Piper Kunst

Profile and significance

Piper Kunst is an American big-mountain and freeride skier whose name has become inseparable from Kings & Queens of Corbet’s and the modern, creative freeride movement. Born and raised in South Park, Colorado and growing up lapping the terrain parks and bowls of Breckenridge, she built her first skill set in the Rockies before moving to Salt Lake City to study at the University of Utah. There she finished a degree in psychology with a minor in drawing and shifted her focus fully to skiing, spending almost every storm day riding at Alta and Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

On snow, Kunst is best known as the 2022 Queen of Corbet’s Couloir at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, the 2023 “Vice Queen” after a close second place, and a perennial podium threat whenever Kings & Queens returns. She has added a runner-up finish at the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships in Riksgränsen and the Sister Summit Rookie of the Year title to that résumé, alongside film segments and brand projects that highlight both her skiing and her visual art. Between big airs in one of the world’s most famous couloirs and creative film work with European crews, she has taken a place as one of the more influential big-mountain skiers of her generation, especially on the women’s side of freeride.

Competitive arc and key venues

Kunst’s competitive arc reads like a tour of modern freeride proving grounds. After years of skiing with friends and family at Breckenridge and quietly building a reputation for sending cliffs and side-hits, she received an invitation to Kings & Queens of Corbet’s in Wyoming. In 2022, on her first appearance at the event, she charged into Corbet’s Couloir with speed, linked clean turns down the gut and capped her run with a huge backflip off the Tensleep Bowl booter. The athlete-voted format rewarded that mix of commitment and control, and she was crowned Queen of Corbet’s that year.

The momentum carried into 2023, when she returned to Jackson Hole as defending champion. Against a stacked roster of Olympians, Freeride World Tour riders and park specialists, she again stood out, this time finishing second and effectively taking the “Vice Queen” slot. When the event came back after a hiatus, she remained part of the core story: in 2025 she landed back on the women’s ski podium, proving that her original win was not a one-off and that she can deliver high-scoring lines in Corbet’s year after year.

Her competitive reach extends across the Atlantic. At the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships in Riksgränsen, hosted by the northern Swedish resort of Riksgränsen, she led the women’s alpine category after qualifying with a triple-air line that became the talk of the event. After the final, she finished second overall behind Freeride World Tour champion Justine Dufour-Lapointe, a result that underlined her ability to translate the same aggression and control from Corbet’s into classic Scandinavian big-mountain terrain. Add in the Sister Summit freeride gathering, where she was named Rookie Skier of the Year, and invitations to special events like the Silver Belt Classic at Sugar Bowl, and the pattern is clear: whenever organizers look for committed, modern freeriders, Kunst’s name is on the short list.

How they ski: what to watch for

Kunst’s skiing is defined by a rare combination of artful looseness and real consequential commitment. In Corbet’s, Riksgränsen or Little Cottonwood, she tends to choose lines that stack several features into one fluid run rather than hunting for a single hero air. Watch how she enters steep faces: she is comfortable dropping straight into fall-line terrain, letting speed build before she pulls up to a takeoff, and then using that speed to fuel big backflips, threes and transfers instead of scrubbing it away with defensive turns.

Her style is often described as “chaos with a plan.” From the outside, the pace into features can look borderline reckless, but slow-motion replays show how consistently she keeps her stance centered and her vision locked down the hill. In Kings & Queens coverage it is common to see her throw a committed backflip off the main booter or a big air off the west wall, land clean, absorb the impact and immediately drive into the next section. At the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships her triple-air line showed a similar pattern: fast, stacked features with minimal hesitation and landings that carry enough speed to keep the judges’ eyes glued to the run.

For viewers, a key detail to watch is how early she makes decisions. On takeoff she commits fully to the trick—there is rarely a late bailout—and in the air she keeps a tight, controlled shape that lets her spot and stomp landings even when terrain or snow are unpredictable. That blend of freestyle rotation and freeride line choice is exactly what modern big-mountain events reward.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Beyond results sheets, Kunst has become increasingly visible through film projects, brand collaborations and media profiles. She appears in all-FLINTA freeski movies like “Bucket Clips,” where she shares screen time with a global crew of women and gender-diverse riders, and in projects such as “Mimic,” a film that has screened in mountain-town festivals and online premieres. European trips with the Swedish brand 1000 Skis have taken her to a variety of backcountry zones and resort venues, where she films lines that echo the same big, fluid style seen in competition but with more room for creative features and powder turns.

