Bucket Clips 4 | An All FLINTA/Female Ski Movie

Profile and significance

Alice Michel is a Swiss freeski street and park skier from the Verbier region who has become one of the key names in the modern, film-driven side of women’s freeskiing. Rather than chasing World Cup globes, she has built her reputation in all-female crews, independent films and creative rail events, helping to push representation and progression in urban and resort-based skiing at the same time. Based in the Valais and long connected to the freestyle scene around Verbier, she has emerged as a central figure in projects that blend serious rail skills with a laid-back, community-first attitude.

Her profile spans several corners of the culture. She has been featured in season edits that showcase park, street and a touch of powder; in all-female street movies like “Frozen Babiez”; in narrative projects such as “Connected” that follow a small group of women from handrails to backcountry; and in the Cute Café crew’s films, where she is both a skier and a quiet driving force. Away from the camera she judges street contests like Red Bull’s Rail Riot in Laax, appears in media pieces about the realities of being a woman in freestyle skiing and even talks openly about training and running a half-marathon only a few months after giving birth. Taken together, that mix of skiing, storytelling and advocacy makes her an important reference for anyone following where women’s freeskiing is heading.

Competitive arc and key venues

Michel’s path doesn’t follow the classic slopestyle World Cup storyline. She has a FIS licence and results in regional tours, but her “competitive arc” is defined more by rail jams, creative side events and the way she brings street-ski mentality into those settings. A good example is the women’s Super Streetstyle at the 2023 Dew Tour, where she held her own on a tight course of rails and wallrides, putting down clean lines that included technical moves like a blind surface swap up high and a front 270 out of the lower flat-down rail. Those runs did not win the event, but they showed how her street background translates under lights and live judging.

As her reputation grew, she started to appear on the other side of the barricades too. At Red Bull’s Rail Riot during the LAAX OPEN, she was invited onto a small, core judging panel alongside influential park and street skiers. That role is telling: organisers look for riders who understand subtle differences in trick difficulty, speed, spot choice and style, and Michel’s years on urban features make her well suited to read those details. Off the contest stage, she has collected a filmography that ties her closely to resorts and regions that matter in street and freeride culture. Verbier and the surrounding Valais valleys are home, providing both lift-accessed laps and town-centre handrails; trips to places like LAAX connect her to one of Europe’s most established freestyle hubs; and her work in Scandinavian-led street projects has brought her onto frozen stairsets and plazas in Northern Europe as well.

How they ski: what to watch for

In films and contest recaps, Michel’s skiing reads as controlled, technical and quietly confident rather than showy. On rails she favours solid basics taken to their logical, stylish conclusion: clean switch-ons, blind surface swaps that stay locked on the rail, and 270 or 450 exits that are clearly finished before she looks for the next feature. Footage from her season edits and street parts shows her comfortable on down rails, close-outs and wallride setups, usually choosing lines that reward commitment and precision instead of low-risk tap tricks.

What stands out is how she treats each feature like a small puzzle. Instead of repeating the same approach on every rail, she plays with direction changes, surface swaps and subtle speed changes to squeeze different tricks out of the same spot. In Frozen Babiez and Cute Café projects, you often see her take a spot from another rider’s idea and add a small twist—a different direction of spin out, a cleaner lock-in on a close-out, or a more creative way of using the run-in or run-out. When there is a chance to add style, she usually chooses a line that lets her stand tall and ride away smooth, even on rough urban snow or ice. For viewers trying to learn from her, it is worth focusing on how early she gets onto the rail, how she stays centred over her feet, and how calmly she rides out of heavy features without unnecessary arm flailing.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Michel’s influence comes as much from the way she works as from any single trick. She has been part of the shift toward all-female and mixed crews taking up more space in street skiing, from early appearances in “Connected” with Rosina Friedel and Stefanie Mössler to newer projects like Frozen Babiez and the Cute Café films. Those movies are built around camaraderie as much as high-end tricks: long nights shovelling, sharing slams, cheering each other into blind take-offs and tagging spots with small personal touches. Her presence helps set that tone, showing a model of ski filmmaking where pushing progression and keeping the vibes light can coexist.

Resilience shows up in more personal ways too. In interviews she has spoken about being almost the only woman in ski-business classes at Colorado Mountain College and about her experience coaching girls’ freestyle sessions, noticing how riders often dared to try more when boys were not around watching. More recently, French-language coverage has followed her through pregnancy and back into endurance and snowsport challenges, highlighting a period where she stayed active, then completed the Ventoux half-marathon only a few months after giving birth. For many viewers that story matters as much as any handrail clip: it shows a path for staying connected to sport through big life changes, without pretending that the process is easy.

Geography that built the toolkit

Verbier and the wider Valais region are central to Michel’s skiing identity. Growing up and riding around an alpine village that mixes high-end freeride lines with dense village streets means she had access to both classic resort terrain and a dense network of urban features. On-piste laps above town, the freeride zones that have made Verbier 4Vallées famous, and evening sessions on local stairsets or flatbars all feed into the same toolkit: comfort in variable snow, strong edge control and an eye for spots that most skiers walk past.

Her geographic world then expanded in two main directions. First, toward the United States, where she studied ski and snowboard business at Colorado Mountain College and spent time in the Rockies park scene, adding North American-style jump and rail setups to her experience. Second, toward the broader European street network, working with crews whose films were shot across Switzerland and Scandinavia. Those trips exposed her to classic Scandinavian-style street weather—cold, dark, icy—and to architecture very different from Swiss chalets, pushing her to adapt spot selection and trick choice. Through Simply. Recreation Club and similar projects based near Verbier, she has also stayed close to the idea of local, Swiss-made skiing, grounding her film work in the same valleys where she grew up.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Michel’s equipment story lines up with her focus on street and playful resort skiing. In many of her recent projects she appears alongside Swiss ski brand Simply. Recreation Club, whose skis are designed and built near Verbier and tuned for exactly the kind of creative all-mountain and rail skiing she represents. Their fishtail shapes and surf-inspired outlines fit the way she treats the hill as a continuous playground rather than a set of isolated features. For outerwear and layering, she has skied in films backed by companies like Swedish base-layer specialist Eivy, whose warm but stylish pieces suit long nights of shovelling, hiking and standing around while the camera rolls as much as they do actual riding.

