Biography

By the time I was looking at colleges, I was fed up snowboarding the tiny Missouri ski hill I grew up on. Accordingly, I chose Montana State to study photography; though spent nearly every winter day riding at Bridger and Big Sky. I quickly picked up splitboarding, exploring the mountains for larger backcountry lines. Chasing a career, I left for San Francisco but ended up in mental turmoil finally being exposed to a community of Queer and Trans people that was thriving; they were all so much more than the stereotypes I grew up learning. After a few years, I moved to New Zealand to process and splitboard the Southern Alps. While there, I climbed the Grand Traverse (III, 5.5, 2,319m.) of the Remarkables and fell down the alpine rabbit-hole. My mental health was worsening, and I returned home to Kansas to be with my mom, get help, and start transitioning. I came back to Bozeman in 2019, signed up for Nikki Smith’s LGBT+ clinic at Bozeman Ice Fest which led me to start training towards becoming an AMGA Alpine Guide working to provide LGBTQIA2S+ people with a more inclusive, safe, and representative learning environment.

ATHLETE MENTORSHIP INITATIVE