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Jen Ashton – quietly setting the standard

"It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen." – Herodotus She's the last person to call attention to herself.
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"It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen."

– Herodotus

She's the last person to call attention to herself. Yet among her big-mountain freeskiing peers, none would deny her greatness. Modest, understated — and fiercely (almost self-destructively) independent — Whistler's Jen Ashton is a skiing enigma.

Really. I'm not kidding. You see, when it comes to attacking bold, hoary, highly exposed mountain lines (that would intimidate most male skiers), Ashton has few peers on the planet. And her long list of international triumphs on the big-mountain freeskiing circuit bear ample witness to her unique talents. I mean, she won the great granddaddy of events — the Crested Butte Extreme contest — an unprecedented three times! Was crowned IFSA World Overall Champion in 2002, '03 and '09. And she did amazing things on the European tour too. So why isn't she better known at home?

"I guess it's my own fault," says the 39 year old with her characteristic shrug. "I'm just not that good at promoting myself." She stops. Laughs. "I guess I just don't care enough about that stuff. And I hate doing photo shoots. All that standing around to do just one turn... yuck. I'd rather just go skiing..."

Did I mention her stubborn streak? Though her athletic abilities have never been in question, Jen is the kind of athlete who'll ski to the beat of her own drum no matter what sponsors, filmmakers or photographers might wish her to do. "We all have our particular skills," she explains. "I just love to ski. That's what I do best. I guess that's why I like coaching kids too. I get to pass on my love of skiing to the next generation."

Indeed. And the kids are lucky to have her. "I got involved coaching with the Whistler Freeride program a few years ago. And it's totally awesome. I love it. They're all little rippers — and they're getting stronger every year!"

A self-described "army brat', Ashton got her first taste of skiing in Germany. She was all of two-and-a-half years old. "I don't remember much of that," she admits, "except maybe for buying a pair of boots in some shop in the Alps..." She laughs. Mostly, what she remembers of those early years is skiing with her family. "I never decided to 'be a skier,'" she says. "I just wanted to ski. The fun of going fast down the hill, that special sensation of sliding on snow — I just loved it. The fact that my parents and brother also loved skiing, well, it just made it easier for me to stay involved."

An aside: skiing is still very much an Ashton family activity. Her parents now spend their winters at Whistler (where her dad teaches skiing) while her brother followed Jen's lead and now also lives full-time in Sea to Sky country.

But where was I? Oh yeah — Jen's development as a professional skier. She spent the last few years of high school in Ottawa where her dad was head of security for the PM's office. "We skied at Camp Fortune," she says, "and I dabbled in ski racing. I did okay, but nothing great..."

After graduation, our young star-to-be decided to postpone university in exchange for a skiing season on the West Coast. "My first impression of Whistler? Big and commercial." She laughs. "I'd applied at smaller resorts, but couldn't get a job. At least I could work at Whistler." The year was 1991 and Jen took a job as liftie on the Orange Chair. "It was a great experience," she says with a straight face. "Loads of fun." It was also that winter that she started snowboarding. "It was much easier to work that way."

She returned home in the spring, enrolled at Carlton U, then quickly transferred to Dalhousie in Halifax. "I actually coached the snowboard team there," she reveals, a smile playing on the edge of her lips. "Even started racing myself." And was no slouch. In her first season of competition she made it all the way to a World Cup event at Mont Ste. Anne as well as attending the fabled U.S. Open in Vermont. "Where I didn't do all that well," she admits. "But it was fun to be there."

Still, she missed Whistler. "It's not like I said 'forget school!' or anything. I always thought I'd go back to university..." She laughs. "But what kind of career would have let me ski every winter for the last 20 years?"

Rhetorical question. She returned to Whistler in the summer of '94. "I felt like I belonged here," she explains. "As soon as we hit the mountains, I knew. I was home..."

