Kate Perry
Primary Outdoor Sport: Skiing
Favorite Beverage: A Crispy Lager
Sunrise or Sunset: Sunrise
Non-Outdoor Hobby: Harmonica
Go-To Trail Snack: PB&J
Favorite Season: Winter
Guilty Pleasure: Reality TV
Three Words to Describe You: Optimistic, Spunky, & Intelligent
“My outdoor sport journey started when I moved to Washington for high school because you have the Cascades and it was the most mountainous place I’d ever lived. So that opened up all the hiking, skiing, and just a lot of possibilities for me to further my time outside and maybe actually get good at some things.
I learned to ski in North Carolina when I was 13 when I lived in Alabama. So I only went skiing three times before I moved to Washington.”
“I mostly skid with my family and some friends. There was a ski bus that would go to Crystal mountain and stuff, but I just didn’t feel good enough to hang because I was an intermediate skier at the time.
We had a season pass to Stevens, so I’d go with my family and then I started going with some family friends. I got to go from blues to try blacks and then try double blacks. At that point, I think I had had two official lessons, but I was mostly just watching people and trying to copy what they were doing.”
“Skiing makes me a lot more excited. I’m always looking forward to something which I think is really important. Being outside is really important for my mental health. Just having something to plan or to see a lot of my friends. I think it just adds a little something extra that helps me enjoy life a lot.”
“It’s always been about having fun for me because starting as a beginner at 17 years old, you have no choice but to have fun. You can’t be like, ‘I’m gonna go huck this cliff. Get some sick footage’ No. You’re gonna look a little funny and that’s okay. It was all about the progression for me and just being able to be outside.”
“I feel like as I’ve gotten better and realized the potential I have, I’ve really kind of fallen for freeride skiing. It inspires me to see something big and be like, ‘I wanna hit that. I wanna stomp that and run it out.’
I guess for example, the cornice hit I did, that’s been a goal since I moved here. Skiing Crystal and Stevens a lot, I started skiing with people who encouraged me to start hitting cliffs, start doing chutes, and try some of that terrain. And, I realized I could handle it.
So just challenging myself with steep stuff and big hits is kind of what piques my interest. I’ve been curious about starting to learn tricks now too, but it’s mostly been about skiing aggressively and having fun doing it.
I’ve showed myself how good I can be. It was purely for myself. I wanted to prove something to myself and have fun doing it. As cheesy as it sounds, going from being an 18-year-old who can do a solid blue to hitting one of the biggest hits at Bachelor, it was huge for me.”
“I’ve learned that it’s okay to not be perfect all the time. I feel like that’s common sense, but I’ve always been a perfectionist from a very young age. So I’ve learned that it’s okay to have bad days. But, I’ve also learned that you’re winning if you have the most fun when you go to the mountain. Even if you’re not skiing your best, you should still be able to find the fun in it. If conditions aren’t perfect, like, ‘Oh, that’s fine.’ We’ll still go out and have a good time with people.”
“It’s made me a less rigid person. I was very Type A. I liked things to be on the little schedule in my head. You know? But, I feel like interacting with nature and being outdoors has made me a lot more flexible and fluid and just be able to live a lifestyle where I feel like I can actually take a breath instead of meeting these kind of imaginary deadlines in my head.”
“I’m proud of my ski journey in general. Because if you had told freshly moved to Washington Kate that you’re going to do some really cool hits on the mountain and people will recognize you for it and you’ll meet an amazing community and be able to keep up with some aggressive skiers, I would’ve never dreamed of that.
Just looking back at my progression and the people I’ve met through it and what different athletes throughout have given to me, I’m most proud of the culmination of all of that.”
“Being able to share an amazing powder day with my boyfriend, my friends, having those shared memories together. And, just being so excited because of the same thing and then being able to talk about it the day after and be like, ‘That was so great’. You know? Those are days I’ll remember for the rest of my life.“