For skiers watching her edits, the practical takeaway is that her setup is about versatility and comfort rather than race-room precision. A medium-flex twin-tip that feels predictable on both rails and chopped resort snow, boots that allow some ankle movement without losing support, and durable outerwear that stays warm and dry through repeated slams are worth more than shaving grams or chasing the stiffest possible flex. Michel’s example also shows how working with brands that share a crew’s values—local production, creativity, community—can strengthen the storytelling behind a project as much as the performance on snow.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Alice Michel because she represents a version of freeskiing that is both serious and light-hearted. Her clips prove she can handle heavy street rails, creative resort lines and contest courses, but the projects she chooses emphasise friendship, shared effort and the simple joy of skiing and filming with a tight crew. In a scene that can sometimes feel dominated by rankings and results, her work with Cute Café, Frozen Babiez and other films reminds viewers that there is another centre of gravity where women write their own stories, pick their own spots and define success on their own terms.

For progressing skiers, especially young women looking toward park and street, Michel offers a relatable blueprint. She shows that you do not need to be a World Cup regular to have a meaningful impact on the sport; that regional hills, city handrails and creative crews can be enough to build a name; and that it is possible to combine study, coaching, parenthood and serious skiing without pretending any of it is effortless. Watching how she approaches features, how she stays calm under pressure in events like Dew Tour streetstyle, and how she invests in community-focused projects can help riders think beyond trick lists toward the kind of ski life they actually want. In that sense, Alice Michel is not just a strong skier from Verbier; she is part of the engine driving women’s street and resort freeskiing into its next chapter.

Profile and significance

Amanda Krüttli is a Swiss freeride skier and all-mountain coach based in the Flims Laax Falera region, where she balances a life on steep faces with a leadership role in the local ski school. On snow, she competes in the Ski Women category on the Freeride World Tour Qualifier and Challenger circuits, representing Switzerland in events across the Alps. Off snow, she works as Head of Training for the ski division at the LAAX School, helping to shape how the next generation of skiers learn technique, safety and mountain awareness. That combination of active competitor and educator makes her stand out in a freeride landscape where many riders specialise in only one lane.

While she is not yet a podium regular at the very top tier, Krüttli has quietly built a solid presence in Europe’s Region 1 freeride ecosystem. Her name appears on start lists from Switzerland to France, and she has accumulated ranking points on the Freeride World Tour Challenger pathway. At the same time, she contributes to film and community projects such as the all-FLNITA* “Bucket Clips” ski films, where she rides alongside a global crew of women and gender-diverse skiers. For fans who follow the culture beyond the biggest broadcasts, she represents a grounded, everyday version of professional freeride life: teaching in the same mountains where she competes, and using her environmental and tourism background to keep that environment healthy.

Competitive arc and key venues

Krüttli’s competitive arc runs through many of the classic freeride proving grounds in the Alps. She has taken repeated starts on the FWT Qualifier tour, including events during Verbier Freeride Week, where she skied on the demanding faces above the famous village long before the main Freeride World Tour circus arrives. Starts at the 3-star Jam Extreme event in Andorra and the French Freeride Qualifiers in Vars added high-exposure venues to her résumé, putting her on steep, technical terrain in mixed snow conditions against a deep European field.

In Switzerland she has lined up at the Nendaz Freeride 1-star event, part of a competition series known for feeding talented skiers into the higher-level qualifiers. On the French side, results pages list her among the Ski Women entries at the French Freeride Series stop in Avoriaz, another resort with a strong freeride identity and highly visible competition zones. These are not always headline-grabbing finishes, but they are the kind of steady, mid-pack performances that keep an athlete’s ranking ticking upwards and provide the experience needed to handle bigger opportunities.

As a Challenger-series rider, Krüttli competes in the layer just beneath the fully televised Freeride World Tour. That tier demands the same core skills as the main tour—line choice, control, fluidity and risk management—but gives riders room to develop their style and decision-making. Her presence on the Challenger list, combined with a growing bank of FWT ranking points, signals that she has the consistency and commitment to stay in the system over multiple seasons, rather than appearing for a single event and disappearing again.

How they ski: what to watch for

Because freeride competitions are judged on line choice, control, air and fluidity rather than trick lists, the best way to understand Krüttli’s skiing is to look at how she moves through a face from top to bottom. Her lines tend to prioritise clean fall-line skiing with well-placed airs rather than maximum exposure at all costs. In event replays and rider edits, you often see her choose entries that allow two or three linked features—small drops, rollers, wind lips—rather than one enormous cliff that risks a full-stop landing. That approach reflects an understanding of how judges reward continuous, dynamic skiing.

Technically, she rides with a compact stance and steady upper body, which helps her stay centred when the snow turns from chalk to wind crust or when the run funnels into narrow couloirs. Landings are usually set up with enough speed to keep the line flowing but not so much that control is sacrificed; she tends to ski away cleanly rather than “back-seat saving” heavy impacts. For viewers who want to study her approach, it is worth paying attention to how early she commits to a line from the start gate, how she manages sluff in steeper sections, and how she uses small terrain features to keep runs interesting even when conditions are not perfect.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Krüttli’s influence extends beyond contest bibs. She is part of the international cast of the “Bucket Clips” film projects, short movies built around FLINTA* skiers from around the world who contribute street, backcountry and resort clips to a shared edit. In those films she appears alongside athletes from Scandinavia, Central Europe and North America, reinforcing the idea that there is no single “correct” path into the sport—only a shared passion for spending time in the mountains and in front of the camera with friends. Her freeride segments add a strong Alpine flavour to the mix and show that the same skier who coaches technique can still push into consequential terrain when conditions line up.

Off the hill, she brings a sustainability and tourism perspective that is unusually developed for a professional athlete. With a background in environmental sciences and work linked to Switzerland’s “Swisstainable” destination programme, she has contributed to projects that help Alpine tourism regions integrate sustainability into their long-term planning. Combined with her responsibilities in events and projects for the Flims Laax Falera destination, that means she is thinking about freeride terrain not just as a competition venue, but as a landscape that needs careful management to remain rideable for future generations.

This blend of film work, competition, coaching and sustainability does not always produce the loudest social media footprint, but it quietly shapes the culture around her. Younger skiers who encounter her as a coach at LAAX School, as a name on a Challenger start list, or as one of many faces in a FLINTA* film project see someone who has found a way to keep skiing at a high level while building a parallel professional career in the mountain world.

Geography that built the toolkit

The geography of Krüttli’s life and skiing is tightly tied to the Swiss Alps. The Flims Laax Falera region, with its mix of groomed slopes, tree runs and freeride zones, serves as her main training ground. Here she can move from structured on-piste coaching with guests to personal freeride laps in the same day, using the variety of terrain to keep both technical foundations and big-mountain instincts sharp. The local avalanche infrastructure, marked freeride routes and backcountry access points provide the perfect laboratory for refining line choice and snowpack reading.