Her presence extends into the gear world as well. As a featured athlete for Blizzard | Tecnica, she has been part of the development and testing loop for freeride-oriented skis, including work on Blizzard’s Canvas collection, and she has spoken in interviews about spending seasons fine-tuning flex patterns and pop on prototypes. Brands like 1000 Skis, Sweet Protection, Grass Sticks, Alta Ski Area and glove makers such as Wells Lamont have also appeared on her sponsor roster, reflecting both her freeride focus and her appeal as a creative, art-driven athlete.

At the same time, she cultivates a parallel identity as a visual artist, selling prints and illustrations and curating an aesthetic that ties together skiing, music and art. Podcast appearances and athlete features often highlight this dual path, which resonates with fans who see in her an example of how to build a ski career that is not limited to race results or contest circuits but also includes personal projects and creative work.

Geography that built the toolkit

The mountains that shaped Kunst’s skiing trace a clear arc across the map. As a kid in South Park, Colorado she spent countless days at Breckenridge, learning to mix groomer laps with early forays into bowls, cliffs and terrain parks. The mix of playful park features and Colorado high-alpine terrain gave her a foundation in both air awareness and variable snow before she ever set foot in Corbet’s Couloir.

Moving to Salt Lake City for university opened up an entirely new classroom. Lapping storm cycles at Alta and Snowbird, she learned to read complex Wasatch terrain, manage exposure and speed in deep powder, and blend freeride lines with freestyle tricks. Jackson Hole’s Jackson Hole Mountain Resort became the stage where those skills were tested most publicly, with Corbet’s Couloir acting as a high-pressure laboratory for big airs and steep entries. Further afield, the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships at Riksgränsen added Arctic light, long spring days and firm, technical snow to the mix, rounding out a geographic toolkit that stretches from Colorado tree lines to Sweden’s rock-lined faces.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

For skiers looking at Kunst’s setup, the common thread is freeride performance with enough versatility for tricks. She has worked closely with 1000 Skis, a Swedish company focused on all-mountain and powder skis, and with Blizzard | Tecnica on the development of freeride models. That means skis with substantial waist widths, reliable edge hold and a flex profile that can handle both big, fast landings and playful moves like backflips and spins. Her own comments emphasise skis that feel predictable when you are “pointing it” into a couloir but still light and energetic enough to move easily in the air.

On her feet, Kunst sticks with Tecnica boots—often the Cochise or Mach 1—paired with supportive liners such as those from ZipFit, giving a mix of precision and comfort that is crucial when long filming days and competition runs stack up. For poles, she rides bamboo poles from Grass Sticks, favouring their durability and feel in the hands. Protection and outerwear from brands like Sweet Protection and technical apparel companies such as Arc’teryx round out a kit that is clearly built for serious big-mountain use rather than resort cruising. The practical takeaway for fans is that gear choices should mirror the terrain and style you are actually skiing: stiff, dependable boots, freeride-oriented skis and protective equipment you trust make it easier to commit fully when the line gets real.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Piper Kunst because she embodies the modern big-mountain skier: creative, aggressive and equally at home in a filmed segment or a high-stakes invitational. Her Queen of Corbet’s title, repeated podiums at Jackson Hole and near-win at the Scandinavian Big Mountain Championships show that she can perform when the world is watching, while her film work, art projects and brand collaborations reveal a personality that goes beyond the standard contest-focused profile.

For progressing skiers, especially those who dream of freeride lines more than slopestyle courses, her path offers a tangible roadmap. Grow your confidence on home mountains, learn to read terrain in all conditions, bring freestyle tricks into natural features, and be ready when invitations to events or film trips arrive. Watching how Kunst skis—how she commits into fall-line entries, maintains speed through multiple airs and still adds stylistic touches in the air—turns her footage into a living tutorial on contemporary freeride. Whether someone is dropping their first local cliff or just watching Kings & Queens replays on repeat, Piper Kunst provides a clear, inspiring example of where strong fundamentals, creativity and a willingness to send can lead.