Snowboarding legend Gretchen Bleiler’s voice is melodic and friendly, made more so because she punctuates many of her words with laughter. The reason for all this apparent happiness—that she is paid to do exactly what she loves most—could make one jealous. Don’t be. She’s earned her right to joy, ridden hard, hurt herself, come back and ridden harder, winning nearly everything she’s put her heart into, including two Vans Triple Crowns, two U.S. Opens, two X Games, two FIS World Cups, and an Olympic silver medal. Her peers love her, as do many snowboarding magazine readers who have voted her into the top spot.

Summarily, Gretchen Bleiler is a pretty, tightly focused competitor who knows how to have fun and can pack a punch when necessary. Ouch! That’s gonna leave a mark.

Interviewed exclusively for Risen Magazine

Risen Magazine: What don’t people know about you that you want them to know about you?

Gretchen Bleiler: [Laughs] That’s pretty funny because I just did a story and the writer asked my family what people don’t know about me. My brother, my mother, and my dad all said pretty standard things. My coach, Ricky, said, “She loves corndogs.” Not too many people know that about me. I’m a midwestern girl, so I guess that makes sense. [Laughter]

RM: Don’t take this wrong, but it must have been difficult for guys to ask you out—I mean most guys usually like being better than their dates at sports.

GB: [Laughs] I’ve always been pretty athletic, so I could never . . . I’ve had a boyfriend for the past four and a half years, and luckily he’s good at pretty much everything he tries, and he pretty much kicks my butt at whatever we do. I think that’s one of the reasons I love him so much. I could never date someone who didn’t snowboard or love being out on the mountain. It’s too big a part of my life.

RM: During those moments when you’re out in the backcountry alone, do you ever get a sense of wonder, a sense of something bigger than yourself?

GB: Absolutely. That was one of my goals this season, to limit my competitions—after the X Games I’m only going to compete in three more contests, in order to get more into the backcountry, and film more and shoot photos in powder. I spent the last two weeks in Utah with photographer Stan Evans working on that. We’re back there, it’s freezing cold, and there’s silence, not a noise, and there are all these beautiful, enormous mountains around us, and it’s so peaceful. I understood then why snowboarders spend an entire season in the backcountry filming their video part, because it is so peaceful, just you and nature and you have to respect it, cuz you never know what’s going to happen, when a storm’s going to come in. You just never know, and I think that’s so inspiring.

RM: Does it take a little time to disconnect from the cell phone and the computer?

GB: I have no problem disconnecting with those things. I have all of my friends always emailing and on MySpace, but I’m not very good at that. I love getting rid of it all.

RM: You’ll see two people of similar ability and suddenly one takes off and becomes a world champion and the other ends up waiting tables—why do you think that is?

GB: I think hard work and desire. Desire is a huge one. If you have a goal and a dream and you absolutely want it, finding the desire to get it comes naturally, at least for me.

RM: So many people who get to the top of a sport are driven by unhappiness; you definitely don’t seem like one of them.

GB: [Laughs] No, some people who aren’t confident in themselves feel they need to go out and be great athletes in order to get attention. There are so many different reasons why people drive themselves. For me, I grew up with three brothers. I’ve always been very competitive. If I’m not good at something I always work my butt off until I am, to see if I could do it. When I first started snowboarding it was this new challenge that brought a different . . . it kind of took me on a totally different path than was traditional. I love that it was different and new and kind of brought me into a different group of friends, and I wanted to be the best at it.

RM: When was the last time you were bad at a sport?

GB: [Laughs] Actually, I played ice hockey when I was younger. All of the girls on the team were my friends, but they grew up in Aspen and were figure skaters before they were ice hockey players, so, naturally, they were good skaters. I picked up ice hockey pretty well—I was good, but not as good as some of these girls. We were one of the few ice hockey teams at the time and we went all over. I remember going to Texas and my coach sat me on the bench for most of the tournament. I was so pissed off and later I had a sit-down lunch with him, saying that I wasn’t a benchwarmer, and that I was considering quitting hockey to see how far I could take my snowboarding. He tried to convince me not to quit ice hockey, saying that with a little work I could be really good. I said, thank you very much but I’m done. He still lives in Aspen, and when he sees me he says, “Aren’t you glad you chose snowboarding?” [Laughter]

RM: When was the last time you were scared?

GB: I feel that I’m scared every time I go up on the mountain. I mean, it’s my job to go out there and push myself every single day in order to be up there with the best women in snowboarding. I was scared today, it was a flat light day, freezing cold and I’m working on this trick. I mean, I wasn’t terrified, but I’m scared because I’m pushing past my comfort zone.

RM: Have you ever been scared to the point of being debilitated?

GB: When I was in Utah there was this gap jump, kind of like a cliff with a catwalk below it. You had to get a ton of speed and clear about twenty feet and it was a thirty-foot drop. If you did this you would maybe get the cover of a snowboard magazine, and this one girl I was with, Jamie Anderson, she did it. I almost did it, but because I’m not as confident in that area, I backed down. I was scared and I also knew that maybe it wasn’t my time to do that. It pissed me off. I think that’s a part of being a professional snowboarder, you have to make difficult decisions in order to prolong your career or stay in it. You have to know your limitations. I think maybe I’ll want to do it some day, but it sucked at the same time, cause Jamie did it and she killed it. But, such is life.

