Women are raising the bar in the world of freeriding. They’re skiing bigger mountains, taking greater risks and proving that female freeskiers are a force to contend with.
Girls Skiing Holiday - Flickr / iwona_kellie
World tours have provided the ultimate arena for fearless females to test themselves against the best skiers on the planet, and this year the competition reached fever point with female freeriders better represented and receiving more coverage than ever before.
This year, three world tours - the Swatch Freeride World Tour, Freeskiing World Tour and The North Face Masters of Snowboarding combined, bringing together the world’s best talent on the snow in one event.
This type of event, and culmination of disciplines and talents, is helping girls push each other further and gain greater respect for female skiers and snowboarders.
2012’s best female freeskier overall, Crystal Wright (USA), says that the merge has really helped raise the game for female competitors, with some of the best women in skiing and snowboarding now competing in the same event.
The added media attention that the tour received, will also help to give female riders the coverage they deserve, which means more sponsors and more main stream media appearances.
Crystal Wright, one of the best skiers on the planet. Image: Arcteryx.
Chick flicks with a twist
But it’s not only within the competitive world of freesking world tours that ladies are in the limelight. Extreme skiing films are also seeing a shift away from a previously male dominated genre, to one where women are gaining greater recognition.
This year at the annual Banff Mountain Film Festival in Canada, world renowned Freeskier, Lynsey Dyer, was a key speaker at the snow sports screenings. An award winning downhill racer at 16, Lynsey gave up a scholarship in ski racing to pursue her passion for powder, and hasn’t looked back since.
Lynsey Dyer, true talent. Image: @GrantGunderson
On her first year on the Freeski World Tour, Lynsey won every competition she entered, and has appeared in five Warren Miller films and three TGR (Teton Gravity Research) films in total.
At Banff, as well as speaking about the increasing recognition and representation of women in snow sports, Lynsey presented her latest Warren Miller film, which documents her travelling through India to skiing trips in virgin powder in Kashmir’s untouched mountains.
Another one to watch, 2013 sees the release of ‘Pretty Faces’, an all-female ski film featuring Lynsey and a stack of other outstanding female skiers, who can drop cliffs, ride deep powder and out-run avalanches to contend with the boys.
