Sponsored Athletes
JESSICA BAKER
Jessica grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho. Raised on a farm, and surrounded by mountains, her parents instilled an ethic for hard work and determination. They also gave her the gift of skiing, and at age 5 her skiing career began. Jessica went on to pursue ski racing from age 9 through college, earning such titles as Western Region Team member, top 5 finisher in three Junior Olympic events, Top 10 FIS point holder for the Western Region, Nor-Am, and Nationals competitor, and Bates College Division I ski team athlete for 3 years. Jessica graduated from Bates College in 1999 with a B.S. in Geology, and moved to Jackson, WY where she went on to pursue her freeskiing, mountaineering, and climbing goals.
Within her first winter season of skiing and ski mountaineer pursuits in Jackson, WY, Jessica was prompted to try some Big Mountain freeskiing events, of which she won every event she entered. Jessica’s name began to circulate throughout the ski world and the beginning of her freeskiing career took off. She went on to earn the 2000 North American Freeskiing Tour Championship title, 2004 U.S. Freeskiing World Tour Champion, and consistently a top 3 World Tour finisher over the course of 6 years on the World Tour Freeskiing circuit throughout the USA, Europe, South America, and Canada.
Meanwhile, Jessica also pursued her love for teaching and guiding skiing, working as a ski instructor, DECL trainer and examiner for the Intermountain West, and backcountry ski guide for Exum and Jackson Hole Resort Alpine Guides. In 2004 Jessica began heli-ski guiding in the Chugach Mountains of Alaska, the first female guide hired for Alaska Rendezvous Guides. After a couple seasons in La Grave, France with Doug and Emily Coombs, Jessica founded SKI DIVAS women’s big mountain ski camps worldwide in 2007, and continues to run her business at present HYPERLINK "http://www.skidivas.com" www.skidivas.com
Other Career Highlights: Jessica has bagged first ski descents in the Chugach, Tetons, Sawtooth, New Zealand Alps, and Selkirk mountains. And has skied such peaks as the Grand Teton, Mont Blanc, Pan d’ Radou La Meije, Mt. Aspiring, and more. She has climbed throughout North America, New Zealand, Europe, Thailand, Cuba, and has goals for the Himalaya and Patagonia. Jessica has been featured in Powder, Skiing, Freeskier, SKI, Backcountry, and Couloir magazines; several national newspaper publications; and featured on National TV such as ESPN, NBC sports, and Fox Sports Net. Additionally, you can find her in Storm Show Studios, and Rage Film productions. She has also been a speaker for several women’s professional sports conferences.
Currently, Jessica can be found training at Mountain Athlete, guiding for Exum Mountain Guides year round, running SKI DIVAS camps, heli-ski guiding in AK, training ski instructors and ski patrol, teaching avalanche courses, guiding backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering around the world, and freeskiing and climbing towards her personal goals when possible.
Certifications etc:
AMGA-RIC
WFR
PSIA-Alpine III and DECL
Avalanche guide cert III
PSIA-Intermountain Demo Team
Swift Water Rescue III
Sponsors
Mountain Athlete, Smith Sport Optics, Dynastar-Look-Lange, Pistil, Bern helmets, Powderhorn, and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort
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PERSEVERANCE
By Jessica Baker
A young girl, I was slow to learn how to ride a bicycle.
My training wheels were attached to my two-wheel for two years longer than most of my peers. Although devastated, I was determined to make it work. Hours, days, months, were spent trying to balance on two wheels, only to crash and burn every time. Road rash on my hands and knees, I watched all my friends ride past me.
Defeat fed my fire. I fell and got back up countless times, for over a year. I was hospitalized for an injury to my groin while trying to master the balance needed.
Finally, one day, it happened. All the hard work, all the scrapes and bruises, all the humiliation, came to a head as I rode down a hill on two wheels, finally triumphant.
