In Remembrance Of Kasha Rigby: Skier, Mountaineer, Legend

The skiing and mountaineering communities are coming together to mourn the loss of Kasha Rigby, who tragically passed away in an avalanche on February 13, 2024.

Rigby was skiing in the "Eagle's Nest" section of the Ski Center in Brezovica, Kosovo.

Photographer/writer Mary McIntyre has penned the following tribute to Kasha Rigby:

Catherine “Kasha” Rigby was born in Stowe, Vermont in 1970. She started skiing as soon as she could walk and honed her skills on the East Coast ice, becoming a telemark skier as a teenager, before moving out to Crested Butte, Colorado where she began competing in telemark racing and extreme-skiing competitions at age 22. Her love for skiing and traveling were the driving force in her life.

She soon became known as a pioneering ski mountaineer. She had a love for experiencing different cultures, and skiing first descents in the biggest mountain ranges of the world. She impacted generation after generation of skiers, so many of whom recall having posters of Rigby on their walls growing up. Pure and simple, she was a legend.

Kasha booting towards the summit of Osorno in Chile on a multi-week volcano tour filming for ESPN adventure called 'Chicas y Volcanos'

Pausing to refuel en route to the summit of Osorno in Chile

Kasha with her trademark powder turn in the Selkirks on a week-long trip to Snowfall Lodge

Watching the sunset after a great day of touring from a sailboat-ski trip in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve of Iceland's West Fjords

Watching the northern lights and drinking whiskey on a sailboat-ski trip in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve of Iceland's West Fjords

A 1996 article by Michael Finkel in Outside Magazine sums up Rigby’s feelings about skiing well: "Alpine skiers,’ says Rigby, a pioneer of extreme telemarking, ‘look like their feet are stuck in cement. Tele skiing is about mobility, rhythm, and balance.’ She pauses a moment, glancing down at her square-toed leather boots. ‘And, of course, speed,’ Rigby adds. ‘I love to go fast--really fast."

Ace Kvale clearly remembers meeting her for the first time in the early 90’s. He was judging at a world Xtreme Ski Contest in Crested Butte when Rigby skied over to the judge’s stand and looked up at him. He looked into her deep blue eyes and smiling face. “I said to myself right then, you are going to be part of my life, and I’m going to be part of your life. I was immediately attracted to her. Not romantically, more like this is someone I need to know.” Her boyfriend at the time was an incredible telemark skier, and after they both did well in the competition, Kvale partied with them late into the night. “I liked them so much, I invited them to ski volcanoes in Ecuador with me the following month.” The crew headed to Cotopaxi with Bob Mazarei and Tom Winter, a writer for Powder Magazine. That was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

Kvale and Rigby were housemates off and on for nearly a decade. She made it clear early on that she was never to be told what to do. She was living an impulsive, non-stop travel-filled life after joining the North Face Team in 1995 and she skied all over the U.S., Canada, South America, New Zealand, Russia, Asia, Europe, India and the Middle East. She skied first descents on many of the world's most revered peaks, including the Five Holy Peaks in Mongolia. She telemarked off the top of Cho Oyu with Hilaree Nelson and Willie Benegas in 2005, which was only the second and third time an 8000m peak had been skied by American women. When she was on the cover of Outside magazine’s Women Outside in Fall 1998, they credited her as being "the best female telemark skier in the known universe."

She and Kvale traveled to numerous continents on ski expeditions. They skied the highest peak in Siberia on the border of Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and China as part of a North Face expedition. They skied in Alaska many times with Doug Coombs, and did a frozen river trek to the remote enclave of Zanskar in the Indian Himalaya.

Over the years, Kvale’s desert home became a refuge for her. She wasn’t sure the rural town of Boulder, UT would have enough excitement for her, but soon fell in love with the wide open slickrock, slot canyons, endless exploring, fresh food, and the amazing Hell's Backbone Restaurant that she worked at for many years. She changed the life of everyone she met in Boulder, and it became her sanctuary. One of her nicknames was ‘Flight Risk,’ because she could drop everything and head off to another country in an instant.

Climbing through the Rwenzori mountains of Uganda towards the glaciated summit of Mount Stanley's Margherita Peak (16,762′), the highest peak in the country

Kasha and Brody Leven traipsing through rainforest jungle and swamps en route to the glaciated summit of Mount Stanley

Kasha Rigby meeting the locals on the Chadar frozen river trek in Zanskar, India

Mongolia

Trademark Kasha smile, glow, and radiance riding towards Boulder on the Hogback, a scenic route between Boulder and Escalante, Utah

Kasha. Boulder, Southern Utah

Mary McIntyre became friends with Rigby through mutual acquaintances in the ski community as McIntyre was getting started as a photographer and ski mountaineer herself. The two immediately bonded over their love of travel, skiing, and the Utah desert. They shared incredible trips to the deep powder of British Columbia, the fjords of Iceland to ski by sailboat, and the equatorial rainforest of Uganda to summit the highest peak in the country and ski down the dwindling glaciers of the Rwenzori Mountains. She was a role model and mentor through the mountains and through life. As far as we know, she never compiled a full list of her mountaineering achievements, because that wasn’t what was important to her. It was the experiences themselves.

Rigby had a palpable spark, an inner fire. She was light-hearted yet driven and always on the move: let’s go here, let’s do this, let’s put sparkles on our cheekbones and do one more run. She was fun. She was the party. She was always ready to dance. She glowed from within with her love for the world and the people around her. She had that special energy where complete strangers would welcome her into their lives and into their home. She was a free-spirited adventurer, a kind and brilliant friend. As her friend Alexandra Fuller recalls, “She wore her femininity with ease, even in the most intimidating, masculine environments.”

Rigby had been skiing less over the past few years, as she first took a job in Nepal doing earthquake relief work in Kathmandu and then worked for the World Food Program for 3 years in Bangladesh, helping with the Rohingya refugee crisis. She enjoyed surfing with the local kids and bringing her trademark spark of joy to an otherwise devastatingly difficult situation in the world. There was always that deeper something that she was searching for, and it seemed that she’d finally found it in global disaster relief work. Most recently, she was working with her fiancé, Magnus Wolfe, doing earthquake relief work in Turkey. The two were spending time skiing in Kosovo as they waited for her work visa to come through when a small avalanche dragged her through the trees, ending her life. They had planned to marry at a castle in Scotland this coming September, and all who knew her were looking forward to celebrating with the party of a lifetime.

She always loved paths unknown, and she followed many of them throughout the beautiful winding trajectory of her life. She has touched so many lives, and we will all miss her dearly. As Kvale says, “Badass is one description of her that actually fits.”

Our thoughts and condolences are with Kasha Rigby's friends and family.

A GoFundMe has been created to help with Kasha's memorial and expenses. Click below if you'd like to contribute.

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