RAILS, AIRS AND CALCULUS: Catching up with Ashley Battersby
Ashley Battersby has established herself as one of the best female park skiers in the world—and she just celebrated her 17th birthday. In only her second year of competition, Ashley was one of five women nominated forPowder’s 2005 Best Female Performance Award for her role in Off Trail Production’s First Light. Her smooth progression of 360 to 540 to 720 on her three airs at this year’s U.S. Open earned her a third place and she recently placed first in both the rail jam and slopestyle events at the Vermont Open. All this while playing hooky.
What did you do today?
Ashley Battersby: I went to school all day, then I came home and watched Vanilla Sky.
How’s your season going?
AB: I really thought it was going to be better than it was. I broke my hand in the beginning of the year and I’ve been having knee problems since last March.
It pretty much hurts every time I ski. I haven’t been traveling as much, just Aspen and Vail. It’s been kind of a hang out and chill winter.
Then you haven’t been competing much?
AB: The only comp I’ve done this year is the U.S. Open. I got third with a broken hand, so I was pretty excited. I’m competing in the Vermont Open (March 22nd-27th) and WSI.
(Ashley recently took first in the rail jam and slopestyle competitions at last week’s Vermont Open.)
I heard you had some problems getting into the Vermont Open?
AB: Yeah, it was kind of a struggle. My dad (Bill Battersby) fought pretty hard to make sure I could compete. It was only me and one other girl who were entered, so they wanted to pull the girls competition. The girl and I got on Newschoolers and got a lot more chicks to sign up.
What's it like being the minority in the sport?
AB: There are really only about 20 girls who compete at all. At the Open, there were 30 girls registered for slopstyle. But, they added a big jump and 15 of the girls dropped out. It’s weird. There are so many guys doing it and it’s really so much harder for guys. It’s harder to do well, get recognized, get sponsored…everything. I mean, [if you’re a girl] you pretty much just have to know how to jib a rail and you’re sponsored. There are very few girls [taking advantage of that].
How long have you been competing?
AB: This is my second year. But last year I just competed in three events at The Canyons, so this is pretty much my first year competing in anything major.
What was it like to be nominated for Powder’s Best Female Performance Award at 16?
AB: It was amazing. It was such a big deal for me. The Video Awards were crazy. I saw everyone. Everybody was so friendly and it just got me so stoked on the ski industry. I never thought it would happen. I never pictured myself as a sponsored skier. I never thought it would be anything more than just the thing I love to do!