22 Nov A RISING TIDE

Tatiana Lawson is the newly appointed director of the Sun Valley Resort Ski Patrol in Sun Valley, Idaho, and the first female ever to hold that position. And, while women have been involved in Sun Valley’s male-dominated professional patrol for several decades, it’s clear there’s a rising tide within the industry. What began as just a couple of positions has grown such that today, women comprise around 28 percent of Sun Valley’s patrol, surpassing the national average of 22 percent.

Hannah Stevens (left), Tess Alphas (with tail rope), Hannah Littell (driving toboggan), and Tatiana Lawson (carrying skis) pack out a loaded toboggan.

Here, we highlight four women who navigate Sun Valley’s mountainous terrain with ease, ensuring that other skiers are safe and having fun.

Joney Otteson

While she’s now retired from patrol, one of the first women to join Sun Valley Ski Patrol was Joney Otteson, who told fellow patrolwoman and writer Sarah Linville in a Sun Valley Magazine article published last winter that when she started in 1987, “Someone had to die for someone else to get on.” Full-time female patrollers were rare when Otteson started, and fewer have lasted as long as her 25-year career. She suspects the lack of representation was the result of the times, deeply embedded traditional gender roles, and many young women’s desires for children back then.

Tatiana Lawson, Maddie McKay, and Hannah Littell (left to right) load a toboggan with all the rescue necessities.

Otteson cherished her time on patrol, describing it as a demanding yet enjoyable job that felt like working with family, a bond she still carries today. In 1996, her husband, James Ray Otteson, was killed in an avalanche while guiding for Sun Valley Heli Ski on Paradise Peak, about 25 miles west of Sun Valley in the Smoky Mountains, and her connection to the other patrollers helped carry her through.   

Nicole Jorgenson

Nicole Jorgenson has been patrolling for Sun Valley since 2016. Despite her stature at 5 feet, 2 inches and 115 pounds, she’s among the first to challenge the common argument that the job is overly physical for women. Certainly, some tools and techniques were developed by men, who are often bigger and stronger than women, she says, but she’s been able to adapt her approach and learn ways to get the job done, nonetheless.

Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho includes a varied terrain and range of runs for every alpine enthusiast, from the novice to the seasoned expert. On Seattle Ridge, the runs are named for several local athletes that won medals in the Olympics and Paralympics.

Jorgenson and her dog, Diesel, are an integral part of avalanche searches. “For Diesel’s first season working on Baldy, we focused on getting used to the everyday parts of the job, like riding lifts and skiing various transportation methods to different parts of the mountain,” Jorgenson explains. “Throughout the season, we worked on various search drills that were meant to hone in on the drives that compel Diesel to want to search for people, and he received lots of rewards when he succeeded. Diesel and I were also extremely lucky to get to attend dog school in Tamarack, Idaho, where we were exposed to lots of training methods and other dog teams from the region.”

Kelly Feldman

Patrol team member Kelly Feldman is 55 years old and has patrolled the last two seasons. She first became an EMT, and then in 2022, she began volunteering with the fire department. Since many fire personnel also work on the ski patrol as volunteers, Feldman quickly joined them.

“When patrol had a mid-season opening, I took the opportunity,” she says. “I was primarily excited to use my new medical skills.”

Born and raised in Colorado, Feldman grew up as a weekend skier. She started playing soccer at age 6 and played through her time at Middlebury College in Vermont. There, she met her husband, Richard, who grew up in Ketchum, Idaho. She coached the junior varsity soccer team at Middlebury after graduating, and in 1991, they moved to Ketchum.

Hailey Haggerty is pictured here with rescue dog Ripley, who has been trained to locate people trapped in an avalanche.

“I started coaching at the local park and then became the assistant coach at Community School,” she says of her initial time in Idaho. “I took two years off from coaching after having my second child. I returned again as an assistant and then took the head coaching job, where I’ve been for 24 years. I also spent 15 years coaching in the Olympic Development Program, which takes the best players from all over the state to train and compete.”

Although she has limited experience as a patroller, her nearly three decades as a soccer coach have accustomed her to working in traditionally male-dominated environments.

“When I first started coaching soccer, the male referees and   coaches of other teams assumed I was the team mom — not the head coach,” she says. “I was often the only woman in the room at coaches’ meetings. Today, many of the teams we play have female coaches. The sports industry has become more inclusive, and that’s reflected in patrol as well. Ski patrollers were always larger than life and way too cool. It wasn’t a career I considered as an option for myself until a few years ago.”

