In a small mountain town with overpowering levels of testosterone, it seems unlikely that a trio of three women skiers could not only find each other but then join forces to ski, sled and most importantly - huck their carcasses together.
A few years ago Emily Childs, Janelle Yip and Tonje Kvivik decided to pack up their skis and make their move to Revelstoke without any prior knowledge of each other. Emily came by van, Janelle by truck and Tonje by plane. All three moved to the mountain town for the same radical reason - to get nipple deep in some of the best terrain in North America.
While waxing our skis at Valley Retreat, a local bed and breakfast in Revelstoke with a garage transformed to a full-tuning studio, they dived into a conversation about how the small mountain town became their home.
Tonje and Emily were first introduced to each other by their mutual friend, who noticed both of the skiers like to jump off large cliffs.
Tonje spent a good deal of time melting the wax on her base, but Janelle spent a good deal of time scraping the wax off. She explained that one time she didn’t remove all the wax off her skis before a slopestyle competition and fell hard on the first rail.
“Won’t make that mistake again,” she said.
Before finding her stride in the big mountain terrain of Revelstoke, Janelle was a park skier who, while in high school, competed at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. Janelle met Emily in the park on a spring slush day practicing their tricks where they realized they’re both pretty sick skiers.
While the big mountains and endless powder brought the trio to Revelstoke, why did they all stay?
Emily explained that towards the end of that first season, “We made a pact one night while we were blacked out that we’re all going to come back.”
“We did!” said Janelle. “We made a pact because we all really liked skiing together. So we said that we were going to start a crew and buy sleds.”
And so, the most unlikely trio in Revelstoke began.
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Each of the crew members brings in their own unique style of skiing to the group and have found themselves to be a three-for-one deal in terms of sponsors, competitions and filming. All three have identical Atomic Chris Betcher skis, which are indistinguishable to anyone other than the crew themselves.
After a quick sticker session from the Valley Retreat stickers lying around, the skis began to look a bit more like fraternal triplets. The letters ‘S K E’ was put on Emily’s skis as a rather tragic but proud attempt to spell out the word sketchy. The nickname Sketchy Emily was earned by constantly sending without a helmet or poles and by being, overall, a freak of nature on skis and sled.
Despite their outward appearance that The Blondes are only about shotgunning beer, hucking cliffs and naked bums - when it comes down to it the trio is extremely dedicated to their passion for skiing.
On one particular morning when we went out sledding until dusk, Janelle and Tonje had already woken up at the break of dawn to film a short video promotion for the mountain. Even tonight, before they came over to Valley Retreat, the trio had spent two long days in a row on the mountain filming for a comedy documentary about women in the ski industry.
They put in serious work.
So where would you find The Blondes nowadays? Despite the unusually low amount of snow fated upon Revelstoke this year, if you listen closely you’ll hear the brapping of their sleds in the distant mountains, searching for powder and cliffs to huck off.
A few years ago Emily Childs, Janelle Yip and Tonje Kvivik decided to pack up their skis and make their move to Revelstoke without any prior knowledge of each other. Emily came by van, Janelle by truck and Tonje by plane. All three moved to the mountain town for the same radical reason - to get nipple deep in some of the best terrain in North America.
While waxing our skis at Valley Retreat, a local bed and breakfast in Revelstoke with a garage transformed to a full-tuning studio, they dived into a conversation about how the small mountain town became their home.
Tonje and Emily were first introduced to each other by their mutual friend, who noticed both of the skiers like to jump off large cliffs.
Tonje spent a good deal of time melting the wax on her base, but Janelle spent a good deal of time scraping the wax off. She explained that one time she didn’t remove all the wax off her skis before a slopestyle competition and fell hard on the first rail.
“Won’t make that mistake again,” she said.
Before finding her stride in the big mountain terrain of Revelstoke, Janelle was a park skier who, while in high school, competed at the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. Janelle met Emily in the park on a spring slush day practicing their tricks where they realized they’re both pretty sick skiers.
While the big mountains and endless powder brought the trio to Revelstoke, why did they all stay?
Emily explained that towards the end of that first season, “We made a pact one night while we were blacked out that we’re all going to come back.”
“We did!” said Janelle. “We made a pact because we all really liked skiing together. So we said that we were going to start a crew and buy sleds.”
And so, the most unlikely trio in Revelstoke began.
-
Each of the crew members brings in their own unique style of skiing to the group and have found themselves to be a three-for-one deal in terms of sponsors, competitions and filming. All three have identical Atomic Chris Betcher skis, which are indistinguishable to anyone other than the crew themselves.
After a quick sticker session from the Valley Retreat stickers lying around, the skis began to look a bit more like fraternal triplets. The letters ‘S K E’ was put on Emily’s skis as a rather tragic but proud attempt to spell out the word sketchy. The nickname Sketchy Emily was earned by constantly sending without a helmet or poles and by being, overall, a freak of nature on skis and sled.
Despite their outward appearance that The Blondes are only about shotgunning beer, hucking cliffs and naked bums - when it comes down to it the trio is extremely dedicated to their passion for skiing.
On one particular morning when we went out sledding until dusk, Janelle and Tonje had already woken up at the break of dawn to film a short video promotion for the mountain. Even tonight, before they came over to Valley Retreat, the trio had spent two long days in a row on the mountain filming for a comedy documentary about women in the ski industry.
They put in serious work.
So where would you find The Blondes nowadays? Despite the unusually low amount of snow fated upon Revelstoke this year, if you listen closely you’ll hear the brapping of their sleds in the distant mountains, searching for powder and cliffs to huck off.
