Lauren Bergman gingerly touched the thin blade of her ax.  

“These are razor sharp,” she mused. 

The metal surface gleamed under the woodshed’s overhead lights, where an array of saws and axes hung on the walls. Bergman, 34, trains four to five times a week in the outbuilding near her Kalispell home for logger sports competitions in the summer.  

Her hand moved to grip the handle as she positioned herself next to a billet of wood on a metal stool. With a sharp inhale, she swung the ax back in a wide arch. The blade sliced the log in a shower of splinters. Bergman repeated the movement in a series of alternating upward and downward strokes until the block split in half.  

In competitions, this discipline is called the standing block chop, where female logger athletes race to be the first to split a vertical log, 25 centimeters in diameter, in under a minute.  

Last year, Bergman set the former world record in the standing block chop with a time of 26.36 seconds at the U.S Pro Women’s Championship, placing fourth overall. This year she won first place at the North American Women’s Cup in Virginia and took third at the Women’s World Championship in Budapest, Hungary.

Her success as a professional logger athlete is tied to the quality of her tools, Bergman said. That was evident at the North American Women’s Cup on May 30, when an investment in higher quality equipment took her to the top of the podium. 

“To be on top of the podium, I’m like, this is insane,” Bergman said. “The dream’s coming true.” 

She's competed in STIHL Timbersports events, an international logger sports competition, since 2024. The North American Women’s Cup was the first of its kind, where lumberjills (female logger athletes) from the United States and Canada competed in the same event for a spot in the Women’s World Championship. 

Although the Flathead Valley lumberjill was confident in her competitive streak, her chances of earning a berth to Budapest felt slim. Some of the best female logger athletes in the world hail from North America, she said.  

“That’s the toughest competition,” Bergman said. “Which sounds crazy, cause it’s not the world championships.” 

Needless to say, her unexpected win at the Women’s Cup thwarted post-competition vacation plans with the family. She had less than a week to arrange her daughters’ escort home while she booked a flight to Hungary with her husband. 

World championships were nerve-wracking, Bergman admitted, especially since it was her first time overseas. But when she took home the bronze in Budapest on June 6, the win was semi-expected by that point, she said. 

“There was less pressure in Budapest than in Virginia Beach,” Bergman said. “I knew if I was able to come out of Virginia Beach, that’s the toughest competition I was gonna see.” 

She held the quickest time for the stock saw discipline, the most difficult of the four disciplines, with 12.10 seconds, a personal best. However, her former world-record for the women’s standing block chop was beat by silver medalist Karolina Urbanova, a 24-year-old from the Czech Republic, with a time of 22.99 seconds. 

BACK HOME, several of her old college teammates crowded in her former coach’s living room for a watch party.  

It wasn’t clear at first who won the North American Women’s Cup, since there was a four-way tie, said Coach Ann Beall of the Flathead Valley Community College intercollegiate logger sports team. Judges had to calculate the average time from all four disciplines to see who had the fastest record, along with the most points scored. 

“And then they start naming the names,” she said.  

Bergman’s name wasn’t called for fourth place, so Beall figured she took third. But she wasn’t called for third place, either. Then second place was announced, and there was still no mention of Bergman. 

“You’re just going ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” Beall said.  

Then came the first-place announcement. “For her first ever ...” But the sentence was cut off by an explosion of cheers. It was clear by that point Bergman had just won her first competition, Beall said. Everyone hopped out of their seats, screaming “It’s Lauren!”  

“The house was pretty loud,” she chuckled. 

Bergman got her start in logger sports at the community college more than a decade ago. Even then, she showed a lot of promise, Beall said.  

The start-up lumberjill took home an avalanche of accolades during competition season, including the coveted title of Belle of the Woods, an award bestowed to the top female logger athlete. 

Flathead Valley Community College won its 14th national championship in 2012 at the premier Association of Western Forestry Club competition, hosted at Oregon State University. The Association of Western Forestry Club is the largest of five regional conclaves in the United States, consisting of every college logger sports team west of Mississippi.  

Bergman came away from that competition as the top female athlete and a fiancée, after her boyfriend and teammate (and now husband) proposed at the award ceremony.  

“If you win Belle of the Woods at the conclave, you’re kind of the cream of the crop,” Beall said. 

LOGGER SPORTS competitions take time and financial investment, which is why few people pursue it at a professional level.  

“For every block you chop in a competition, hopefully you’ve practiced on 100 blocks,” Beall said. “Well, you have to go get those 100 practice blocks.” 

The quality of the tool doesn’t count for much without the proper training. Technique homes in on the angle of the swing, alignment of the wrist and twist of the torso. Fortunately, Bergman gets her own personal wood supply from her husband, Seth Bergman, who owns Big Sky Arborists.  

“It does help that Seth is an arborist,” Beall said.  

Different types of wood vary in densities, affecting the time and technique it takes to split the log. Bergman said trees in Montana are denser than those on the East Coast.  

“On the West Coast, our wood is a lot harder to chop,” Bergman said. “My times were slower compared to the East Coast gals.” 

It took her years of traveling to logger sports competitions to make a name for herself, she said. Bergman was surprised when she was invited to the North American Women’s Cup. The main office for STIHL Timbersports, founded in 1985, is located in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  

“They didn’t know who I was,” Bergman said. “Most of the people that make those decisions are on the East Coast of America, and I don’t travel there.” 

Given her recent wins at the international level, plus a YouTube channel with more than 100,000 subscribers, Bergman hopes to attract more attention — maybe even a sponsor.  

“It’s gonna take a lot for her not to be invited [to competitions] anymore,” Beall said. “She’s in the loop.” 

Report for America Reporter Hannah Shields can be reached at 406-758-4439 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support.  

    Lauren Bergman practices the underhand chop in her home gym in Kalispell on Thursday, June 18. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Lauren Bergman practices the standing block chop in her home gym in Kalispell on Thursday, June 18. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider   

    Lauren Bergman, 34, competes in the stock saw discipline at the STIHL Timbersports Women's World Championship in Budapest, Hungary, on June 6, 2026. (Courtesy)
  

    (Left to right) Canadian Stephanie Naud, American Lauren Bergman and American Erin Lavoie stand on the podium at the STIHL Timbersports North American Women's Cup in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on May 30, 2026. (Courtesy)