Words: Heather Hansman 2020-09-15 14:45:07
A snowball effect might be a little too on the nose when talking about snow science, but that’s exactly what the Northwest Avalanche Center (NWAC) and outdoor nonprofit SheJumps were thinking when they dreamed up a mentorship program aimed at bringing aspiring female avalanche professionals into the field. They wanted to give young women who were trying to work in snow science a collection of mentors and build a wide-ranging professional network that would get broader as it grew. That kind of momentum sounds great, but it’s hard to get rolling if you don’t have a direction. Northwest Avalanche Center’s Development and Communications Manager Charlotte Guard says the organization—whose field staff is all male—had talked about gender disparity and trying to increase female participation, but the gap became clear when she attempted to help staff a women’s Level 1 avalanche course. They wanted the instructors to be women, but they couldn’t find any. Not in the Northwest. Not anywhere. None of the few female lead avalanche instructors were available. “If you look at the snow science field—ski patrol, the DOT, forecasters, avalanche educators—they’re only 10 percent women across the board, including the AMGA and guides,” Guard says. Skiing is becoming increasingly gender neutral. More women are skiing recreationally, and the ski industry is doing a good job of introducing girls to the sport at the same rate as boys. In fact, the 2017 SIA Participation Study saw a 7.2 percent increase in women skiers, compared to a 13.3 percent decrease in male participation over the period of 2009 to 2017 (with 4.7 million and 6.9 million skiers respectively). But as you move up the chain into professional snow science, those numbers drop off sharply and the field becomes heavily male-dominated. Guard says that of the roughly 50 public avalanche forecasters, only five are women, and of the 179 AMGA certified ski guides, just 18 identify as female. It’s no wonder it was hard to find instructors. Part of that gap is a pathway problem. In snow science, from guiding to forecasting, a person’s resume depends on experience, time in the field and accrued knowledge. Historically, that’s come from personal investment and trips with more experienced skiers. Categorically, the people who are being invited on those missions are folks who look and act like the people doing the inviting: physically competent white men. “There are logistical and social barriers,” Guard says. When NWAC polled women about challenges related to getting into the work, they found that the biggest hurdles were knowing the right steps, finding people and courses to shadow, and learning unspoken social patterns concerning putting in their time. To create better programming and structure to get women into snow science and codify the mentorship and professional development steps, they designed a program for mentees in partnership with SheJumps, which already had a network of snow-science classes in place. The chosen mentee would assist in a SheJumps AIARE Level 1 avalanche course to learn hands-on skills. Then, through NWAC’s network, she’d be paired with professionals in her area of interest to shadow and learn from. SheJumps and NWAC sent out a call for applicants and selected seven women, such as Amber Smith, who wants to be an avalanche educator; and Haylee Darby, who had some guiding and teaching experience in the outdoor industry, but had struggled to make the leap into wintertime work. Smith and Darby were pulled in to help on a Level 1 avalanche class on Snoqualmie Pass, WA with NWAC course instructor Brigit Anderson. Jenna Bosivert, who runs Backcountry Babes in Alaska, traveled to Snoqualmie to act as lead instructor. In addition to learning the ropes and teaching part of the class, Darby and Smith spent time with Anderson and Bosivert to learn how they broke into the field and to get one-on-one feedback. Skiing in any capacity is about relationships. It’s trusting your ski partners and finding backcountry buddies. Professionally, those on-hill relationships are even more important because that social network becomes a launchpad. It’s a connection with people like Bosivert—who can provide concrete modeling—and networking with the greater world of snow science. After the course, mentees are paired with someone in the industry who has the job to which they aspire. Amber tagged along with NWAC forecaster Dallas Glass, to see what his day-to-day in the field looks like and what skills he uses and needs. It gave her the opportunity to ask him about how he arrived at where he is and what the tricky parts of his job are—personal questions that arise from casual interactions. The program was cut short this year because of COVID-19. Some mentees had to connect with their mentors over Zoom or via phone calls, but Guard says this is just the beginning. They’re already thinking about next steps, and she thinks the program is highly scalable and could lead to mentorships continent-wide. And that’s where the movement really starts to snowball. Photo Caption: NWAC Education Coordinator, Brigit Anderson, leads the class in creating a profile of the snowpack. She’s using a crystal card to both measure grain size and determine the hardness of the snow layers. Meanwhile, lead AIARE instructor, Jenna Boisvert, talks the class through recording these measurements in their AIARE log books. Mount Hood, OR. Photo: Tommy Yacoe
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