Outside her home resort, the venues that appear on her results sheets—Verbier, Nendaz, Vars, Avoriaz—are all names with weight in the freeride world. Verbier’s complex faces and traverse-heavy logistics teach efficiency and commitment; Nendaz Freeride events expose riders to classic, rocky couloirs in varied snow; Vars and Avoriaz bring in the French mix of playful natural features and serious exposure. By competing across these locations, Krüttli has built a toolkit that works on everything from wide-open bowls to tight, technical entries, and that experience feeds directly back into the way she coaches and mentors other skiers.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Public information about Krüttli’s exact sponsors is limited, but her role and discipline make it clear what kind of equipment she relies on. As a freeride competitor on the FWT Qualifier and Challenger tours, she skis on a directional or twin-tip freeride ski with enough length and stiffness to stay stable at speed while still being nimble in technical zones. A solid touring-capable binding or robust alpine setup, combined with well-fitted boots, allows her to move confidently through chopped landings, variable snow and long traverses without worrying about pre-releases or hot spots on her feet.

Like all modern freeriders, she also travels with a full avalanche-safety kit—beacon, shovel, probe and often an airbag pack—plus back protectors and a certified helmet for competition runs. For progressing skiers who look up to athletes on the Challenger tour, the key lesson in her example is that equipment should be chosen for reliability and versatility rather than fashion: a ski you can trust on hardpack and powder, boots you can wear all day, and protective gear that you actually keep on because it fits comfortably. Krüttli’s professional work within the resort and tourism sector also underlines the value of maintaining and respecting that equipment; in the long run, well-cared-for gear supports both personal safety and a lighter environmental footprint.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Amanda Krüttli because she represents a sustainable, real-world version of freeride skiing. She is not only chasing podiums; she is also coaching guests at a major Alpine resort, studying and working in environmental management, and contributing to community-driven films that highlight underrepresented skiers. Her presence on start lists at Verbier, Nendaz, Vars and Avoriaz shows a commitment to testing herself on serious faces, while her work at LAAX School shows a parallel commitment to helping others build the skills they need to enjoy those same mountains safely.

For progressing skiers, especially those who love big-mountain terrain but also think about long-term life in the Alps, Krüttli’s path is a valuable reference. She demonstrates that you can push freeride lines, collect FWT ranking points and appear in respected grassroots films without giving up on education or professional development. Watching her choice of lines, her measured risk levels and her ability to switch between athlete, coach and project manager roles can help riders imagine their own future in the sport—one where passion for skiing sits alongside care for the mountains and the communities that depend on them.

Profile and significance

Audrey Friess is an American park and urban skier whose story runs from tiny Midwestern hills to heavy street segments and women’s progression events in the Rockies. Originally from the Akron, Ohio area and raised lapping the rope tows and small jumps at Boston Mills/Brandywine, she grew up as one of the only girls in the local park. That experience—learning rails with friends, filming on whatever features her home hill could offer, and figuring it out without a formal team—set the tone for a career rooted in community and do-it-yourself motivation rather than federation structures.

Today, Friess is based in Bozeman, Montana, where she splits her time between studying civil engineering at Montana State University, running a small business in the off-season and chasing snow for street and park projects. She has appeared in OS Crew’s “Electric,” contributed to the all-FLINTA* Bucket Clips films and filmed a standout urban section for the mental-health and trauma project “Turning Tragedy Into Triumph.” As a rider for brands like ZipFit and Surface Skis, she represents a new generation of women who see the city as their terrain park, using urban architecture and small-resort features as the canvas for serious skiing.

Competitive arc and key venues

Unlike many athletes whose résumés are built on FIS points, Friess came up through grassroots contests and independent crews. In high school she started entering regional rail jams and USASA events, turning family ski trips into road missions to New York, Pennsylvania and Colorado. At her first United States of America Snowboard and Freeski Association national championships in Colorado, she brought home silver and bronze medals in slopestyle and rail jam, proof that the hours spent lapping a small Ohio park translated when the features got bigger.

Those early medals, however, were just a stepping stone. As she moved west and her skiing matured, her “competitive arc” shifted away from bib numbers and toward films, sessions and culture-shaping events. She joined OS Crew on their seventh project “Electric,” stacking street clips in places like Minnesota, Colorado, Utah and Montana. Later she appeared as an invited rider at TBL Sessions, Taylor Lundquist’s women’s streetstyle gathering at Brighton Resort in Utah, where she rode the rail line, contributed perspective for Freeskier’s event recap and highlighted how rare it still is to have a full week built around women’s freeskiing.

In parallel, her name began to pop up in film credits and festival program guides. She contributed footage to the Bucket Clips 3 FLINTA* project, sharing space with riders from across Europe and North America, and her urban segment in “Turning Tragedy Into Triumph” was filmed on British Columbia handrails and ledges as part of a broader conversation about trauma, recovery and mental health. Rather than chasing a World Cup ranking, she built a different kind of track record: repeated appearances in respected urban projects and women’s events that collectively pushed the street scene forward.

How they ski: what to watch for

On snow, Friess is first and foremost a rail technician. In park edits from Ohio, Colorado and Montana, her trademark is a centred stance and a deliberate, almost quiet upper body, even on complicated features. She favours solid fundamentals taken to a high level: clean 270s on and off, blind surface swaps that stay locked on the rail, and switch entries where her weight remains planted squarely over her feet instead of drifting to the tails. On urban spots, the same habits show up with higher consequences—down rails over concrete, close-outs that demand precision, and kinked handrails where a small balance mistake can end the session.

What makes her segments stand out is the way she chooses lines. Rather than hunting only for the biggest handrail in town, she often links two or three moderate features into a single line: an awkward down-flat rail into a wallride, or a ledge hit into a small drop and then a second rail. That “connective tissue” makes her skiing feel more like a skate line than a series of isolated tricks. For viewers trying to learn from her, it is worth watching how early she commits to the rail, how smoothly she absorbs rough landings on thin urban snow, and how consistently she rides away with speed. Even on heavier features, her approach is rarely frantic; the tricks are difficult, but the body language stays composed.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Resilience is woven through Friess’s story. In interviews about her recovery from a torn ACL and meniscus, she has described the physical grind of rehab and the mental uncertainty of trusting her knee again on rails. Add in a couple of concussions and bruised ribs and you get a picture of someone who has experienced the impact side of freestyle skiing up close. Instead of stepping back, she used that time to think hard about why she skis and how she wants to show up in the community, returning with a clearer sense of purpose.

