Faith Stanton
Profile and significance
Faith Stanton is an American freeride skier whose path runs from Massachusetts high school race courses to Carrabassett Valley Academy in Maine, and then on to the IFSA circuit, Freeride World Tour Qualifier and Challenger ranks, and collegiate freeride for the University of Colorado Boulder. Born in 2002, she first made a name for herself as a teenager when she won the Massachusetts state giant slalom title as a Masconomet Regional High School freshman and added a top-five in slalom the same week, a rare double for such a young racer. That momentum carried her to Carrabassett Valley Academy, the ski academy at the base of Sugarloaf, where she entered the alpine programme and started racing FIS events across New England and abroad.
Today Stanton is best known not as an alpine specialist but as a rising freeride athlete. She appears in IFSA Ski Women adult rankings, has scored strong results in the IFSA Collegiate Freeride Series and features on the Freeride World Tour’s Challenger roster as a Ski Women competitor listed out of Sunday River, Maine. At the same time, she is a senior at the University of Colorado Boulder, serving as vice president of the CU Freeski club and studying political science while working as a legislative intern. That combination of East Coast race roots, Maine freeride heritage and Colorado collegiate life makes her a compelling emerging figure for anyone following the pipeline that feeds the Freeride World Tour.
Competitive arc and key venues
Stanton’s competitive story begins in the gates. Through her early teens she raced for Masconomet Regional in Massachusetts, culminating in that state giant slalom title and a fifth place in slalom at the Massachusetts State Alpine Championships. From there she stepped into a more specialised environment at Carrabassett Valley Academy, where she was recognised as a student of the month while balancing school and a full alpine training load. Representing CVA and the United States, she picked up a FIS licence and started in numerous FIS races, including giant slaloms at venues like Sunday River and international events in Finland. Her FIS points profile shows several seasons of solid but not World Cup-bound results, the kind of grounded experience that often becomes the foundation for successful freeriders.
As she approached her twenties, Stanton progressively shifted away from pure alpine racing and toward freeride. That pivot coincided with her move west for university. At the University of Colorado Boulder she joined the CU Freeski club, eventually stepping into a leadership role as vice president while also starting in IFSA events. Her name now appears on the IFSA Ski Women adult seeding lists and freeride rankings, reflecting a growing portfolio of results across North American venues. In the collegiate sphere she has competed in stops such as the Breckenridge IFSA Collegiate Freeride Series 2*, where she secured a podium in Ski Women, and the Crested Butte Collegiate Series, as well as Qualifier and Challenger events linked to the Freeride World Tour structure. With Sunday River listed as her home mountain on the FWT rider profile, her arc neatly ties together East Coast race hills, Maine big-mountain terrain and Colorado’s freeride collegiate scene.
How they ski: what to watch for
Stanton arrives in freeride with a toolkit built on years of running gates on firm snow. That background typically translates into strong edge grip, comfort in the fall line and an instinct for reading terrain and snow quality quickly, and her competitive record suggests she has carried those strengths into her big-mountain runs. On the East Coast, skiing venues like Sugarloaf and Sunday River, freeriders often have to deal with variable conditions, tight fall-line chutes and small but consequential airs rather than bottomless powder and playful pillows. Stanton’s shift from giant slalom and slalom into this environment implies a focus on control and line discipline as much as on showy tricks.
In the IFSA Collegiate Freeride Series, Ski Women runs are judged on line choice, control, fluidity, technique and style. Athletes who come from racing often earn their scores through clean, linked turns that use the whole face, modest airs landed with speed, and consistent rhythm from top to bottom rather than relying on a single huge cliff. Stanton’s results at places like Breckenridge and Crested Butte fit that pattern: steady, technically solid skiing that rewards judges’ preference for control and flow. For viewers following her edits or replays, the things to watch for are how early she commits to her edges before steep sections, how she chooses terrain features that match her strengths, and how rarely she seems to be playing catch-up with her line once she drops in.
Resilience, filming, and influence
Even at an emerging stage, Stanton’s story carries notes of resilience. Leaving a clear alpine pathway—complete with FIS licence, academy backing and state titles—to rebuild her identity in freeride involves a conscious decision to prioritise enjoyment and long-term connection to skiing over chasing ever-lower racing points. Her Freeride World Tour athlete profile highlights a personal motto along the lines of “If you’re having fun, you’re doing it right,” which sums up that choice neatly. It is a reminder that many of the riders who eventually reach the top tiers of freeride do so because they managed to preserve the joy of skiing through competitive ups and downs.
