Featured Picture: Ace Kvale
It’s a heartbreaking day for the ski group as we study of the passing of Kasha Rigby. The Stowe, Vermont native was swept up in a small avalanche at Brezovica Resort on February 13. Situations had been difficult that afternoon, with overcast skies and chilly temps. The avalanche started on the cornice, sending Rigby right into a high-force collision with bushes. Regardless of her companion Magnus Wolfe shortly reaching her and making an attempt resuscitation, Rigby sadly handed resulting from traumatic accidents.
Rigby was a power within the ski group. She started telemark snowboarding as an adolescent, and at 22, she left Stowe for Crested Butte, Colorado, to compete in racing and extreme-skiing comps. From there, her accomplishments began stacking up shortly. “Rigby joined The North Face group in 1995, the place she skied by means of the US, Canada, South America, New Zealand, Russia, Asia, Europe, India and the Center East. She skied first descents on most of the world’s most revered peaks, together with the 5 Holy Peaks in Mongolia. She telemarked off the highest of Cho Oyu with Hilaree Nelson and Willie Benegas in 2005, which was solely the second and third time an 8000m peak had been skied by American ladies,” writes Mary McIntyre in Rigby’s memorial.
Over the previous couple of years, Rigby had taken day without work from snowboarding and was actively working to supply earthquake aid in Katmandu and help the World Meals Program with the Rohingya refugee disaster in Bangladesh.
In an Instagram submit, Mark McIntyre writes, “You had been at all times able to chase the subsequent journey, and due to this, we shared so many fantastic instances collectively, at residence in Utah, in Iceland, in Canada, in Uganda, in Argentina and Chile… your first descents around the globe impressed me to turn into the skier I’m at the moment. However much more importantly, the love, sparkle, and pleasure you dropped at all the things you probably did, and the individuals you cared about, and the world you cared about, is one thing I’ll bear in mind and aspire to for the remainder of my life.”
Be a part of us in remembering and honoring certainly one of snowboarding’s most badass ladies. Donations are welcomed through GoFundMe.