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The ski film “DREAM JOB” is hysterical. Here’s a chat with its producer,...
Fall is ski movie time. Warren Miller Entertainment, TGR, Matchstick, Level 1, gear companies – these are just a few that produce ski films, year after year year. To me, most of these movies are...
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A Chat with Poppy Gall, Outdoor Clothing Innovator: From ISIS to POPIA.
Did you ever find an outdoor clothing brand you really liked, only to have it disappear from the retail landscape? That was Isis Clothing for Women, a pioneering brand that fell by the wayside back in...
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A chat with Nikki Champion, Utah Avalanche Forecaster
(Photo credit: Utah Outside) Nikki Champion Thanks largely to COVID-19, backcountry skiing promises to be bigger than ever this year. This is hardly a surprise. In the backcountry, there’s no social...
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A chat with Maria Baker of Nobody’s Princess: Snow Pants Made By Women, For...
(Photo: Maria Baker, Chief Pant Splitter) Who here has had a problem with snow pants? Yep, I see you over there. A better question would be who hasn’t had a problem with snow pants. There’s no doubt...
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Yes, I have something to say.
One of the cool things about doing this blog is that I get to talk to a lot of interesting people. There’ve been interviews with great women skiers like Suzy Chaffee, Lynsey Dyer, Donna Weinbrecht,...
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A chat with John Emery, CEO of Alpine-X: Can indoor skiing make the sport...
(Artist rendering of the soon-to-be-built Fairfax Peak in northern Virginia) The answer: perhaps. John Emery, CEO of Alpine-X, seems to think so. His company is behind Fairfax Peak, a...
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A chat with Heather Hansman, author of “POWDER DAYS: SKI BUMS, SKI TOWNS, AND...
Author Heather Hansman (right) and her new book, Powder Days (left). Photo courtesy of Hanover Square Press; photo by Heady Kader. Once upon a time, many, many years ago, back when the earth was new, I...
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A Chat with Mon Balon of Plus Snow: The Challenges of Plus-Sized Ski Wear.
(Photo: Mon Balon) Getting gear would be a lot easier if all of us wore the same size. Unfortunately — or fortunately, depending on how you look at it — that’s not the case. For those of us on the...
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A chat with Hooey Wilks, ski artist.
Have you ever been to Hooey Mountain? No, it’s not a mountain owned by Vail or Alterra. Heck, it’s not a real mountain, at all. Instead, it’s the internet home of Hooey Wilks, an avid skier and...
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Sara Robbins believes in equality for women skiers. That’s why she’s...
(Photo:Addy Jacobsend, taken by Bianca Germain) It’s no secret that skiing is a male-dominated sport. Plenty of men (not all, of course) think women are somehow less capable; that they’re less serious,...
View ArticleA Chat with Beth Howard, New GM of Northstar California
I’m not sure why, but the upper levels of ski industry management is primarily a man’s world. According to statistics from the National Ski Areas Association, there are only about 20 to 30 female...
View ArticleA Chat with the CEO of Coalition Snow: Skis Made By Women, For Women.
How many of you ski on women’s gear? [Looking at you through your screen] I see. A good number. If I’d asked this question not more than a decade ago, I think very few of you would’ve raised your hands...
View ArticleAge is just a number. Right?
Think about women’s skiing, and a lot of young faces come to mind: Mikaela Shiffrin (19), Lindsey Vonn (30), Lynsey Dyer (31), Julia Mancuso (30). Let's give them their due. These are amazing female...
View ArticleA Chat with Freeskiing Champion Elyse Saugstad
In the world of skiing, Elyse Saugstad stands on one of the highest peaks. Winner of the Freeride World Tour in 2008 and recipient of the Best Female Performance Award at the Powder Awards in 2013, she...
View ArticleA Chat with Heather Burke, Ski Resort Reviewer
This is the job that Heather Burke slicked into 25 years ago when she started her websites, LuxurySkiTrips and FamilySkiTrips. Both offer travel tips and reviews for resorts all over the world. They’re...
