Beyond the Boundaries Snowboard Camps Build Community for Women Riders

I first attended a women’s snowboard camp when I was a teenager. I don’t remember all the details, but the name ended with a “z” if that’s any indication of how old I am. The camp had it all: yoga sessions, a photo backdrop, coaching, private park, and a mini rail jam split up by ability at the end. Now that enough time has passed to not be adding the “spunky z” at the end of everything, I’m happy to say that women’s snowboard meetups are thriving more than ever. With more and more groups popping up and making their mark, Beyond the Boundaries has had an influence on many of them. Founded by Christine Savage and Mary Walsh, BTBounds has been monumental in building community and connecting riders across North America and globally. Their camps, tours, and ride days are meticulously curated to meet the needs of all attendees, build up confidence, and give riders a chance to find community support they might be lacking. From community ride days all the way to tours in Japan and Chile, BTBounds has got it dialed, and I caught up with Christine Savage to find out more about what goes into making BTBounds happen (and maybe what goes into the swag bag too—we love the swag bag).

How long has BTBound been around?
Wow, just realizing that it simultaneously feels like we've been doing this for no time, as well as forever, haha. Beyond The Boundaries started in the fall of 2017 and we hosted our first events in the 2018 winter..

How did it start?
Quite a long time ago, before I even really knew her, Mary Walsh was part of the original crew that developed a small event at Loon Mountain, New Hampshire called Droppin' In. Droppin' In was developed to help get more women into the terrain park. I think it was one of the first events of its kind and over the years it got a very devoted following. Eventually with the support of Mark Wakeling and Jenny Messing at Oakley, the event became not just an annual thing, but expanded to a couple other resorts throughout North America. At this point, Mary brought me on to help co-head coach the series with her. Brand initiatives always shift over the years, so there came a point where the events ceased to exist, not to the fault of anyone. Mary and I were pretty heartbroken. These events had become a very important part of our lives and they were something we were extremely passionate about. We realized that while we didn't know much about the backend/business side of things, we knew enough about the rest and had more than enough desire to at least try to continue the work we had been doing. So, Beyond The Boundaries was born. It was truly a crash course in how to operate a business as we came up with the idea in the fall of 2017 and hosted our first event in early winter of 2018, haha. I kind of still feel like we're in the crash course of how to operate a business, we're just in a slightly more advanced course now.

Haha, definitely in the advanced crash course. Who else is involved?
The phrase "it takes a village" really comes to mind here. Mary and I co-founded Beyond The Boundaries together, but there are so many people behind the scenes that help to make these events happen. Our coaching staff deserves a huge shout out here because we simply would not be able to do these events without their willingness to be part of them. This year we've also had Sadie Maeda helping us with some logistical and production stuff, and that's been a real lifesaver. She is an organizational queen.

I’ve seen Sadie in action. Never let her go. What is the mission statement or objective?
To create a space where women can gain confidence on and off their snowboards, gain agency in the mountains, and connect with like-minded individuals through shared passion for snowboarding.

What value have you found that BTBound has contributed to the community? Was there something missing that BTBounds filled?
I think, above all, we've just been a connecting piece. There have always been incredible members of the community, but they just needed to be connected. I think (and hope) that in doing that we've been able to strengthen the women's community in the areas that we've hosted events.

How was the season this year?
A whirlwind! But a great whirlwind. We started with a ride day (thanks to Nitro!) at Loon Mountain in New Hampshire. Our next event was at Woodward Tahoe. Then we spent a few weeks in Japan and hosted our eight-day trip there. Next stop was Mountain Creek, New Jersey and then, Woodward Park City. Next was the Dew Tour in Colorado. Then back to Utah in May for a ride day with The Uninvited Invitational back at Woodward Park City. We capped it all off with a week-long summer camp up at Mount Hood with High Cascade. We met a lot of new faces and also got to see a lot of familiar ones, and we were able to snowboard with an insane amount of rad women. It was a really good season, but damn does it absolutely fly by.

