Age: 19
Hometown: St. Paul, MN
Patroller at: Woodward Park City as of March 2023
What is your ski patrol experience?
I started patrolling 4 years ago during my sophomore year of high school. I was able to start so young because of the Young Adult Patrol (YAP) through the National Ski Patrol.
At Wild Mountain, which is an all-volunteer ski patrol, there are almost 20 YAP, with about one third to one half of those being female. There is a total of 70-80 patrollers at Wild Mountain. I am now a pro patroller at Woodward Park City while I attend University of Utah for Nursing.
What inspired to join the program?
I was a ski racer and during a practice in December 2018, on the last run of the day, I had too much speed and clipped a gate. I dislocated my left knee cap and patrol stabilized my knee and brought me to the first aid room. One of the ski patrollers gave me a business card to join the patrol. Just six months later I took OEC. The woman who gave me the business card was the head OEC instructor in my class. I started taking patrol shifts while I tool OET. I became a full alpine patroller in February of 2019.
One thing that stood out to me as a female in my OEC class was the head instructor, Cheryl Runde. She was warm, kind and accommodating during the class, helping me feel welcome.
Is this what you always wanted to do?
When I was younger I wanted to be a Vetranarian. While I was in my OEC I was also doing an internship with the humane society. During OEC I realized I really liked learning about thei human body and emergency medicine. I also enjoyed high pressure situations and loved the adrenaline and medical knowledge. That created a desire to work in healthcare and emergency medicine. I also learned that ski patrol could actually be a job and career path. Combining my new found passion for emergency medicine with my ski racing background was the icing on the cake.
What are the benefits of being a woman and doing the same jobs as men, in your field and why?
Being able to connect with other female patrollers on a deeper level than male patrollers. Cheryl was a mentor for me in becoming an OEC instructor. I was able to go to the central conference in the summer of 2022 and help them brainstorm their women’s clinics. Women in also patrol tend to be more approachable than men so I’ve been able to talk to more people about how to become a patroller.
Has mentorship played a role in your career? If so, what did you take away from it?
It has played a huge role in my patrol job. Our patrol director, Jeff Olson, has numerous connections and has used those to help build me up. Because mentorship has played such a huge role in my patrol career, I created a mentorship program for our YAP. We pair up a mentor and mentee to study together and have someone by your side through the first year. There was one female YAP patroller (Izzy) my candidate year and she really helped me to progress and help me through testing and we worked the same shift. In turn, I wanted to create something so everyone can have their own Izzy and Cheryl.
I had a goal to include everyone because I know how it feels to be excluded. Everyone has a reason to be there. It’s so important to be personal with people.
How have you built confidence/resilience over the course of your career?
Having Cheryl and other women and friends to identify with in the course really helped. I continue to build confidence through experience and taking leadership in certain scenarios. Taking the lead and owning it has helped me to learn within myself that I can handle it. My self-image has become more confident through patrolling. I also received an outstanding service award in 2022, recognizing my contribution to the Young Adult Patroller program at my resort. My counterpart Taylen was also recognized with the same award.
What advice would you give other women who work or want to work in a male dominated field?
Being a young female in the field has a lot of instances of being treated differently. I tell myself and others, “Know that you have every right to be there as anyone else in the room.” We have been through all the same training and same certifications as everyone else. YAP patrollers have to work a little harder to prove that they are competent. A quote I have been inspired a lot by is from Caroline Gleich, “A women’s place is wherever she chooses to be.”
How optimistic do you feel about the future for women, as a whole?
In general, I have been a huge advocate for YAP programs. If any director wants to start a YAP program I encourage you to do so. It’s a lot bigger than growing the numbers of a single patrol. Everything I want to do career wise is related to ski patrol. Put the effort into starting one.