Scoring on the Slope: Sophomore Erin Kaye’s passion for skiing led her and her family to move to Montana so she could ski full-time

Standing at the top of the mountain, then-freshman Erin Kaye took a deep breath thinking about how she would navigate the triple black-diamond mountain below. 

After previously being a mogul skier and only having to go over two jumps, it was her first time trying freeride skiing — an interpretive yet dangerous skiing style. Wearing her avalanche pack, Erin flew down the mountain, doing jumps, grinding across downed trees and — Erin’s favorite — going off cliffs. 

Erin’s family first got her out on the slopes when she was just a kindergartner. Her parents decided when they got married that they wanted their children to be skiers because her mom grew up skiing, and it’s a good physical activity the family could bond over. 

At first, skiing was something her family got her into, but going to the slopes growing up to ski with her older siblings and the weight-less feeling of flying down the mountains turned the sport from something she does to something she loves.

“If you’ve ever been skiing and it’s just so cold out, you can’t even feel your fingers, your nose is basically off,” Erin said. “I just have so many amazing memories attached to that. Every time I go skiing, I feel like I’m in that moment, and I’m also creating new moments.”

By the time Erin was five, she began skiing competitively and competing in tournaments. She started out as a racer, trying to make it down the hill as fast as possible. When she was 10, she switched to mogul skiing, going off bumps, as well as freestyle skiing, where she’d go on a man-made park with jumps, rails and pipes.

The Kaye family lived in Boston, Mass., driving two hours to their mountain home in Mount Sunapee, N.H. — “The Little Red House” as they called it — to ski every weekend from December through April.

Not only did they travel to The Little Red House on the weekends, but they went to a different ski resort every winter break. They’ve been to other popular mountain towns including Jackson Hole, Vail, Deer Valley, Whistler and even venturing off to Switzerland. But to the family, no place compared to the charming, remote town of Big Sky, Mont.

Big Sky is one of the largest ski resorts in America with 5,800 skiable acres — Mount Sunapee only had 300 acres — but since it’s an hour away from any big towns, it’s not nearly as crowded as other resorts. And with 400 inches of snow each year, the grass isn’t seen from October through April — perfect for skiing.

They’d sold The Little Red House in 2016, but after falling in love with Big Sky, they decided to buy a house there in 2018. The mountain retreat is tucked in the forest, with a creek running through the back that they share with a herd of around 50 elk — and it’s only 15 minutes away from the slopes.

The more they visited Big Sky, the more Erin loved it. Sometimes she would mention the idea of living there full time to focus on skiing, but never really thought much else of it. When her parents offered for them to actually move there, her love for skiing made the decision simple.

“When my mom and dad presented me with the opportunity, because they knew I loved skiing so much, I was like, ‘Yeah, this would be such a fun adventure, there’s so much snow there, I can’t wait to try and find what kind of different skiing styles [are] out there,’” Erin said.

In the fall of 2019, Erin and her mom moved to Big Sky, since her mom’s job allowed her to work remotely from anywhere. While they went to Montana, her dad and older brother stayed in Boston so her brother could finish off his senior year of high school.

In Big Sky, Erin went to school at Discovery Academy, where she was able to ski throughout the day. Discovery had just 15 kids and only five in Erin’s grade, and they were all skiers. The curriculum was all online, so she’d work one-on-one with teachers in the morning and leave to go ski in the afternoon.

Because of the flexible school days at Discovery Academy, Erin was able to ski six days a week, and would be on the slopes six hours on the weekends and three to four hours on school days. However, anytime it snowed three feet overnight, the students would take the day off to go skiing, as well as the teachers.

“It was kind of like a snow day even though every day it snows,” Erin said.

While living in Montana, Erin switched from mogul skiing to freeride, and joined the team in Big Sky, going to competitions one to two times a month.  

Freeride skiing was a change from previous styles she’s done — the whole mountain is at Erin’s disposal. As she goes down triple black diamonds, she determines her own route and decide what features and tricks to do.

“[Since freeride skiing] is so dangerous and so extreme, everyone’s on one team, we all want everyone to make it down safely without any injuries,” Erin said. “So, when anyone [finishes] — it doesn’t matter what team — you come down, you cheer for them.”

Erin qualified for the North America Freeride Championship — the freeride equivalent to the Junior Olympics — which would’ve been the biggest tournament she’d ever competed in. It was supposed to happen in March, but was canceled due to COVID-19.

“I understood why it had to be canceled…but I was kind of bitter that I wasn’t able to go,” Erin said. “It was my first year, I really felt like I had proven myself, since some of the parents in Big Sky and coaches just did not expect me to [qualify], because I’ve never done it before.”

When the pandemic broke out, the whole mountain was shut down, and there wasn’t much else to do there. So, Erin’s family went back to Boston for the summer to quarantine together. During that time, her dad got a job offer in Kansas City. He proposed the move to her and her mom. 

“Now, a sane person would be, ‘I’m going back to Montana,’ but I’m a very social person, I like to talk, I like to meet people and make connections, and there was only 35 kids who were my age [in Montana],” Erin said. “The social group was so small, and I wanted that high school football, all-American experience, and so I kind of traded that life for, I guess, a normal one.”

Now that school will be going back to full remote, the Kaye family is considering returning to their house in Big Sky for the winter. But now-sophomore Erin is conflicted, she misses the cold air on the mountains, but also wants to get to know the East community.

“It’s kind of a double-edged sword because I love to go back, I miss skiing so much, I miss the cold, I miss seeing bears wherever I go, that Montana-esque feeling,” Erin said. “But, I also want to stay, and I want to make friends and I want to meet people and be a part of the community, because I’m going to live here for the next three years.”