By Mallory Ayres

Pro freeskier Claire Smallwood wears a lot of hats - she's a private chef for three different families, a linguist, a wilderness first responder and a Chilean ski guide. When we caught up with her, she was trying to fix the hot tub in the lavish mansion that she babysits for one of her clients, which broke after a cold snap in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. "When I walked by it smelled like an electrical fire - this lifestyle up here is funny, it's always an Iceberg," she laughed.

Besides her many other endeavors, Smallwood is also part of a fun-loving pro-skier sisterhood (including the likes of Lynsey Dyer, Vanessa Pierce, Liz Cunningham, Ashley Magnuson and Hannah Whitney) that has made it their mission to motivate women to take risks, push themselves to the next level in their sport, and from that, get inspired. Their labor of love, SheJumps, is a program where female athletes can connect, share their stories and offer each other support. "I think the outdoors is a perfect place to push your limits and discover what really makes you happy. When you're active in the outdoors, you're healthy and you're thinking clearly, and when you're thinking clearly, you're inspired," explained Smallwood, the program's executive director.

Originally, Lynsey Dyer and Vanessa Pierce came up with the idea for SheJumps in 2006, when they were living and skiing in Jackson Hole. "They realized that there were a lot of women in Jackson that were getting after it in the outdoors, but these women were also going out as one token female in a group of males. Their whole original idea was to combine Dyer's passion for profile photography with Pierce's passion for writing profiles. They wanted to share the unsung stories of women that were humbly getting after it on any level," explained Smallwood. They also recognized that if there were women in Jackson Hole that needed support, there were probably female athletes all over the world who could use some too.

Smallwood met Dyer at a freeskiing competition in New Mexico in 2005, and they stayed in contact. When Dyer told her about the SheJumps idea in 2007, she couldn't wait to get involved. "When [Lynsey] told me about the idea I was just about to graduate from college and I felt like sinking my teeth into a huge project. We tossed around the idea of becoming a non-profit so that we could offer something to the community larger than ourselves, but not focused on capitalistic gain." When Smallwood started to look into what it took to be a non-profit, she learned there were mountains of paperwork ahead. However, the team decided that it would be worth it because they could reach out to so many people.

The idea for She Jumps was clear in their minds, but they weren't sure yet how to explain it to the outside world. "We has this crazy mission statement when we filed for a 501c3 status which was basically to: philosophically, financially and logistically support women's dreams and goals," Smallwood explained. They still incorporate their original mission today, but in order to become a non-profit and not pay taxes, they also had to offer something that alleviates a social burden. "Helping women's dreams isn't unfortunately viewed as the biggest need right now, so we had to revamp what it was that we were doing."

It was in 2008 that they really started to hone in on what their mission was going to be: to increase women's participation in outdoor sports. To start working toward that goal, they decided to tap into the amazing professional athlete community they were a part of. "One of the first events that we sponsored was a women's pro athlete clinic in San Francisco with the Stone Clinic and one of the leading orthopedic surgeons, Dr. Kevin Stone. That was really cool for us because it was an opportunity to interact with elite professional athletes and say, 'This is what we do, and we want to be here to support you. In turn, if you help support us it's only going to help your career, and you're going to be promoting a great cause,'" she said. The clinic brought publicity to the program, and more elite athletes started to get involved.

Today SheJumps brings together three tiers of athlete. First, elite female athletes looking for a network, second, already active women who are passionate about their sport and looking for a community, and third, what they call "never-evers" - girls and women who have never had a chance to experience the benefits of an active outdoor life. To get connected, women can share inspiring stories on the SheJumps site and join the online networking site - shejumps.ning.com. They have had an amazing response and their community now has 800 members worldwide. The members can also join smaller regional groups where they can find support from other women in their community. The groups get together and plan outdoor activities and events like a wine and ski wax night. "Our Portland group is killing it," said Smallwood. "They meet once a week and talk about their personal outdoor goals and plan fun events. They all check in and support each other."

Now the SheJumps team is working hard to reach out to the third demographic of women who haven't had the opportunity to experience outdoor sports yet. "We want to be networking with underprivileged women, teen mothers, Native American women and Boys and Girls Club teens. We want to link the professional athletes and the 'I'm just super passionate and want a great community athletes' together so that when we start incorporating this third demographic more, [our existing members] will already be fired up and want to give back. That way we won't just be finding volunteers off the street, we can ask someone who has been a part of the SheJumps mission, seen the inspirational posts and feels like they are a part of something," said Smallwood.

Not only does SheJumps offer a network for underprivileged women, they have also started a program called Gear Grants to provide them with the gear to get outside. Smallwood explained that the ski industry is so saturated with old gear, that it only makes sense to donate it to charity because it's hard to get back what you initially paid for it. Not to mention that fact that you can make a huge difference in someone's life. "There is a girl, Lidia Mejia, and she loved our skiing program so much that she applied for a Gear Grant. When she saved up enough to go skiing one day a year, she wanted to be able to have the clothes. She's been a great example of support for us because she is always sharing the word about SheJumps. She says, 'SheJumps made a difference in my life.' For me [to hear that]? Wow, that's the best paycheck anybody could ever get." In the future SheJumps hopes to create many more stories like Mejia's. "Our ultimate goal is to be able to offer resources for women of any background or age to affordably practice any activity they want in the outdoors. It's a big goal, but we're starting small with the things we know," she said.

Besides making that happen, Smallwood is looking forward to "jumping in" herself by doing some more guiding in South America for CASA tours. While she is there, she would also like to share the stories of some of Patagonia's female skiers by making a movie. "I met a few women guides down there [last year] and they were so nice and so excited. I was really struck by how those women are not exposed to ski culture and the idea of sponsors and the whole scene we have in Little Cottonwood Canyon. I mean, it's cool and it's exciting to be surrounded by that caliber of athlete, but I was also really drawn to the stories of the women in Patagonia," she explained.

If you would like to share your story on SheJumps and get inspired by other Jumpers, check out www.shejumps.org. To meet other members, click on, "Connect with SJ Members in the Clubhouse" and that will connect you to the networking site. Smallwood asks, "We want to know: how do you 'jump in'? What makes you want to get out of bed in the morning and get on the trail or the slopes?" As you read these women's stories and share your own, Smallwood hopes that you will find new reasons to push yourself: "We're hoping that as women discover our site and become inspired and jump to the next level in their life, they will understand that they are not dictated by anything they've previously done, but by what they have the opportunity to do."

SheJumps is also having a video contest for a pair of SheJumps Skis handmade by PMGear in Reno, Nevada. They want you to make a 30 second video about what it means to be a "jumper." Claire says, "We don't care about who the gnarliest of the gnarly is, it's more about: how do you challenge yourself? What are the things that make you tick that you want to share with people? How do you enrich your life with these things?"

Share your story and get involved on Shejumps.org