Ingrid Backstrom on Kicking Open Doors, Increasing Inclusivity in Skiing and Bringing the Gummy Bears

The Trail Ahead

Ingrid Backstrom has been a professional skier for over twenty years and is a household name and someone widely considered a “legend” in the world of free skiing. She is also a mother, a filmmaker, and co-founder of S.A.F.E. A.S. backcountry clinics. In this conversation we discuss Ingrid’s professional skiing career and her journey as a woman in a male-dominated sport. We also talk about her work to make skiing more fun and inclusive, how she has learned from mistakes along the way, and how you don’t have to be a mom to “ski like a mother.” We first connected with Ingrid around “The Approach” film, a project she’s been helping lead for the past three years. We talk about the joy of seeing others learn to love a new passion, learning to look a life from a different perspective and making mistakes along the way, how to interrupt an entrenched industry - even as an underdog, what she's learned in her 20 years of being a pro-skier and much more. Our "debrief" this episode is a conversation between host Faith Briggs Rose and her mother, Hope Briggs. Faith asks her mom about what it's been like to be a white woman navigating racial awareness, based on being in an interracial marriage for almost 40 years, especially coming from a sheltered background. It's a challenging, illuminating and raw conversation. Follow along and learn more about Ingrid on Instagram via https://www.instagram.com/ingridbackstrom/