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My Snowboarding Origin

Updated: Mar 25, 2021

It was probably around 1998 or 1999 when I might have been like 6 or 7 years old when learned to how ski. Pretty sure it was in 1st grade at Red Lodge Mountain, which is my home mountain. I skied during school field trips throughout 1st and 2nd grade a couple times a year. I don’t have good memory, so I don’t remember much about learning or classmates I rode with. I just mostly remember riding a bus to the ski hill since I didn’t ride a bus to regular school.

When I was pulled out of public school in the middle of 3rd grade, I began riding with the homeschool groups/church groups at the very most two times a season from that point on until I was around 16 years old when I stopped riding for a few years. More on that in a minute.

Once, my mom came skiing with me. We were getting on Triple Chair and I thought she was with me as I was loading. I turned around and she was still at the wait board. I stopped and tried to go back for her or something when the chair came around the bullwheel and whacked me upside the skull. I woke up in a snow drift off to the side. The chair wasn’t moving, the lifty was kneeling over me and shaking me awake, and both mine and my mom’s skis were off and purposely stuck vertically into the snow drift beside me. I do believe I kept skiing that day after that concussion…which was not my first concussion and also not my last.

When I was about 12 or 13 years old, I switched from skis to a snowboard. The reason behind the switch was because my older brother (Sterling), and some older cousins (Dustin, Caley, and a few others) started boarding that season and I went right along with them, because why not? I wanted to be cool, too. Again, I don’t have many memories about learning but I do remember a couple things. My very first day boarding, we were all in the rental shop and the tech asked me what my stance was. I must have looked confused, so Dustin rephrased for me, “What foot forward are you?”. Of course I had no idea and said so. So Dustin pushed me suddenly and I caught myself with my left foot in front of me. Dustin looked at the tech and said, “She’s regular.”. I would proceed to learn through the years what all the cool snowboarding terms and lingo were, and eventually become the best snowboarder this side of the Rockies has ever seen.

I started out much like everyone does. I was and still am no athlete and performing sports does not come naturally to me. I only took one lesson my first day, and the only thing I remember about it is the way I learned to travel uphill, by kind of hopping uphill with one foot unstrapped. I skipped all the other lessons along with Sterling and the rest. I know I snowplowed on heel edge for a solid while. I distinctly remember seeing Caley starting to learn the next step and linking her edges into carves on a run called Turn Pike and I wanted to be like her, like I had all my life already. So, I began trying to carve like her until I succeeded at that skill.



How I obtained my very first snowboard is a story. I had got this red hat for my birthday one March…I think my 13th or 14th. Sometime after that we went to the mountain, and me being the spry gaper I was, wore that hat with no goggles to even secure it on my head. I was riding down Turn Pike when my hat flew off and landed just uphill from me. I wasn’t about to lose that hat so easily. I stopped and yelled at Sterling and Caley to wait up for me for a minute. I sat down, and unstrapped my rental board so I could run up and grab it real quick. Well. I learned four things from this experience.

1. What a pile of s*** rentals truly can be.

2. You can never fully trust a snowboard leash.

3. One should not step out of their bindings without having a hold of something solid on the board.

4. Be extra careful unstrapping on a decline. Easy-peasy on flatland. Not too safe on a grade of more than oh say, like 0%.

I do remember the leash on that rental board was already frayed some but I didn’t think anything of it. Live and learn. I stood up while holding on to only the leash. It decided it would be the opportune moment to give in to erosion, snap in half, and screw over a young teen with no job and no money. Bye-bye snowboard. When I tell you just how lucky it was that no one was in the line of fire as that unoccupied board zoomed down Turn Pike, I mean it. Sterling and Caley were there to the side below me and told me they could hear a higher pitched hum as it sped by them and that it I was like a hover board, almost as if it was vibrating above the ground. That board hit a park rail feature at the bottom of the run and made a loud ping off the metal that I can still hear to this day, and then torpedoed into the woods, spinning violently until it disappeared.

