Erin Spong

Profile and significance

Erin Spong is an American freeride and backcountry skier, writer and yoga teacher who has emerged as one of the clearest voices in modern big-mountain skiing. Born in 1993 and raised in Bloomington, Minnesota, she learned to ski at Hyland Hills on Team Gilboa before racing alpine for more than a decade. After hip surgery and eventual burnout on racing, she stepped away from competitive skiing to study journalism at the University of Missouri, then re-entered the sport on her own terms as a writer and, later, as a professional skier. Today she is based in Idaho, calls Pebble Creek Ski Area her home mountain and skis for Nordica, Mountain Hardwear and Cast Touring, blending big lines with thoughtful storytelling.

Spong’s significance comes from this combination of roles. As a journalist she has written hundreds of pieces for outlets like FREESKIER and other outdoor platforms, shaping how people think about gear, travel and ski culture. As an athlete she has shifted her focus from resorts to human-powered and heli-accessed terrain, producing independent films such as “Quaintrelle,” “Drive” and “Consonance,” the last of which earned a nomination at the 2024 iF3 Movie Awards. She has appeared in the femme-forward anthology “Advice for Girls” and holds segments in all three Bucket Clips FLINTA* films, including the opening part of Bucket Clips 2. That blend of words and turns gives her influence that extends beyond any single segment or line.

Competitive arc and key venues

Spong’s competitive arc starts in a place very familiar to Midwestern skiers: a small hill with big ambition. She began racing at age five at Hyland Hills Ski Area, logging thirteen seasons as a junior alpine racer. FIS records list her as an alpine athlete for Three Rivers Ski Racing, reflecting years of slalom and giant slalom starts on icy regional hills rather than glamorous World Cup venues. That background built the edge control, tactical awareness and mental toughness that still show up in her skiing today, even though she has long since left gates behind.

Rather than continuing into college racing, she chose a different path. After her first hip surgery at sixteen and an eventual sense of burnout, she stepped away from competition to focus on her studies and journalism. The pivot back toward freeskiing came gradually: first ski tests and travel pieces as an assistant editor at FREESKIER in Colorado, then more time on snow as she moved to Idaho and reclaimed skiing as something playful and expansive. Today, “competition” for Spong is less about bib numbers and more about creative projects and big objectives—heli-accessed lines with Selkirk Tangiers Heli Skiing in Revelstoke, backcountry missions around Galena Pass and Beartooth Pass, and long, filmed days at her home mountain of Pebble Creek. Those venues, rather than formal podiums, form the backbone of her modern career.

How they ski: what to watch for

On snow, Spong’s style blends race-bred precision with freeride fluidity. In films like “Nix,” which showcases her skiing around Pebble Creek, Galena Pass and Beartooth Pass, her runs emphasise clean, fall-line turns and confident speed management. She tends to treat big faces as canvases for linked, medium-sized airs rather than single massive drops, choosing lines that stay aesthetic and sustainable while still carrying consequence. Watch how she commits to a slope from the first turn: once she drops, there is very little hesitation, just a steady rhythm of arcs and slashes that reads as calm rather than frantic.

Her jump and feature work reflects the same mindset. Years of racing mean her stance stays centred even when takeoffs are wind-lipped or landings are rolled and blind; she keeps her upper body quiet and allows the skis to do most of the work. In “Consonance,” a short film that explores balance on and off snow, this control is highlighted in slow, drawn-out turns and drifted slashes where small adjustments in ankle and hip position change the whole feeling of the shot. For viewers trying to learn from her, key details include how early she sets her edges before committing to a pitch, how she uses side hits and rollovers to control speed, and how she manages to look relaxed even when the terrain under her feet is anything but.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Resilience appears in Spong’s story in several chapters. The first was navigating injury and burnout as a teenager, then walking away from a race identity that had defined most of her childhood. The second came early in her professional life: after landing a coveted role as assistant editor at FREESKIER in Denver, she was laid off at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of treating that as an endpoint, she relocated, doubled down on freelance writing and gradually stepped more fully into life as a professional skier, all while building a parallel career as a yoga teacher to maintain balance in body and mind.

