Ski and Snowboard Club Vail big mountain skiers host ‘Advice for Girls’ ski movie on March 7 at Vail Mountain School

If big mountain skiing doesn’t work out for Sloane Thompson, she’ll have no problem getting a job in event planning.

“I’m not scared to reach out or scared to fail,” the Vail Mountain junior said. “I think that’s because of my skiing, just because I’ve been skiing with boys my entire life.”

The Ski and Snowboard Club Vail big mountain skier is hoping to pass along her fearlessness to other young girls on Thursday night. Thompson and her teammate, Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy student Ingrid Gerdes, are hosting the all-female ski film “Advice for Girls” at Vail Mountain School on March 7 at 5:30 p.m. Thompson and Gerdes organized the event as Vail Valley ambassadors for the International Free Skiers Association (IFSA) initiative ‘Rippin Ladies,’ which aims to build community across female freeriders of all ages.

“There’s not a lot of us,” Thompson said.

The film screening coincides with the IFSA competition on Thursday at Vail Mountain. Donations during the event will support the Emily Franciose Fund and Lilly Connelly Funds. Franciose died in an avalanche in Switzerland last March and Connelly, a Ski and Snowboard Club Vail coach, died in a skiing accident on Jan. 16, 2023 in the East Vail backcountry.

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“We got to talking and we were like, we should have this be an event to honor those two girls and bring together everyone in the valley,” said Thompson, who was on the VMS telemark team as a freshman with Franciose.

“Our goal is to inspire the young girls in the community.”

In addition to showing ‘Advice for Young Girls’ — a film written, directed and produced by women and starring female skiers — the evening will include giveaways and a speaker panel with area women who are patrollers, coaches, athletes and doctors.

One is Taryn Miletti, who was Thompson’s coach when she first started in the SSCV big mountain program 11 years ago.

“It’s gotten a lot bigger,” Thompson said of the team. “When I started, it was literally me and my younger sister and there were only like three or so teams.”

Now, SSCV boasts one of the best female skiers on the IFSA circuit: Gerdes is currently ranked fourth out of 288 athletes in the IFSA U19 ski rankings. The top 35 qualify for the Junior Freeride Championship, formally known as the North American Junior Championship, in Breckenridge April 7-14, with the best athletes from that competition earning spots in a Junior Freeride World Tour (FWT) stop next January. While Gerdes is fully-focused on climbing the FWT ladder, Thompson said her “narrative with skiing” has shifted since her involvement in a car accident last year.

“I’m more into finding my love for skiing and just skiing instead of competing in skiing,” she said.

Thompson, who hopes to play lacrosse in college, said sharing her passion for skiing is one reason she’s excited to show the movie to the community.

“It’s going to be really exciting to watch,” she said, adding that boys are welcome to the free event, too.

As for her own advice to girls?

“You can’t let people shut you down because you’re a girl. I’ve been told, like, ‘oh you can go around that, let the boys do it.’ Like, no, not ‘let the boys do it.’ I’m doing it, too,” she said.

“I think the biggest thing for me is be yourself out there. I’m wearing tutus on the mountain, I’m wearing glitter — I’m loving it. You’ve got to just own it and own the fact that you’re a girl out there doing cliffs and stuff. Be yourself and push yourself.”