On a recent Colorado bluebird day, hundreds of women stood at the apex of Sunlight Mountain Resort in Glenwood Springs with palpable excitement in the air. One by one, they began taking off their clothes, most stripping down to just their ski or snowboard boots to expose their naked skin to the crisp breeze up at 9,900 feet in elevation.

As more women disrobed, the cheers grew louder in celebration of this rare occasion to bare it all in the wild. They posed for photos, doled out compliments, shared sunscreen and relished a few moments of bliss before strapping into their gear.

Sun’s out, buns out, bombs away! After a quick countdown, the throng of women began shredding downhill, completely nude.

Welcome to Boot Tan Fest, a homegrown ski festival designed for women by women. What started in 2021 as a casual ski run in the buff among 20-something friends has since grown to a three-day event drawing almost 700 attendees. The festival includes live music, ski-focused clinics, a vendor village populated by women-owned brands and an aggressive amount of glitter.

But its signature offering is the naked lap.

So, what’s the allure? “It’s just empowering … seeing everybody out here and being free,” said Zoe Alcantara, of Breckenridge. “Everybody’s got different bodies, but everybody’s perfect in their own way.”

In a time when women increasingly feel like their bodies are policed, Boot Tan Fest creates a safe space where they can feel liberated and celebrate the vast diversity of their shapes, sizes and colors. Attendees came primarily from Colorado and the Mountain West, and ranged in age from Gen Z to retirement. Each came with distinct reasons for ditching any insecurities and embracing their femininity in this truly unique way.

For Lisa Harper of Dillon, that reason was representing the realities of motherhood. She proudly sported the words “3 weeks postpartum” on her belly, earning congratulations as she skied down the mountain. Many shared their own stories of becoming a mother with her in cathartic shows of support.

“I get these (social media) advertisements of a woman with her one-month-old baby and like, you know, rock hard solid abs that are Photoshopped,” Harper said. “You know that’s not real. This is what’s real, having your baby pooch and still skiing.”

Harper’s newborn daughter was never far from her mind. “That’s all I could think about was I can’t wait for her to do this with me someday,” she added.

It’s hard to overstate the amount of positivity radiating from Boot Tan Fest, and that alone drew Cheyenne resident Rachel back to the event for a second year. Getting naked in front of hundreds of strangers could easily make one feel self-conscious, but the “burst of feminist energy” that comes from such a radical collective experience is contagious, she said.

“Sometimes in our society it’s hard to feel positive about gender and where we fit,” said Rachel (who chose not to give her last name). “Here you belong; everyone belongs.” Plus, Rachel’s birthday happened during the event, “so it only feels appropriate to wear my birthday suit.”

Having women lead the festival programming only added to the sense of empowerment. On the first evening of the event, VNTRbirds, an outdoor education company, hosted a waxing clinic where ladies got hands-on experience waxing their gear. Later that night, dozens of women took the stage to showcase their skills, from fire-spinning burlesque to music and comedy, during a talent show.

Female DJs and bands performed throughout the weekend as festivarians perused the vendor booths where women-owned brands pedaled their wares. The vendors were all on a mission to support women in the outdoors, having identified a hole in their respective markets where the demographic is being underserved.

FlowZone Performance Coaching, for example, offers remote strength training specifically for mountain sports, while Neve food company makes nutritional, pouch-based trail snacks. Apparel company Gnara sells pants with zippers all the way up the back, allowing women to pee discreetly outdoors. All three are based in Colorado.

Female causes were also front and center. Aspen-based nonprofit Tits Deep for Breast Cancer was onsite raising awareness about the disease’s risks for women under 40. Founder Stephanie Villavicencio said that too often, the medical community dismisses younger women who may be at risk. In fact, doctors don’t recommend starting mammograms until age 40. That leaves a gap in education for 30-somethings who are unknowingly at risk or who get diagnosed.

“We’re really here to help support and navigate the people who don’t even know their risks so that if something were to happen, they know where to go and what to do,” said Villavicencio, who lost her mom and a friend to breast cancer, both before they turned 40. Tits Deep helps build community for the women who feel unseen and unsupported in their journeys, she added.

That ethos could be said of Boot Tan Fest, too, which seems more like a budding community than a single event. Several people even decided to join the party solo to connect with like-minded outdoorswomen.

First-timer Bergin Smith of Lakewood came to Boot Tan by herself in hopes of making friends in the backcountry skiing scene, which is often male-dominated. Since leaving a seven-year relationship, Smith has been determined to cultivate her adventurous spirit, even when it means venturing alone. The festival was one step toward checking two things off her bucket list: skiing 100 days in one season and doing a naked lap.

Smith wanted to ski naked, specifically, to free herself of the physical expectations she harbored as a young girl.

“I grew up as a dancer, so there’s always been this idea that the body is never good enough,” she said. “As I’m letting go of that and healing in my 30s, what a good way to celebrate where I am happiest and find love in my body and myself.”

How would Smith describe her first nude ski run? “Joy, true joy,” she said, “and a place where it’s safe to be exactly who you are.”