That purpose became even more visible when she shared her experience of domestic violence as part of the “Mountain in My Mind” mental-health film project and the follow-up piece “Turning Tragedy Into Triumph.” In those projects she paired heavy, personal storytelling with equally heavy street skiing, proving that vulnerability and strength can live in the same segment. For many viewers—especially women and survivors in the ski world—seeing a skier throw serious tricks in British Columbia streets while also speaking honestly about trauma was a turning point in how open the scene could be.

Her influence also runs through less visible roles. She has emceed women’s rail jams, helped build features, and been part of sessions where the goal is as much about creating a safe, supportive energy as it is about stacking clips. When outlets like Freeskier quote her on why women-only events matter, or when mental-health films highlight her perspective, it reinforces her position as more than just “the skier in that one clip.” She is part of a growing group of riders using skiing and storytelling together to shift the culture toward something more inclusive and honest.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geographically, Friess’s skiing is a blend of Midwest grind and Rocky Mountain access. The foundation came from winters at Boston Mills/Brandywine, where short runs, night skiing and man-made snow encourage endless repetition. There, she learned to see side hits, fence lines and small rails as opportunities, building a work ethic and creativity that still shows in her street skiing. Trips to USASA nationals in Colorado as a teenager proved that her small-hill skills translated to bigger parks, and gave her a first taste of the wider freeski world.

Moving to Bozeman opened up a different scale of terrain. Between classes at Montana State University, she laps nearby resorts like Bridger Bowl and travels to destinations across North America for filming: British Columbia for urban and backcountry lines, the Pacific Northwest for summer park at Mt. Hood, and Utah for contests and events at Brighton Resort. OS Crew projects have taken her from Montana to Colorado, Oregon, Idaho and Washington, each region adding new types of architecture, snow conditions and spot logistics. The result is a toolkit that works just as well on an icy handrail in a Midwestern city as it does on a perfectly groomed park rail under the sunshine in the Rockies.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Friess’s equipment choices reflect the demands of park laps, long nights in the streets and occasional missions into softer snow. As an athlete for ZipFit, she skis on cork-filled liners designed to stay supportive and comfortable through hundreds of hiking laps and winch pulls. In her setup, those liners sit inside stiff, three-piece boots from Roxa, giving her the combination of shock absorption, heel hold and flex control needed for repeated urban impacts and precise rail work.

On the ski side, she rides twin-tips from Surface Skis, built with park and urban abuse in mind. Earlier projects linked her to crews and films supported by brands such as J Skis, but the through-line is consistent: a medium-to-stiff park ski with durable edges, predictable flex and enough pop to clear gaps without feeling twitchy. For progressing riders, the practical lesson is not to copy every logo, but to understand why her kit works. Durable, supportive boots paired with liners that don’t pack out, skis you trust on rails and concrete-hard landings, and outerwear robust enough for shovel sessions all remove distractions, freeing you to focus on line choice and execution instead of gear problems.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Audrey Friess because she represents a core, street-focused vision of freeskiing that still manages to feel inviting. She is not chasing Olympic points or World Cup podiums; she is filming with crews, travelling in old cars, working side jobs, finishing homework and then heading back out under the lights to hit another handrail. At the same time, the projects she chooses—OS Crew movies, Bucket Clips, “Mountain in My Mind,” “Turning Tragedy Into Triumph,” TBL Sessions—show that she is determined to use her skiing to say something meaningful about community, mental health and who gets to feel at home in the park.

For progressing skiers, especially those growing up on small hills or in places far from big-name resorts, her path is a powerful example. She proves that a rider from Akron can turn Brandywine laps into national medals, transform city staircases into real terrain parks, and eventually end up in international films and women’s events without ever fitting the traditional mould of a national-team athlete. Watching how she builds lines, how she manages fear on street spots, and how openly she talks about recovery and resilience offers more than trick inspiration; it offers a blueprint for building a ski life that is creative, honest and deeply connected to the people around you.

Profile and significance

Christina Anderson is a freestyle skier, coach, and community builder based in Bend, Oregon, where she has quietly become one of the key connectors in the Pacific Northwest park scene. Splitting her time between winter in the Cascades and southern-hemisphere seasons, she rides and coaches year-round, with a focus on terrain parks, rails, and all-mountain creativity. Known online as @chrisskina_, she brings a mix of rail jam experience, film projects, and coaching chops that makes her a reference point for skiers who care as much about community and good vibes as they do about learning new tricks.

Off the hill, Anderson leans hard into the DIY side of freeski culture. She founded Steezewear, a small brand making handmade fleece beanies, and channels that same energy into writing and storytelling about life in the mountains. As the founder of Bachy Baddies, a women’s and FLINTA-focused ski and ride community centered around Mount Bachelor, she has helped hundreds of riders find their first crew, their first park laps, or their first powder days with people who have their back. Between her work as a Therm-ic and Pret Helmets ambassador and her features in projects like Bucket Clips, she has become an important figure in the growing push to make freestyle skiing more welcoming and inclusive.

Competitive arc and key venues

Anderson’s “competitive arc” looks different from a traditional FIS résumé. She has spent far more time at rail jams, local throwdowns, and progression sessions than at bibbed World Cups, but those smaller stages have shaped her skiing just as much. In Bend and around Mount Bachelor, she built her name in night sessions and low-pressure park events, where riders trade tricks on rails and side hits instead of chasing ranking points. Those events reward creativity, line choice, and consistency rather than a single massive spin—and that balance suits her riding perfectly.

Her coaching and seasonal migration have broadened the map. Winters in Oregon revolve around the parks and sidecountry of Mt. Bachelor, where Bachy Baddies meetups turn ordinary park days into community events. Summer and late spring have taken her to Mt. Hood, where she has coached at camps like Windells and spent long days on glacier jump lines and rail setups. Southern-hemisphere seasons in Australia, including instructing at Perisher, have added yet another layer of terrain and weather to her experience. When you add in filming for the all-FLINTA* project Bucket Clips, her “venues” become as much about who she skis with as where she stands on any podium.

How they ski: what to watch for

Christina Anderson’s skiing is built around rails, side hits, and a smooth, centered stance that lets her adapt quickly to whatever the park or natural terrain throws at her. In park clips and rail jam footage, she tends to prioritize clean lock-ons and confident exits over frantic spins: getting solidly onto the feature, staying stacked over her feet, and riding out with speed. That emphasis on strong basics creates room for creativity—surface swaps, switch entries, and quick changes of direction—without sacrificing control.

