When Falling is not an Option

Rachel spent her school year’s day-dreaming about becoming a professional skier and finally achieved her goal when she took the leap of faith of moving to Whistler, Canada in 2004. Rachel knew she wanted to be a professional skier but she had no idea this would lead to her jumping out of helicopters and skiing off 30 foot cliffs.

In this talk Rachel shares her story of how she became ranked 3rd in the world on the Free Skiing World Tour. While she shares her amazing stories of travelling to mountains around the world she also focuses on the hard work and determination it took to become a professional extreme skier.

She attributes her success to a variety of factors which she covers in her talk including:

• Overcoming fears and achieving your potential.
• Managing stress and pressure of performing on the world stage.
• Setting goals and what to do when things don’t go to plan.
• Learning to ask for help and creating a support team to help her be the best.
• Starting a business and becoming an entrepreneur in spite of personal challenges such as extreme dyslexia.
• Overcoming challenges and obstacles and adapting in light of the Covid pandemic.
• and most importantly never giving up on her dream.

Rachel shares illustrated gripping stories of being out in the mountains, being stalked by a mountain lion, sleeping in the snow in -20 degrees, dodging an avalanche by split seconds and having to keep her cool when being rescued after an injury when skiing miles from anywhere.

After being faced with serious illness and the realisation she wouldn’t ski at her top level again she had to make a drastic lifestyle change. In 2019 Rachel started an adventure ski travel business, Uthrive. Despite having no business experience the first year exceeded expectations. Rachel used her experience as an athlete to be motivated and manage the challenges of 2020 which drastically affected the travel industry. She encourages entrepreneurship and is excited by the new challenges.