Her timing was impeccable. Whistler was going off. But snowboarding wasn't doing it for her anymore. "Every time I got on my board," she says, "I was thinking: 'I should be on my skis.'" Soon she was following the likes of Damian Cromwell and Joe Lammers and Rob Alford and Slinky Girard; pushing the skiing envelope like she never had before. "I wanted to ski at the boys' level," she insists. "Being a girl, I knew I couldn't huck what they hucked. Physically, I just wasn't up to that. But I knew if I really worked at it, I could get closer." She stops. Takes a long breath. "I still remember the first big cliff I ever dropped. It was in Glacier Cirque and I went straight off rather than following the gully. It was awesome!" But it was also painful. "My back hurt for months afterwards." A long pause. She grins self-consciously. "I guess I kinda compressed a few vertebrae on that jump."

But she was hooked. This is how she describes her initiation to Whistler Mountain's daunting double cliff jump, Air Jordan (the first ever by a woman). "It was the first day of the new Peak Chair," she remembers. "And Rob [Alford] and Slinky and I went straight to it. It was pretty early season and no one had hit it yet. We were totally alone."

With its dramatic take-off and make-no-mistake first landing, Air Jordan is not for the faint of heart. "I'd visualized that leap for a long time," recounts Ashton. "And I was surprisingly calm when it came time to jump." She sighs. "I stuck the first bit — like I'd imagined. But my skis stopped on the second landing and I did a front roll back onto my feet." Laughs. "Lost my hat and goggles on the roll too. So no — it wasn't clean."

Meanwhile, she'd gotten involved with downhill mountain biking. "I first tried racing cross-country," she says. "But I wasn't very good at it. Downhill was more my speed." She loved the adrenaline, getting over the fear thing, "you know, getting into places were you're scared sh**less," she says. "And it really helped my skiing, fitness-wise. Biking always got me in good shape for winter — both mentally and physically."

Jen entered her first big-mountain skiing event in 1999. And immediately found her place. "Skiing came so much easier to me than biking," she explains. "I finished among the top three in my very first comp. And I didn't have a clue what I was doing." But she was a fast learner. The next year she won three of the four events she entered. And she did it with style — handling scary, difficult lines with the self-assured coolness of a true professional.

"Competing made me a way better skier," she insists. "You really have to think about what you're doing out there. I mean it's a real mental game. My goal was always to stay as loose as possible during my comp runs." And if she didn't feel good about her skiing, she simply dialled back the intensity. "It's not worth the risk," she says. "If you're not in the mindset to put it down then you shouldn't put it down!"

The early 21st century was a time of great foment in the snowsliding world. Stars were made and broken overnight. Skiing-wise Ashton was doing great — at her best, no one could touch her. But financially? "I definitely wasn't that good at being a sponsored athlete," she says. "Modesty? Stupidity? I had no idea how to play the game. I mean, when I was growing up I didn't even know there were sponsored skiers..."

She kept at it though. Kept entering events and adding titles to her CV. But by the spring of 2003, she needed a break. The crippling costs of travelling around the world, the grind of never being home, the physical toll it was taking on her body — it was all becoming too much. "I needed to focus on other things," she says.

Enter coaching. "At first the transition was difficult," admits Jen. "It's just such a different way of life from travelling and competing. But I soon got my head around it."

And the break from competition was doing her good. "I was able to enjoy the fun of skiing again," she says. By the winter of 2006, Ashton was back on the big-mountain circuit, back to her winning ways. She won the Crested Butte Extreme comp again that year, and again two years later — culminating with her third overall World Tour title in the spring of '08.

She also kept running into this young freeskier guy, Eric Hjorleifson. Way younger than her, you know, but somehow age didn't matter when they were together. "We just had fun," she says. "And it just grew from there. Eric's a genius — an artsy, talented guy." She laughs. "Besides, I've skied with a lot of men over the years," she concludes. "But when they break trail for you AND let you ski down first, well, to me that's true love..."