Her film work and on-screen influence have grown steadily since. “Quaintrelle” and “Drive” established her as a skier who could not only star in but also produce and develop her own projects. “Consonance,” co-created with filmmaker friends, pushed that further with a surreal visual style and a clear narrative about finding harmony in a chaotic world, earning recognition on the festival circuit. The Nordica short “Risk It,” pairing her with Nat Segal in Revelstoke, documents her stepping into bigger heli-accessed terrain and confronting the mental side of risk—doubt, fear and the decision to drop anyway—on camera. Meanwhile, appearances in “Advice for Girls” and Bucket Clips weave her into a broader FLINTA* network, where she adds her voice to ongoing conversations about fear, confidence and inclusion in a sport that still skews heavily male in its media representation.

Geography that built the toolkit

Spong’s skiing is inseparable from the places that shaped her. Hyland Hills, with barely 150 metres of vertical and a strong race and park culture, taught her how much progression can come from repetition on small hills. Long nights on firm, man-made snow, weaving through gates and ripping groomers, built her base technique and her love of the rhythm of skiing itself. College years and early professional work in Colorado expanded her world to bigger Rocky Mountain resorts, where she began to explore off-piste terrain beyond the racecourse.

The real reset, though, happened in Idaho. Settling in Pocatello with Pebble Creek Ski Area as her home base, she found a mountain that matched her evolving goals: steep fall lines, a strong local community and easy access to tourable terrain in the Portneuf Range. From there, road trips to Galena Pass, Beartooth Pass and other backcountry zones layered in more complex route-finding and snowpack reading. Heli trips with Selkirk Tangiers Heli Skiing in the Selkirks introduced her to even larger faces and longer runs, demanding new levels of line vision and risk assessment. This geographic progression—from small Minnesota hill to big-mountain Idaho and British Columbia—helps explain why her turns look so composed: she has had to adapt the same core skill set to wildly different environments.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

As a freeride athlete for Nordica, Spong skis on the brand’s modern all-mountain and freeride shapes, including models like the Unleashed and Santa Ana lines that are designed for stability at speed and playful performance in mixed snow. Those skis need to handle everything from lift-served chop at Pebble Creek to deep heli laps in the Selkirks, so she gravitates toward waist widths and flex patterns that balance float, edge hold and predictability. Paired with supportive boots, that setup gives her the confidence to commit to steep entries and variable landings without second-guessing whether her gear will keep up.

Her partnerships with Mountain Hardwear and Cast Touring round out the picture. Mountain Hardwear provides the shells, insulation and technical layers that keep her dry and warm on long days of touring or filming, while Cast’s touring system lets her move efficiently uphill and still enjoy the solidity of an alpine binding on the way down. For skiers watching her edits, the practical takeaway is simple: choose equipment that matches the terrain you actually ski. A trustworthy freeride ski, boots that fit, touring hardware you understand and outerwear that you are happy to wear in everything from blower powder to sideways sleet will do more for your progression than any single flashy spec.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Erin Spong because she represents a complete, modern version of what a ski life can look like. She is a professional skier who films serious lines in Idaho and British Columbia; a writer who can articulate what those lines feel like from the inside; and a yoga teacher who talks openly about balance, fear and growth. Her films show the high points—heli drops, deep powder, clean turns—but her interviews and articles also reveal the uncertainty, career pivots and emotional work that sit behind those highlights.

For progressing skiers, especially women and riders coming from small hills or non-traditional pathways, her trajectory offers a powerful blueprint. You can grow up racing at a tiny Midwestern area, step away from the sport, come back through writing and media, and eventually find yourself in the start of a heli line in the Selkirks with a camera rolling. You can produce your own films, contribute to FLINTA* projects like Bucket Clips, and still hold space for a life off the hill that includes work, relationships and personal growth. Watching how Spong picks her lines, how she talks about risk and change, and how she uses both skiing and storytelling to explore what matters to her can help riders think not just about what they want to ski this season, but about what kind of long-term relationship they want with the mountains.