Hear what female Rep, Zoe Phillips, has to say

1. What’s your favourite part about connecting with members during skiing/social hours, and how do those moments shape the club experience?

My favourite part about connecting with members during skiing/social hours is to see the joy on their faces, their sense of achievement and happiness to be on the mountain. I love it whether it’s a bluebird day with enough blue in the sky to make a sailor’s suit, or those tough days, when it’s a white out, snowing heavily when you are cold, cannot see your pole in front of you let alone where you are going, and returning to a duvet seems infinitely more tempting. But I encourage them to stay out with me, to keep me company (hopefully more gently than a serjeant major) and at the end of the day, they are always grateful and full of smiles. ‘It’s been a great day’ are words that make me happy at the end of the day. When they are happy, I am happy too, job done. It genuinely feels like ‘teamwork’ and every day to me is a new Team to have fun skiing together.

I love feeling useful for them, knowing the mountains, to have them put their trust in me knowing the way, the right way down and the times the lifts close to get back up and over and down, or which side of the road the correct bus will leave from and very much when there’s an accident, I know what to do, who to call and how to look after someone. I feel a great sense of personal responsibility, accountability and achievement in my role and I love it. I love ‘wearing the badge’ of a Ski Club of GB rep.
We’re also all there for each other eg. when my board split in Lenzerheide and my fellow rep gave me some duct tape from his backpack to hold it together until I got down. Not ideal, but I made it, safely. It was good to be skiing with others.

At social hour, it’s good to debrief on the day, to celebrate once everyone is down from the mountain and safe and I listen to their shared experiences of the day, how difficult or say how they felt it was, their favourite run, the run they most disliked.
I have done a lot of skiing on my own, taking myself to every Swiss ski resort for a weekend when I lived there for 8 years (8 seasons) and know it can be quite lonely at the end of the day, with no-one to discuss the day with and also, if in trouble, or a white out, how very unnerving it can be. So I think the ski club helps because you know you will never be alone if you ski with the club (unless you want to be of course).

2. As a woman in the ski industry, what does it mean to you to represent the club on the mountain and help create a welcoming, inclusive environment?

When I represent the Ski Club of GB, it gives me immense pride to know that I am following in the footsteps of Elizabeth Le Blond (née Elizabeth Hawkins-Whitshed) – a wealthy Irish-born English mountaineer and photographer who was a trailblazer in the Alps during the 1880s–1910s and founded The Ladies Alpine Club (1907) in London, the world’s first mountaineering club exclusively for women (because the male Alpine Club excluded women. Though she was primarily a climber, her presence in the Alps paved the way for women engaging in winter sports like skiing making it a fashionable and respectful sport for women too so we could socially and physically enjoy the snowy wilderness.
Though we have a great time skiing around the mountain, as soon as I am there, I take my responsibility very seriously, because, behind the smile, I need to be acutely aware of being accountable for my group and to know where they are at all times especially on the mountain, to ensure their welfare.
It means a lot being a woman in the role too as skiing is, traditionally, a very masculine sport – many women do retire from skiing, lacking confidence compared to racing men, or, after having children, or, the risk of bones breaking through osteoporosis is so much greater in women as we age if we lack the right bone minerals and fitness, so I feel tremendously thankful for my fitness, my health and ability to still take to the mountain and I take my nutrition seriously (particularly my daily latte macchiato as anyone that has skied with me knows!) as I participate as a competitive triathlete in the summer. It’s quite unusual also for a woman over a certain age to be a boarder so I am very proud to still board and enjoy it. Maybe one day I’ll be tempted to strap my feet into those 2 planks but at the moment, whilst I can do it why not. I think it’s fun for the members too as I feel some instant judgements when they turn up – firstly being female, secondly, the comment “Oh, you’re a boarder” so being a snowboarder and they expect some reckless, dope-infused youth that crashes into skiers. I think I’m proud as I encourage the group to learn to enjoy skiing with snowboarders and not hate them. I think it’s a good method to introduce skiers of all ages and abilities to learn to ski with the different disciplines. And I’ve had to stand up for myself when thrown comments, but it just makes us stronger as we also have a place on the mountains.
Even for me, I believe that being on the mountain, every day is different and a learning experience. I’m just as keen as our members to improve every day too.
It was suggested to me that I become a Ski Club rep by our late Judith Rodgers who herself was a great female advocate for the sport. I didn’t believe I was good enough, or could possibly do it, but Judith persuaded me to take the course, I did, and the rest is history. Whilst I might not have had much ‘man-management’ in my day job in the corporate world, I seem to have really taken to it on the mountains and I thoroughly enjoy it. It’s thanks to Judith, a fellow female skier, that made this happen. I don’t think we encourage each other enough sometimes, and I think maybe we should. At the end of a great day, with everyone down safely, with some excellent skiing, gives me the courage to walk with my head held high, confident and in control, doing what I do best and loving what I do. It’s immensely rewarding.