Easily seen from a distance, the ski patrol’s bright-red flag is posted atop Seattle Ridge. The Sun Valley Resort’s black-diamond bowls are visible in the background.

“I’ve heard the rumors and seen the fallout of inappropriate male behavior, but I’ve been very fortunate to not directly experience it,” she adds. “I’m impressed with the strength and confidence of the women who came before me to stand up for themselves and to expect to be treated with respect. In my eyes, they are the ones breaking ground and leading the charge. I get the benefit of riding on their coattails, and I’m grateful for the work they’ve done to make patrol a better environment for everyone. I think it is important for the world to know that this generation of women is powerful, fearless, and unafraid to go after what they want. This generation of men is open, supportive, and comfortable working with women as equal partners and under their leadership. In the past decade, the industry has grown and changed for the better, and it continues to do so today. I’m proud to be a part of the Sun Valley Ski Patrol and love the job.”                   

Tatiana Lawson

Tatiana Lawson was born in 1982 in Alta, Utah. Her father, Peter, was a cat driver, patroller, and assistant general manager of the lifts. Her great-grandfather, Joe Seymour Quinney, was one of the original founders of Alta in 1938. She remembers “being interlodged a lot. I grew up watching my father’s team shoot the 105 recoilless rifle and, later, the howitzer, over our house onto Mt. Superior and Hellgate,” she says, referring to the tool of the time patrollers used to disrupt unstable snow and reduce potential avalanche hazards.

“I loved watching avalanches and that never changed. My mother, Tatiana Moller, was a ski instructor at Snowbird [in Utah] and told me I skied before I walked well. The person I looked up to most in my teens was Joe’s daughter, my grandmother, Janet Eccles Quinney. In her youth, she raced against Gretchen Fraser. She made it onto the 1940 Olympic team, though the Games were canceled due to World War II. She used to put rocks in her pockets to try and ski faster. Her father, Joe, hid her skis when she was pregnant with my father.”

All smiles, Olivia Bruner-Gaydos expertly handles a snowmobile, another important tool of the ski patrol trade.

Lawson began her ski patrol work in 2006 at Alta after graduating from Colorado College with a dual degree in English and film. Identifying as “a water chaser,” she ski patrolled during the winter and river guided in Moab, Utah during the summer before moving to Haines, Alaska to work for Alaska Mountain Guides.

“I have a passion for medical response,” she says. “I was involved in several large avalanches during my time at Alta. I watched my partner go over a cliff in the Low Notch while I clung to a tree. I then descended to help dig him out. Another time, one of my shots propagated up High Greely and buried another patroller. I learned through those experiences that I care more about my teammates than skiing.”

After graduating with honors with a master’s degree in education and counseling from Oregon’s Lewis & Clark College in 2010, Lawson went to the Himalayas to travel and teach. In 2013, she went to work patrolling at Alyeska Resort in Alaska, where Mike Welch, who she knew from Alta, was working as a patrolman and helicopter ski guide. They both worked for Chugach Powder Guides and were soon in love. Lawson heli-guided by day and worked the ski patrol night shift until 2019, when she was four months pregnant. In 2020, she became the first female ski patrol director for Alyeska. Lawson and Welch have two children, Sylvie Winter, 4, and Sylas Snow, 2.

Tatiana Lawson manages dispatch, answering emergency calls and offering critical guidance to resort visitors and employees alike.

Today, Lawson is the first female ski patrol director at Sun Valley. She moved with her family to Sun Valley in December 2023 to take on the new role, feeling the desert of southwest Idaho calling her home.

“It is one of the greatest honors in my life,” she says, “and I want to care for this team like a mama bear.”

Dick Dorworth is fond of saying, “The only things I’ve ever really learned to do are ski, write, and climb.” At the age of 86, the backcountry and climbing are off limits, but he still skis lift-serviced runs groomed to carpet smoothness. He has published eight books and lives in Bozeman, Montana with his partner, Jeannie Wall.

Todd Kaplan’s passion for the outdoors was evident from a young age, and later on in life, he turned that into a career as a professional nature photographer, fly-fishing guide, and ski instructor. He resides in the quaint town of Hailey, Idaho, where he’s lived for almost 25 years.