Anouck Darbro

Profile and significance

Anouck Darbro is a Swiss park and street skier from the Verbier scene whose impact comes more from films, crews and culture than from start lists. Long before her name appeared on international radars, she was already posting small but influential edits from the Verbier snowpark on core platforms, documenting a style built on rails, side hits and compact, confident airtime. Over time that early presence evolved into a full film and crew identity: she became one of the driving forces behind Cute Café, the Western Switzerland collective responsible for the all-female ski and snowboard film “Shy Latte” and its follow-up projects.

Today, Darbro sits in a tight circle of riders helping to define what modern women’s street and resort freeskiing looks like in the Alps. She is a featured rider in the FLINTA* movie series Bucket Clips, appears in interviews about park culture and confidence, and co-headlines film tours and festival screenings alongside friends such as Alice Michel and Jennica Folkesson. A finalist for Level 1’s SuperUnknown 22 and a regular in Verbier-based edits, she represents the bridge between local Swiss park life and an increasingly international, film-led freeski community.

Competitive arc and key venues

Darbro’s story does not follow the usual FIS slopestyle pathway. Instead of building a World Cup résumé, she has moved through a different set of “arenas”: local snowparks, street spots, grassroots video projects and invite-only sessions. In a widely shared Knuckle Mag article on park pressure, she is described—alongside Alice Michel—as one of the “talented riders from Verbier,” explaining how intimidating it felt to try new tricks under watchful eyes and how she sometimes left the busy Verbier park to practice in quieter Thyon. That willingness to seek out spaces where progression felt safe set the tone for much of her later skiing and crew work.

As her skills and profile grew, the venues changed but the pattern stayed. She stacked clips in the Verbier snowpark, on the notorious “knuckle of shame” start mound at Crans-Montana, and in Swiss street spots with a small camera crew. Her riding appears in the all-FLINTA* project Bucket Clips, which gathers segments from dozens of skiers around the world, and in the Cute Café films that took her from home hills to premieres at events like the High Five Festival. In 2024 she stepped onto a different kind of stage when she was announced as a finalist for SuperUnknown 22, traveling to California and Oregon for a Level 1 park shoot at resorts like Mammoth Mountain, Palisades and Mt. Hood. For a rider rooted in the Swiss Alps, that combination of grassroots parks, festival screenings and a SuperUnknown invite traces a clear arc from local to global within freeski culture.

How they ski: what to watch for

Darbro’s skiing blends technical rail ability with a relaxed, almost understated style. On park rails she tends to prioritise clean lock-ins and simple shapes pushed to a high standard: solid frontside and blind swaps, switch entries that stay centred over the feature, and 270 or 450 exits that are finished early enough to let her ride away with speed. In street settings, those same fundamentals show up on less-forgiving metal—down rails, close-outs and kinked handrails in Swiss towns where snow is thin and run-outs are tight.

In the Cute Café films, including “Shy Latte” and later projects, you often see her approach a spot with a skateboarder’s mindset. Rather than hunting only for obvious handrails, she uses ledges, banks, walls and awkward bits of urban architecture to string together lines that look fun as well as difficult. Technically, she keeps her stance compact and her arms quiet, which helps her stay composed when landings are rutted or icy. For viewers trying to learn from her, it is worth focusing on how early she commits to the rail, how smoothly she absorbs impact on urban snow and how she keeps speed flowing between features instead of treating each trick as a separate, stop-start moment.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Darbro’s strongest influence comes through film projects and the way she helps shape spaces where women and gender-diverse skiers can take up more room. After contributing to Bucket Clips, she joined forces with close friends to launch Cute Café, a Western Switzerland crew whose debut film “Shy Latte” mixes street skiing and snowboarding with warm, DIY energy. Promoted by local supporters and featured in “videos of the week” selections from European ski media, the project positioned her not just as a participant but as a co-creator—someone who organises spots, edits and premieres, not just someone who drops in for a few shots.

