Skings high flyer

Georgie Bremner has faced a lot of ups and downs in her career – and the trailblazing skier wouldn’t have it any other way. Shonagh Walker reports.

Without hesitation she glides vertically down the slope, slowing to a stop after a few hundred metres with a turn that would make any ballerina proud. Georgie Bremner is atop the summit of Coronet Peak Mountain on New Zealand’s South Island, skis pointed straight down and a broad smile on her face.

Pulling out a digital video recorder, Georgie signals to her students a few hundred metres above her to make their way down the slope. She then carefully records their every move, encouraging them as they go, all the while skiing backwards down the slope. When they reach the bottom, it’s skis off and into ski school to critique each student’s skiing style and offer helpful pointers for the next run of the day.

This is how Georgie spends winter in the Southern Hemisphere, training and instructing both novice and experienced skiers alike to master – or improve their skills in – the sport of skiing. Once the weather warms and the snow begins to melt, she jumps on a plane and heads for Aspen, Colorado to spend the Northern Hemisphere winter doing exactly the same. 

This past season, however, Georgie returned to North America’s most exclusive ski resort, Aspen Mountain, with the impressive title of Director of Ski School. She is not only the first woman to fill this senior and demanding role, but also the first New Zealander.

At the age of 33, Georgie can’t see herself working anywhere else but in the ski industry. Despite the back-to-back winters, whenever she is away from the mountains and the challenges and thrills they offer, she pines for them.

“I once worked as a travel agent in Wellington. It was tough being in the office with those strict office hours. I missed the ski industry dreadfully,” she laughs. “But looking back the experience was invaluable, and I did travel to amazing places such as Nepal, Iceland and Tahiti.

 “Another job I had off the mountains was at an indoor ski school in Holland. I missed the mountains terribly, but very much enjoyed sharing the passion all our customers had for the sport.”

Georgie’s love of the mountains and snow sports was ingrained in her before birth, passed down from her parents’ passion for the pristine snow-capped mountains of New Zealand. “Mum skied when she was pregnant with me at Coronet Peak,” says Georgie proudly. “I was on the snow at zero years of age.”

The young enthusiast was three when she was strapped into her first set of real skis. “I skied for the first time at Whakapapa, Mt Ruapehu, on New Zealand’s North Island. Mum said I loved everything, and at the end of the day I was still having fun – I was never grumpy or grizzly. Growing up, we skied for a week each Kiwi winter, at Ruapehu Ski Club.”

Georgie’s skiing continued to improve beyond expectation with each passing winter. She was selected for the Whakapapa Racing Team at 14 and was racing by the age of 15. “I was eventually selected for the Queen Margaret College All Girls School Ski Team. We won the North Island Secondary School Competition in 1990, which was huge as we were an all-girl team competing against co-ed schools.”

She also became the North Island Junior Champion in 1991, and was lucky enough to travel overseas. “I first skied internationally at Mammoth Mountain, California with the Mammoth Race Team when I was 16. I had sent them as much information about myself as I could, and was then invited to train with them. Aside from the incredible experience, it opened my eyes to the amazing ski resorts outside of New Zealand.”

As any lover of snow sports freely admits, once you have the alpine environment in your veins, it’s nearly impossible to be away from it. Georgie is no different. After leaving school in 1991, she went travelling and found herself in Austria.

“I was about to go to university, so thought I’d spend my summer holiday in Austria. At the end of it, I went back to New Zealand to do a forestry degree, but I returned to Austria after two years, stayed there for six winters and became an internationally-qualified ski instructor.”

Georgie eventually found herself craving her homeland and the Kiwi culture. “I was speaking German all the time and, while I loved everything about Austria, I wanted to remember what it was like to be Kiwi. I came home, worked as a travel agent, and that was when I realised how much I truly love the ski industry.”

She was looking to put her skis back on, only this time she wanted something more challenging. “I was thinking: ‘Where can I go from here? What do I need to work on?’. The one thing I was not strong at back then was skiing bumps, or moguls [mounds on a ski run]. I knew North America had amazing mogul fields, so I applied to Mammoth, Steamboat and Winter Park [ski resorts].”

