Doin’ it for the Girls! | Val d'Isère Chalets

The SuperPipe isn’t exactly well known as a female dominated sport. After all, how many female freestyle rock stars can you name? One? Two?

As organiser of the Air Ladies QuarterPipe event in the Espace Killy, Marie Martinod, winner of the gold medal at X Games Tignes 2013 and silver at the Sochi Olympics, has gone about proving that girls can shred just as hard as any guy (and about time too...)

Organised in honour of Sarah Burke, Queen of SuperPipe and one of the pioneers of SuperPipe and Slopestyle as skiing sports as well as a traditional snowboard events, the competition is girls only and aims to raise funds for charity.

Taking place on the 18th and 19th of March, the event starts with the introduction of the athletes and the ELA team at Tignespace on the Wednesday evening, before a welcoming cocktail and the Rockaway concert to celebrate the opening. Through the day on the Thursday, you can kick back and watch some of the top freestyle skiers in the world preparing for the competition, before the Air Ladies Show starts at 6.15pm.

Sarah Burke in Whistler photo credit Tyler Ingram

Let’s face it, most of the time it’s a little more interesting watching freestyle than some other sports we could mention. One of the reasons for that is the spectacle- I think we all know that Shaun White’s bid for world domination was so successful because the HalfPipe (in all its forms) looks so unbelievably cool when someone really talented does something really gnarly (and also because the guy is super focused, all the time... it’s mostly the first thing though)! It’s high time the ladies got a chance to show off their skills, after all.

Sarah Burke spent years of her life pushing for SuperPipe and Slopestyle to be included in the Winter Olympics, and for ladies events to be included in all the big freestyle competitions. The fact that today sees so many opportunities for great female freestylers to show they can hang with the best is testament to her efforts. It’s quite a legacy to leave behind. If anyone is well deserving of a charity event in their honour...

So if you’re going to be in Val d’Isere or Tignes on the week of the 19th March, swing by the Air Ladies event, party with Marie Martinod and celebrate the ladies that shred in honour of Sarah Burke!