The Daily - February 20, 2020 - 12

The Pulse
H E A D L I N E S

The "When We
Lead" panel
packed the house.

Future Leaders

The perennial womxn's panel has evolved,
encouraging self-advocacy with nuance
and ethical storytelling. By Emma Athena
AT THE "WHEN WE LEAD" PANEL,

held on Day 3 of Outdoor + Snow
Show, Jen Gureki, CEO of Coalition Snow, announced a name
change for the recurring panel:
"When We Lead" replaced "When
Womxn Lead" in another evolutionary step away from the original
name "When Women Lead." It's
a necessary change, she said, "so
that anyone who does not identify as a woman feels welcome
in this space."
Gureki has hosted this panel
at every Summer and Winter
Market since 2017. For the first
time, attendees received a "Trans
101" pocket guide written by Lila
Leatherman, an educator based
in Salt Lake City, Utah. The
guide explained human-identity
vocabulary and recommended
further educational resources

12

around transgender allyship and
possible biases.
As Gureki introduced the Snow
Show panelists-writer and
speaker Kriste Peoples, filmmaker Shandi Kano, podcaster Sarah
Shimazaki, and climbing-gym
owner Abby Dione-she laid the
framework for the panel's topic:
"We are told to be bold and fierce
and unapologetic, but we want to
talk about what happens when
you do that in real life."
Each of the panelists shared anecdotes about navigating systems
(such as capitalism, mainstream
society, the outdoor industry) that
are easy to shirk and diminish the
ideas, reactions, and opinions of
nonmale and nonwhite people.
Shimazaki, who produces the
Outside Voices podcast, spoke
about ethical storytelling and

/ OUTDOOR + SNOW SHOW 2020

the power imbalances that exist
between story-sharers and story-tellers. Wary of tokenizing and
the toll of retelling a traumatizing
story, she encouraged more diversity behind the scenes. Despite her
podcast's success, she has struggled with the industry's funding
framework that pits independent
creatives against one another. "We
shouldn't be competing against
each other if we have the same
goal," she said.
As a filmmaker, Kano said
advocating for her voice amid
more privileged people has been
a nuanced, years-long practice.
While standing up for herself has
made others uncomfortable and
advocating for change is tough,
she said, "It's just us getting up
and doing what we do.... What's
unfortunate about this industry is
that cool is a currency."
Peoples explained that-despite
universal self-doubt-everyone is
capable of inciting change. Friction and resistance are guaranteed
along the way. "Honor the validity
of what you're saying, even if your
voice gets shaky," she said.

The recent ban of fluorocarbon ski wax by the International Ski Federation (FIS) for
the 2020-21 season, along
with the EU's complete ban,
which takes effect in July '20,
has accelerated the industry's
move toward eco-friendly ski
waxes. The ban at the race
level served to highlight the
growing scrutiny the products
have been attracting from
governmental agencies. Long
valued for shaving precious
hundredths of a second off
race finishes, fluorocarbon ski
waxes are suspected to cause
ecological problems, including
water supply contamination,
and prolonged exposure to
their fumes can be harmful.
"We have been working on
creating an eco-friendly wax
for the last five years, anticipating the day that this would
happen," said Swix's Andrew
Gardner at the brand's booth.
The company is rolling out a
line of compliant products in
the fall that it says will perform
at the highest levels. Several
new fluorocarbon-free waxes
were on display at the Show,
notably Giga Glide and MountainFlow Eco-Wax, which just
won an Innovation Award.
The durability and glide of
these new, cleaner wax options seems to be in line with
fluoros, but questions remain
around just how the ban will
be enforced. "Would ski racers
cheat? It's human nature to find
a competitive edge," said Kyle
Woolstenhulme of Sun Valley
Ski Tools. "It could be a dad
putting banned products on his
kids' skis or the pro racer looking for an edge. Who knows?"
-Hudson Lindenberger

L AU R E N DA N I L E K

WAX BRANDS ADAPT
TO FLUORO BAN
The Daily - February 20, 2020

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