Women only
Thursday November 20, 2008 - Email this article to a friend

Women have their own events, equipment, holidays, tour operators, ski schools and even web sites. Who needs men?

The latest women only company is Diva Ski offering upmarket, women-only holidays to Verbier in Switzerland.

COMPETITIONS

Next month the world’s biggest snowboard event for girls takes place on the Kitzsteinehorn glacier in the Austrian resort of Kaprun. It’s now in its third year and sees some of the best female snowboarders compete for the $50,000 (£28,390) prize money.

At the other end of the spectrum are snowboard camps for women beginners. This winter, BitchBoards, a women only snowboard company is launching camps in Colorado.

The BitchBoards beginner Camps give women the chance to learn to ride the correct way with streamlined teaching techniques, quality women specific equipment, all female coaching and a positive and supportive atmosphere.

“At our camps women learn on high quality, ultra-light weight snowboards which help the learning process and prevent fatigue which is a key to the success of learning to snowboard,” says Alex Masterson, the chief executive of the company.

EQUIPMENT

girl_boarder_2_600 The development for equipment specifically for women is relatively new. Even a few years ago the skis and snowboards were pretty much the same but just painted pink or light blue.

Not any more.

Women have their own brands and dedicated reviews of gear and equipment in many ski magazines and web sites.

MEDIA

The market for women only products has been around for a while. The web site www.powderroom.net was set up by London based Lucie McLean back in 2002 with the US snowboarder Lorene Voskinarian. It offers news, features and information for women snowboarders.

It’s a global online magazine and community for women who snowboard.

It has since grown into the biggest online forum and content producer for female snowboarders with a team of writers from around the world. It has over 25,000 unique visitors.

LEAVE THE MEN AT HOME

cocktail_girls_2240 There also seems to be a growth in women only ski trips. Gone are the days when men went away on golfing trips while the women stayed at home to look after the family.

Now the boot is on the other foot with many women going off on a long skiing weekend in exchange for allowing the summer golf weekend for their partner.

“My girlfriends and I have been coming on ski trips together each year since 2002. We pamper ourselves a bit, don’t get forced to ski too fast by our menfolk and forget about our family responsibilities for a few days,” says 46 year old Anneke Driscoll from Holland. “When we first started it was quite rare but now there seem to be more and more groups of women only skiers.”