2020-2021 Season of Change
What an amazing year full of change! My first big step this season was taking on the role as Yellowstone Club Snowsports Supervisor. I have loved my role and find a true sense of accomplishment helping other instructors find their path in the snowsports industry.
In December I accomplished a goal I had been working towards for the past 3 years. I was hired as a PSIA Alpine clinician, after which I leveled up to a full examiner in April! Meaning I can give both Alpine and Freestyle exams to PSIA participants. I will continue to train towards higher levels of examination with my end goal being PSIA demo team!
Along with these new exciting steps and more goals to work towards I also received my Snowboard level 1 certification. This means I have certification in all disciplines Alpine (3), Telemark (3) and Snowboard (1)!
Despite the craziness of the pandemic I have found amazing work, ski and certification opportunities.
As a board member of Women of Winter I took on the role as head of sponsorship. This year the message was taken a step further and it was great to be apart of such an amazing event. Thanks to Rossignol, Giro, Hestra, BCA and more for the unbelievable support. Thank you for being the change we want to see in the world. Read below about WOW's amazing mission or click on the link above to visit WOW's website!
Women of Winter is a grassroots organization founded in Big Sky, Montana, in December 2018 by Chris Walch, a female ski instructor who sat in awe of the incredible accomplishments of her fellow female colleagues whose lockers bookended hers. She, Amy Hafemeyer and several other badass women (and our awesome videographer, Nick) knew their stories needed to be shared and that the women and girls in their community were hungry to hear them, and from there Women of Winter was born.
Women of Winter’s mission is to inspire and empower women and girls to get outside, to be courageous and to boldly embrace and pursue their dreams by carving their own paths in the mountains and in life.
In our inaugural year, we showcased notable women in the snowsports and creative arts industries and gave them a stage to tell their tales of how they have made a life and a career out of their winter and creative pursuits, in hopes of inspiring the next generation of courageous women.
In 2020, we took our mission one step farther – from inspiration to action. In addition to showcasing notable women in snowsports, we also provided eight women with scholarships to an Avalanche Level 1 Course and provided tuition support to a female ski patroller to attend National Avalanche School. Outside of ski instructing, snowsports careers still see few women and even fewer women in leadership roles (mountaineering, ski patrol, guiding). We believe that by educating women, we empower them and give them the confidence and independence to pursue goals they may not have otherwise.
As Women of Winter grows, so does our mission and the lens from which we view it. Our focus for the 2 years of Women of Winter’s existence has been on inspiring and empowering the women and girls in our local communities of Big Sky and Bozeman, Montana, who are already in the snowsports industry to have an even bigger and more impactful presence. In our third year, as all of us become hyper aware of the role race plays in our communities, workplaces, and societies, we also have reexamined our mission and sought to determine if we were meeting it to the fullest. We realized we were not. There is a large segment of women and girls that we have ignored. As we looked around the local ski schools and the PSIA division we are a member of, we came to fully own the reality that there are almost no women of color in our local snowsports industry - and this is not unique to our geography. We don’t believe this is for lack of skill or desire, but rather lack of access and opportunity and particularly lack of seeing women of color participating and succeeding in the snowsports industry.
If our mission is truly to inspire and empower women and girls to get outside, to be courageous and to boldly embrace and pursue their dreams by carving their own paths in the mountains and in life - then for 2021, Women of Winter must focus on providing opportunities to the women and girls who currently have the least access or representation in the snowsports industry.