Girls Week At Momentum

Words & photos by Nadia Samer

Every summer Momentum Ski Camps holds a week-long session dedicated to female skiers called Girls Week, and this year they saw their numbers double from the previous year's participation of 20 to 40+ girls in attendance. This session was special, in that it was a celebration of Sarah Burke, a former athlete and coach at Momentum who tragically passed away this January. It also marked the start of a new legacy, the Spirit of Sarah Scholarship, which was awarded to Emma Stevens. This scholarship is a way to give young women a chance to pursue their love of skiing and develop skills alongside other females. Sarah instilled the love of skiing in so many campers she coached over the years and inspired many others by her performances, and this scholarship is another way her legacy will live on for generations to come.

I was lucky enough to spend a week on the week on the glacier last summer trailing Sarah Burke and her group around, and feel she would have been so stoked to see so many new, younger faces getting into the sport she pushed so hard for the right for girls to be included in. Everything about this week was a celebration of her life, her memory, and the many gifts she gave to the sport of freeskiing.


Unique to this year's session, there were a disproportionate number of younger girls, and girls who had never skied park before. It was amazing to watch these girls progress from having never attempted a box before, to landing switch off of down-flat-down rails later on in the week. I watched these girls take spill after spill and it didn't deter them from getting back up without complaining and hitting the feature again.