On jumps and natural features, the same approach carries through. She favors tricks that match the size and shape of the feature, using grabs and body position to add style instead of simply chasing the highest possible rotation. You can see this in the way she treats rollers, knuckles, and small hits at Bachelor or Hood as opportunities to play with shiftys, tweaks, or butters, keeping runs visually interesting from top to bottom. For progressing skiers watching her, the key details are how early she commits to a line, how calm her upper body stays over rails and transitions, and how she maintains flow between features instead of treating each trick as a separate, stop-start moment.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Anderson’s influence is rooted as much in what she builds for others as in what she skis herself. Through Bachy Baddies, she has created a structured yet welcoming pathway for women and gender-diverse riders to enter snow sports: low-pressure meetups, park progression days, and all-mountain missions where the focus is on encouragement and clear communication rather than performance. That work extends into her writing, where she talks about learning curves, confidence, and the emotional side of spending winters in the mountains, making the lifestyle feel more honest and relatable than a highlight reel ever could.

On the filming side, her segments and cameos tend to appear in community-driven projects rather than high-budget studio releases. Bucket Clips, which gathers FLINTA* skiers and riders from across the world into a shared annual film, is a prime example: her presence there, alongside other names in the women’s street and freeride movement, signals both her level and her priorities. She is less concerned with chasing the biggest spotlight and more focused on putting down clips that feel true to her skiing and her crew—rails, side hits, pow stashes, and the kind of in-bounds lines that everyday riders can imagine themselves on.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geographically, Anderson’s skiing has been sculpted by three main environments: the forests and volcano of Oregon, the winter parks of Australia, and the snowparks of the Pacific Northwest’s summer glaciers. Her home base in Bend places her a short drive from Mt. Bachelor’s varied terrain: long groomers that feed into natural side hits, dedicated terrain parks, and off-piste zones that fill in deep when storms hit from the Pacific. That mix encourages skiers to treat the whole mountain as a playground, and it shows in the way she hunts for creative lines even on ordinary resort days.

Seasonal migrations to Australia, including time teaching at Perisher, add another dimension: harder snow, different park design, and the experience of translating a North American coaching style into a new resort culture. Back in Oregon, the summer snowfields of Mt. Hood give her and her athletes a controlled environment for focused progression—lap after lap on the same jump or rail line, with good visibility and consistent takeoffs. Together, those places have produced a skier who is comfortable in almost any park in the world and who understands how to help others adapt when conditions, terrain, or weather change.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Anderson’s equipment choices reflect long days on snow and a lot of time standing still, shovelling, and coaching as well as skiing. As an ambassador for Therm-ic, she leans on heated socks and boot-warming systems that keep circulation going during cold Central Oregon mornings and frozen park sessions. Partnering with Pret Helmets and Dissent Labs adds another layer of practicality: low-profile, comfortable head protection designed for park and all-mountain use, and high-performance socks that stay supportive during long hikes and back-to-back laps.

Her own brand, Steezewear, fills in the softer side of the kit: handmade fleece beanies that are warm, comfortable under a helmet, and built with the same DIY care that goes into home-grown ski projects everywhere. For progressing skiers, the lesson from her setup is straightforward. You do not need the stiffest race boot or the flashiest outerwear; you need gear that keeps you warm, safe, and happy to stay outside. Warm feet, a helmet you forget you are wearing, and clothing you are willing to fall in will do more for your progression than shaving grams or copying a World Cup athlete’s setup.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and up-and-coming riders are drawn to Christina Anderson because she embodies a version of freeskiing that is both aspirational and accessible. She is good enough to film in respected community projects, coach at well-known camps, and represent technical brands—but her day-to-day reality still looks like that of many passionate skiers: early alarms, long drives, night sessions, and a side hustle built around the sport she loves. Instead of disappearing into an elite bubble, she uses her platform to invite more people in, especially women and riders who might not see themselves reflected in traditional ski media.

For skiers trying to progress in the park or simply feel more at home on the mountain, her story offers a clear takeaway. You can start with local rail jams, small crews, and home-sewn gear; build a community like Bachy Baddies around the terrain you have; and use coaching, writing, and film to lift others up as you improve. Watching how she rides, how she talks about fear and confidence, and how she structures inclusive meetups gives a blueprint that goes beyond trick lists. It is a reminder that the most impactful skiers are often the ones who make everyone around them ski better and feel welcome, not just the ones with the biggest tricks.

Profile and significance

Claudia Rohrer is an Austrian freeride skier and all-round mountain athlete whose life is anchored in the Alps. Raised in Vorarlberg in a family of passionate skiers, climbers and mountaineers, she learned to ski at about one and a half years old and grew up with four siblings playing outside in the mountains year-round. As a teenager she followed the classic race pathway for a while, but around 14 she turned her focus fully toward off-piste terrain, drawn more to couloirs, ridges and long days in the backcountry than to gates. Today she is based in Innsbruck, using the surrounding Tyrolean peaks as her daily playground for ski touring, freeride resort laps and high-alpine missions.

Within the freeride ecosystem, Rohrer is best known for her presence on the Freeride World Qualifier (FWQ) circuit in Europe and for her role in athlete-driven environmental work. She has won women’s FWQ events such as a 1–2-star competition in Verbier, where reports described her as the standout in the women’s field, and she has accumulated ranking points on the wider FWQ/IFSA ladder representing Austria. At the same time she is part of the Athlete Alliance of Protect Our Winters Austria, positioning her as a skier who combines competitive freeride experience with climate advocacy and a deep personal connection to the alpine environment she skis in.

Competitive arc and key venues

Rohrer’s competitive arc follows the classic European freeride pathway rather than a park or race route. After stepping away from traditional ski racing as a teenager, she began entering regional freeride events in the Alps, gradually working her way onto the FWQ calendar. Those early contests, often held on smaller faces and in variable snow, developed the fundamentals that freeride judges look for: confident line choice, speed management, and the ability to stay composed when conditions are far from perfect.

Her results began to stand out in Swiss and Austrian FWQ events. In Verbier, one of freeride’s most iconic venues, she topped the women’s field at a qualifier event early in the season, earning important points and signalling that she could handle the exposure and complexity of classic Swiss freeride terrain. Additional starts at other FWQ stops in Switzerland and France have helped her build a bank of experience on everything from rock-lined couloirs to open powder faces, and ranking lists from the International Freeskiers & Snowboarders Association show her accumulating adult women’s points under the Austrian flag. Though she is not yet a Freeride World Tour regular, that steady presence in the Qualifier circuit marks her as an established competitor in Europe’s freeride middle tier.

