ASHEVILLE — Snow, ice and howling winds did not deter thousands of people from converging on downtown Sunday to participate in the city's third Women's March.

Although the crowd was notably smaller than years past, the demonstration was quite robust, spanning at one point the entire distance from Pack Square to Martin Luther King Jr. Park — a route of over half a mile.

Marchers slipped on icy roads as they walked and huddled together to brave the coldest Women's March on Asheville yet. The temperature during the march didn't crest 30 degrees, and the wind chill made it feel as though the temperature was in single digits.

Though the crowd dwindled quickly from thousands to maybe a couple hundred once it reached the park, plenty of people, like 24-year-old Evangeline Wildes, stuck it out to the bitter end.

"It's very empowering to be a part of this — to see all of these people gathered even in cold showing support for marginalized groups," she said.

Celebrating midterms, looking to 2020

This year's iteration of the march was simultaneously backward- and forward-looking, as several speakers recounted victories won by women in the 2018 midterms and battles yet to be fought in 2020.

Speaking about last "turbulent two years," Nikki Harris, a Planned Parenthood representative who helped kick off the march, said the participants of the past two Women's Marches realized that "marching alone wasn't going to build the future we wanted for ourselves and for our families."

She linked the movement to the electoral success of an unprecedented number of women and people of color who ran for office in November. This point was a common theme at Sunday's march and one that was expanded on by many other speakers, such as Mandy Carter.

Carter, a Durham activist who has been organizing for social justice since 1967, asked the young people gathered before her shivering in Martin Luther King Jr. Park to pledge that they will mobilize during the upcoming presidential election cycle.

'We're tired of racism and bigotry being tolerated'

Sage Rowe, 16, and Clara Hockenberry, 15, were among those listening. They are both members of the newly formed Organized Student Activists of Henderson County, a group of about 20 students from various Henderson high schools and middle schools.

"We're here to show that kids can change the world," Hockenberry said.

"We're tired of racism and bigotry being tolerated in our schools," Rowe added.

They were far from the only student group present at the march.

Robert Fuller, 21, of UNC Asheville's chapter of the International Socialist Organization, said he and his compatriots were marching to "help shine a light on the real causes of our problems."

"We're here to show how capitalism is responsible for the division," he said.

That, too, was a point that many speakers breached.

Chelsea White, a community organizer originally from Jackson County, named "white supremacy and capitalist exploitation" as the true enemies of the Women's March, pointing out that they are at the root of all inequality — racial, gender, income and the list goes on.

"When we step away from this march, that's when the real work begins," she said.