In an area (in Asheville, anyway) where you’d be hard pressed to find a woman without a yoga mat in her closet, it’s relatively rare to find one with a pair of skis or a snowboard in her garage. But they’re out there. And while some may ski to keep in shape or for a fun change of pace in the winter, at least a few area women have been serious international competitors. 

Skiing and snowboarding can be intimidating for Southerners who, for the most part, probably didn’t grow up with it and view the sport as some sort of exotic, expensive activity for Northerners or people from the Rockies. “It isn’t engrained in the school system and in family life here like it is elsewhere,” says Kim Jochl, a 1989 junior world ski champion and an eight-year member of the U.S Women’s Alpine Ski Team who’s now the marketing director at Sugar Mountain in Banner Elk. “There’s never really been a ski culture here, but it’s growing.”

Jochl and her twin sister Krista Schmidinger (an insurance agent who’s also a U.S. Women’s Alpine Ski Team veteran and two-time Olympian) grew up in Lee, Massachusetts, but discovered Western North Carolina when they came here to visit one of their sponsors in 1990. Both fell in love with the area, eventually moved here and have become big boosters of North Carolina skiing. 

Lisa Adams, an interior designer who lives five minutes from the Beech Mountain ski area, has served on the Beech Mountain Ski Patrol for nearly 20 years. She says her colleagues at the National Ski Patrol, where she’s now a board member, initially teased her when they found out where she was from. “North Carolina? You actually ski there?”  

But there are six ski areas in the state, all within a two-hour drive of Asheville. True, you’ll never see 13 inches of powder on the slopes here, and you have to catch a flight west to find a mountain with the coveted 1,000-foot vertical drop, but advanced snowmaking technology has made the North Carolina ski season longer and better. “The quality of snow here is a lot better than people think,” says Jochl.   

Still, when cabin fever hits and WNC women crave a winter afternoon in the great outdoors, hitting the slopes doesn’t always come to mind. “A lot of women just think they’re too old to learn and they’re going to get hurt,” says Sue Reitze, a.k.a. Peppermint Patty, who has taught skiing and snowboarding to adults and kids at Cataloochee Ski Mountain in Maggie Valley for the past eight years. “There’s a big fear factor.”

Adams says the idea that skiing and snowboarding are exceptionally dangerous is a misperception. Accidents increase with the number of people on the slope at any given time, she says, and overconfident skiers are more likely to cause accidents than novices, who tend to be more cautious. Most agree that the best thing you can do to avoid injury is take a lesson. “If you’re only going to ski once a year, the worst thing you can do is go to the top of the mountain and get off the lift expecting to know what to do,” says Schmidinger, who frequently teaches clinics at Sugar Mountain. “Be prepared. Take a lesson, not just to prevent injuries, but to make you more confident and comfortable so you can enjoy yourself.” Reitze adds that sometimes it just takes one lesson to get your bearings. 

Finding the time might be one of the biggest things holding women back from skiing or boarding. Runners can throw on some shoes and get out for a jog around the neighborhood, and bikers can hop on for a quick ride at the park. But skiers and snowboarders have to load up and get to the mountain, and with most women’s busy schedules, it’s tough to make that a reality.  For the truly dedicated, though, the lure of the slope is hard to resist. “When it’s not busy at work,” says Reitze, “I’m out there playing.”  

And skiing might just be the break overworked women are looking for. There’s something meditative about gliding down the slopes on a beautiful winter day, says Schmidinger, who has just returned to a more regular skiing schedule since the birth of her 18-month-old daughter. “It’s very rejuvenating. It’s a place to be alone in the quiet before going back and putting on the mommy hat,” she says. “It’s hard to make the time, but I think I’m a better mother because of it.”

Starting January 14, Cataloochee is once again offering its Women On Wednesday (WOW), a six-week Learn to Slide program with both ski and snowboard tracks, taught by female instructors. The program includes a two-hour clinic, rentals and a lift ticket, and women can enroll their kids in classes at the same time. The ski conditions in North Carolina are turning out to be great this year so far, says Jochl. Sugar Mountain is expected to be open through late March. It may just be the perfect time to stash the yoga mat for the day and try a girl’s day (or night) out on the slopes.