Meet Kim Grant a Woman With A Guiding Passion

Kim Grant is a top notch professional woman in the guiding and patrolling industry

Meet Kim Grant, Ski patroller, and Guide at Silverton Mountain. It is her 21st season working at Silverton Mountain, which is now celebrating its 22 Year Anniversary, and couldn’t be happier working at one of the most unique places in North America. For Kim, guiding each day at Silverton brings an ever-changing experience for her. Different people coming from all corners of the world each day combined with different weather and snow conditions keeps her coming back year after year.

From upstate New York, near the Finger Lakes Kim grew up in the country on a
farm. As a child, she and her family would ski every weekend making a trek to Vermont each weekend. Her parents loved to ski and had her on skis as soon as she could walk. She spent most of her younger days at the Skaneateles Ski Club in Marietta, New York. She believes she ate dinner and did her homework there almost every night during the winters. She even lost her two front teeth when her dad was teaching her to ski during a Christmas holiday.

Kim first came to Colorado, when she was in High School, with her boyfriend and his family but at the time was more interested in shopping and staying warm. She bailed on skiing for a while and went to Georgia to college. But, when she came back to Colorado with her family on a Christmas vacation she ran into some old friends from her hometown in New York while skiing Breckenridge and A-Basin.

Her friends had a house they couldn’t afford and told her they needed a roommate
and that she should stay and live with them. She told her mom (who has fully supported her lifestyle and now lives in Pagosa Springs) she was going to stay in Colorado for the winter, since her university was on the 1⁄4 system it would work for her schedule.

Kim found a job at the Bahnhof Ski Shop in Breckenridge after one of their employees had broken their leg and was able to get a season pass transferred to her for 80 bucks. She got a second job at Peak Performance Ski Shop and proceeded to ski every day and work each night. That was when she was a true ski bum. After the winter she headed back to college and then came back the following
year to Telluride working in ski shops at night and skiing every day. When she graduated college she moved up to Montana repeating her life as a ski bum but decided after 5 years to head back to Colorado.

Kim had an opportunity to go snowcat skiing with her mom in the Pagosa Springs area and the owners thought she would make a good ski guide. She trained with them but ended up heading to Telluride after a bad snow season where she trained and became a Ski Patroller instead. She patrolled there for several years and became curious about the new Silverton Mountain that was opening. She began heading over there on her days off where she would crash with her friend who lived in the rectory next to the Catholic Church and help run control routes as a volunteer. Jenny Brill then offered her a job at the mountain.

Kim Grant with her God-Daughter at Points North Heliers-Adventures

Now she is a full-time resident of Silverton and believes that is truly where she belongs. She rented her house for many years from a woman in town who decided several years later that she wanted to sell it to her. Ultimately she feels really fortunate for everything she has been able to do and she considers herself a professional. She Guides and Patrols for Silverton Mountain and then is a Guide and Assistant Snow Safety Director for Points North Heli-Adventures. When asked what the driving factor of living this lifestyle she said,

“It’s interesting. In the beginning, I really just wanted to be outside, be out skiing and enjoying the mountains climbing new peaks and seeking new adventures. When I was offered the job to be a guide with the Snowcat company it got me thinking and I woke up one day and with a burning desire to become a Heli Guide in Alaska.”

This driving force has assisted her in becoming a very accomplished, top notch professional woman in the guiding and patrolling industry. The motivation to be really good at what she does and being able to make a good living showing people the best run of their life or the best day of their life, while helping people be healthy and happy in place they would never be able to go by themselves is her ultimate motivation. In addition, to her accomplishments in the Guiding and Ski Patrol industry she made her passion project a reality becoming a professional Heli guide in Alaska for 11 years now. She is proud of what she has accomplished and looks on her days as a ski bum as the foundation of her spectacular career path.

by Holly Battista-Resignolo