Accepted as an instructor at Colorado’s Steamboat Resort in 2000, Georgie worked there for two years, spending the summers working in hospitality in Canada. Before long, however, prestigious Aspen Mountain Resort came calling.

“Aspen actively recruits instructors from around the world to ensure it always has the best and most qualified, as well as the most diverse, range of instructors to meet every skier’s needs,” says Georgie, who was quick to catch their eye. “I was recruited to Aspen after my second season at Steamboat.”

Around the same time, world-renowned ski company, Elan, took notice of her skills and asked her to come on board as one of their elite sponsored skiers.

“I started working with Elan when I first moved over to Aspen,” she explains. “I was pursuing my Professional Ski Instructors of America certification, and I was demonstrating skis at a trade fair when I got an opportunity to demo the Elan skis. Elan liked me and I loved the skis, so it was a perfect fit.”

In her role as an Elan skier, Georgie is responsible for testing and providing feedback on new and existing product and must promote the product within Aspen and at trade fairs for retailers. She also participates in photo shoots as an athlete using Elan products. It’s not at all a tough gig for Georgie, who truly loves the brand.

“Elan is willing to push the envelope and parameters on new design and technology, yet its price point is very attractive in comparison to its competitors. I like the fact that they have classic wood-core construction in all their top models, and I love skiing on a top-quality product that is affordable.”

During her time at Aspen, Georgie has been able to meet the best of the best, both in and outside of the ski industry. These connections have led her to develop, along with several highly-qualified ski instructors and a team of executive life coaches, the Aspen Divas’ Week – a workshop for female skiers to combine the practice of skiing with the art of risk-taking.

“The workshop is all about using skiing as a metaphor for life,” she explains. “It involves using mind-body integration to overcome obstacles and challenges. Getting through a mogul run, or an icy black run, or even skiing your first black run, can be as mentally challenging as an important board meeting or negotiating a personal crisis. At the end of the week, women are empowered with skills to enable them to trust, take risks, collaborate and enhance both their lives and their careers.”

Georgie has undoubtedly found her niche, though even with all the success she enjoys, she does experience the occasional twinge of homesickness. “In this industry you do give up the opportunity to build roots in one place,” she admits. “On the other hand, I have had so many fabulous life experiences, and have so many good friends abroad – not to mention the bulging photo albums. Every now and then, though, I do dream about owning a property and having summer barbecues.”  

For now, however, it is snow, a challenging career and the thrill and adventures that the mountains bring – such as standing on the summit of Mont Blanc and then skiing the north face, something she did on a recent ‘business’ trip to the French Alps.

Georgie also gets a buzz from interacting with other skiers who are literally at the top of their field. “What I love so much about this job is that Aspen Mountain has such a unique school. The instructors here are true professionals and some of the best in the world. My job is not to tell them how to do their job; they already know that. My job is to support them in continuing to be the best. They have many ideas about this and I’m having an absolute ball hearing inspiring people talk about where they see the future of this industry.”

As for the occupational hazards of the career she has chosen, Georgie merely shrugs. The dangers don’t factor in to her philosophical approach to life. “It’s a truly amazing atmosphere in Aspen,” she says with a smile. “And being involved in what can be a high-risk activity is much better than being bored and unfulfilled.”

Looking for a ski change?

If you’re an intermediate skier who can ski or snowboard comfortably on blue runs and you’re looking to sharpen your skills, consider the Rookie Academy. It offers world-class ski and snowboard instructor courses that certify graduates to work internationally.

Based at Treble Cone Mountain in Wanaka in New Zealand, and with branches in the US and Canada, courses run from between two to 13 weeks. Prices start at around AUD$3500 (depending on location and length of course) and include fully-furnished accommodation, mountain passes, daily transport, on-snow video analysis, world-class instruction, day and weekend trips to nearby towns and attractions, first aid courses, plus career development and job placement via the New Zealand Rookie Academy Global Ski School Network. For further information visit www.rookieacademy.com.

 

Photography: Sheena Haywood.