Inside Elevate Women’s Camp
I stood at the top of the Bridger Gondola looking down at untouched slopes topped with fresh cowboy powder under sparkling blue skies. “These are the type of resort skiing conditions reserved for pro athletes and their photographers”, I thought as I took off down the hill.
I was 15 minutes into Elevate Women’s Camp at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and already having the most stunning ski day of my life.
Unlike those that grew up taking annual family vacations to the mountains, I didn't set foot in skis boots until age 21, but I was determined not to let learning as an adult stop me from being a strong skier.
I entered camp with enough tools in my belt to “make it down anything safely;” however, I knew I lacked the technical skill to ski Jackson Hole's famed steeps and chutes confidently.
Determined to build up some independence and resilience on the slopes, I signed up for Women’s Camp.
As campers arrived in Jackson Hole the night before our first day, we were met with an après social and introduced to our all-star lineup of female coaches. Having worked with Jackson Hole’s world-class Mountain Sports School before, I recognized many of these instructors and knew we were getting the best of the best.
The next morning started with a ski-off for group placement. One of the coaches, Katie Finnegan, explained, “The ski-off isn't about who is the best, it’s about figuring out what pace, what terrain, and what goals each camper desires so they can be matched up with a like-minded group of women.”
After a few laps off of the Thunder chair lift, our intergenerational group of three was established, each of us over 20 years apart from the next in age but all with similar skiing styles and a united goal of conquering Jackson’s challenging off-piste runs. As we rode our first chairlift as a team, our coach Taylor Caballero encouraged us to share what we had been working on in our skiing. “I’m working on keeping my upper body steady, I have a hard time making short radius turns through trees because I turn so much with my whole body,” I explained.
Our word for the day became alignment, we worked on getting our entire body over our skies both on familiar and new terrain. As we practiced and played with different sensations, I felt the difference. Control. Woah. For the first time, I wasn't losing the race down the mountain to my skies and they weren’t sliding out from under me after each bump. I was balanced.
In the afternoon pro-skier, Jessica Baker joined our group showing us a few of her favorite hidden spots on the mountain. By the time day one was over, we had already conquered multiple double-black runs, I had intentionally avoided out of fear in the past.
Feeling like I’d already gleaned enough wisdom from Caballero to keep me challenged for the next year, my tired legs brought me to the night's aprés event. While the food and drinks fueled my body, I most enjoyed the set-aside downtime to build camaraderie with the other women in the camp (especially those not in my immediate group). Each of these women had unique goals and motives for coming to ski camp. Some wanted to meet like-minded female ski partners, many women wanted to defy the stereotype of being the girlfriend, wife, or mom that hangs back on greens runs while the men and children go ski the challenging runs, one woman even wanted to learn tricks in the terrain park to show off to her kids. These passionate and motivated women were seeking to not just keep up, but be leaders on the slopes for themselves, their families, and their friends.
Day two was all about the backcountry. Over the past few years, I have become familiar with resort skiing, priding myself on knowing all the etiquette and rules of the road, but the backcountry was completely foreign to me. We strapped on our beacons and caught an early Tram up to the top of Rendezvous Mountain. Inside the warmth of Corbet's Cabin our guide for the day, Lynn Kennen, briefed us on all things backcountry as we practiced with our beacons, probes, and shovels. Then it was down Rendezvous Bowl and a quick exit from the resort out the Rock Springs gate. Immediately I was hit with a sense of wonder at the untouched beauty of this new terrain just steps from the resort. From the first tram box at 8:30 am to the last chair on Union Pass Quad returning us to the base area at 4 pm, we spent the entire ski day lapping the side-country to the south of the resort boundary. As a team, we found ourselves yelping down the slopes as a combination of fear, excitement, and encouragement to one another.
After two days of non-stop shredding my body was grateful for Wednesday's rest day, and the chance to recoup before hard charging on Thursday and Friday.
Thursday was all about movement analysis. By this point in the week, each of us could hide our shortcomings while skiing groomers or small bumps, so we took it up a notch to Hoops Gap and Paintbrush, two of the steepest runs at Jackson Hole. On these runs, we skied our hearts out while being filmed by a professional videographer. “Have fun with it” our instructor Karen Sieber told us, urging our team not to take ourselves too seriously. After lunch we watched back each of our ski footage from the morning on the big screen, slowing down our turns like an instant replay on a major sports game. “See right there, your hand drops back putting you into an unstable position, with your arm back, you are moving mass towards the back of your ski, therefore, losing some control” Sieber explained. She had been telling me this all week but until I saw it with my own eyes, I didn't realize just how true her feedback had been.
Friday morning my legs were feeling it from the week’s 24 hours of training but the movement analysis from the afternoon before was fresh in my mind. I was determined not to drop my hand back.
Our magic word for the day was flow. “As long as you keep moving, you're winning, if you stop, you're losing” Sieber challenged. It wasn't about speed, I could go as slow as I wanted, but we were after consistent speed and steady movement. Putting together all we had learned the past few days, we were determined to flow down the mountain.
We practiced maintaining communication with the snow as we pressured our skies into troughs and across bumps. I felt it click, far from perfect, but for the first time ever, I felt I was flowing. “That's it!” Sieber exclaimed as she watched me pressure my skis evenly instead of my old habit of doing a micro-step to turn through the bumps; “when you feel a connection with the snow it's like sweet molasses oozing down the moguls.”
After a morning of victories, we set out to have a little fun. Although it had been days since our most recent snow, we boot-packed the legendary Headwall and found knee-deep powder on Shot 13 in Casper Bowl.
Like children on a playground, we closed out the day swooping around the mountain, schmearing high side turns through trees and down winding snow-covered mountain bike trails.
As I skied around the unpredictable twist and turns I channeled childlike fearlessness and felt the confidence I had longed for before camp.
Reflecting on the experience it is amazing how transformational just 4 days of intentional training can be. From timidly skiing powder, embarrassed when my "pizza" would show, on days one and two, to swooping around trees and tight turns on the final day, I felt like a much better skier both mentally and physically. While I had walked into camp assuming it would be a “one-and-done” experience, I left camp with hopes to return in the future and with plenty of drills and skills to keep challenging myself in the meantime.