I stood there watching the whole event unfold with one hand covering my mouth, and still holding half of the damn leash like a fool in the other. Once it was gone, I ran up the hill, grabbed that darn hat, and ran down Turn Pike to meet up with Sterling and Caley who had already boarded down to find it. I arrived at the scene of the crime and they came out of the woods, handing me the damaged goods. It had a gnarly dent on the nose. The base layer and top sheet were peeled off the newly dented metal edge, snow packed all up in its grill. I strapped back in and boarded down. I told the rental shop what happened and they informed me that my group had chosen to not pay for insurance for like a buck each. They said I had to buy the board for the steep price of $60. I think I had like, $80 some to my name at the time. So I marched my butt to the lodge, got all my life earnings and returned to the shop to get my board. By this time, they had already stripped it of what I am sure were very cheap bindings and wouldn’t let a young teen catch a break by letting her have those as well. I had to buy some later when I saved more monies. I wasn’t raised to expect handouts though, so I gave them the $60 and took the board home. I know I was a little mad at the whole situation. But looking back, I would have to say that is more or less what got me started. I HAD to own a snowboard, therefore I was officially a snowboarder now.

Since that day I have only ever rode my own gear, never to rent again. That was one silver lining. The snowboard was a 2007 Salomon Shade, graphics were of a black law enforcement officer if I remember correctly. Sterling helped me JB Weld the nose back together as best we could. Then we painted it black and yellow, like the double yellow lines on a highway because duh, that was a swell idea that was gonna make the board look so sick, bruh. Kids, smh.



I broke my wrist when I was 14 years old. I was riding with Caley and her friends, Lizzy and Olivia. We were just above the terrain park when I caught a heel edge which flung me downhill onto my back. I tried catching myself which didn’t work. I felt my left wrist in the worst sudden pain I had felt up to that point in my life. I broke it around 1pm. I didn’t want to be a pansy and quit, so I rode out the rest of the day. I wanted to hang out with Caley and her crowd since I was still obsessed with trying to be her best friend. She went on with Lizzy, and Olivia rode with me the rest of the day. I held my wrist against my chest as I cautiously boarded around. I never went to a hospital or doctor to get it confirmed broken, but from everything I read about it later on when Google was a bigger part of life, it was at least fractured/slight break. It was black, blue, and purple for a few weeks before turning lighter colored and greener as it slowly healed. It was super swollen for a good while, like, I didn’t have a wrist at all…just straight from my elbow to my palm. I carried it around like I was handling risky explosives for weeks on end, keeping it higher so the throbbing wouldn’t annoy me as much. Tried keeping it in a brace which was kept loose cause tightening it only killed. Still weaker than my right wrist to this day.


When I was 16, I went up again with the church group. I was riding with Sterling and his friend Joel down a run called…you guessed it, Turn Pike. I jumped off a little side hit and fell on my low-back/butt. It hurt, but I didn’t hear anything pop or feel too much pain. It got worse over time, bothering me really bad when I would sit or stand for too long at a time. I was always kind of moving in church, conferences, during school classes and such, just never comfortable. Eventually I went to the hospital for something I can’t remember now and mentioned it to the doctor. He explained the anatomy and said I had most likely broken or fractured my coccyx. Obviously, that is something only time can heal…and it took years. I am pretty darn tall and I did easily injure my lower back later on at a job by twisting wrong. But I still believe that if I learned some therapy for the tailbone incident and had taken better care of myself that I would have been less apt to injure myself as easily as I did at that job. Instead, unfortunately all I ever did was baby myself. I am still learning, but I know now just how important it is to properly heal from injuries as best as one can. But moving on…

After I hurt my hind end, I figured it out over a few months that I wasn’t the same. My parents wouldn’t let me go snowboarding at the mountain anymore because I kept hurting myself. Or that’s the reason I was given. I was, however, permitted (for some contradictory reason) to still snowboard by being pulled behind dad’s snowmobiles on his land each winter. I did that a lot. Also behind my 1999 Durango on the backroads when we had enough snowpack. I never crashed hard during being pulled all over the country side. But yeah, kind of funny I was allowed do one method of boarding and not the other. Not suspicious at all.

Keep in mind, I still never wore a helmet and wouldn’t until I was about 25 years old. It took me getting my last concussion from falling off a park rail and having slightly messed up vision for almost a year after it. No need to get into it, but it was never really taught to me the importance of helmets. Now? No, I don’t think they’ll always save you…but they may just help your brain activity last longer in a better way than if you didn’t have it on when you accidentally yard sale into a tree. Most mountain objects do not move. I have seen a couple of my friend’s helmets cracked in half from impacting something or another. That was proof enough for me it could either be your helmet or your skull that gets the brunt of a wreck. Might as well play it safe, eh? And luckily nowadays helmets are actually a cool thing to wear, where-as back in the day I know they weren’t. Sticker that s*** up to personalize your look + be safe at the same time. Win-win.



