By Elisabeth Vincentelli, CNN

For a long time, women’s skis suffered from a phenomenon known as “pink it and shrink it”: take a men’s model, make it shorter (and softer) and give it a pastel top sheet.

Thankfully we’ve come a long way since. The offerings have improved and last season the best-selling ski in specialty shops was the Black Pearl from Blizzard — the first time a women’s ski had ever topped the overall list.

In Lake Tahoe, Jen Gurecki took matters into her own hands and three years ago introduced Coalition Snow, the only women’s ski and snowboard manufacturer in the U.S.

“An expert woman could purchase a men’s ski, but wouldn’t you want to have more options?” Gurecki says. “You can also choose to support businesses that are overtly pro-women. All of that aside, we make f—-ng good skis!”

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