Jackie Paaso is a professional skier who was introduced to the sport by her father.
JACKIE PAASO is a professional skier who has competed in tournaments around the world as well as being voted one of ESPN’s ‘Top 50 women of action’. She skied from a young age with a family passionate about sport and in recent years has again taken up her second passion of mountain biking.
In this fascinating interview Jackie talks to us about some of her biggest achievements in skiing and the enjoyment she gets from coaching and helping others. She goes on to talk more about the Safe As Avalanche Clinics which she founded with four friends and which aims to educate women about the sport and being on mountains. For more information about the clinics visit www.safeasclinics.org.
Could you tell us about your early life and how much skiing was a part of that?
Skiing was something that my entire family discovered at the same time. My father had more of a typical ‘All American’ background when it came to sports: baseball, basketball, wrestling and even a career as a professional American football player. So skiing was not something that had been a part of our family for generations. We had some family friends that introduced my father to the sport around the time I was four. The whole family was hooked. We started off as weekend warriors travelling every weekend up from Massachusetts to Maine. Eventually I was fortunate enough that my parents decided to move to Maine when I was 12. I skied everyday I could. I even attended a high school with a ski programme that allowed me to ski six days a week! It was great!
Jackie works with women in ‘Safe As Avalanche Clinics’ to educate them about safety in the mountains.
When were you introduced to freeriding and what have been some of your biggest accomplishments in the discipline?
I was introduced to freeriding when I was about 25 to 26 years old by some of my friends in Lake Tahoe, California. They suggested that I enter some contests. During my first full season of competition in 2008 I won one of the Freeskiing World Tour stops at Snowbird, Utah. I even walked away with the coveted Sickbird award. I think that was one of my biggest accomplishments. The Sickbird award is only given out to one competitor from the whole competition, male or female. I was the second female to win this award at the time and that was ten years after the first female. To me, winning that award was bigger than winning the contest.
Where has the sport taken you in the world and what have been some of the highlights?
I’ve been so fortunate that skiing has taken me all over the world. From multiple states in the US to South America, New Zealand and all across Europe. It’s been quite a journey. I’d have to say my most memorable trip so far has been ski touring off a sailboat in the Arctic Ocean in Svalbard while filming for Warren Miller Entertainment. It felt like we had been dropped right in the middle of a National Geographic feature. Wildlife was all over, and the views were absolutely gorgeous.
You’ve been involved in film and have been voted one of the ‘top 50 women in action’ by ESPN. Could you tell us what this meant to you and what did some of the footage that got you this accolade involve?
I have been involved in some filming, although I have to admit I would really like to do more. I’m finding that just might be an opportunity I will have to make for myself. It was a big honour to be included in ESPN’s top 50 women in action sports. It’s always great to get recognition in your sport but when you are able to branch out with women or men in other sports it feels even better. I think some of my accolades that may have awarded me this honour have been a result of my performance on the Freeride World Tour. My first victory on the tour was in 2010 at Squaw Valley. I was actually a wild card at that event, they almost didn’t let me compete. I’m not sure if I felt the pressure to prove that I belonged, all I know is that I picked a line that I knew I could ski and it just happened to be bigger than all but maybe one of the male competitors in that contest. In fact all the men that tried to jump from the same point on the cliff that I did crashed. I was the only competitor to ski away. I think that contest helped me nail a spot on that list.
Jackie was voted into ESPN’s list of ‘top 50 women in action’.
What are the Safe As Avalanche Clinics all about and how successful have they been?
Safe As Clinics are women’s intro to avalanche education clinics. I created them along with my friends and fellow professional skiers Ingrid Backstrom, Elyse Saugstad, Michelle Parker, Lel Tone and the amazing Sherry McConkey. We wanted to create a fun, educational and supportive environment for women to learn how to be safe out in the mountains. We started in 2012 with one stop at Squaw Valley and have since had stops in Colorado, Utah and Washington at five different resorts. We also acknowledge how important it is to give back to our community so we’ve also created a fundraising element to SAFE AS. We’ve donated over $13,000 to local non-profits like The High Five’s Foundation, The Sierra Avalanche Center, The Northwest Avalanche Center and The Avalanche Project. We are currently gearing up for our next group of clinics taking place this December. For more information go to www.safeasclinics.org.
Could you tell us more about your career in mountain biking and your role as a coach?
From about 12 years old to 18ish I had spent my summers racing mountain bikes: XC, dual slalom, DH you.. name it! Every weekend I travelled from one race to another. As I got older I decided as fun as mountain biking was it was time to focus on skiing. So I took a break from my bike for almost ten years.
The past few years I started to get back into biking. It’s been crazy to see all the places my bike has taken me over the past two seasons. Last season I somehow ended up in South Africa and then Australia for the first two stops of the World Cup for downhill. It was a huge learning experience, and to be honest I wasn’t quite ready for it but I did it anyway and spent the months following those races training for the WC at Mount Sainte Anne, Canada and Windham, NY.
For more information on the Safe As Avalanche Clinics visit www.safeasclinics.org.
Unfortunately a week before MSA I crashed and injured my right hand and that resulted in the finish of my biking for 2014. I was introduced to Enduro racing that same summer and decided that in 2015 I would train for the Enduro World Series. I raced in some local races back in Sweden and Norway and when I didn’t have any major mechanicals I would find myself on the podium. The EWS however was on a whole new level. I raced and finshed the finals in Finale Ligure, Italy this month. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. The tracks were by no means as intimidating as something you would find on a WC downhill track but the level of fitness combined with skill you needed to complete these two-day, 40km plus races is something else. When I finished Finale I said that was it for me on the EWS level. Of course now it’s been a week and I’m starting to change my mind. We’ll see though, it’s hard to train for that level of bike racing and have a career as a professional skier at the same time.
Coaching I have been doing for many years as a ski coach. Although recently I’ve taken a break from it to focus on my own skiing. I started bike instructing a few years back at the Northstar Bike Park back in Lake Tahoe, CA. When I moved to Sweden I thought bike guiding and instructing would be a good way to spend my summers in Åre. Eventually I made some new friends in Sweden like Elin Nilsson and Angelica Bacirtzis who shared a similar passion for mountain biking and wanted to share their knowledge of mountain biking with other ladies. We’ve teamed up with groups like InspireUS to create women’s downhill camps and are starting to branch out into XC camps too. We are looking forward to providing more camps and programmes over the years to come!
Jackie is also a keen mountain biker and also coaches the sport.
What would your message be to people, and women in particular, who are inspired by what you have achieved in life?
If you want something you need to put in the time and work hard for it. In the beginning it might feel like an impossible challenge but those are usually the most rewarding challenges. If you find you’re not achieving what you want you have to ask yourself if you really want it? Maybe you just think you do and maybe there is something else out there that you actually want instead? My life has taken so many twists and turns, some I have wanted, some I didn’t and some it turns out I wanted but had no idea I did in the beginning. Embrace those twists and turns while you reach for what you want!
