It’s been a storm cycle to remember in the Wasatch. It’s one of the few places I’ve been where it can be sunny and snowing at the same time. Each Salt Lake resort and canyon has its own personality. Which one is your favorite? @skicity #skicity #ad
The best thing a woman can do is trust her intuition and use her voice. This was one of the biggest takeaways from my time mentoring @badgal_brooky as we wandered windy Wasatch ridgelines and shared stories on the skintrack. When women are empowered to speak up in the backcountry, their group is less likely to have an avalanche accident.This lesson extends beyond the mountains – when women lead in government, they enact more progressive climate policies, which also steers society away from disaster. I encourage all the ladies to keep showing up and speaking up, whether it's in the boardroom or the backcountry. Photo: @marykmcintyre @patagonia_snow #climbforequality
Frozen hair, don’t care. It was a chilly Wednesday morning on the skintrack, but it’s hard to complain about a little cold when you get a bluebird, powder day in the backcountry. I’m so excited to be spending this week with Brooklyn Bell, mentoring her on backcountry travel and supporting her leadership in the outdoor and art world. I first met Brooklyn through Instagram a few years ago and we’ve kept in touch. This is our first time hanging in real life and I’m so grateful for her companionship and friendship. I look forward to many more adventures to come. If you don’t already follow Brooklyn, I highly recommend following @badgal_brooky for her art, mountain biking and skiing. Representation matters and I’m stoked to welcome her to our @patagonia ambassador team.
Climate Rally: January 31 from 2-4 pm at the Colorado Capitol in Denver, CO.On the last day of the Outdoor Retailer tradeshow, I’m organizing a climate march and rally with @katieboue to stand with youth activists and advance the cause of climate action! Will you join us?As a professional ski mountaineer, I realize that those of us who are able to go outside for recreation are privileged. It is imperative that we recognize our privilege and do everything we can to protect the environment, expand outdoor access and create a community with more representation and inclusion.When the trade show left Salt Lake City and moved to Denver, it was because of Bear’s Ears and Utah’s hostility to public lands. The threats to our public lands are directly related to climate change and social justice. It’s time for the outdoor industry to step up and lead on climate.Clean air, clean water and access to the outdoors is a human right – it shouldn’t be an activity limited to a privileged few. Climate change disproportionately affects communities of color and low-income families, who are likelier to live near polluting power plants, congested highways, toxic waste sites, and landfills. And the high asthma rates in their children reflect this reality.Climate change is the biggest social justice issue of our time. And the urgency calls on us to act now.RSVP on our Facebook event – link below and in profile:https://www.facebook.com/events/500339027334769/ #ActOnClimate #ClimateRally2020
When I was growing up in Minnesota, I always had a dream of being a professional skier. I never grew up ski racing or skiing competitively, so it seemed really unlikely to me that I’d ever get anywhere with a ski career. I used to cut out @leecohen_pics photos from @powdermagazine and hang them on my wall. I never thought that someday, I’d get to shoot photos with the legend himself. I moved to Utah when I was 15, and when I graduated from high school, I started pursuing my dream of becoming a professional skier. I didn’t really know what I was doing, especially in the powder, but I’d try and ski as much as I could in between school and work (as a coach, nanny and at an outdoor store) and ski with as many good skiers as possible, following them through the trees, powder and chutes to emulate their form and body position. My next wave of learning how to be a good skier came from Lee. When I first got the opportunity to shoot photos with him in 2006, he would replay the frames so I could learn how my body position was supposed to be and where my hand and pole plant should go. As we were chatting on the skin track today, we reminisced about those early days of my career. There are few people I know who have been in the snow industry as long as Lee. His photos show a love and reverence for snow and light. He’s deeply committed to being a ski bum. I’m grateful for all the days he’s stood outside in the freezing cold, snapping away photos like these (I’m not sure how his cameras survive…) that will hopefully fuel the next generation of big mountain, powder dreams, like this photo from today. @leecohen_pics #bigmtndreams