GIRLS JUST NEED TO GO BIG: POWDER profiles Rachael Burks

She’s the kind of girl that lights-up a crowd with her smile, cranks the dial to high on the stoke-o-meter with her ten billion watts of energy, and absolutely loves to huck her meat. This would be none other than 24-year-old IFSA competitor and 2005 Sick Bird Award nominee Rachael Burks out of Snowbird, Utah.

At a time when women are wavering on the boundary between the high-scoring conservative line and stepping up, Burks has definitely chosen the later. During her three years as an IFSA competitor, Burks has blurred the gender line with respectable drops and charging turns.

“Rachael’s strongest attributes as a skier and competitor lay not only in her ability to pick and ski technical lines, sometimes requiring a high level of commitment, but also in her attitude and enthusiasm for her sport,” says Jim Jack, IFSA World Tour Head Judge. “She puts on a great show for our sport. She likes big airs, but more specifically—new airs,”

Rachael took a minute in between work and a mountain bike ride to introduce herself to POWDER.

When did you start skiing?

Rachael Burks: Actually I wasn’t a huge fan of skiing when I was little because my dad would wake me up at 7 am on Saturday mornings yelling “Wake-up! Ski bus leaving—fifteen minutes!” I didn’t start craving skiing until I had been in Texas for two years of college, dreaming about the mountains. Cliché of course, but you never know how good you have it until someone takes it away from you.

What’s your favorite thing about competing?

Rachael Burks: The opportunity to travel to different mountains and ski in places that sometimes aren’t ordinarily open to the public, and I love the community of skiers that I meet along the way—like traveling to France and Switzerland this winter and running into friends on another continent at a random pub. It’s a complete rush to see people you know in different places all around the world without coordinating anything. I like competition. I’m competitive. I like to see how I compare without making a personal judgment, letting someone else be the judge is nice.

You’ve made your mark with some seriously large hucks this season, including a 30-foot drop in the Snowbird Amphitheater during the finals of the U.S. Freeskiing Nationals—hit that day only by Elijah Lee, Manuel Gaidet, and Aurelien Ducroz (the latter two being notably crazy Frenchmen). I should also mention your huck off of the renowned Smoke Stack at Snowbird this winter. What drives you to go big?

Rachael Burks: I like to push myself every time I click into my skis. I like feeling stoked about the way I skied at the end of the day, and I like to get better. Going big is part of getting better.

Why do you think most women aren’t going as big as men in competitions?