One of the enjoyable aspects of life in Little Cottonwood Canyon is its history of female leaders. In your correspondent’s traipsings across the slopes many of his friendships and encounters bring him into contact with amazing individuals who make our canyon happen.
With the untimely loss of Snowbird ski patrol director Tina Biddle last fall it got your writer thinking about the other great leaders here that just happen to be women. That makes this season the perfect time to start profiling some of these inspiring individuals.
And there is no better place to begin than with another exceptional Snowbird leader, tram foreman Laura Kittilä, pronounced like tequila but transposing the “k” and “t”. Those crazy Finns and their umlauts.
Laura has been a part of Snowbird for over 15 years and kindly agreed to chat with Canyon Blog on a slow day in early January. Like most good tales, it starts with a love story.
Canyon Blog: “How’d you end up in the States and then at the Bird?”
Laura Kittilä: “Well, I followed a guy to Utah from home. And originally, I worked at the planetarium in Salt Lake.”
The boy soon dropped out of the picture, but as a Finn she was only too familiar with skiing and a number of her friends frequented the bird.
CB: “So, how’d you land on the tram?”
LK: “I saw an open house posting and applied. They called the next day, and I found myself as a lifty on Chickadee.”
Of course there’s more to the story. After a year on lifts and another doing summer activities she got injured and found herself working the tram gate. Once she got in the cab and started driving the tram, however, she never looked back. Thirteen years later she finds herself running a crew of professionals and loves it. Well, most of it.
LK: “Storm days can be a lot. But when it’s over and the sun’s out it makes it worth it to push through the storm cycles.”
CB: “So, after all these years why stay here and not go back to Finland?”
LK: “The people. The customers and my coworkers.”
CB: “Sounds like a lot of people to me.”
LK: “I love everyone but definitely need to recharge at the end of the day.”
What’s changed across a decade and a half one wonders.
“There are a lot more people now. But one thing that’s a big change is when I started on the tram there were only two females, and now half of my crew alone are women.”
That is a very cool thing indeed. Not missing an opportunity to put interviewees on the spot, Canyon Blog commenced a new torture when featuring locals: describing themselves in five words or less. Despite the look she gives your correspondent Laura rapidly fires off four.
“Friendly. Reliable. Stubborn. Hardworking.”
Then, after a short pause, “Finnish.”
Anything else she’d like to add?
“I am lucky to be here.”
Concisely stated, but you’re not as lucky as we are to have you. Kiitos Laura!