Real Women. Find Out Who Won!

REAL WOMEN.

The X-Games REAL Series started in 2010 with Real Street as a way to bring the worlds of professional skateboarding contests and video production together. Expanding each year, there are now a total of 6 disciplines in the series. Real Women, added this year, is an all female video contest combining 4 different sports, Surfing, Skiing, Snowboarding and Skateboarding, with some of the most talented female athletes in the world. Each athlete submitted a 75-second video edit showing off their skills and showcasing their personalities. Yesterday it was announced that Ingrid Backstrom won the Fan Favorite while Leticia Bufoni won the Gold Medal given by the judges at the X-Games in Barcelona.

Check out the rest of these ladies and their various skills. Who did you vote for?

#CelebrateSarah

Remembering Sarah

Above is a beautiful article remembering Sarah Burke a year after her death from people in the industry that knew her. A year ago today the world, and closer to home, the ski world, lost an incredible person. While never lucky enough to meet her, I have never heard one bad thing about this beautiful, inspirational woman. Kind, generous, caring, inspiring, happy, talented, these are the words I hear describing this incredible woman who paved the way for other women to join into the world of freeskiing and extreme sports. Her name became a household name as she broke the mold of what women and skiing meant together as she excelled year after year, competition after competition.

 

She is still an inspiration to everyone in the world of skiing, but to women, Sarah is a hero.  These snippets of her short but full life show us that even as a hero, an idol, a super star, and a bad-ass athlete, Sarah was one of us. A dreamer, a lover, a friend, a woman. She represents ski bumettes everywhere, and her story gives us the strength to know that we can do anything we believe we can. Even through her tragic death, she is able to serve as a beautiful reminder of what it is to live by our own standards of happiness, while being a light in others’ lives as well.

Thank you Sarah. From one ski bumette to another.

 

SheJumps to Alaska: Get Your Cameras Ready!

Want to go to Alaska for free? SheJumps is hosting a backcountry skiing/riding video contest for women who “demonstrate backcountry skiing/riding abilities, smart decision-making in the mountains and creativity.” 

SheJumps, a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase female participation in outdoor activities essentially through creating a community of women who help each other reach their goals, used it’s vision to create a contest that will “help increase the presence of women skiers and riders in the Alaskan mountains.” Flow Tailgate Alaska and SheJumps have joined forces to inspire women to push their own limits while being safe in the backcountry.

Flow Tailgate Alaska is a 10 day festival (March 29-April 7 2013) that started in 2008  as a “way to honor the pioneering spirit of riding in Valdez, while giving access to a whole new group of riders in an affordable way.” Known for having some of the best terrain on earth, Valdez offers bottomless powder, endless mountains for various skill levels and an inspiring setting to get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself. You will have the opportunity to take educational classes, meet other powder hounds, scope your lines and head out into paradise doing what we all love so much. Ladies, it is your time to shine this year!

Videos must be 1-5 minutes, and must be from the 2011/2012 or 2012/2013 winters. Submit videos via the SheJumps.org facebook page by 1 am MST February 28, 2013. The videos will be judged by a panel of men and women. Although the public will get a say in who gets 2 Runner-Up prizes and a People’s Choice Award, supported by Flylow Gear and RAMP Skis and Snowboards. Get those cameras out and show the world how you will represent female skiers everywhere!

Prize Package Includes:

Airfare for 2 to Anchorage                                                

Tent Accommodations at the Festival

Transportation from Anchorage to Valdez                  

1 Full Day of Cat Skiing

2 All-Access Passes to TGAK                                           

Swag Bag from Sponsors

For more information visit SheJumps.

Female Wolf Pack is Full of Killer Babes

Killer Babes.

The Female Wolf Pack, releasing it’s teaser video on Vimeo, just yesterday, has made a splash with ladies and men across the online social world. With strong and widely known athletes such as Michelle Parker and Suz Graham, it’s purpose is “to increase female visibility in action sports.” The teaser itself shows nothing but badass women ripping on skis and surf boards, floating on water and in the air, climbing up mountains with their hands and their bikes. Awesome women doing awesome things.

Girls. Girls. Girls.

Rachel Burks, a big mountain skier based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, founded the Female Wolf Pack as a way to showcase what women can do in the world of action sports. On the website, which is still just a preview site until the 1/1/13 premiere, Rachel says, “I look at the things that I’ve done over the past six years and feel boundlessly lucky and stoked to be where I am. This is a feeling I’d love to share with other girls. I want to open doors for those who have the same thirst that I do: the thirst to show others what girls are capable of.” Basically, she wants women of all ages, of all corners of the action-sports world, to have a chance to showcase their talent, their drive, and their fearlessness to a wide-range of viewers. She goes on to say that she wants “… FemaleWolfpack.com to extend to all those who want to melt some faces off and hopefully inspire and foster the next generation of rippers.”