The follow-up Cute Café film, introduced in trailers as a mix of street clips at home and a big group trip to Sweden, shows the crew consolidating that identity. Even when injury limited some riders, Darbro and her friends kept the momentum going, turning cabin-based street missions into finished segments and touring the film through festivals and local premieres. Alongside those projects, interviews like the Knuckle Mag piece add another layer to her influence: she speaks honestly about fear, shame and judgment in the park, giving language to feelings many younger riders share but rarely express. For viewers and up-and-coming skiers, seeing a strong street rider talk openly about those vulnerabilities makes progression feel more accessible and less like a highlight-reel fantasy.

Geography that built the toolkit

The geography of Darbro’s skiing is anchored in the Valais, with Verbier at its centre. Growing up around Verbier 4Vallées meant exposure to steep pistes, freeride terrain and, crucially, a park scene where a handful of motivated riders could get a lot done with relatively simple features. Long winters, varied snow and a tight local community provided the repetition needed to learn rails and jumps in every kind of condition—from bluebird laps on soft spring snow to early-season sessions on icy mornings when edge control truly matters.

Beyond Verbier, places like Thyon and Crans-Montana gave her slightly different park personalities to adapt to. Thyon’s more low-key freestyle setup offered room to experiment away from the intense gaze of home crowds, while the rail line in Crans’ spring park, with its infamous “knuckle of shame” start, forced her to manage nerves and line choice under pressure. Later, her inclusion in Bucket Clips and SuperUnknown led her to new geographies entirely: Scandinavian cities with dark, icy stair sets, and North American destinations like Mammoth, Palisades and Mt. Hood with long, progressive park lines. Each region added a piece to her toolkit, from urban spot-hunting in small Swiss towns to high-tempo park laps in the U.S. spring sun.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Public information about Darbro’s exact sponsorships is relatively discreet, but one clear connection is her involvement in projects supported by Swiss ski brand Simply. Recreation Club, which has promoted Cute Café’s “Shy Latte” and aligns closely with the crew’s local, rider-driven values. Their skis and the way they talk about all-mountain creativity match the style she shows on snow: tools designed for rails, side hits and small-to-medium jumps rather than only for huge competition features. Layering from women-focused brands and a focus on durable outerwear complete a setup aimed at long nights of shovelling and repeated slams as much as clean, final-cut shots.

For skiers watching her edits, the main equipment takeaway is coherence rather than hype. Darbro skis on twin-tip park skis with enough flex to press and butter but enough backbone to handle urban impacts, paired with boots that allow ankle movement without sacrificing support. Her choices underline a simple point: if you want to ski like this—laps in the park, trips to the streets, variable resort days—you need gear that is predictable, comfortable and tough, not just fashionable. A medium-flex park ski you trust, boots that fit well and outerwear you are happy to fall in will do more for your progression than chasing the stiffest or lightest options on the market.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Anouck Darbro because she represents a version of freeskiing that feels real and reachable. She is not chasing overall World Cup titles; she is filming with her friends, organising premieres, saying yes to SuperUnknown invitations and showing up in FLINTA* projects that put community at the centre. Her clips prove she can handle serious street spots and park rails, but the way those clips are presented—warm, collaborative, often self-deprecating—reminds viewers that skiing is supposed to be fun even when the tricks are serious.

For progressing skiers, especially young women from smaller resorts or non-elite backgrounds, her path offers a clear alternative to the classic national-team story. You can learn your first 270s in a local park, find a crew that shares your humour, film small edits, contribute to community movies like Bucket Clips, and eventually end up at events like SuperUnknown without ever chasing a bib number. Watching how Darbro talks about fear and park culture, how she and Cute Café build inclusive sessions, and how she keeps style at the heart of her skiing can help riders think not only about what tricks they want to learn, but also about what kind of ski life they want to build. In that sense, she is both a strong skier from Verbier and a blueprint for a more collective, creative future in freeskiing.