I can remember the feeling, the freedom, and relief, as I coasted down the hill balanced over my two-wheel bicycle. From that day forward, I had a respect and love for riding my bicycle, deeper and more engrained than most of my peers. It meant something special to be able to ride my bicycle freely, and I still feel that way today. I went on to become a champion mountain bike racer, and have since dedicated much of my time commuting sans car, with bicycle.
The first time I climbed the Grand Teton on July 1997 via the Exum direct route, I found a new goal in which to dedicate my focus. As I scaled the peak, I saw the Stettner and Ford Couloirs filled with snow and thought to myself, “I will ski this mountain some day…” In 1999, I moved to Jackson, WY. I dedicated my life to my skiing and mountaineering pursuits. As I met accomplished ski mountaineers like Bill Briggs, Mark Newcomb, Stephen Koch, Doug Coombs, and more, I gathered their stories of their Grand Teton ski descents, and cataloged every detail in my memory. I studied the aerial photos in the Teton climber’s guide, and made it my mission to attain the skills necessary for a clean ascent and descent of the mountain.
At one point someone pointed out to me that I could be the second woman to ski The Grand Teton, and the first in a non-guided capacity. While this appealed to me, I knew that success would not come without hard work, and that I would need to be patient and focused, as I worked towards my goal to ski The Grand.
For the next four years, I gained necessary skills to get myself up the Grand in full alpine style. And then it was time… I first attempted to ski The Grand Teton in early May of 2004. I started from the Lupine meadows parking lot, with my ski/climbing partner, at 1:00 am. Our packs weighed almost 70 lbs each, as we had ice tools, skis, ski boots, crampons, food, water, first aid, ropes, and light bivy kits, all of which was on our backs while we walked up the first 2000 vertical feet without snow. We reached the Teepee Glacier at 5am after a mixture of slogging on dirt, scree, rocks, then skinning. The weather was clear at the moment, but a bank of clouds was peering out from the West. We ascended the Teepee in crampons, came around the col to the Stettner Couloir, and I began lead climbing water ice and hard snow in the Stettner’s first pitch. As I led a fierce wind picked up, and the cloudbank from the West began to envelope the top of the Grand. Within 30 minutes I could barely hang on to my ice tools as the wind threatened to blow me off the mountain. Ok, strike one, retreat, and try again.
I could take up the next six pages with stories of my following attempts at skiing The Grand Teton. Perhaps some stats would suffice. Total attempts: 7. Vertical feet climbed: 35,000+. Vertical feet descended: 35,000+. Total Pounds Carried on my back: 360. Number of sleepless nights: 10. Number of close calls: 3. Attacks by bears: 1. Number of 12:00 am starts: 5. Calories burned: 72,000. Number of women who skied it while I was still attempting: 3. Total miles traveled on foot/ski: 70.
And finally, finally the weather, the stamina, the mental capacity, the fitness, the partners, the snow conditions all came together June 18, 2006. My goal to ski The Grand Teton came to fruition. As I finished the last lead of climbing up the Ford Couloir and ascended to the top pillar of rock on The Grand Teton, I took a deep breathe and let out a cry of relief, of accomplishment, of victory. I clicked into my skis as my ski mountaineering partner cheered on, and I skied all the way down the Ford Couloir in perfect corn conditions, without rope or belay, pure freedom on skis.
I was skiing a castle in the sky; floating on a cloud of bliss. All the effort, two years of attempting, seven years of a dream and preparation, had all come to fruition through pure unadulterated perseverance. All the disappointment, the failure, the hard work, was superceded by the perseverance, and the ultimate goal behind it.
To persevere is to consciously suffer. It is the backbone of a true athlete. It is a suffering with purpose in mind, with the completion of a goal as reward at the other end.
Perseverance instills humility and generates respect and perspective in my pursuits. Through perseverance I have found meaning and true appreciation for my accomplishments as a professional athlete.
More will come, and I will embrace it, for I know what lies on the other side of the storm.