Going into this event I was planning on writing some big, serious, overreaching article filled with quotes about how awesome women's skiing is and how these ladies here at Jackson are progressing the sport. Coming out of four days of non stop shred life though I think my attitude has changed. I think the last thing women's skiing needs is another dude talking about "empowerment." Maybe women's skiing isn't about being "better" than the guys or "making a statement." Maybe women's skiing, like all skiing, is about having fun in the mountains. If that's the case this Jackson Hole Shred Session was a great step in women's skiing.

There were no doubles thrown on this trip, no one tried to push any agenda, no one got miffed because they weren't gnarly enough to hang with the group. Instead there was a bunch of cheering, a bunch of cossacks, a bunch of hi-fives and an excess of progression that was only matched by the excess of stoke.

It turns out a "Women's Shred Session" isn't that much different from any other ski event. There was skiing, stoke, smelly socks and sketchy maneuvers. There were cramped feet, tomahawks, yardsales, shin-bang, cossack trains and denim vests. In a word this was just a ski trip that happened to have more girls than boys. The fact that this is so "rare" or "different" speaks more to our culture than anything else.

Maybe skiing doesn't need any more agendas or campaigns. Maybe we should just stop talking about women's skiing and instead get more women skiing.

A huge thanks goes out to Orage and Blackstrap for all of their support!