How they ski: what to watch for

Because freeride is judged on line choice, control, fluidity and air rather than a fixed trick list, the best way to understand Rohrer’s skiing is to look at how she moves through a face from start gate to finish gate. Her runs tend to prioritise a strong fall-line with a sequence of medium-sized features rather than a single massive cliff. That means she often links several smaller airs, rollers and terrain breaks into one coherent line, keeping speed and rhythm while managing risk. It is a style that reads as confident and sustainable rather than reckless, and it fits the way judges in Qualifier events reward continuous skiing.

Technically she skis with a compact, athletic stance and a quiet upper body, which helps when snow conditions move quickly from chalk to wind crust or from powder into tracked-out sections. Landings are usually set up with enough speed to keep the line flowing, but she rarely looks out of control; you see strong absorption through the legs, a quick re-centring over the feet and a smooth transition into the next section of the run. For viewers, key details to watch are how early she commits to a chosen line from the top, how she handles sluff on steeper pitches, and how she uses small terrain features to keep runs dynamic even when visibility or snow is not perfect.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Rohrer’s public profile is shaped by more than just result sheets. As a member of the Athlete Alliance of Protect Our Winters Austria, she lends her voice and presence to campaigns that link everyday alpine life with climate action, highlighting how ski touring, freeride days and high-alpine adventures all depend on stable winters and healthy mountain ecosystems. That role has introduced her to a wider outdoor audience in Austria, where she appears alongside climbers, bikers and other mountain athletes in campaigns and impact reports about sustainable tourism and environmental advocacy.

On the film and culture side, Rohrer is part of the FLINTA* all-mountain community showcased in the “Bucket Clips” series by El.Makrell Productions, appearing among a global roster of women and gender-diverse skiers who contribute freeride, backcountry and street clips to a shared short film. Her presence in those projects situates her alongside park and backcountry specialists from Europe and North America, reinforcing the idea that modern freeski culture is as much about community-driven edits as it is about major tours. Combined with her freeride starts and environmental work, this makes her a quiet but visible influence for skiers who follow the sport beyond headline contests.

Geography that built the toolkit

Rohrer’s skiing is inseparable from the landscapes that raised her. Growing up in Vorarlberg meant living in the middle of the Austrian Alps, where winter sports are woven into everyday life and where ski touring, climbing and mountaineering often share the same valleys and ridges. Early years of family skiing, racing and playing on local mountains built the basic edge control and comfort in variable snow that freeride demands later on.

Today her base in Innsbruck puts her within easy reach of a dense cluster of Tyrolean peaks and ski areas. Classic freeride destinations around the city offer everything from lift-served freeride days to long tour approaches and technical couloirs, letting her train and explore almost daily when conditions allow. Trips to Switzerland for events in Verbier and other FWQ stops add another layer of geography: wide, complex faces, long traverses and exposure above alpine villages. Across these regions, she moves between ski resorts, high-alpine tours and narrow gullies, building a versatile toolkit that works in both competition venues and personal missions.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Public information about Rohrer’s specific skis and outerwear sponsors is limited, but her roles as a freeride competitor and all-round alpinist make it clear what her equipment needs to do. On snow she relies on stable freeride skis with enough length and stiffness to stay composed at speed, yet agile enough to handle tight entries and quick direction changes in couloirs. Well-fitted boots and reliable bindings are non-negotiable, allowing her to absorb hard landings, ski variable snow and hike or skin without worrying about pre-release or hotspots.

As a ski tourer, climber and mountaineer, she also moves through the mountains beyond resort boundaries, which means travelling with a full avalanche-safety kit—transceiver, shovel, probe and often an airbag pack—plus helmet and back protection for consequential terrain. For progressing freeriders looking at her path, the key takeaway is that equipment should be chosen for reliability, versatility and safety rather than just for image. A trustworthy freeride ski, boots you can wear all day, and protective gear you actually keep on because it fits well will do more for your progression than chasing the lightest or most aggressive setup on paper.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and fellow riders care about Claudia Rohrer because she embodies a grounded, real-life version of modern freeride. She is not only dropping into FWQ faces and collecting points; she is also ski touring, climbing, bikepacking and advocating for the mountain environment through her work with organisations like Protect Our Winters Austria. Her story shows how a childhood in the Alps, a switch from racing to off-piste and years of everyday mountain life can grow into a sustainable freeride career that stays closely tied to place and community.

For progressing skiers, especially those interested in freeride rather than park or race, her trajectory offers a relatable blueprint. Start with strong technical basics, explore beyond the piste, learn to read terrain and snow, and build experience through regional qualifiers and personal projects instead of focusing only on the biggest tour. Watching how she chooses lines, balances risk and reward, and integrates environmental awareness into her public role can help riders think about the kind of freeride life they want—not just in terms of results, but in terms of how they relate to the mountains themselves.

Profile and significance

Dorothy Grundin is part of the rising wave of Midwestern freeskiers pushing park and street skiing forward from rope-tow hills and small-town programs rather than national-team pipelines. Her name shows up wherever the scene is most alive at the grassroots level: in the cast list of the street film “Must Be Urgent,” on the semi-finalist roster for Level 1’s SuperUnknown 21, quoted in coverage of Phil Casabon’s B-Dog Off The Leash rail jam at Wild Mountain, and on the builder and rider lists for the women-led Take The Rake terrain-park project at Trollhaugen. Together, those appearances mark her as an emerging “core” name in modern freeski culture, especially in the Midwest and park-crew worlds.

Before she was stacking clips in Vexed Co. films or being highlighted by industry media, Grundin was already on skis in a more traditional setting. High school race-team rosters from Wisconsin list her in slalom, giant slalom and super-G lineups, showing that she came through the same weekend-warrior structure as many U.S. skiers. What sets her apart is where she took those fundamentals: into rope-tow parks, night sessions and urban spots across the Midwest and beyond, trading race gates for down-flat-down rails, close-outs and handrails. In an era when many careers are built around FIS points and World Cup calendars, she represents a different, equally important route into ski culture—film parts, jams, park crew and community-focused events.

Competitive arc and key venues

Grundin’s competitive story is closely tied to the rope-tow parks and cash-for-tricks jams that define Midwestern freeskiing. One of the clearest snapshots comes from Wild Mountain in Minnesota, where she was one of the few women riding in B-Dog Off The Leash, a loose-format jam hosted by Phil Casabon and Eric Iberg. In Freeskier’s recap she describes the session as “the most fun I’ve had in a while,” adding that everyone throwing down around her pushed her to stand out. That quote captures her niche perfectly: not a bibbed contest specialist, but someone who thrives in creative, rider-driven environments where style and commitment matter as much as podiums.