RM: Do you ever have any recurring dreams?

GB: I do, but I forget them until I have them and then I think, Oh, there’s that dream again. I think I have multiple recurring dreams, but I don’t recall what they are.

RM: I would think that global warming is a big issue for someone dependent upon the snow.

GB: Absolutely. Go to stopglobalwaming.org. I’ve got a PSA and I talk about it as much as I can. I gave everyone a CFL light bulb this year [for Christmas].[is this what she meant? if so, I think the brackets are a good insertion] Obviously it’s very important to me. Last season was such an awful season for snowboarding. We had a contest in New Jersey canceled all together. Not only did they not have enough snow, but also the temperatures were not even cold enough to make snow. Then we had the world championships in Switzerland in the middle of January and it’s pouring down rain for a solid week and the birds are chirping. It felt like springtime. Going to places in Europe, the locals will tell you how much the glaciers have receded just in their lifetimes. It’s so apparent and it’s every one of our responsibilities to start taking action, just small lifestyle changes like teaching your kids to unplug appliances when they’re finished with them, turning off the water when you finish brushing your teeth, not taking twenty-minute showers and being efficient, living an efficient life, more like Europeans. People in Europe and New Zealand are so much better with their lifestyles than Americans. I actually have my own signature line with Oakley this year and within the line is a jacket and a pant that are made from recycled materials that are also recyclable.

RM: I totally agree with that, but one of the difficulties comes in trying to convince people that they might only need, say, one pair of sunglasses. I don’t want to get you into trouble with your sponsor, but how can you promote less consumerism?

GB: I’m a professional snowboarder. I get on planes once a week to travel the world and I drive a car. Oakley’s not perfect, and I’m not perfect, but we are making an effort in the right direction. We want to keep making those efforts. It’s too bad when companies get their hands slapped for saying they’re eco friendly when they’re not 100 percent. Then they become afraid of trying to make a difference, so they won’t get criticized.

RM: It seems that everywhere in the U.S. small houses are plowed to make way for massive houses and redundant shopping malls, that require lots of resources to build and to heat.

GB: Definitely, we use so much more than we ever need, and I think we need to get back to being efficient and being smart with what we’ve got and make some lifestyle changes. Imagine if every family did that, how much better off we’d all be.

RM: When people get their joy from something outdoors, they want to be involved with nature, not destroy it. When people are in touch with nature, they tend to be satisfied and not need to buy a bunch of stuff.

GB: Yeah, exactly. It’s not about being materialistic.

RM: There are two different athletic goals, how something feels internally and how it looks to someone else. Winning must feel good, but what does it feel like to fly?

GB: It’s amazing. I go out there every single day and do it. I don’t know if it’s necessarily flying that I love, but the whole package—being with your friends, being outdoors, and pushing yourself to fly higher and higher. That’s what I love. It’s so satisfying at the end of the day. When it’s summertime I love to surf, and the warm beach atmosphere, but when fall comes around, the snow calls.

RM: But you enjoy surfing?

GB: Yeah, my boyfriend and I just bought a house in Carlsbad [California], near the beach.

RM: Is that so you could be close to Shaun White?

GB: [Laughs] Yeah, you know it.

RM: I’m going to switch tracks for a moment—have you ever been in a fistfight?

GB: [Laughing] No, I haven’t. I’ve punched somebody before, but I’ve never been in a fistfight.

RM: What did it take to make you mad enough to punch somebody?

GB: Actually . . . [Laughs hard] I hit someone last winter after the U.S. Open. There were these totally obnoxious frat guys at this bar and we were having some drinks and playing darts and foosball. They were drunk and they started insulting us, and started just honing in on me. Somebody told them to be careful of what they said, and they automatically attacked even harder and said some of the rudest things anyone has ever said to me in my life. I got so angry and we decided to leave. We all left, but I was so pissed off that I let this guy talk to me the way he did. I said to my friends, Hey guys I forgot my hat inside. I went inside, found the guy, punched him in the side of the face, went to the counter, found my hat, and left. [Hard laughter] I couldn’t believe I did it, but I had all this adrenaline running through me. When I walked back outside the guys all asked, “What did you just do, Gretchen?” I said, “I punched that guy, let’s go, let’s go.” They said, “You did what and you didn’t tell us?” They had said something about my hair and it really pissed me off. Honestly, I’m not a fighter, but you don’t treat people that way.

RM: Anything else?

GB: I just launched my new Web site, GretchenBleiler.com, and this fall I’m working to develop an all-girls photo shoot and half-pipe competition. I’m inviting the best girls in the world in springtime, to Aspen. We’ll be offering spa treatments, a workshop on global warming, do some cooking clinics, yoga workshops, and a night out on the town. I’m really excited about it. It’s something I wanted to put together for a long time now. It’s called the Snow Angel Invitational and it’s going to occur from April 3-6 in Snowmass.

RM: Where do you see yourself in 10,000 years?

GB: Wow, dead. That’s the first answer. Second answer? Um, I think I might have to stick with dead. [Laughter]

Gretchen Bleiler lives in Aspen, Colorado, and continues to excel in international snowboarding competitions.