She's a Big Mountain Skier on a Mission to Keep Others Safe | National Geographic

The mountains are where I for sure feel the most like myself. They don't care who you are or what you do, and I think that they kind of have taught me so much about awareness, really, and consciousness. Being a big mountain skier is a dangerous sport, and I've lost so many friends that I can't count them on two hands. That's kind of this thing that you have to accept with being in the mountains: that you're going to face it, and it's not going to stop.

I've asked myself, when I lose close people to my life, why do you really do this? What is it about it? But this is a passion, and how do you take that away from someone? I don't think you really can. You know, for me, my dad was athletic growing up, so therefore that was like something that he knew to teach me. He really didn't see that boundary, and so I grew up not really feeling like there was a boundary.

I started professionally skiing when I was 16 years old. Pretty early on, it was very apparent that the women were far outnumbered. So I’m 30 now, and it's taken me that long to feel comfortable in my skin with my skill set, to be like I can go on this trip with these guys who are role models of mine and feel like I’m one of them or feel like I’m on par with them. I’m so thankful for their mentorship.

It's a totally different vibe when you go out in the mountains with women. Obviously, you can feel it with the temperature—especially women and men work differently. We work differently when we're in the mountains. That sense of community or support was really strong, and we could push each other. Like, if you see another female do something, you’re like, "Oh, I can do that."

Safe as Clinics was conceptualized after a couple of my closest friends got caught and survived this huge avalanche. We started talking about how we felt like being a female in the mountains is different than being a male in the mountains, and maybe we should start like an all-women's avalanche clinic. I think it's super empowering to be in the mountains with other women, and I think oftentimes we're normally outnumbered.

Right when you start learning about avalanche awareness, it's like, "Oh, this is real, and this could happen to me," and so I think it's really important to inspire them with confidence. Hopefully, you guys will walk away knowing how to use your tools and being much more comfortable traveling to backcountry.

You know, I didn't go to college. I chose the route of being a professional skier, and to be honest, when I was younger, I thought that that was a really selfish job. It wasn't until a few years later when I kind of grew up and realized that maybe one day I could have a big enough name that I could do positive things with my name and spread that love and spread that light.

So yeah, I’m a professional skier; I’m a big mountain skier, if you want to get specific. But I don't really see my entire job or my entire livelihood based on just skiing. I think it's really important for young women to have strong female role models. When someone tells me that I’m an inspiration, that touches me so deeply.

That’s going to be sick! What I do is I chase the winter and I chase good snow, but there's a lot more to it.