Dorothy Grundin

Profile and significance

Dorothy Grundin is part of the rising wave of Midwestern freeskiers pushing park and street skiing forward from rope-tow hills and small-town programs rather than national-team pipelines. Her name shows up wherever the scene is most alive at the grassroots level: in the cast list of the street film “Must Be Urgent,” on the semi-finalist roster for Level 1’s SuperUnknown 21, quoted in coverage of Phil Casabon’s B-Dog Off The Leash rail jam at Wild Mountain, and on the builder and rider lists for the women-led Take The Rake terrain-park project at Trollhaugen. Together, those appearances mark her as an emerging “core” name in modern freeski culture, especially in the Midwest and park-crew worlds.

Before she was stacking clips in Vexed Co. films or being highlighted by industry media, Grundin was already on skis in a more traditional setting. High school race-team rosters from Wisconsin list her in slalom, giant slalom and super-G lineups, showing that she came through the same weekend-warrior structure as many U.S. skiers. What sets her apart is where she took those fundamentals: into rope-tow parks, night sessions and urban spots across the Midwest and beyond, trading race gates for down-flat-down rails, close-outs and handrails. In an era when many careers are built around FIS points and World Cup calendars, she represents a different, equally important route into ski culture—film parts, jams, park crew and community-focused events.

Competitive arc and key venues

Grundin’s competitive story is closely tied to the rope-tow parks and cash-for-tricks jams that define Midwestern freeskiing. One of the clearest snapshots comes from Wild Mountain in Minnesota, where she was one of the few women riding in B-Dog Off The Leash, a loose-format jam hosted by Phil Casabon and Eric Iberg. In Freeskier’s recap she describes the session as “the most fun I’ve had in a while,” adding that everyone throwing down around her pushed her to stand out. That quote captures her niche perfectly: not a bibbed contest specialist, but someone who thrives in creative, rider-driven environments where style and commitment matter as much as podiums.

From there, her “competitive arc” becomes more cultural than ranked. She appears as one of the lead riders in “Must Be Urgent,” a Vexed Co. street film that premiered in 2023, travelled through festivals like iF3 and followed a crew from Salt Lake City through the Midwest in search of handrails and spots. Festival materials list Dorothy alongside Reid Hendrix and Finn Reddish as featured skiers, placing her as a central figure in the movie rather than just a quick cameo. That project helped cement her reputation as a skier willing to put in the digging, hiking and impact required for a proper urban segment.

In 2024 her name surfaced again when Level 1 announced the semi-finalist roster for SuperUnknown 21, the long-running talent search that has launched many park and street careers. Being selected as a semi-finalist means her submission edit stood out against a global field of up-and-coming riders, and placed her alongside an international group of women progressing rail and jump skiing in their own regions. While SuperUnknown is not a traditional contest with rankings and prize money, within core freeski culture it remains one of the most respected platforms for emerging talent, and her presence there signals how her peers and filmers view her skiing.

How they ski: what to watch for

On snow, Dorothy Grundin is first and foremost a rail skier with a strong sense of line. In “Must Be Urgent” and other street clips, her approach is defined by clean lock-ons, solid basics and a willingness to take that package to high-consequence features. She often opts for tricks that reward precision over chaos: solid 270s on and off, blind surface swaps that stay centred on the rail, and exits finished early enough to ride away with speed. On kinked handrails and close-outs, her upper body stays quiet while her feet and skis do the work, which is a hallmark of someone who has spent a lot of time on rope-tow laps refining balance and timing.

Another thing to watch is how she builds lines rather than isolated tricks. Instead of treating each rail as a standalone challenge, Grundin frequently strings multiple elements together—a drop-in off a ledge into a down rail, or a rail hit followed by a wallride or another quick feature. That gives her footage a skate-like rhythm and fits perfectly with the compact, creative builds common at places like Trollhaugen and Wild Mountain. For viewers studying her skiing, it is worth paying attention to how early she commits to each feature, how she stays centred over her feet on rough, salted snow, and how rarely she scrubs all her speed after heavy landings.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Grundin’s influence shows up as much in the spaces she occupies as in any single trick. Her role in “Must Be Urgent” places her in the middle of a tightly knit Vexed Co. crew that treats street skiing as a long-term creative project rather than a side hobby: long winters spent chasing weather windows, travelling in vans, fixing broken winches and turning ordinary city architecture into clips. Being part of that process, rather than only riding pre-built park features, demands persistence and a high tolerance for frustration—most street missions end in shovelling and falls long before a shot is landed.

