Hunter Henderson
Durham, New Hampshire, USA | Active: 2019-present senior events | Discipline: Slopestyle and Big Air | Current: U.S. Freeski Team
Aspen Snow And The Alternate Start
Heavy snow sat over the Aspen big air jump in January 2026, softening speed and turning every in-run into a calculation. Hunter Henderson was not the first name built into the main storyline that night. He entered as an alternate after late scratches opened the start list, then put a switch triple 1800 with a reverse mute grab to his feet. The score left him seventh in Stake Men’s Ski Big Air, one day before he placed sixth in Jeep Men’s Ski Slopestyle. It was not a medal, but it showed where his senior career now sits: close enough to the main field that a single invitation, scratch, or clean landing can change the week.
Sunday River Weekends Before Waterville Valley
Henderson was born on December 28, 2002, and U.S. Ski & Snowboard lists his hometown as Durham, New Hampshire. His official team biography says he first skied at two years old, chasing his older sister Grace during weekend trips to Sunday River. The same profile describes him as a child constantly looking for things to jump off, which pushed his parents toward the freestyle program at Waterville Valley.
That East Coast base matters. Waterville Valley BBTS appears on his FIS profile and U.S. Ski & Snowboard lists the club as part of his development path. He later attended Waterville Valley Academy during winter seasons, using the academy schedule to train, travel, and compete while staying tied to New Hampshire. Before Park City, Mammoth, Aspen, or Silvaplana entered the record, his skiing grew from smaller hills, hard snow, and repeated rail-and-jump laps.
Leysin Park And Pipe At Seventeen
The first international marker came at the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020. At Leysin Park & Pipe in Switzerland, Henderson earned bronze in boys’ freeski slopestyle behind Kiernan Fagan of the United States and Melvin Morén of Sweden. His best final score was 88.66, close enough to Morén’s 89.33 silver to show that the podium was not a soft result.
That event also placed him inside a generation that later became central to senior slopestyle. Luca Harrington, Matěj Švancer, Daniel Bacher, and other young riders were already moving through the same qualification and final sheets. Henderson’s fourth place in Youth Olympic big air at Leysin added another detail: from the start, he was not built only for rails or only for jumps. His path has stayed balanced between slopestyle course reading and single-hit rotation.
Kläppen And The Rookie Team Door
Before Leysin, Henderson had already pushed through the junior system. New Hampton School reported in May 2019 that he had been named to the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Freeski Rookie Slopestyle and Big Air Team. The same report connected that nomination to a season with three Nor-Am wins, third overall in the Nor-Am standings, and FIS Junior World Championship results at Kläppen, Sweden.
At Kläppen, he finished sixth in slopestyle and tenth in big air. Those numbers matter because they were earned before his senior World Cup identity had formed. Junior results can fade quickly when athletes meet full-speed World Cup courses, but Henderson used them as a bridge. Red Bull later noted that in 2019, at age 16, he became the first skier to land 1600 double cork spins in all four take-off directions. That detail explains why the U.S. team had already moved him upward.
Bakuriani When The Second Run Counted
The senior breakthrough arrived at the 2023 FIS Freestyle Ski, Snowboard and Freeski World Championships in Bakuriani, Georgia. Henderson reached the men’s freeski slopestyle final and finished sixth in his first World Championships appearance. U.S. Ski & Snowboard reported that he stomped his second run of two in the final, a useful detail because slopestyle finals punish hesitation. One missed rail, rushed grab, or low landing can end the day.
The field around him gave the result weight. Birk Ruud won, Christian Nummedal took second, and Andri Ragettli finished third. Max Moffatt and Sebastian Schjerve were directly ahead of Henderson, while Evan McEachran, Fabian Bösch, Ben Barclay, Noah Porter MacLennan, Jesper Tjäder, and Tormod Frostad were also on the final list. Sixth in that group did not make him a dominant contest skier, but it placed him inside the senior conversation.
Laax And Silvaplana In The 2026 Push
By 2026, Henderson’s profile had shifted from promising junior to repeated World Cup finalist. U.S. Ski & Snowboard lists him with four Top 5 results and seven Top 10 results in World Cup competition. Red Bull’s Unrailistic 2026 athlete page gives the clearest recent line: fifth place at the FIS Freeski Slopestyle World Cup in Laax 2026 and fourth place at the FIS Freeski World Cup in Silvaplana 2026.
Laax and Silvaplana are not beginner-friendly courses. Laax rewards rail precision before the jumps open the score, while Silvaplana at Corvatsch asks skiers to manage speed, spring snow, and long airtime above the Engadin valley. Henderson’s World Cup podium is still missing, but the shape of the record is clear. He has reached the zone where one cleaner final run can move fourth or fifth into medal range.
Cork Five Lead Mute And Four-Direction Control
Red Bull lists Henderson’s favorite trick as a cork 540 lead mute. That is revealing because it is not the largest trick in his bag. A cork five, done well, is about axis, grab timing, and body position rather than degree count. It fits the way his skiing is usually read: technical enough for modern contests, but still rooted in course flow rather than only big-air mathematics.
The four-direction 1600 double cork note from 2019 gives the other side of the picture. To land high-degree double corks in all four take-off directions, a skier needs left, right, switch left, and switch right control. That balance matters in slopestyle because judges do not want one repeated axis across three jumps. Henderson’s Aspen 2026 switch triple 1800 reverse mute showed the bigger end of that range, but the base is older: switch takeoffs, off-axis awareness, mute and safety grabs, rail-to-jump pacing, and enough landing discipline to survive full courses.
Grace Henderson, Park City, And Team Support
The visible family thread runs through Grace Henderson. U.S. Ski & Snowboard says Hunter first skied while chasing his older sister, and the New Hampton report noted that he joined Grace on the U.S. Freeski Team. In 2026, local New Hampshire coverage described Grace as selected for Team USA at the Olympics, while Hunter was named the men’s Team USA first alternate. That placed both siblings inside the same national-team winter, even with different competition roles.
Support around him is also concrete. U.S. Ski & Snowboard lists him on the FK Pro Slopestyle team, with six years on team since 2021, Waterville Valley BBTS as his club, and the University of Utah as his school. Public sponsor information includes Red Bull through his athlete page, while his social profile has listed Red Bull, Oakley Skiing, Völkl Skis, and the U.S. Freeski Team. The picture is not a loose privateer path. It is national-team structure, East Coast roots, and brand support built around a contest career.
Åre Opens A More Creative Lane
The next public marker is Red Bull Unrailistic 2026 in Åre, Sweden, scheduled for April 30 and May 1. That invitation says something different from a FIS start list. Unrailistic, built around Jesper Tjäder’s course ideas, asks skiers to read unusual rails, transfers, and playful line options rather than only standard World Cup features. Henderson has already competed there twice, according to Red Bull’s 2026 line-up page.
That makes his direction more interesting than a straight podium chase. Henderson remains a slopestyle and big air competitor, still hunting the World Cup podium that has sat just out of reach through Laax, Silvaplana, Stubai, and Copper Mountain. Åre gives him another kind of test: a course where creativity, rail touch, cork control, and East Coast adaptability can show without waiting for judges to reward one perfect finals run.