Women. Women.

There are 3 rules to this video-content-only website.

1. Fun. 2. “No Excuses, Play Like a Champion.” 3. No Nudity.

So ladies, if you wish to show off  your talent on this new female-only sports venue, enjoy yourself while being safe, stay positive by believing in yourself, and stay classy- bring on the sexy by kicking ass, not showing yours.

This article can also be found on Westelkproject.com.

Lindsey Vonn Wants to Ski with the Boys

Lindsey Vonn wins her 51st World Cup Downhill

The name Lindsey Vonn to any woman in the world-wide ski community means strength, determination and badass super woman. She has won four overall World Cup championships as of this year, not to mention a gold medal in the 2010 winter olympics in Vancouver. As far as World Cup victories, she is only nine short of breaking Austria’s Annemarie Moser-Proell’s record of 62 victories.

And now, Ms. Vonn would like a chance to race against the best male ski racers in the world at the World Cup season’s opener in Lake Louise, Alberta. She has written a letter to the International Ski Federation (FIS) asking permission to break new ground by skiing in the November 24 downhill race. Now the United States Ski & Snowboard Association must file a formal request to the FIS. There are a few hurdles to consider as well. If the request is accepted, Vonn will miss the opportunity to pick up points at the competition in Aspen that same weekend. The women’s first speed races of the season are being held at Lake Louise the week after the men’s races, which could be in violation of the World Cup rule Article 14.2: ‘No training shall be allowed on World Cup racecourses during the last five days prior to first training run or competition.’ According to the New York Times, Vonn has said she would be willing to forgo two of the practice runs before the women’s race. She also said she would not race in the men’s downhill, if she is prohibited from racing in the women’s as well.

I want to know what you think. Is she taking away from or adding to the image of women’s ski racing? And what are your next steps to push yourself to your personal next level? Follow Lindsey on Twitter @lindseyvonn  for updates on whether or not she gets to race with the boys this November.

“She Jumps” Beauties, Skis and Guns

It is full-on fall here in Crested Butte, my favorite season. It is the time of year to sharpen the chainsaw and build the wood piles just right. It is a time for baking with pumpkin, drinking hard cider, and prematurely wearing down jackets. The weather is perfect for those last few mountain bike rides before trading it in for different toys. But more than anything, it is a time to watch every video possible about skiing. We are getting excited about skiing pow even before the first dusting, so what better way to anticipate a perfect ski season than watching some rad ladies rip in beautiful Alaska?

Who says men have to be a part of a perfect weekend filled with sick lines, sleds, and guns?

Alison Gannett: Badass Beauty on Planks and Wheels

Photo by Sarah Mah Rarick

Depending upon who you talk to, the name Alison Gannett can mean a lot of things. To a ski-bumette, she is a rad skier who holds her own as a professional world-champion big mountain free skier; to us green babes, she is an innovator in the eco-friendly way of life who actually “walks the talk;” to a bike chick, she is a kick ass mountain biker who manages to take her skills on the snow to the trails; and to a novice at almost any extreme sport, namely, skiing, mountain biking, or surfing, she is an amazing teacher who knows exactly how to ease women into their next personal level of fitness.

During this summer’s Bike Week, here in Crested Butte, I was lucky enough to be able to take one of her skills courses. A small group of women came together, most of us beginner bikers who were scared to go to that next scary and thrilling level. With the help of Alison’s excellent teaching strategies, we were all cruising over obstacles that had always been daunting on the trails. So, thank you, Alison, for the power you provided each of us in the saddle.

Ms Gannett was gracious enough to answer a few questions ranging from her skiing career, being a ski-bumette, her local Paonia farm, and why she loves our valley.

When did you start skiing and when did you decide to go pro in the sport?

I was full bore into my environmental career when a Warren Miller film crew saw me free skiing in Crested Butte and asked me to be in their movie. They talked me into competing, which was a tough but rewarding route into my new career as a professional skier. I was a teased traumatized chubby dorky math geek, always sucked at conventional sports, even kickball.

When you were/are unsure of a situation on skis or on a mountain bike, how do you get through it?

I now try to put aside the little voice in my head that tells me I can’t do something, think of some situation similar that went really well, and then talk myself into the fact that I am a strong powerful person that can do this, and then I try to stop overthinking and just go.

What made you want to start Rippin Chix, and what is you favorite part of teaching a clinic?

