SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane is Lumberjill country! Ferris High School graduate and current top Lumberjill in the world, Erin LaVoie has been dominating the sport of wood chopping for decades. The 2024 season proved that she has taken her dominance to new heights.
The success is anything but overnight, however. “I've sort of just tailored my life for the last 20 years of this is how I think I can win, and this is how I'm gonna set myself up to win,” said LaVoie.
When LaVoie began her Lumberjill career over 20 years ago, the niche sport had yet to grow into an international extreme sport. LaVoie said when she started, “It was me and one other girl that I competed against in competition, and then the rest we were always against the guys. So we went from two women that I saw the weekends we competed to now you have to qualify for competitions.”
The sport has exploded from those early days, now including 14 countries and annual international competitions held each year as part of Stihl Timber Sports.
LaVoie came into 2024 on top of the sport having won the International Women’s Cup in 2023. She said, “I'm not really competing against other people. They're not gonna do anything for me. It's me doing my thing, and I can only mess that up or make that amazing. So I go into it competing against myself, and I have goals within that that I want to achieve. Smashing a world record is often one of them, and I try really hard for that, but yeah, never go in thinking I'm gonna win.”
During this year's United States Championship in Milwaukee, LaVoie entered the final competition tied on points with fellow Lumberjill Martha King. LaVoie talked about her mindset saying, “I just thought you could go freaking hard so you can beat this girl, because she's really good, and you need to win and you need to move on.”
Not only did LaVoie win, she shattered the world record by a whopping five seconds!
After that competition, LaVoie went to Germany and became a back-to-back world champion.
Despite 2024 being so successful, LaVoie is staying hungry for more. “Now after the U.S. Championships, I am tied with Martha, we have three each. Of course, that is a new goal. I want four, I want five. Then world championships, I have two, she has one. And you know, I want three and four and to keep breaking records,” said LaVoie.
Lavoie’s quest to be the best Lumberjill of all time continues. She said, “When you're done, you want your name to still be remembered for quite some time. Young girls getting into the sport, I hope someday they're like, 'Oh, Erin did this,' or 'This is the way Erin chops.' Or, you know, of course, that'd be cool to be that person."
LaVoie will compete next in a three-day competition in Ellensburg in October before hanging up her axes for a few months ahead of her quest for a third straight world championship begins.