SheJumps is thankful to all of its jumpers, friends, and sponsors for supporting the first SheJumps into Winter fundraising avalanche awareness night on Jan. 21. We achieved our mission of raising money to help fund our programming, specifically (S)heJumps into the Canyon that will occur later this winter (see the events tab for more info) and bringing more awareness to the dangers and amazing gratification that can happen by touring in the backcountry. After 7 feet of snow hit the Wasatch Range in 7 days and a death and some burials occured, we know the importance of constantly learning about snowpack and traveling in the mountains. At SheJumps our mission is to educate and have fun with friends in the outdoors, and we are constantly working on networking to bring more women and girls together to get outside and be healthy in a safe way.

A special thanks goes out to Utah avalanche forecaster Evelyn Lees who gave a wonderful presentation on avalanche awareness and we recommend all backcountry travelers to get their Avalanche 1 certification and beyond. Be safe out there! For more local information on avalanche awareness, go to www.utahavalanchecenter.org.

Many SJ "jumpers" offered their time to help us raise money at the event by setting up a beautiful display of silent auciton items generiously donated by our sponsors (video and photos coming soon) and pro skiers alike such as SJ co-founder Lynsey Dyer was on hand to keep the typical SheJumps event energy alive. “As a professional skier, I understand the enormity of the mountains and the constant need for knowledge and keeping myself and friends alive,” says big-mountain pro skier and SheJumps Co-Founder Lynsey Dyer.

As usual, we had fun challenges after the presentation to get people to take a jump: pogo content, skin pulling competitions—all to win awesome swag. Much thanks goes out to those who participated and had fun—our MO at SJ.

In addition to events such as this, SheJumps has exciting programming planned for the winter and is always updating www.SheJumps.org with news, events, and inspirational stories from athletes, industry, and more—all designed to facilitate a connection with each other and the outdoors. 

We are always looking to reach more women, and have a networking site at www.shejumps.ning.com. Please sign up to take advantage of our forums, news, and the best place to get your crew together to go play in the outdoors.

For more information, contact SJ Executive Director Claire Smallwood claire@shejumps.org.