A little bit about me:

Firstly I would like to introduce myself as a mountain loving girl. I have always loved the mountains and I think life in the mountains is pretty exciting and good for the soul.

Mostly my time is divided between mountain life in Australia and Jackson Hole in the States. Where I work as a ski instructor. In my off seasons I am back in my native land of Perth in Western Australia. I know, a skier from Perth, wow. If only I had a dollar for every time someone said that to me… Up until recently I was juggling my studies with this somewhat nomadic lifestyle. Having graduated at the beginning of 2019 this is giving me the to chance to do what I have always wanted to do… make and record stories.

Here is were the podcast comes in. *refer to post Why The Mountain Cosmos.*

I will continue with a little background; I grew up spending a lot of time in a place called Mt Hotham. More specifically Dinner Plain, where my parents own a ski lodge, or a cabin, however you want to describe it. We would be up there at anytime of year, not just in the winter. Skiing in the winter, horse riding in the summer, nature junkies. A place my parents fell in-love with when I was only months old, and somehow from Western Australia, they made it work. Across the continent we would go, by car or plane a couple of times a year on average. It was all ‘normal’ in my mind to travel to such lengths to get to the mountains. Only now do I realise how crazy my parents were for making this kind of commitment to the little alpine settlement. Their escape became my favourite childhood memories and gave me a different view on the world which my friends from Perth never understood. Mt Hotham is my Australian-mountain-home.

In 2012 I was 17-years-old and just out of school, after spending most of my high-school life dreaming I was somewhere surrounded by snow… After years of telling my Mum I was studying the biomechanics of skiing by watching video clips of skiing on YouTube or any Warren Miller DVDs I could get my hands on, I was ready to go and ski more.

Just before the winter of 2012, with the support of my parents the Mt Hotham Race Club accepted me into their FIS program. After only being a ‘holiday skier’ all my life. Boy was my life about to change… It was odd to start at that ripe old age of 17. Although years later I found out why the old head coach gave me a go, it was apparently because I would not take no for an answer. This is perhaps a story for another time. *I will talk about my racing journey in the podcast, but important to mention because I would not be where I am without the opportunities the race club enabled me to have.*

In my final year as an athlete for the club in 2014, my coach at the time suggested I become an instructor the next year. I did not think much of it, but after a long summer in Perth, the mountains were calling me. In 2015, the year I transferred universities the mountains were still calling. I booked into the hiring clinic at Mt Hotham. The story goes on…

This is just a little taste into how my life in the mountain cosmos started and evolved, if you follow along and listen to the podcast I am sure you will learn more about myself and a lot more people who I have come to know through life in the mountains.

Rouchelle x