What goes into building the coaching team?
The coaching staff is absolutely the most important part of the equation in the building of camp. We’re really blessed in that we already knew so many ripping snowboarders who we trusted would also be amazing coaches. And we're even more blessed that they keep wanting to come back and do this with us year after year!

The coaching crew has grown a lot over the years, and continues to grow as we add more events each year, but it has always come about in a really natural way. Most of the coaches either Mary or I were already acquainted with on some level–whether we were friends or we just kind of knew who they were and respected them and their snowboarding. Obviously everyone on the crew is a very strong rider, but one of the most important things to us has always been that the coaches have to be the right kind of person. It takes a lot of excitement, energy, patience, and empathy to coach others and create a welcoming environment that makes people feel safe to try new things. Not everyone wants to share their knowledge and time with others in this way, and that's totally okay! It takes the right personality and mindset, and I feel really fortunate that we've been able to find so many amazing women that absolutely rip, are SO fun to be around, and have a desire to share snowboarding with others.

How has the community grown since the beginning?
The women’s snowboard community is really thriving right now, and we are seeing that within our own BTBounds community, as well! When we began Beyond The Boundaries, we would constantly hear that women coming to our events didn't have any other women to ride with. Not even that they didn't have a crew, that they literally had not one single other woman to ride with. They were riding with brothers, partners, or even alone. There was a serious desire to have a community—they just didn't know where to find it. Now years later, we're seeing other groups forming among friends that have met at these camps. We're seeing previous BTBounds participants hosting their own meetups and scheduling their own boarding trips. It's really rad. It's been a snowball effect. The initial opportunity that we were able to help create has blossomed into so many more opportunities and connections for these women and that is really incredible to see.

You do some collaborations with other groups and events, do you want to talk about how that started?
Yes! We love when we get the opportunity to work with other groups that are doing rad things! We’ve been fortunate to be able to collaborate with The Uninvited the last two years, which has been a real dream come true for Mary and me. We have so much admiration and respect for Jess Kimura and the opportunities she’s created with The Uninvited. This has been amazing because our goal with ride days is to lessen the barriers to getting on hill and snowboarding. Snowboarding is expensive and we recognize that completely. We do our best to keep costs for our camps as low as we can, but it is expensive to operate. So the ride days are an opportunity to provide a welcome, fun, event that is as accessible as possible to join in; all you need is a lift ticket or season pass and a few hours (we also do a small registration fee of 15-20 dollars that is a donation to a non-profit for each ride day). Our first annual ride day was through partnering with Dew Tour years ago, and we continued that until the final year of the event in 2024. We’ve also had the opportunity to collaborate with regional crews during camps in their areas, like The Rose Club in Utah and Girls Go Shred in North Carolina. Building and strengthening connections in different areas in this way is something that means a lot to us and it’s led to friends across the world that we get to reunite with each winter.

So you have ride days, international trips, but the foundation of BTBounds is the weekend park camp. What’s a typical weekend camp look like?
On Saturday morning, we check everyone in at the registration table and give you a hopefully overflowing gift bag. Then it's time for a pre-boarding, snowboard-specific yoga sesh. After yoga, we introduce the staff, talk about how the day is going to go, and then divide up into coaching groups based on park experience and head out on snow and eventually to our private park. We have a morning session and then come back in for a catered lunch. After lunch, we go back on hill, but this time each group works on a different type of riding (jumps, rails, transition, etc) with a different coach. After the afternoon session we gather for après, so everyone has a chance to meet and get to know each other without snowboard gear on. On Sunday we meet in the morning for a yoga session to tackle everyone's sore muscles, then head out on snow in groups once again with a different coach. Lunch is once again catered, and then we do a “choose your own shredventure” on Sunday afternoon where we station coaches around our private park at different featurea and allow everyone to ride and work on whatever tricks they still want to dial in! After our afternoon session, we go back to our homebase room for an end of weekend send off with a raffle.

