that way. Then my partner [pointed out] that [many] women look like ballerinas when they ski. They don’t have poles, and when they spin, it’s so graceful.That really helped change my perspective about what style I was looking for, and I hope in the future, girls will see that you don’t always have to conform to that aggro style.”

When Cutler’s father first zipped her into that snowsuit all those years ago and brought her to the bunny hill, he wasn’t just teaching the young athlete how to ski. He was handing her the reins needed to steer her own life.

“Action sports are one of the only ways to be completely present in the moment,” Cutler explained. “If you’re sending a backflip, doing a jump on a mountain bike, you cannot be thinking about anything else. You have to be right there in that moment.”

“I feel like I’ve applied that to life. I’m here in this moment, and inside my mind, I’m in charge. I’m responsible for all my actions. That’s given me a lot of confidence, where, if I’m not living the life that I want, as long as I’m dedicated and can find the right tools, then I have the power to make a change.”

It is that mindset that not so long ago gave Cutler the confidence to, after proper risk assessment, full send her freelance career. Reflecting back she said, “I don’t think I ever imagined myself doing exactly this, but it has been a mode for me to explore and find what I actually want from life.”

She grinned. “I highly suggest it.”