Local student heads to Alaska to teach skiing

Lots of kids in Whitefish start skiing when they start walking. One local skier who learned to ski on the slopes of the Big Mountain is heading north to teach skiing in Alaska.

The Big Mountain Ski Club is a 50-year-old organization that offers free ski lessons to kids aged 5-12, and that’s where Gracie Hickman learned to ski and where she learned to teach skiing.

Vice president of the Big Mountain Ski Club, Amy Meyer, a fourth-generation Montanan from Whitefish, got involved with the Big Mountain Ski Club about 15 years ago when her daughters were small. Now, she runs the ski program, is a member of the board and helps out with events like the upcoming Ski Swap.

All three of Meyer’s daughters went through the Big Mountain Ski Club program to learn to ski.  Her youngest, Hickman, went through the levels of the club’s program and became a junior ski instructor.

“Our junior ski instructor program has kids that have been in the program and continued to teach,” Meyer said. “They can relate to little kids a little bit differently than adults can. They bring a kind of a different energy that’s really nice to have. We love our junior instructors, they’re great.”

HICKMAN, A 2023 graduate of Whitefish High School, is on her way to teach skiing professionally in Alaska. She recalled going through the program and becoming a ski instructor with the Big Mountain Ski Club.

“I was 11, so I would've been in fifth grade when I started teaching with my mom at about level three,” Hickman said. “And I’ve been teaching ever since.”

As a junior instructor, she’d work as a sweeper with an experienced teacher, staying behind and making sure the students were safe and accounted for.

“Then when I got to be about 13, I started teaching my own class,” she said. “I obviously had an adult with me because I was only 13.”

At that point, the adult helper would serve as a sweeper for her. Longtime Club ski instructor, Leo Keane, was Hickman’s instructor when she was in level 7 and served as her mentor when she began teaching.

“Leo is an amazing person. He teaches … the highest level, which is level 6 and 7 and that's usually the level when you start getting into more of the technical parts of skiing,” Hickman said. “You would work on pole planting, you would work on timing of your carving and the timing of your turns and also just safety.

“[He’s] definitely a very big part of who I am as a skier today,” she added.

AFTER HIGH school graduation, as she was deciding what step to take next, Hickman said her plans were “very wishy-washy,” so she consulted her family. Her family in Whitefish said her family in Alaska would love to see her. That sparked an idea.

“My family is from Houston, Alaska, which is about ten minutes out of Wasilla,” Hickman said. “As a kid, we spent months at a time every summer. It's a very special place.”

Hickman remembered skiing in Alaska at a small resort called Skeetawk. At the time, it had just one chair lift. Since her visit in 2020, the resort has installed two additional lifts and boasts 13 marked runs. 

She decided to apply for a teaching position at Skeetawk, in Hatcher Pass, Alaska. Her experience as a volunteer instructor on the Big Mountain and her interview won Hickman the job. She will arrive at work on Nov. 4 to begin one month of training before the season begins.

“I’m super excited. Out of all the plans that I’ve had in the last few months, this is definitely the best one.”

MEMBERSHIP in the Big Mountain Ski Club costs just $50 per family, which covers insurance costs and skiers are responsible for lift tickets and equipment. Skilled instructors run classes for new skiers, known as ‘never-evers,’ through level 7, which prepares the kids to ski the mountain on their own, with friends.

President Sue Moll has been involved with the club for over thirty years and now that Meyer’s kids have aged out of the program, the two are hoping more young families are interested in getting involved and stepping into leadership roles within the organization.

“Sue and I aren't getting any younger,” Meyer said. “The program is great for younger families where the parents want to help teach skiing and the kids could learn to ski with their parents being up there. We would like to infuse this with a little more younger-family energy, if we can.”

For more information about the Ski Swap or about the Big Mountain Ski Club learn to ski program, visit: www.bigmountainskiclub.org.