From there, her “competitive arc” becomes more cultural than ranked. She appears as one of the lead riders in “Must Be Urgent,” a Vexed Co. street film that premiered in 2023, travelled through festivals like iF3 and followed a crew from Salt Lake City through the Midwest in search of handrails and spots. Festival materials list Dorothy alongside Reid Hendrix and Finn Reddish as featured skiers, placing her as a central figure in the movie rather than just a quick cameo. That project helped cement her reputation as a skier willing to put in the digging, hiking and impact required for a proper urban segment.

In 2024 her name surfaced again when Level 1 announced the semi-finalist roster for SuperUnknown 21, the long-running talent search that has launched many park and street careers. Being selected as a semi-finalist means her submission edit stood out against a global field of up-and-coming riders, and placed her alongside an international group of women progressing rail and jump skiing in their own regions. While SuperUnknown is not a traditional contest with rankings and prize money, within core freeski culture it remains one of the most respected platforms for emerging talent, and her presence there signals how her peers and filmers view her skiing.

How they ski: what to watch for

On snow, Dorothy Grundin is first and foremost a rail skier with a strong sense of line. In “Must Be Urgent” and other street clips, her approach is defined by clean lock-ons, solid basics and a willingness to take that package to high-consequence features. She often opts for tricks that reward precision over chaos: solid 270s on and off, blind surface swaps that stay centred on the rail, and exits finished early enough to ride away with speed. On kinked handrails and close-outs, her upper body stays quiet while her feet and skis do the work, which is a hallmark of someone who has spent a lot of time on rope-tow laps refining balance and timing.

Another thing to watch is how she builds lines rather than isolated tricks. Instead of treating each rail as a standalone challenge, Grundin frequently strings multiple elements together—a drop-in off a ledge into a down rail, or a rail hit followed by a wallride or another quick feature. That gives her footage a skate-like rhythm and fits perfectly with the compact, creative builds common at places like Trollhaugen and Wild Mountain. For viewers studying her skiing, it is worth paying attention to how early she commits to each feature, how she stays centred over her feet on rough, salted snow, and how rarely she scrubs all her speed after heavy landings.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Grundin’s influence shows up as much in the spaces she occupies as in any single trick. Her role in “Must Be Urgent” places her in the middle of a tightly knit Vexed Co. crew that treats street skiing as a long-term creative project rather than a side hobby: long winters spent chasing weather windows, travelling in vans, fixing broken winches and turning ordinary city architecture into clips. Being part of that process, rather than only riding pre-built park features, demands persistence and a high tolerance for frustration—most street missions end in shovelling and falls long before a shot is landed.

At the same time, her repeated invitations to Take The Rake at Trollhaugen highlight a different side of her skiing life. Take The Rake is a women-centred terrain-park building event that brings women and gender-diverse park crew from around the world to Wisconsin to design, weld, set and ride a full park in Valhalla, Trollhaugen’s rope-tow-accessed freestyle zone. Photo sets and participant lists from the 2023 and 2024 editions show Dorothy among the crew, helmet off in the shop and on hill with a rake in hand as well as skis on her feet. That dual role—builder and rider—means she is helping shape the spaces where others progress, not just enjoying them.

This mix of street parts, jam sessions and park-crew work has an influence that is hard to quantify in trophies but easy to see in scene energy. When a skier is visible in films, at rope-tow jams and in behind-the-scenes build crews, it signals to younger riders—especially women in male-dominated parks—that there are many ways to be “part of it,” from filming and digging to showing up at community events. Grundin’s growing presence across these domains makes her part of the connective tissue of contemporary freeski culture in the Midwest and beyond.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geographically, Dorothy Grundin’s skiing is rooted in the American Midwest. High school race-team listings place her in Wisconsin, competing in alpine disciplines while local ski areas provide the parks and night-skiing terrain that would later define her career. The combination of race training and small-hill life is classic for the region: short chairlift or rope-tow laps, firm snow, and a culture that values time on snow over vertical metres. Those conditions are ideal for building strong edge control and resilience, because mistakes are punished quickly and laps come fast.

Wild Mountain in Minnesota and Trollhaugen in Wisconsin are particularly important landmarks in her story. Wild’s rope-tow park was the stage for B-Dog Off The Leash, where she rode alongside some of the heaviest local and visiting talent in a long, cash-for-tricks jam session. Trollhaugen’s Valhalla park, meanwhile, is both laboratory and showcase: a compact, high-intensity zone where Take The Rake crews build and ride features that end up in edits and industry articles. Being part of that environment means learning to adapt quickly to new setups, whether they are welded in the shop the day before or shaped overnight by a small crew of shapers.

Street filming has taken her beyond the hill boundaries, into towns and cities where handrails, loading docks and concrete ledges become the terrain. Projects like “Must Be Urgent,” which traces a route from Salt Lake City through the Midwest, expose her to a wide spectrum of snow conditions and spot styles, from snowy college campuses to icy industrial staircases. That blend of small-resort repetition and urban variety has produced a skier who is comfortable turning almost any environment into a playground.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Public information about Dorothy Grundin’s specific sponsors is limited, but her disciplines make her equipment priorities easy to understand. As a park and street skier, she relies on durable twin-tip skis built to survive repeated impacts on metal, concrete and thin coverage. Medium-to-stiff flex patterns that stay stable on bigger urban features, combined with thick edges and reinforced bases, are critical for a season that might involve dozens of rail hits on the same spot. Well-fitted boots and strong, elastic bindings are equally important, offering enough support to handle side impacts and backseat landings without constant pre-release.

On the building and park-crew side, her kit expands to include the less glamorous essentials: work gloves, protective eyewear, helmets and outerwear ready for long days of shovelling, welding lessons and cat laps in all weather. For progressing skiers looking at her example, the takeaway is clear. You do not need the most expensive race-room gear to ski the way she does; you need equipment that is predictable, tough and comfortable enough that you can hike features, shovel landings and take falls without immediately ending your day. A trustworthy park ski, boots that truly fit your feet and outerwear you are happy to work in will do more for your progression than chasing whatever graphic is trending this year.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Dorothy Grundin because she represents a version of freeskiing that feels both authentic and achievable. She is not a household name on major broadcast schedules, but she shows up in the places that matter most to core skiers: a feature in a respected street film, a SuperUnknown semi-finalist spot, a quote in Freeskier from a legendary Midwestern jam, a smiling face in the Take The Rake crew photo. Her path shows that you can come from a small high school program, ride rope-tow parks, join film crews and help build terrain parks without ever stepping into the World Cup system.