I started Rippin Chix in 2002 because I realized that sports had given me incredible confidence that spilled over into my everyday challenges in life. I also realized that not many programs were teaching women in baby steps, women were being turned off from sports forever because some guy’s only advice was “just go for it”.

As a respected female bad-ass, have you ever felt that being a woman has created more obstacles for you in your career advances?

Being a woman has been a bit tough, as my sports are very “dude” centric, with T and A for gals being more important than talent. I wanted to prove that gals could ski crazy lines and jump big cliffs. Sometimes it has paid off being a woman with perseverance, as some ski companies would hire me to do women’s designs as they only had men in the office.

How did skiing affect your outlook on environmental issues?

My favorite thing about skiing was not the championship titles or starring in ski films, it was creating my own women’s only ski expeditions to wild countries and places that had never been skied. Since I wanted to marry my career as an environmental scientist, I would photo document glacial recession. For my Global Cooling Tour, the most powerful part for most people is seeing that lines I skied just ten years ago are now gone.

What led to your decision to buy a farm, and what is your favorite part of running it?

I have been trying to walk the talk for over ten years now, especially after working with some people like Al Gore, who inspired me to not do what he was doing. I wanted to reduce my carbon footprint and see what worked and what did not – firstly starting with travel, then house, vehicle, and ultimately the biggest elephant in the living room – FOOD. My favorite part is bringing weeds to the pigs, and my least favorite part is letting the chickens out at 5:30am.  The cool part of this giant experiment, is that we have halved our carbon footprint with keeping an outdoor sport lifestyle!

and just for fun,

What is your favorite thing about the Gunnison Valley?

My favorite thing about the Gunnison Valley is all our trails and public lands! We often take for granted what many people don’t have!

Trading in Skis for Mountain Bikes in the American Desert

Off season, or mud season, is an interesting part of living in a ski town. It is a part that I had not considered when I moved to Crested Butte with visions of snow-filled mountains in the winter turned to exquisite views and countless places to wander in the summer. It is the in-between time of seasons when snow melts and turns to mud; when dog poop that was strategically buried in snowed-in yards suddenly comes into the open air and into our senses. It is a quiet time of year where no tourists come to visit, and few businesses choose to stay open. It is nice to suddenly not see a stranger no matter where you go. It is also a time when people who grasp the ski-bum life by the horns take to the road or to the beach. Last year Trent and I opted for the latter and spent a few weeks back packing through Nicaragua, a nice change of weather and scenery.

This year we packed up the truck and took off toward the South-Western US. We said good-bye to what was left of Colorado snow behind in exchange for desert sand. We traded in our skis for mountain bikes, and our hearts that live for mountains shifted in awe for exquisite red rock formations.

And our journey begins…

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Melting into Mountain Bikes and Other Holidays

Today is a very special holiday. It marks the beginning of spring, the end of winter, and brings the promise of wild flowers and mountain bikes. Today is Closing Day! Crested Butte Mountain Resort officially closes its slopes, and the town parties.

Okay, that isn’t entirely true. You see, usually on this special day, we acknowledge that in fact it’s not the end of winter, far from it. Last year it was still snowing in June! Closing Day actually represents either migrating west to the desert for biking or Central America for surfing. The few that actually stick out our “off season” usually have at least another month of winter as they trade in their resort gear for their backcountry gear.

This year is different. It isn’t a secret that this season has been missing one crucial thing. Snow. Oh we got our random 10-inch days when friends became strangers in the lift line while we got our fix of fresh pow, but in the past month I have been mountain biking more than I have been skiing. Very un-ski-bumette of me, I know. But when skiing no longer has the adrenaline rush we are after (aside from dodging rocks), we mountain folk find something that does. It’s just usually not until summer.

This closing day may be more about drinking on the bar decks in the sun than skiing, but it is still a very special day here. It is officially spring, and we no longer have to feel guilty about not using our hard-earned passes.

Happy Closing Day everyone! Enjoy the beauty of winter melting into spring and skis traded in for whatever it is that brings you joy in these few warm months.

Tatum Monod: Stomps a Double Backflip for Ski-Bumettes Everywhere

Tatum Monod is a ski racer turned professional freeskier (she came in 2nd overall in the 2011 Freeskiing World Tour in Revelstoke). She is that woman that chicks want to ski with, and dudes want to marry. She is beautiful, badass, and apparently keeps her promises. At the beginning of this Orage-sponsored trip in Retallack, in the Selkirk Mountains of BC, Canada, she promised to stomp a double backflip. By the end of the trip, and after a few tumbles in powder, she does just that, and all of us snow ladies cheer. She, like all great ski-bumettes, is satisfied with the reward of double lemon drop shots.

Cheers Tatum!