I was an adult now. 19 years old in 2012, just a month shy of turning 20. I was still forever single. I was okay with it, but slightly alone on this certain day. Valentine’s Day. I wanted to do something fun by my lonesome. I decided to take myself out to the ski hill for the first time since I hurt my tailbone up there at 16. I told my parents that I was going, even though they didn’t want me to cause I was liable to hurt myself again. I went up, bought my ticket and snowboarded. I had a GoPro Hero 2 and still have the video from that day, peep my incredible gaper gap and editing skills(not)! (link connected to photo below)

I fell in love with snowboarding on that Valentine’s day. Cliché, I know…but it’s true. There were less than 50 people on the mountain. The whole place was open, and I spent a lot of time on the backside in Cole Creek. On top of all that, it was also a powder day. I shredded my heart out, as best as someone who still wasn’t great at riding could. The powder killed my legs by the end of the day. I was wet, cold, and tired. But I loved it. I wanted more.


Winter 2012 ended and Spring rolled around, introducing seasons of no snow. As the years passed and I began loving winter more for boarding, I’d begin calling the warmer months my “Summer Blues”. I remember in Autumn of 2012 after I had turned 20 years old, my mom told me the mountain was hiring liftys. Heck yes. I applied and went up for an interview. Katie hired both my sister and I on the spot which was a cool.


Starting the 12/13 season, I worked at Red Lodge Mountain for the next five seasons. The first three years I was a lifty. 100% the most fun job I’ve ever had. Legit, had the time of my life then. I learned a lot of social skills that I otherwise had lacked up to that point because I was homeschooled. Not saying I’ve arrived by any means…I’m still awkward AF, but I’ve improved. I was offered a variety of drugs I don’t know how many times, but still have never had as much as a cigarette in my mouth. Never even drank until after I was 23. Pretty proud of all that, never gave into that peer pressure and still got along with everyone. Darn hippies! Which I can’t really say much; I did rock dreadlocks for a little over 2 years and yes, mine were very clean. For the last two years employed there I was a Snow Reporter and Social Media Coordinator. The last two years were harder because I was working 4-6 jobs in the winter time. So I did a lot of running around to work all these jobs.

(Side note: I was just about to enter my second season as a lifty. It was Thanksgiving weekend in 2013 and I was 21 years old. I was working overtime at a different job when I twisted wrong while lifting something about 40-50lbs. I knew right then and there that I had messed something up since I felt it immediately. I began taking it really easy in order to feel better since in my mind that’s what I was supposed to do. My low back continually got worse over the years after that. Snowboarding started to become very difficult after a few more seasons, especially when having to load and unload off of the chairlifts since those motions are forcibly quick. Starting a few years after I hurt myself, I went to a couple doctors and physical therapists about it, but told them I won’t stop snowboarding. They suggested working out and physical therapy. They showed me how, and I did it how they asked. It hurt. My PT told me that for a woman my age, fitness level, and height that I had the weakest core he had ever seen. He explained that I had let my lines of defense go. Turns out when I hurt myself, I took it way too easy on myself for too long. My muscles depleted, and then my ligaments along my spine, next were my disks, after that it would have been my spine itself. Most of the time I had intense pain in all my low back region, some days I couldn’t stand up straight. I did every single thing carefully for years. In 2018, one week before I turned 26, after about all those years in pain and working on it to no avail…I was allowed to get surgery done. I had a discectomy done on my low back, shaving off a part of a spinal disk that was pushing on my sciatic nerve which was constantly shooting pain down my left leg. I know it is something that seems like common sense, but when you grow up not knowing how important health, working out, nutrition, and healing correctly is, then you don’t know. I didn’t and learned the hard way. I thank God that I feel so much better and that it worked for me. I know this section didn’t need to be in here, but it is a part of my story and maybe it’ll help some other unknowing soul.)



