Founded in 1946, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area has, over the years, grown significantly, seen different owners, and established itself as a hotspot for diehard skiers along Colorado’s I-70. But through all those decades, its ski patrol team has never had a woman at the helm, until now.
Earlier this month, A-Basin named Lizzy Schofield as its new ski patrol director. With more than a decade of experience in a historically male-dominated industry, she said she felt proud to earn the role.
“I love that things feel a little more balanced and a little more inclusive for everyone,” she said. “I am really excited to be part of that shift and part of that change.”
Lucas Herbert/Courtesy of Arapahoe Basin
Growing up in a small town in southwest Michigan, Schofield started skiing at age three. With her family, she went on ski trips up north and sometimes out West.
After attending college, Schofield began looking at grad school programs—she planned to study archeology—but opted to spend a winter at A-Basin first. The mountain lifestyle stuck and she decided she wouldn’t go back to school.
“I really just wanted to always be close to skiing,” she said.
With A-Basin, Schofield started working in the base area in 2010, parking cars and shoveling snow. During her second season, she joined the snowmakers and began to interact with A-Basin’s ski patrol team more. She thought what they did looked fun. The physicality of the work and emergency medicine appealed to her. And, of course, it involved skiing.
Schofield began working towards becoming a patroller, earning her EMT credentials. At the time, positions on the ski patrol crew didn’t open very often. But then, three years after she’d joined A-Basin, one did.
“I applied, and luckily got hired,” she said.
Right away, Schofield was excited and overwhelmed. The job required so many different skills. Understanding snow science, skiing well, and staying calm under pressure all went into being a patroller. The variety had an upside, though.
“There’s always something else to learn, which is fun,” she said.
The gender ratio of her coworkers added another wrinkle. Schofield briefly overlapped with an assistant ski patrol director who was a woman, and some members of the volunteer ski patrol were women. Among the full-time staff, though, “it was me and one other woman,” she said. And they had opposite schedules.
“When I started, I felt like I had to work a little harder. I had to push a little harder,” she said, speaking to the challenges that came with that.
But Schofield noted that she was inspired by the assistant director who left soon after she started.
“I think there is a lot of value in seeing somebody like you in a position of leadership and authority, because it does take kind of a mental leap to imagine how you could be in that position in the future,” she said.
Now, Schofield’s in one of those positions herself. Before becoming the new director, though, she went part-time at A-Basin. Her life circumstances had changed. Her husband got a job as a firefighter in Denver. She considered going to nursing school. They started a family and had two kids.
However, for Schofield, the mountains, ski patrolling, and the relationships she’d formed proved too important to give up. In 2025, after her kids had grown up a bit, she returned to the patrol as a full-time supervisor, later being hired for the director role.
As the director, she said, she wants to bring fun, positivity, and cohesion, helping everybody feel included and like they belong. Off the mountain, she feels good that for her daughter, she can be an example of a mom in a leadership role.
“I just hope to be able to make those things feel more possible to younger people,” Schofield said.
With a lot more women on A-Basin’s ski patrol staff than when Schofield began—she’ll work alongside assistant director Lindsay Wiebold—she also said she’s looking forward to helping mentor other women and creating “an environment where … people who don’t fit the traditional mold of what a ski patroller is still can be successful.”
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