At the same time, her repeated invitations to Take The Rake at Trollhaugen highlight a different side of her skiing life. Take The Rake is a women-centred terrain-park building event that brings women and gender-diverse park crew from around the world to Wisconsin to design, weld, set and ride a full park in Valhalla, Trollhaugen’s rope-tow-accessed freestyle zone. Photo sets and participant lists from the 2023 and 2024 editions show Dorothy among the crew, helmet off in the shop and on hill with a rake in hand as well as skis on her feet. That dual role—builder and rider—means she is helping shape the spaces where others progress, not just enjoying them.

This mix of street parts, jam sessions and park-crew work has an influence that is hard to quantify in trophies but easy to see in scene energy. When a skier is visible in films, at rope-tow jams and in behind-the-scenes build crews, it signals to younger riders—especially women in male-dominated parks—that there are many ways to be “part of it,” from filming and digging to showing up at community events. Grundin’s growing presence across these domains makes her part of the connective tissue of contemporary freeski culture in the Midwest and beyond.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geographically, Dorothy Grundin’s skiing is rooted in the American Midwest. High school race-team listings place her in Wisconsin, competing in alpine disciplines while local ski areas provide the parks and night-skiing terrain that would later define her career. The combination of race training and small-hill life is classic for the region: short chairlift or rope-tow laps, firm snow, and a culture that values time on snow over vertical metres. Those conditions are ideal for building strong edge control and resilience, because mistakes are punished quickly and laps come fast.

Wild Mountain in Minnesota and Trollhaugen in Wisconsin are particularly important landmarks in her story. Wild’s rope-tow park was the stage for B-Dog Off The Leash, where she rode alongside some of the heaviest local and visiting talent in a long, cash-for-tricks jam session. Trollhaugen’s Valhalla park, meanwhile, is both laboratory and showcase: a compact, high-intensity zone where Take The Rake crews build and ride features that end up in edits and industry articles. Being part of that environment means learning to adapt quickly to new setups, whether they are welded in the shop the day before or shaped overnight by a small crew of shapers.

Street filming has taken her beyond the hill boundaries, into towns and cities where handrails, loading docks and concrete ledges become the terrain. Projects like “Must Be Urgent,” which traces a route from Salt Lake City through the Midwest, expose her to a wide spectrum of snow conditions and spot styles, from snowy college campuses to icy industrial staircases. That blend of small-resort repetition and urban variety has produced a skier who is comfortable turning almost any environment into a playground.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Public information about Dorothy Grundin’s specific sponsors is limited, but her disciplines make her equipment priorities easy to understand. As a park and street skier, she relies on durable twin-tip skis built to survive repeated impacts on metal, concrete and thin coverage. Medium-to-stiff flex patterns that stay stable on bigger urban features, combined with thick edges and reinforced bases, are critical for a season that might involve dozens of rail hits on the same spot. Well-fitted boots and strong, elastic bindings are equally important, offering enough support to handle side impacts and backseat landings without constant pre-release.

On the building and park-crew side, her kit expands to include the less glamorous essentials: work gloves, protective eyewear, helmets and outerwear ready for long days of shovelling, welding lessons and cat laps in all weather. For progressing skiers looking at her example, the takeaway is clear. You do not need the most expensive race-room gear to ski the way she does; you need equipment that is predictable, tough and comfortable enough that you can hike features, shovel landings and take falls without immediately ending your day. A trustworthy park ski, boots that truly fit your feet and outerwear you are happy to work in will do more for your progression than chasing whatever graphic is trending this year.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Dorothy Grundin because she represents a version of freeskiing that feels both authentic and achievable. She is not a household name on major broadcast schedules, but she shows up in the places that matter most to core skiers: a feature in a respected street film, a SuperUnknown semi-finalist spot, a quote in Freeskier from a legendary Midwestern jam, a smiling face in the Take The Rake crew photo. Her path shows that you can come from a small high school program, ride rope-tow parks, join film crews and help build terrain parks without ever stepping into the World Cup system.

For progressing skiers—especially those growing up on modest hills in the Midwest or elsewhere—her story offers a realistic blueprint. Start with whatever terrain you have, race or park; spend as many laps as you can on rails and side hits; say yes to community events and jams; learn the behind-the-scenes work of park building; and treat film projects as opportunities to tell a story, not just stack hammers. Watching how Grundin moves through this ecosystem, from high school race rosters to Vexed Co. credits and Trollhaugen park builds, shows that there are many ways to live a meaningful ski life. In that sense, her influence goes beyond tricks and into the deeper question of what it means to be “in” freeskiing today.