New Summit County program wants to increase diversity on the mountains

Andrea Lopez moved from Mexico to Summit County at 4 years old. Despite growing up minutes away from multiple ski resorts, Lopez never found her way to the slopes as a kid.

For Lopez, who predominantly spoke Spanish during her early childhood, there was a lack of ski school opportunities that had Spanish-speaking instructors in the early 2000s and being able to afford them was a whole other barrier. On top of that, both of her parents worked weekends. There was no time for the family to get to the resorts.

Fast forward to the start 2023 and Lopez was in her 30s, still in Summit County and still hadn’t tried skiing or snowboarding. She was on Facebook when she saw a post from someone she went to high school with who also is a Mexican immigrant, Javier Pineda. 

Pineda’s post announced the creation of a program that Lopez had long awaited, one where Spanish-speaking people could learn to snowboard from a Spanish-speaking instructor at OSO Outdoors.

This was a chance to learn the sport of snowboarding in a group with other Spanish-speaking people who all experienced similar barriers. In addition to removing a language barrier from the sport, Pineda removed one of the prevalent barriers that keeps people away from skiing in the first place: The snowboard program gave people rentals, lessons, and a season pass — all for free.

Lopez reached out to Pineda immediately. The opportunity seemed too good to be true. Before she knew it, just a couple of months after seeing the Facebook post, Lopez enrolled in OSO Outdoors and had a lesson scheduled for March. 

OSO Outdoors came out of the local nonprofit Mountain Dreamers, Pineda’s employer. Pineda described that once the idea of OSO Outdoors came to fruition, he and Mountain Dreamers looked at different avenues to make its programs free. As luck would have it, the program acquired a Colorado Parks and Wildlife Outdoor Equity Grant at the beginning of 2023. 

Despite only a month or so left in the ski season, Mountain Dreamers was determined to put the grant to use as soon as possible. OSO Outdoors was able to squeeze in one lesson that March at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, which became the program’s partner.

Pineda became an employee of Arapahoe Basin so he could be the program’s instructor and is now gearing up for the second, this time full, season of OSO Outdoor’s snowboard program. 

For Pineda, this is a decades-long dream come true.

Similar to Lopez, Pineda moved from Mexico to Summit County during childhood and experienced the same barriers blocking him from skiing. He too had to listen to all his peers around him talk about their weekend ski ventures, knowing it was something out of the realm of possibility for him to experience. 

Pineda found his way to snowboarding on the cusp of adulthood, following the death of his brother who died at just 13 years old from flu complications. Losing his younger brother flipped Pineda’s life on its head.

“For me, that was a way to cope and just be outside,” Pineda said. “Ever since there has been more of a Zen to the way that I deal with my problems.”

Thinking back to the barriers that kept him off the peaks from childhood, Pineda knew he wanted to find a way to share this experience with people who experienced the same barriers he had.

“What the narrative has been is that you don’t see people that look like us or that speak our language out in the mountains,” Mountain Dreamer’s advocacy program coordinator and Peru native Yirka Platt.

Mountain Dreamers looks to disrupt the industry through this program and set a new norm of diversity on the slopes. 

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Pineda explained this notion played into the decision to start the program with snowboarding as opposed to skiing. 

“Historically, snowboarding has been the rebel against the system. … From the deeper meaning, it fits in with the work we do at Mountain Dreamers,” Pineda said.

The group seeks to dismantle power dynamics that have historically given certain demographics more opportunities on the mountain to make numerous outdoor activities more equitable. Platt explained the group also looks to run activities like this in the summer and is working toward formulating that programming. 

This partnership program does not just look to get a historically marginalized group out on the mountain to try snowboarding. It also seeks to foster a strong retention rate where people feel comfortable enough to go to the mountain beyond the classes. 

“We’re really teaching them skills they can hopefully sustain and continue in the sport — and also not just sport-related skills, but self-confidence they can carry beyond snowboarding,” Platt said. 

Approximately 40 people, who will each take four classes with instructors, are benefiting from the program this season. It is full for this season.

Platt and Pineda raved about what a phenomenal partner Arapahoe Basin has been and highlighted their willingness to embark on Mountain Dreamers’ journey to make snow sports more equitable. They are looking to add more partners to include more local resorts and gear and apparel brands to be able to continue and expand the program. 

Those interested in partnerships can contact Javier Pineda at Javier@MountainDreamers.org.