Moving on. From working at the ski hill I was able to get better at snowboarding. I went as much as I could and drove a billion miles of icy highways over the seasons. I learned how to ride switch, go fast, carve well, and some other smaller tricks like buttering. I enjoy free-riding the most, slashing through the trees. My opinion is that nothing beats Headwaters run at Red Lodge on a powday. I began visiting new ski areas and resorts in Montana. One of the perks of being employed at a Montana ski area is you can get two free lift tickets to every other ski area in the state through MSAA(Montana Ski Areas Association). Planning those trips on my days off to drive to and board all those places is really what started me on my current mission. I have this goal to board as many ski areas/resorts as I can. Doesn’t matter the size of a ski area, I board well-known and not-known alike. I have a map at home where after I finish boarding a spot, I put a pin in the map. All 740 ski areas in the USA and Canada are on this map. Currently at the time I am writing this (January 2021), I’ve snowboarded 107 areas. #100 was passed on my last trip a month ago, which was a huge accomplishment for me. My goal use to be 100 mountains, but now I know it’s not enough still. I’ll for sure do more.


There are a few things I started doing early on at each ski area, which is now tradition for me. 1. I find the ski sign and take a selfie with it. 2. I get a sticker and patch if they sell them. 3. I collect the trail maps. I will carry one with me and mark the runs I do throughout the day, trying to do as many black and double black diamonds as I can to try to make it look more impressive to myself. Then I take a fresh map and blue highlight the runs I did since the first map is usually ruined from weather and fumbling it around all day. I keep everything is in this nifty book right now that is stuffed to the brim, but someday I want to hang it all on a dedicated wall of my own house. 4. I try to make a video for each ski area. If I don’t get enough footage, say for a tiny ski area, I’ll put a collection of the best clips throughout each Solo Trip into one video to summarize it all. My YouTube all looks the same to others I am sure…but to me I can watch the videos and remember everything filmed, where, and what occurred in between filming. Getting is all edited is a huge chore though. (I have upgraded every new GoPro since the Hero 2 was released, currently rocking a GoPro 9 + a Max)


While I was a lifty, I finished boarding Montana and really figured that out that what I call my “Solo Snowboard Trips” are something I enjoy doing the most. These trips are what I look forward to all year, save money for, and use my vacation time on. I started branching out after Montana. I began going to Canada, and have also started on Colorado, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. I have finished Washington, Wyoming, and even South Dakota. I have plans to finish these states, and to travel even further!

I get asked often how I’m able to do these trip and get so much done during them.

Quick answer: Save and Plan. Long Answer: I work all the time at several jobs at a time (4 currently) to save money for the tickets, fuel, lodging, and food. I personally am an extremely thorough planner, from what mountain(s) is/are boarded on what day, how long of a drive and mileage in between each stop, where I stay at overnight, ect. I cram pack these trips and don’t leave much time for rest or relaxation. My trips are usually either 5 days long, or two-three weeks long. I sleep in my truck a lot and try to book hostels rather than hotels when I can to save some cash. Most of the days on the trips, I drive 2-6 hours a day, and several times do multiple mountains in a day if the areas are small enough to not spend an entire day on. Especially if it has night skiing, that makes doing more mountains in a trip so much easier. I’ve hiked probably two dozen of the ski areas I’ve boarded at just to get them marked off my map. I need to hike them for different reasons…like if they’re too small to spend much time at and I planned do more that day, if it’s early or late season and they aren’t open at all, or if I arrive outside of their operating hours. The resorts and larger ski areas I will spend a day or more at. A couple times I have bene one of those people that have got an Ikon or Epic pass to save money if I plan it all right. (Don't come at me saying I'm one of those arrogant, non-locals ruining your place. You don't know me. At least I make my adventures into good stories and don't act like a newb on your hills.) The most I did in one day was on Dec 15, 2020 where I hiked and boarded 4 smaller ski areas, and drove a total of 7 hours that day to get it all done. I needed the hot tub in the worst way when I got to the hotel that night! So yeah, I do my best to rise and grind to accomplish my goals. Some people have asked if they can take my trips with me. I would feel bad if I held them up if they’re better than me since I know a lot of people are…and I definitely don’t want to risk them holding me up if it’s the other way around since I book my trips so tight. It may sound selfish, but this is the only way I have got as much as I have done in the six seasons that I have really started traveling to new mountains in. Maybe someday I’ll find someone I click with on the same level who is willing to go as entrenched as me. Until then I’ll remain a lone wolf.



