Focus on ski and mountain travel: Driving diversity on the slopes: Travel Weekly

Tammy VuPham, a Vietnamese American who grew up in Georgia, says she felt a bit out of place on the mountain after she moved to the Seattle area and took up downhill skiing in 2019. 

Nevertheless, the avid outdoor enthusiast and accomplished climber loved the feeling of freedom she felt on the snow. So, last year, when VuPham learned about a scholarship opportunity offered by the Big Sky, Mont.-based nonprofit Women of Winter for women of color who want to teach skiing and snowboarding, she jumped at the opportunity.

The four-day program held last March was the first of its sort offered by Women of Winter. For VuPham it paid off. She left Montana with Level 1 certification from the Professional Ski Instructors of America and American Association of Snowboard Instructors (PSIA-AASI), a credential that helped her attain an instructor position this season at Washington state’s Crystal Mountain. 

VuPham spent weekends this winter instructing new skiers of all ages from a wide variety of racial and economic backgrounds. But with white skiers and snowboarders still comprising 87.5% of the U.S. market and males making up 60% of ski area patrons, according to the National Ski Areas Association, VuPham recognizes that her very presence can serve as an inspiration to other women and other people of color. 

“Being a woman of color, I have taught a lot of other BIPOC skiers who see me and say, ‘You can ski like that, then I can do it too,’” she said, using the acronym for Black, indigenous and people of color.

Across the U.S. ski industry, initiatives geared toward diversity have ramped up since the summer of 2020, when the killing of George Floyd inspired a far-reaching examination of persistent racial inequality in the U.S.

Women of Winter is one example. Founder Chris Walch, a ski instructor at the Big Sky area’s Yellowstone Club, launched the organization in 2018 with a focus on providing scholarships for women to get certified in avalanche safety. But in summer 2020, she decided to pivot Women of Winter toward opening doors for women skiers and riders of color. 

“We decided we could create pathways on the mountain and include people who had historically been excluded,” Walch said.

This year, with support from the PSIA-AASI, Women of Winter expanded its instructor training program, offering one four-day session each at Big Sky, Colorado’s Eldora, Minnesota’s Hyland Hills and Windham Mountain in New York and awarding scholarships to 30 women. 

Larger efforts by big industry players, including Vail Resorts, Alterra Mountain Co. and Ski Utah, to name a few, are also afoot.

Vail Resorts launched its Epic for Everyone program in 2019, before Floyd’s death, to expand access to youth of color at its 37 North American ski resorts. But this year, in conjunction with former CEO Rob Katz’s family foundation Katz Amsterdam Charitable Trust, the company expanded the initiative, providing grants totaling $560,000 to 11 organizations that support youth of color in cities near Vail ski areas. Vail also donated $1.1 million in products and services, such as lift tickets, equipment rental and lessons. The partnerships helped the company host approximately 5,500 youth at its mountains this year, up from 4,500 last year, spokeswoman Marjory Elwell said. 

One place where those Vail Resorts dollars are being put to use is on New York’s Hunter Mountain.

At 1 p.m. on a beautiful bluebird Sunday this February, the learning slopes at Hunter were filling up with kids, and waiting to receive them were instructors with “Hunter Mountain” printed on the back of their blue jackets. One group started heading to the lifts, while others gathered around their instructors with their rental skis and boards.

Hunter is an important piece in the Epic for Everyone program because it is one of the closest Vail-owned mountains to New York. A New York City-based organization, Good Shepherd Services, was the largest recipient of the program’s grants this year.

Sarah Slutzky, Hunter’s director of skier services, recalled that her grandfather and uncle, who developed Hunter in the early 1960s, used the ski area’s proximity to New York to bring kids’ groups up for introductory ski days; transportation, lunch, rentals and lessons would be part of the offer. 

“He knew that this was something that needed to happen to introduce people to the sport,” Slutzky said of her grandfather. “Skiing is a sport you have to be introduced to; most people aren’t just going to wake up in the morning and put on sticks and slide down snow. He wanted to introduce the concept to communities in New York.”

Slutzky said the previous outreach had “no formality” to it, and in many cases Hunter only hosted a kid once. But Epic for Everyone structures and expands on the concept. Kids get five weeks of skiing or snowboarding lessons plus a lift ticket and rental for two additional days. 

Slutzky said the program also pays for “soft goods” for participants who need ski jackets and pants, gloves and goggles.

Between the Good Shepherd program and another called Thrillseekers, a member of the National Brotherhood of Skiers, up to 120 kids from those programs were skiing or riding on Hunter’s slopes on Sunday afternoons this season, with nearly all the resort’s instruction staff engaged in the activity. 

Slutzky said the program aimed to introduce children to the sport as well as provide a window into a possible career option.

“It’s pretty hard not to be successful at introducing something fun to kids,” she said. “Maybe some of them will like it and continue to come to a ski resort.”

Alterra is also making a substantial inclusivity push, following through with pledges it made during the summer of 2020. Last September, the company entered into a partnership with the Rhode Island-based Share Winter Foundation, which this year provided grants to 49 organizations around the country to further its goal of making winter sports more diverse and accessible. 

Alterra has pledged nearly $4 million to Share Winter over a “multiyear” collaboration. The company declined to give a more specific time frame. 

The partnership had an immediate impact, said Share Winter CEO Constance Beverley. 

“That Alterra donation is an absolute game-changer for what we do,” she said. “We were able to recruit 1,200 youth from across the country who have never been on snow.”

Among Share Winter grant recipients are YMCAs, Boys and Girls Clubs locations and numerous other nonprofits. In total, said Beverley, Share Winter grants helped get approximately 45,000 youth onto downhill ski areas or into Nordic skis this year. The organization awarded approximately $1.5 million in grants, up from $1 million during the 2020-21 winter season. 

Beverley praised Alterra’s commitment as “incredibly genuine and thorough.” 

Another important development for Share Winter this year, Beverley said, is that it began receiving support from corporations outside the ski industry, notably United Airlines and Motel 6. 

United, which has a hub in Denver and flies to numerous ski destinations, including Aspen, Vail, Steamboat Springs, Mammoth Lakes, Big Sky, Jackson Hole, Sun Valley and Reno-Tahoe, became the first company outside the ski industry to partner with Share Winter when it donated $25,000 in December. 

Motel 6, which says it has more than 280 locations near ski resorts, followed in January, agreeing to provide mountain transport to 150 children in California who were participating in programs funded by Share Winter grants. 

Still, Beverley said the picture isn’t entirely rosy. Donations from individual donors are tracking strongly for winter 2022-23, but business donations are down.