View ArticleThe Mountain Playground Card Brings Big Discounts to Small Ski Areas.
In a world where the ski industry is characterized by a bigger is better mentality, it’s nice to know that Mountain Rider’s Alliance is fighting the fight for the local ski hill. Mountain Rider’s...
View ArticleOn Snow Reports: Keeping it Honest at Mad River Glen
How many times have you heard a glowing snow report, only to hustle over to the mountain and find yourself the victim of, well, some generous exaggeration? What? Ski areas lie? It's not a shock to...
View ArticleThe Jackson Hole Babe Force: Strong. Sexy. Soulful.
Chances are you’ve heard of the Jackson Hole Air Force, a group of avid powder skiers formed in the early ’80’s famous for hard skiing, hard partying, and poaching gnarly out-of-bounds terrain. It was...
View ArticleA Peek at the Women in Snowsports Exhibit at the US Ski Hall of Fame
Plan to be passing through Ishpeming, Michigan, soon? In case you didn't know, that's the location of the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame. Yeah, I agree; the Upper Peninsula of Michigan seems an...
View ArticleFocus on a Woman Entrepreneur: Sara Segall of Orsden
Companies in the ski industry that were founded by women are few and far between. Sure, there’s Title Nine and WinterWomen, retailers who specialize in women’s activewear and ski apparel. There’s...
View ArticleHow a Community Saved a Small Ski Area: Mount Ascutney, Vermont
Whenever you drive around ski country, no matter what the state, you can’t help but encounter a defunct ski area or two. This is no surprise. Since the 1980’s, roughly 33% of ski areas in the US have...
View ArticleA Chat with Rachel Pohl, where Skiing and Art Intersect
When Montana Tourism contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in talking to Montana born-and-raised Rachel Pohl, a 24 year old skier and artist who resides in Bozeman, I said of course. Rachel is a...
View ArticleNutrition Tips for Skiers: Eat Smart, Ski More
We all know that food can make a huge difference in the way you feel. Eat crap and you feel like, well, crap. So it stands to reason that this would carry over to skiing. We may own the best gear and...
View ArticleA chat with Kelly Pawlak, new president of the National Ski Areas Association
There's nothing unusual about female ski instructors. And women in resort human resources, marketing, communications, and sales? Common as dirt. But women general managers are a somewhat rarer breed....
View ArticleA chat with Laura Davies, or how to ski 15 countries in one year
How many countries have you skied in? One? Two? Maybe, just maybe three or four? What would you say if I told you I've come across someone who's skied in fifteen countries in just one year? Incredible,...
View ArticleA chat about fear with fear expert Mermer Blakeslee.
For many of us, skiing is a head game. Get past the fear, and suddenly things become a lot easier. So who better to talk to about this than Mermer Blakeslee, the ski industry's recognized fear expert...
View ArticleA chat with Christy Mahon, record-breaking ski mountaineer.
Sometimes you run across someone whose accomplishments are so extraordinary that it’s hard to believe one person could’ve done them all. Yet with Christy Mahon, I’ve found exactly that. Christy...
View ArticleA chat with Hilary Engisch-Klein, 2018 inductee to the US Ski Hall of Fame
Before Donna Weinbrecht won the first gold medal in freestyle skiing at the 1992 Winter Olympics, there was Hilary Engisch-Klein. (You can read my 2012 interview with Donna here.) Hilary is being...
View ArticleYou have questions, I have answers.
As you can imagine, I get a lot of emails from people asking me all sorts of questions. So chalk it up to laziness, chalk it up to efficiency, I thought I’d handle all my replies here in one shot. Here...
View ArticleA chat with Joel Gratz, OpenSnow founder and chief meteorologist
Now that it's post-Labor Day, you can't shake a stick without seeing a forecast for the coming ski season. NOAA, Farmer's Almanac, The Weather Channel, Accuweather...these are only a few; there are...
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