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Southern Snow Seekers was founded in 1983 with just 11 members and is considered one of the largest ski clubs in the south.
ATLANTA — A local ski club has been hitting the slopes and encouraging diversity in the sport of skiing for more than four decades.
Southern Snow Seekers was founded in 1983 with just 11 members and is considered one of the largest ski clubs in the south, with a mission of promoting the sport among people of color.
“One of the things that we say is that we ski with a purpose,” said Michelle Kirk, president of the Southern Snow Seekers.
As part of the National Brotherhood of Snowsports (NBS), the group supports its mission at the local level, which is to “identify and fund high-caliber youth skiers capable of winning a berth on the U.S. Olympic Ski Team.”
“We have two people that are 6th graders that are part of our organization now that are training now, and they are doing really well competitively,” said Kirk.
Even though it’s one of their goals to recruit youth and nurture their athletic abilities, most of the hundreds of members just seek the snow slopes for fun.
While the club travels anywhere and everywhere to seek snow, the season starts in Atlanta with Ski 101. In October, the club gathered in Midtown where a panel of experts broke down what to wear on the slopes, and watched a ski gear fashion show from local brand Black Powder Movement.
Teaching people the right gear is just one way Southern Snow Seekers hopes to make skiing more accessible. They also do an annual beginner’s trip to Cataloochee Ski Area in North Carolina.
Deborah Thornton, the eastern region director of the National Brotherhood of Snowsports which the Southern Snow Seekers are members of, shares her passion for the sport with those newcomers. The National Brotherhood of Snowsports was founded by two skiers more than 50 years ago.
“The reason why it started because you know we weren’t just welcomed to the mountain, you know, ” said Thornton.
Thornton mentioned how they would get confused looks from people when they arrived, questioning why they were there. She said it happens all the time, but they learned to laugh about it.
“I will say even today, when we go to the mountain because we’re such a huge presence when we go there, when you get 2,000 people on the mountain, people of color, of course people are gonna look around…” said Thornton. “We get that all the time, we joke about it.”
Kirk is proud of how far the club has come in its more than 40 years, including receiving proclamations from the City of Atlanta and Congresswoman Nikema Williams. After decades of hitting the slopes, her favorite memory is still her very first day skiing at Keystone.
“To look back up just to see how much ground I covered it really was amazing,” she said.
People interested in joining the club, can register on their website.
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