Another year, another film segment. A quick moment of light between storms with Matchstick Productions near Elyse’s home turf in Girdwood, AK. Photo: Jeff Cricco Words Dave Zook AUGUST The morning after the storm, during a routine parking lot beacon check with husband Cody Townsend, they learned that three quarters of the group had no avalanche gear what-soever. This didn’t go over super well. “She just railed into everybody. And for good reason,” Townsend recalls. Elyse said no to going into the backcountry with the crew and made new plans. Sure enough, Elyse and Cody saw multiple slides, burials, and search and rescues that day. But rather than walk away from the problem, Elyse did the thing she’s done her whole life, the thing that has caused dropped sponsors, as well as fame. She got vocal. She worked with the crew and educated them, and voiced concerns on social media, calling out the misinformed decision-making. It worked. A few articles commented on the couple’s social media activity, and it sparked discussion. “Her willingness to tell the truth in those situations and just speak out regardless of it making her look bad is going to help the culture of skiing down there,” Townsend says. “I think she’s singlehandedly helping to change the backcoun-try culture in Australia.” 2019, near Thredbo, Australia: The moun-tains had gotten a thick walloping of snow, creating atypically deep con-ditions in a country known for its mellow hills. Australia doesn’t even have an official avalanche forecasting authority, but it was dangerous enough to warrant con-cern. Elyse Saugstad—a professional skier with heaps of backcountry experience—was not at all interested in taking foolish risks, nor keeping quiet about it. If it seems unbelievable that her commentary could have moved the needle of a nation’s attitude toward safety over a week, look at the rest of her life and think again. In fact, the level to which Elyse has grown her own profile, helped those around her, grown equality within women’s skiing—and perhaps for women’s sports writ large—makes the Australia experience just a tidy footnote in a long and healthy career for Saugstad. “[Elyse] has placed the bar at a place where people respect women’s skiing, and proven that we are capable of skiing at that level,” big mountain contemporary Angel Collinson says. It’s a career that has also put Saugstad through the indus-try’s wringer. It’s a career that has taken more than a decade of blood, sweat and tears to nudge to its current place, but that struggle is necessary, according to Saugstad. “The bumps along the road, they sure keep it interesting,” Saugstad says in a downplayed, casual tone. “It helps create drive. If you don’t have low points or hardships or things you’re trying to get over, if it’s all too easy, then it probably gets kind of boring.” Elyse Saugstad 053
The Ski Journal Volume 13, Issue 3: Page 53
