Tracks of Her Own - Backcountry Guides

#ferdagirls

Tracks of Her Own - Backcountry Guides is California’s ONLY female guide owned && operated guide service specializing in winter backcountry experiences.

  • Snow-covered mountains in the Sierra Nevada with purple text that reads, "We're based in the Sierra Nevada." and additional purple text saying, "Our favorite range in the world."
  • A snowy landscape with four hikers using trekking poles, with trees in the background, and text emphasizing standing tall on morals and values including equity, accessibility, integrity, and heart.
  • Group of four hikers walking through snow in a mountainous area, carrying snowboards and ski gear, with a quote about meeting industry standards for professionalism and skills, and logos of the American Avalanche Association and another organization.

Daily Mantra:

How can we maintain presence today, and make the most of what the mountains have to offer? How can we best lean into fun, flow, and community?

Hi, It’s Us. We’re Kind of New Here, But We’ve Also Been Around.

What does that mean? Well, here’s the scoop.

Sammy (owner/lead guide) has been splitboard guiding and avalanche forecasting and ski patrolling and just generally working in the mountains for over a decade. She’s worked for numerous companies, and has quietly held a company of her own for a few years. She wanted a way to work with her female clients in a way that worked for them, and for her. Most companies she worked for made it difficult for her to establish women’s specific programming, citing they didn’t think it would sell…

In 2024, she spoke at the California Avalanche Workshop. She was explicitly asked to speak on her experience as a young woman forecasting professionally. She was honest, and presented a qualitative and quantitative study on gender dynamics and biases as the defining influence for female experiences in the snow sports & sciences industry. Despite some industry backlash, she received strong accolades from the public. Enough women asked for more, and so, she decided to respond.

Sammy chose to grow Tracks of Her Own – Backcountry Guides into a public-facing, women-forward guiding company built on education, empowerment, and real mountain expertise.

Tracks of Her Own deeply values connection and community, but is so much more than an affinity group. Tracks of Her Own is a guide service that focuses on approachable progression, offering guided trips, hut trips #ferdagirls, soon to be international trips, and high - level programming and educational course work in the Sierra. Everything is explicitly designed by women, for women, to address the nuances of what it is to be a woman in the backcountry. It’s real - deal mountain progression taught by an experienced leader with an extensive amount of professional training. Sammy has the highest level of certification from the American Avalanche Association, and is a Certified Splitboard Guide Candidate via the American Mountain Guide’s Association.

Tracks of Her Own exists because women asked for more, and the industry wasn’t willing to listen.

We’re building a new backcountry community. If you’re a women+ identifying human, or ally (!!), we encourage you to join. <3

We’re here to spread kindness and build community, via high - level, professional instruction and approachable progression.