You go, girls!

Former Olympics skier Wendy Fisher debuts ski camps to help teenage girls excel on the slopes

Cindy Hirschfeld, Special to the News

Published January 12, 2005 at midnight

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Since the advent of women's- specific ski clinics in the mid-1970s, almost every ski school offers some variation of the concept.

But an even more specific niche - clinics for teenage girls - is much newer and rarer. That is why, in part, Wendy Fisher, considered one of today's preeminent skiers, is so excited about her latest venture, FishSki Girls Camps, for girls 12 to 16 years old.

"I love trying to empower girls," said Fisher, 33, whose skiing résumé includes a seven-year stint on the U.S. Ski Team, an Olympics appearance (1992) and two first- place finishes in the World Extreme Skiing Championships at Valdez, Alaska. "I want girls to feel confident and strong. I grew up with two older brothers who I followed around (on the slopes), and I gained confidence through them.

"I was lucky enough to have that, but I want to create an environment for those girls who don't have the opportunity to ski with a strong group of boys or girls."

Fisher debuted her teen camp at her home ski area of Crested Butte in December. Three more are scheduled this season, with the next one slated for this weekend at Crested Butte.

Each two-day clinic, aimed at intermediate to advanced-level skiers, includes a mix of all-mountain skiing and time in the terrain park and halfpipe, with coaching and encouragement provided by Fisher and an instructor or two from the host mountain's ski school.

Fisher, who also is a coach for the Crested Butte Academy free-ride team and has led women's clinics for several years, said the camps are "a little more free form" than the typical ski school lesson.

Plus, it's not your everyday ski instructor who has appeared in ski films from Warren Miller and Matchstick Productions or skied from 18,000 feet at Denali National Park in Alaska as Fisher did in June.

"My whole goal is for girls to have fun at the ski area and to get the skills to go on and be able to ski all the terrain they want to ski," Fisher said.

The half-dozen girls who attended the inaugural camp at Crested Butte skied everything from bumps to crud and enhanced their technique by working on skills such as getting air on terrain rollovers, straight-running portions of steep pitches and playing on jumps and rails in the park.

Fisher's message of empowerment seems to have gotten through.

"My skiing definitely improved," one girl wrote in a postcamp evaluation. "(And) my confidence was noticeably boosted. It made me more daring and willing to do things I didn't think I could do."

Another wrote, "I feel like I became much more of a confident skier because of all the tools that (were) explained to me."

And though Fisher is a role model extraordinaire, she also can relate to the lack of confidence that can undermine girls during the vulnerable teen years and linger for years after.

At the Crested Butte camp, she shared her experience of winning the World Extremes in Alaska.

"I was never one who believed in myself," Fisher said. "In ski racing, I always seemed to let myself do well for a run or two, but then I would talk myself down rather than build off that confidence. . . . But what made me feel confident (in my first Worlds) was thinking about my history of skiing while I was standing on top of this huge run and instead of being discouraged and thinking I couldn't do it, for once I believed in myself. It was one of the most empowering things I've done."

Whether the girls who take Fisher's camp go on to become competitors or merely want to be able to rip it up during their annual ski vacations, they all can benefit from an atmosphere of fun, teamwork and positive thinking.

And Fisher's ultimate goal, perhaps, is for her young protégés to carry their newfound confidence from the slopes into other areas of their lives.

"I talked to the girls about thinking positively and how the mind really can change things," Fisher said. "I used to not believe that the mind could make or break a performance. (I hope to) help instill (that) in these girls (and have them) hear (it) from someone outside of just their families."

If the first camp is a bellwether, Fisher is on her way to providing a valuable experience to girl skiers.

"By the second day, I could see the girls' attitudes change," she said enthusiastically. "One really cool thing (involved) two girls who were sisters and great skiers. But I could tell they had no confidence in themselves. We started working on jumps and started going higher (on the approach). By the end of the day, they were just pointing it and going for it."

Of course, it's the campers themselves who provide the most meaningful endorsements.

"I would love to come back to another of these camps," one said in her evaluation. "The instruction was excellent and the terrain pushed me to a level I would not normally put myself into."

Whether it's for lack of an approachable role model, a suddenly intensive focus on which ski jacket and pants look the best or even an unwillingness to risk falling in front of the cute boy whose family owns the condominium next door, teen girls sometimes can morph from gung-ho, preteen rippers into quiet, deliberate, self-effacing skiers.

Through clinics such as Fisher's, these girls, and others, can learn to take pride in the phrase that many savvy women have plastered onto skis and helmets: "Ski like a girl."

FishSki Girls Camps, led by Wendy Fisher

• Friday-Sunday - Crested Butte Mountain Resort. $459 includes instruction, lift tickets, breakfast and lunch for two days, welcome reception and closing pizza party. Lodging is not included. Note that Friday is registration, not an on-snow day.

• Feb. 5-6 - Sugar Bowl ski area, Calif. $485.

• Feb. 26-27 - Okemo Mountain Resort, Vermont. $465. This camp will focus on terrain park skills.

• Girls younger than 12 and older than 16 might be considered for the camps on a case-by-case basis.

• Helmets are mandatory for all camp participants.

• Fisher also will be co-leading, with skier/mountaineer Hilaree O'Neill, a women's clinic called Get Your Groove from Jan. 20-23 at Telluride. The session includes skiing at the resort as well as backcountry instruction and a day of heli-skiing.

For information on all clinics, go to www.fishski.com or call 970-209-0256.

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