What goes into planning the camps? Rather than a community meetup, BTBounds is offering structured coaching, private parks, and so much swag, how do you put it all together?
Haha! It is a lot of swag, but I always wish it was more. I honestly don't know how we initially put it all together. I think we just envisioned what we would want a camp to look like and tried our damnedest to create it. It was really important to us to try to break down the barriers that we felt were getting in the way of the progression. So we made the private park non-negotiable and we sought out the best boarders and humans we knew to coach with us. We wanted to create an environment where all of our participants could thrive. And the swag bag... well, who doesn't like gifts? Everyone likes getting them and we like giving them.

What's the goal for the outcome of each camp? What are the takeaways you hope campers can leave with?
I would like each participant to leave feeling more confident on their snowboard, realizing that they are capable of more than they knew. A lot of women seem to downplay their boarding ability. I think they don't realize how good they are. We like to show them. I also hope each participant leaves feeling a stronger sense of belonging in the snowboard community. Realizing that they are an important part of it and that they've got other like-minded individuals to connect with and ride with.

How do you differentiate the park camps from the all-mountain tours? What's the main difference?
The park camps are very progression-focused. The all-mountain tours are very experience-focused. At the park camps we've got a private, progression park designed just for us, with coaches stationed at features giving feedback after each drop. You might hike a feature 20-plus times (or more) because you're focused on learning a specific skill. The all-mountain tours are about the place and experiencing it through snowboarding. I'd be willing to bet that you're also going to progress and leave those as a better boarder, but that's not the main focus. The main focus is seeing that place, experiencing that location, and using snowboarding as the vessel and the shared love that brings you there.

Beyond snowboarding camps, what has BTBounds brought to the community?
I think the main thing and the most impactful thing that we've been able to bring to the community is connection. Sometimes you just have to connect a few dots and introduce people to each other. For a long time, I think women felt like there weren't that many other people like them out riding. There certainly was a lack of representation there, but I think even moreso, it was that they weren't finding each other. Not having a crew is honestly maybe the biggest barrier to progression in riding, in general, and especially in park riding. Who is going to just huck by themselves? Sure, there are those special souls out there and I commend them, but that's not the reality for most humans. It's more fun AND more comfortable to push yourself when you have a crew behind you, so I think connecting people to create those opportunities is the most paramount thing that we've been able to bring to the table.

What’s happening next, any late summer plans?
Working my day job, mountain biking, and hiking! Oh, you mean with camp, ha. Summer is wrapping up now, so we're starting to begin to plan out our winter schedule which is always exciting! We just added a new event to the roster, which we're very stoked on. It's a pre-season private session indoors at Big SNOW. It's called Warm Up in the Fridge. We've been wanting to make something happen at Big Snow since they first opened and we went and rode there after our Mountain Creek camp. It's absolutely insane to be able to snowboard indoors in the US, so we're hyped to finally get to take advantage of that this fall! We’re also participating in the SNOWBOARDER Block Party on September 12th, which is really exciting to be a part of, bringing together so many different community groups to one place to ride together.

How do you see BTBounds growing or evolving?
Oh man, we've got some big dreams. Figuring out how to make those dreams a reality is a tougher task, but we've got lots of ideas. I think our main goal is to bring the opportunity to participate in events like ours to all areas of the US. We want these events to be accessible and ideally have a driveable location for everyone. We'd also really like to create more events that are not cost-prohibitive. Right now we operate all events solely on the registration fees, but with the help of Nitro and The Uninvited, and in previous years Dew Tour, we've been able to create extremely low cost ride days so that no one has to sit out because of cost. Those are the main goals: to be more accessible both with location and price. I know that Mary and I would also really like to be able to add some more powder and backcountry focused events as that's the direction our riding has been going as well. Things like AAIRE courses, backcountry 101, splitboarding 101, freeride or powder ride days. The possibilities are just endless honestly; there are so many facets of snowboard and they're all so damn fun.

For more, follow @btbounds on Instagram and go to www.btbounds.com .