While she is still early in the classic film-segment sense of influence, Stanton already operates at the centre of several communities that matter for the future of the sport. At Carrabassett Valley Academy she was part of a lineage that has produced Olympic and World Cup athletes; at CU Boulder she now helps steer a large and lively freeski club, organising trips, training days and competition logistics for dozens of peers. Her presence on IFSA ranking lists and FWT Challenger rosters signals to younger East Coast racers that there is a clear route from high-school state championships and CVA training blocks into the freeride world. By blending her on-snow progression with academic work and political engagement in Colorado, she also models a version of ski life that fits alongside studies and future careers, not just short-term athletic goals.
Geography that built the toolkit
Geography has shaped Stanton’s skiing at every stage. She grew up racing and training on New England snow, where winter often means firm surfaces, changing weather and a premium on technical precision. Masconomet’s training and state races on regional hills laid the foundation; the move to Sugarloaf through Carrabassett Valley Academy added bigger vertical, longer runs and more complex terrain. Sugarloaf’s reputation as one of the largest and steepest resorts in the East gave her early exposure to terrain that demands confidence and fitness, while Sunday River’s race and freeride events broadened her sense of what competition could look like on her home coast.
University life brought a new landscape. In Colorado she now splits her time between lecture halls in Boulder and the steeper, rockier faces of the Rockies. Collegiate freeride stops at resorts like Breckenridge and Crested Butte introduce her to wide alpine bowls, couloirs and wind-affected ridges that feel very different from the tree-lined East Coast trails she grew up on. At the same time, her FWT Qualifier and Challenger schedule keeps her connected to venues back in Maine, where Sunday River’s competition culture remains part of her identity. The result is a skier who understands both sides of North American freeride geography, equally comfortable talking about icy race days in New England and powder-filled faces in the central Rockies.
Equipment and partners: practical takeaways
Public information about Stanton’s specific equipment sponsors is limited, but her mix of alpine background and freeride focus makes her gear priorities relatively clear. As someone who has raced giant slalom and slalom at FIS level, she knows the value of a precise, torsionally strong ski; as an IFSA and FWT Qualifier athlete, she also needs enough width and stability underfoot to handle variable snow, small airs and fast runouts. In practice, that usually points toward modern freeride or all-mountain skis with a waist wide enough to be stable off-piste, a balanced flex for both carved turns and slashes, and bindings and boots that prioritise retention and support over ultra-light touring weight.
Her long association with institutions like Carrabassett Valley Academy, Sugarloaf, Sunday River and the CU Freeski programme is just as important as any logo on her skis. CVA and her home Maine resorts provided structured race training and early mentorship; IFSA and the Freeride World Tour system now offer a pathway and framework for progressing as a freeride athlete; CU Boulder gives her a community and organisational platform. For skiers watching her career and thinking about their own setup, the takeaways are straightforward: choose equipment that matches the terrain you ski most, and look for clubs, schools and programmes that give you both coaching and a supportive crew.
Why fans and progressing skiers care
Fans and younger riders care about Faith Stanton because she represents a very current version of the East-Coast-to-freeride story. She is a state champion and former FIS racer who chose to pivot into big-mountain competition rather than chasing an increasingly narrow alpine pathway, and she has managed that shift while studying full time and taking on leadership roles in her university freeski community. Her presence on IFSA rankings and the FWT Challenger roster, combined with visible roles at places like CU Boulder, proves that you can come from school racing in Massachusetts, refine your craft at a Maine ski academy and then test yourself against serious freeride venues in both the East and the Rockies.
For progressing skiers, especially those with race backgrounds who feel the pull of off-piste terrain, her trajectory offers a concrete blueprint. You can use the fundamentals you built in gates to shine on freeride faces; you can move from local high-school leagues to academies like CVA and then on to college clubs and international qualifier circuits; and you can balance competitive ambition with the simple goal that Stanton’s own motto captures so neatly—if you are having fun, you are doing it right. Watching how she threads that balance over the next seasons will be interesting not just for fans of Maine or Colorado skiing, but for anyone curious about how the next generation of freeriders is being shaped.
