The statistically snowiest day of the year is today, January 13. It also marks the winter sports industry’s second-annual POW, or Protect Our Winters, Day—an initiative to raise awareness around climate change to help protect “powder days” (ski-speak for snow) for future generations and preserve winter tourism’s 900,000 jobs and $66+ billion in annual economic revenue. To mark the occasion, certain ski resorts are hosting benefit events and offering discounts to those skiers and snowboarders who carpool to the slopes. For the many climate activists passionate about winter sports, however, every day is devoted to protecting our winters.

At this week’s Outdoor Retailer (OR) conference—a biannual summit drawing thousands of sports enthusiasts and outdoor adventure brands to Salt Lake City—a POW beanie was practically part of the uniform. On the first night, attendees wishing to knock back beers and snap photos with the organization’s scrappy young activists had their choice among three gear brands’ happy hour events to celebrate and benefit POW.

Olympic snowboarder Jeremy Jones founded the organization in 2007, tapping into a simple truth: People will fight to save what they love. Yes, snow is how Jones turned many among America’s 21 million ski and snowboard enthusiasts into climate crusaders. POW has since garnered global media coverage, partnering with the Natural Resources Defense Council to commission reports about the impacts of climate change on winter tourism. It has also become a key White House ally in building support for climate action. Today, POW is a global nonprofit that boasts about a hundred athlete ambassadors, and five full-time staffers—three more than last year. Conscientious outdoor gear brands are increasingly scrambling to step forward with POW and be counted.

The full story of the “dirtbag snowboarders” who use their rockstar following and hip aesthetic to mobilize grassroots support and shake things up in D.C. can be found in Sierra’s November/December 2015 issue. It’s a testament to POW’s unusual standing in the advocacy nonprofit/lobbyist sphere. However, the nonprofit is in the same boat as many similarly minded organizations when it comes to one factor: being blindsided by last November’s election of a climate change denier-in-chief.

So, what’s in the pipeline for these ski bums on a mission?

Brody Leven, an expedition skier—that’s someone who earns their downhill adventure by mountain-climbing the slopes—says he and fellow POW athlete ambassadors will be ramping up their Hot Planet, Cool Athletes assemblies. These involve free presentations to school kids across the country that address the impacts of climate change and simple actions students can take—turning off the lights, toting reusable bags, carpooling, etc.—to reduce their impact. “It sounds like a side project, but in my mind it’s the most important work POW does,” Leven says. “The kids are starstruck, so they really listen up—it’s a model that works."

Alex Deibold | Photo by Katie O'Reilly  Fellow POW ambassador Alex Deibold, 2014 Olympic bronze medalist and member of the U.S. snowboard team, describes Hot Planet, Cool Athletes as a “bottom up” approach. “Our role is to explain to kids why it’s snowing less now than it was 10 years ago, and to teach them about what that means so that hopefully, when they get older and come into the consumer market, they’re making smarter decisions and casting greener votes,” explains Deibold. He says kids love to come up to him afterward and share their green lifestyle bona fides—Check out my water bottle!—in exchange for high fives. “I see my role as educating the next generation, so they can enjoy the things I had in my youth.” 

Deibold and Leven also bring their message to public hearings, where they talk about the many small family businesses that rely on winter for their livelihood. “It’s a little harder, but this year we need to have more of these important uncomfortable conversations,” Deibold says. 

At the legislative level, POW-ers are already having those conversations. However, in the age of Trump, they’re refocusing their climate policy goals to the state level. Lindsay Bourgoine, POW’s manager of advocacy and campaigns, explains that POW is “going to press pause” on some federal battles for a bit, and instead work to “capture that progressive energy that has 19 states forging ahead with the Clean Power Plan, regardless of the fact it’s now tied up in federal courts.” 

While POW will focus on pushing carbon taxes, solar incentives, and renewable greenhouse gas initiatives in those states with mountain communities—think Colorado, Utah, Montana, Oregon, California, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont—Bourgoine points to the organization’s four-pronged 2017 policy agenda, which she says can be applied wherever people care about outdoor adventure. 

First up for POW this year? Transportation, which in the past year surpassed the power sector as the largest emitter in the United States. “No one really takes public transit to the mountains, so we’re trying to rethink transportation structures,” Bourgoine says, pointing to the successful model of Denver’s ski train. “There are opportunities to implement public transit in places like Boulder and Salt Lake City,” she adds. “We’re working to better educate people about the impact of the transportation sector.”

When POW takes its annual trip to Capitol Hill later this spring, however, the main objective will center around carbon pricing. “How do we educate lawmakers on what it really is and why it’s important?” Bourgoine says, explaining that POW is tracking the “exciting movement” in this sphere at the state level. “Vermont and Oregon are seriously talking about carbon taxes, and it’s at the conversation level in New York and Massachusetts,” she says. “There was even a carbon tax introduced in Utah—we don’t anticipate that’ll go far, but it’s exciting to see it ripple across the states. Because if enough states pass laws like this, it’ll get complicated—the federal government will have to weigh in.”

POW’s foes are quick to point out that the ski and snowboard industry relies heavily on air travel and chair lifts. However, POW’s third objective revolves around reducing the carbon ski-print of resorts and winter gear brands. “A ski resort, for instance, most likely isn’t going to pick up the phone and ask a competing resort how they make themselves more sustainable, more efficient, so we’re looking for ways to be a better resource for our industry partners,” explains Bourgoine. “We’ll be working to create a network and to initiate more industry-wide conversations about addressing those impacts.”

Barbara Weber, POW's senior manager of community, and athlete ambassador Brody Leven, pose with a blanket Woolrich unveiled at Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2017 to benefit POW. | Photo by Katie O'Reilly The fourth POW goal is perhaps its farthest-reaching. “We’re expanding beyond our target audience to reach all outdoor enthusiasts, to stress the idea that we all need winter,” says Bourgoine. “It’s educating fly fishermen about the impact of reduced snowpack runoff, which makes their water rise, and makes it too hot for fish to live. It’s stressing to paddlers that their flows will be affected, and to mountain-bikers that it’s getting too hot to safely ride in the summer. Our message this year is that we all need regular seasons, regular temperatures—we all need winter.”

The silver lining of 2016’s election fallout? A heightened understanding that this last goal is eminently possible. According to POW executive director Chris Steinkamp, November 9 netted hundreds of emails and calls and social media posts. “A lot of fired-up people have reached out to say, ‘I wanna get involved; what can I do?’” he says. “So one of the things we’re focused on, that we weren’t necessarily two months back, is finding new ways to mobilize the grassroots base and give people more ways to get involved that aren’t just donating or joining POW as a member. People want to roll up their sleeves and get to work.”

To harness surging grassroots enthusiasm, POW now aims to provide “the playbook” on how to be a citizen climate activist. “We’re gonna give you a way to get involved, wherever you are,” Steinkamp says. “Whether it’s in your community or with us, we’re gonna work to give everyone the keys.”

Feeling emPOW(d)ered? Join Protect Our Winters here.

Click below to watch Brody Leven's first film, Pedal To Peaks 2: Norway.