When Wendy Clinch started The Ski Diva in 2006, she had two goals in mind: To connect with other women who felt as passionately about skiing as she did, and to create an environment in which women were treated respectfully; where we weren’t sexualized or marginalized or looked down on as skiers; where we could talk about all things skiing – and some things not – in a way that made us feel comfortable.
I think it’s pretty clear that she succeeded. The Ski Diva has thousands of registered members and gets substantial traffic every month. It’s a vibrant, supportive, and informative corner of the web, filled with tons of great information about all things skiing. It’s become a community offline, too, with Divas regularly helping each other out and meeting up in real life for activities both skiing-related and not.
I’ve been a member of the site since the beginning, when I was a 20-something living in NYC who was just hoping to find other women who loved skiing as much as I did. This site and the friendships I’ve made here have remained a meaningful part of my life over the 17 years since, even helping me build the confidence I needed to move to Colorado in 2011.
It’s for those reasons that I’m so excited to announce that, starting in July 2023, I’ll be the new owner of The Ski Diva. In addition to being a long-time member, I also have a professional background in both the tech and outdoor industries. I’m grateful that Wendy trusts me to run with this community that she’s spent so much time and energy cultivating, and I think I can do a good job keeping The Ski Diva vibrant and relevant for a long time to come. Wendy will remain a moderator and an active member of the community, but I’ll be running things day-to-day.
What does this mean? I don’t have any grand plans to re-imagine the site or fundamentally change the way anything works. I do have plans to improve site performance, increase site traffic, attract and engage new members, keep the site feeling current and relevant, and make The Ski Diva more of a community-run enterprise. I’m really looking forward to getting to work and helping the community grow from here.
Here’s to another 17+ years.
To see the original announcement and read the resulting discussion, check out this thread: Big Changes at The Ski Diva
