Kathi Heisch
Profile and significance
Katharina “Kathi” Heisch is a German freeride skier who has steadily worked her way into the international qualifier scene while simultaneously emerging as a thoughtful voice in ski storytelling. Listed among the Ski Women on the Freeride World Tour Qualifier roster for Germany, she occupies the space between motivated shop rider and full-time pro: a skier who spends winters chasing start gates, storm cycles and creative film projects rather than chasing headlines. Her nickname “Kathi” appears in community-focused freeski projects such as all-FLINTA compilations, while her full name is used in official rankings and film festival programs, reflecting how she moves comfortably between grassroots crews and formal competition structures.
Instead of being known for a single breakout contest result, Heisch is better understood as part of a new wave of freeriders whose careers braid together event starts, shop support and independent films. She represents Blue Tomato Shop Ulm in the retailer’s freeski team, bringing a big-mountain focus to a roster that includes both park and all-mountain skiers. That combination of contest experience, retail team backing and film presence places her clearly in the “emerging but established” category: not yet a household name, but very much on the radar of people who follow the freeride community closely.
Competitive arc and key venues
On paper, Heisch’s competitive story is written through the Freeride World Tour Qualifier and IFSA-style ranking systems rather than World Cup slopestyle or big air circuits. She appears on the Ski Women Adults seeding list of the International Freeskiers & Snowboarders Association, a rolling ranking that controls access to major freeride events and confirms that she is regularly in the start gate at sanctioned contests. That positioning is important context: riders on this list are not casual locals, but athletes investing time, travel and risk to earn points and step toward higher-tier Challenger and Tour starts.
Event result sheets show Heisch in the Ski Women field at Austrian Open Faces stops, including the Großglockner venue above Heiligenblut. In that 2-star qualifier she finished mid-pack, demonstrating that she is competitive on one of the more exposed faces in the regional series. Other start lists place her at Verbier Freeride Week by Dynastar in Switzerland, another venue that is famous for complex terrain, changing snow and the psychological weight of skiing under the Verbier banner. Taken together, those appearances tell you that she is no stranger to starting numbers, inspection laps and venue briefings where line choice and avalanche conditions are discussed in detail.
How they ski: what to watch for
Heisch’s public skiing is primarily documented through freeride competitions and all-female or FLINTA-focused edits rather than classic park contest live streams. When you watch her in qualifier recaps or community movies, you are seeing a skier judged on fluidity, control, line choice, air and technique across natural terrain. Instead of repetitive lap-after-lap park footage, most available clips are about entering a face once, committing to a chosen route and linking features smoothly from top to bottom. For viewers trying to evaluate her skiing, a useful lens is to pay attention to how she manages speed in exposed zones and how cleanly she exits drops or rollovers.
Because she competes and films on venues like Großglockner or around major freeride hubs in the Alps, you can expect her runs to feature a mix of steeps, wind lips, small to medium airs and tricky traverses rather than giant manmade booters. Look for the way she keeps her upper body stable when the terrain becomes irregular, her timing through compression zones and the way she chooses snow that will let her brake or accelerate safely. Those are the details that judges and experienced freeride fans notice, and they are also what separates a solid line from one that looks tentative on camera.
Resilience, filming, and influence
Beyond contest bibs and seeding points, Heisch’s most distinctive work to date is in film. She co-stars alongside ex-Freeride World Tour champion Aline Bock in the 2025 short film “The (un)perfect line,” produced by the Austrian collective two summits and showcased at the Freeride Filmbase festival in Innsbruck. The film sets up a generational conversation: Bock, who has already completed her high-adrenaline competition chapter, contrasts with Heisch, who is still moving between winter rooms, Alpine Club huts and competition venues while searching for her own way of living with the mountains. That framing positions Heisch not just as an athlete, but as someone willing to explore questions of lifestyle, sustainability and personal pace in the mountains.
Her name also appears in the rider list for “Bucket Clips 4,” an all-FLINTA ski movie project built around street, park and backcountry footage submitted from around the world and curated into a festival-ready compilation. Sharing screen time with dozens of other women and gender-diverse skiers, she contributes to a project whose goal is less about any single rider dominating the spotlight and more about documenting the depth of talent in this part of the ski community. That combination of a co-starring role in a reflective big-mountain film and a spot in a vibrant community-driven movie underlines her influence as someone helping expand who gets represented on screen in modern freeskiing.
Geography that built the toolkit
Although Heisch’s social channels and film credits do not reduce her to a single “home resort,” her competitive calendar and film festival appearances paint a clear geographic picture. She is strongly tied to the Alpine arc, particularly German-speaking mountain regions where freeride contests, hut culture and film festivals are tightly intertwined. Blue Tomato lists her as a shoprider for its Ulm store, anchoring her day-to-day scene in southern Germany, within striking distance of some of Austria and Switzerland’s most important freeride venues.
On the competition side, Großglockner above the village of Heiligenblut is a recurring waypoint, featuring steep alpine faces accessed from the Grossglockner High Alpine Road and served by the regional ski area. In Switzerland, Verbier and the surrounding 4 Vallées terrain frequently appear in the broader ecosystem she competes in, an area famous for its big vertical drops, variable snow and high-consequence lines. These mountains are not gentle training grounds; they reward riders who learn to read complex terrain, navigate mixed snow and make conservative decisions when conditions deteriorate. That environment shapes not just her skiing, but also the reflective tone of film projects that talk openly about risk, lifestyle and long-term relationships with the mountains.
Equipment and partners: practical takeaways
Heisch’s support network is anchored by a mix of core ski brands and outdoor companies that fit naturally with a freeride lifestyle. She skis on equipment from Lib Tech, a company that builds skis and snowboards around strong edges, durable bases and progressive shapes, all designed to cope with rock gardens, wind-affected snow and hard landings. For outerwear and layers, she is associated with Houdini Sportswear, which is known for technical, minimalistic garments with a strong focus on environmental responsibility – a good match for someone filming in remote terrain and spending time in mountain huts.
Her luggage and travel setup is supported by Db Journey, whose ski bags and packs are built for repeated airport transfers and train journeys through the Alps. Retail backing from Blue Tomato connects her to a European shop network that lives and breathes freeski, snowboard and surf culture. For fans and progressing skiers, those sponsor choices are useful benchmarks: if you like the way her skis track through choppy snow, or how organised her travel kit looks in behind-the-scenes clips, you can look directly at those brand lineups for gear that is being stress-tested in the exact environments she rides.
Why fans and progressing skiers care
For viewers discovering her through Bucket Clips, festival programs or qualifier result sheets, Heisch represents a relatable version of the freeride dream. She has enough structure around her – rankings, sponsors, a co-starring role in a well-regarded film – to show that a serious path exists, but her story is still very much in progress. There is something accessible about watching an athlete who is still piecing together seasons around shop work, road trips and hut stays, rather than appearing only as a polished, untouchable superstar.
If you are a skier progressing toward your first freeride competitions or simply trying to link more confident lines in off-piste terrain, Heisch’s journey offers several concrete takeaways. She demonstrates that time invested in regional qualifier events can open doors to film projects and festival screenings, that shop support can dovetail with contest ambitions, and that it is possible to talk openly about the emotional and lifestyle side of big-mountain skiing without sacrificing performance. Watching her evolve across future Open Faces stops, Freeride World Tour Qualifier rankings and creative films will be a way to follow not just one athlete, but a broader shift toward more inclusive and reflective freeride culture.