I've owned a lot of gear to date. From the humble beginnings of my first snowboard, to all my many current setups. I have had 10 snowboards. I’ve kept 8 so far and sold my Rossignol Mini and Arbor Cascade years back. Even though I could still ride these ones, I did retire my Salomon Shade, Morrow Fury, Bataleon Disaster, and my first Gilson Duel; someday I'll find a creative use for them though. The four I rock now are my Gilson setups which include my new Duel that I custom designed myself and had them inlay copper flakes into the top sheet (100% the most beautiful board I've ever seen, not gonna lie), and their Mach 33. I also do ride my Rome Sawtooth and Ride Helix from time to time. I have bindings on these setups so I don't have to switch around. Unions are my choice of most of my bindings. Oh, and I have a pair of Hart Outback skis that I won in a video contest in 2014, I only ski a couple times a season though. I have several coats and hoodies, usually black or dark of course since that's my style. I also admit I have an addiction to snow pants, with my favorite being my leather ones. (These are some of my boards in my entry way.)

Back in 2016, I saw an ad for Gilson Snow’s 16/17 Duel snowboard, their first Duel model. I called up their shop in Pennsylvania and spoke with Nick Gilson about their tech. He sold me on it and I bought the board. I love that Duel and have had many adventures boarding dozens of mountains on it in all conditions. I took a lot of photos with it over a couple years and they’d repost my content until I officially signed on with them in April 2019. They have been a pleasure to ride for and ride with. I really enjoyed the Team Rider Trip we all went on in Colorado in March 2020 just before Covid shut everything down, ugh. At least we all got that trip squeezed in first!



I just went on my second Gilson Snow Team Rider Trip in the beginning of February 2021 to Big Sky here in Montana. I had the best time hanging out with the guys and being a part of all that stoke for the three days I got to attend. The first day was backcountry action, the second day was boarding at Big Sky, and the third day I just helped take backcountry booter photos.

I did wind up with another injury on the Big Sky day. This was my second injury to my left knee, and definitely a terrible injury…the first one wasn’t near as bad (I just fell doing a trick on camera for the first Gilson trip in Colorado last year and got a little nerve damage to my knee cap was all). At Big Sky, I was trying to be all sendy and brave when I fell wrong on the second time I went off this one smaller cliff. Instantly heard and felt a pop and knew I was screwed. I have been to the hospital a few days ago, and the MRI results showed that I severely tore my ACL and got some pretty gnarly bone bruises above and below my meniscus. I wrote a whole other post about this Gilson trip that I have since posted, but in short I have surgery for that on April 27th, 2021. I didn’t stop riding even though I tore it, was back at it in two weeks once my limp went mostly away. I couldn’t seem to give it up.



I am now nearly 29 years old. I am definitely not a pro snowboarder but I’m okay with never becoming famous at this sport. I understand that with my origin story, I won’t have fame at this. I feel that with my later start at learning to ride coupled with not getting to go to the ski hill often to practice, plus the injuries and health issues I’ve had, that I snowboard well for this stage in my life. I consider myself very blessed for many reasons. I am able-bodied and healthy enough to ride still and not have to give up my passion. I get to live a short 10 minutes away from my home mountain. I have wonderful and exciting jobs that afford me to go on my Solo Trips and slay it at over 100 mountains now. I still learn new things every season and continually get better. I am a sponsored snowboarder, which when I started out I couldn’t have ever dreamed that I could claim that. That fact is still one of my proudest brags and I’m pleased to be a part of a company that makes solid gear I believe in and ride regularly.


I snowboard for the pure joy that it brings me. For the opportunity to go outside in the morning and brush the snow and ice off of my truck in preparation to drive to the slopes. For the freedom I feel when I strap in at the top of a peak, adjust my goggles, and clap my gloves together just before pointing downhill. For the feeling of gliding down perfect white slopes, carving through trees and chutes, buttering on flatlands, or bombing down groomers. For spending time in the crisp air up in my favorite place, the mountains. For feeling my center of gravity shift more than normal while riding in a wiggle, having to stay in one path and carve on a dime. For scoring faceshots on powdays. For listening to my music tunes while lapping runs. For winding up with a goggle tan after enough sunny days. For the new places and unreal views it has introduced me to. For getting to teach several people now how to board, including my amazing niece. For meeting random people on chairlifts during my travels. For opportunities to hang out with my couple consistent shredding guys on days where days off work line up together. For honing in my current skills, and for the few times I man up to try out new tricks, and opportunities to get better. ... I could go on and on and on, but if you've made it to the end here, you now know a bit why I'm obsessed with snowboarding.


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