For progressing skiers—especially those growing up on modest hills in the Midwest or elsewhere—her story offers a realistic blueprint. Start with whatever terrain you have, race or park; spend as many laps as you can on rails and side hits; say yes to community events and jams; learn the behind-the-scenes work of park building; and treat film projects as opportunities to tell a story, not just stack hammers. Watching how Grundin moves through this ecosystem, from high school race rosters to Vexed Co. credits and Trollhaugen park builds, shows that there are many ways to live a meaningful ski life. In that sense, her influence goes beyond tricks and into the deeper question of what it means to be “in” freeskiing today.

Profile and significance

Drew Hooker is an American freeski slopestyle and all-mountain rider whose path runs from Eastern prep-school programs to Nor-Am podium battles, film projects and next-generation events like Red Bull Cascade. Born in 2004 and originally from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, she sharpened her early park skills in the East before moving to Maine to attend Carrabassett Valley Academy, where she trained with the CVA Freestyle squad and chased slopestyle lines at Sugarloaf. From there she stepped into FIS competition under the Park City Ski & Snowboard banner, representing the United States in Nor-Am Cup slopestyle events across the U.S. and Canada and steadily lowering her FIS points into competitive territory.

What makes Hooker stand out is the way she has blended that structured pathway with a film- and culture-driven one. She has been a women’s wildcard finalist for Level 1’s SuperUnknown talent search, a featured skier in Arsenic Anywhere’s “With The Right Girls” project at Woodward Park City and Brighton, and an invited athlete to major showcase events like Red Bull Cascade at Solitude Mountain Resort and her first Dew Tour appearance in Colorado. Now based in Utah and studying atmospheric science at the University of Utah, she sits in the growing group of riders who treat competition, media and long-term life in the mountains as parts of the same story rather than separate tracks.

Competitive arc and key venues

Hooker’s competitive arc began in earnest during her time at Carrabassett Valley Academy. CVA’s freestyle programme is known for producing strong park skiers, and school posts show her working through dryland obstacle courses and on-snow park training as part of the women’s freeski group. Those years built the strength and technical base required to move onto the FIS calendar, and by the time she graduated with the class of 2022 she had already attracted attention from core ski outlets as a SuperUnknown women’s wildcard finalist.

On the FIS side, she competes in slopestyle under the Park City Ski & Snowboard club. Her Nor-Am Cup record includes top-ten and top-twelve finishes at venues such as Aspen Snowmass, Winsport Calgary and Copper Mountain in 2023 and 2024, results that helped drop her FIS slopestyle points into the mid-teens on recent lists. Those numbers may not yet scream “World Cup favourite,” but they place her in the thick of a deep Nor-Am field and show that she has the consistency to ski full-length contest courses under pressure.

Alongside those structured events, Hooker has stepped into more creative high-profile stages. She and fellow rider Ellie Derosier were celebrated by their old CVA programme for qualifying into their first Dew Tour, a milestone that placed her on the same start lists as Olympic medallists and X Games champions. In 2025 she appeared on the athlete roster for Red Bull Cascade at Solitude, the Bobby Brown–designed hybrid event that snakes a mile of terrain-park and natural features down the mountain in a team format. Being invited to Cascade signals that organisers see her not just as a park rat but as someone whose style and line-building can translate to a freeride-inflected, all-mountain contest format.

How they ski: what to watch for

Hooker’s skiing is grounded in park slopestyle, and her strongest weapon is a rail game that has been refined through years of laps in places like Park City and Brighton. In Arsenic Anywhere’s short film “With The Right Girls,” shot at Woodward Park City and Brighton Resort, the commentary calls out how naturally the crew “slides metal,” and Hooker fits that description perfectly. She approaches features with a calm, centered stance, getting solidly onto the rail and staying locked in through the whole feature. 270s on, blind surface swaps and clean spin-outs show up repeatedly in her clips, but the tricks rarely look forced; she moves with the kind of balance that comes from hundreds of rope-tow and tow-rope style laps.

On jumps, her slopestyle training comes through in strong takeoffs and long-held grabs. Nor-Am footage and social clips show her favouring stylish, well-controlled rotations over sheer spin count: forward and switch 540s and 720s with solid grabs, and the occasional bigger spin when the feature size and speed line up. The key is that the grab is always clearly defined—safety, mute or tail held long enough for judges and viewers to see—and that she lands with enough speed to keep the run flowing into the next feature.

Events like Red Bull Cascade add another dimension to her skiing. On a mile-long course at Solitude that mixes gullies, jumps, hips, tree sections and rail pods, riders need more than a park routine; they need line vision and the ability to adapt tricks to complex terrain. Hooker fits that brief, bringing her park-honed timing to side hits, wall features and natural transitions. For progressing skiers watching her, useful details include how early she sets her edges before takeoff, how stable her upper body remains on rails and in the air, and how she carries momentum through a full run instead of treating each trick as a separate, stop–start moment.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Resilience in Hooker’s case is less about a single headline injury comeback and more about the grind of balancing multiple roles. As a full-time atmospheric science student at the University of Utah, she splits her days between lectures, lab work on climate and mountain meteorology, and on-snow training sessions in the Wasatch. That balancing act—classwork in the valley and park laps at places like Park City Mountain or Brighton—demands discipline and the ability to show up at a high level even when time is tight.

Her influence within freeski culture is amplified by her involvement in women-led projects. Arsenic’s “With The Right Girls” positions her alongside riders like Marist Wrenn and Ella Andrews, forming a small crew that tours Utah’s parks with a focus on rail-heavy, creative lines. That project is part of a larger wave of films and edits where women are not just token clips in mixed-gender projects but the core of the story. Hooker’s presence there signals that she is viewed by peers as someone who can carry a segment and hold her own in a very core, style-driven context.

Earlier, her run to the women’s wild card final in Level 1’s SuperUnknown series introduced her to an audience that cares deeply about street and park skiing. SuperUnknown has long been a barometer for where freeski style is headed, and being shortlisted there placed Hooker in the conversation as one of the emerging women pushing Nor-Am level tricks with a strong aesthetic. Combined with her move into invite-only events like Cascade and Dew Tour, that trajectory makes her a visible role model for young riders who want to juggle studies, film projects and contest starts without choosing only one lane.

Geography that built the toolkit

Hooker’s skiing is the product of several different mountain cultures. Her roots in Pennsylvania meant starting on modest vertical and variable East Coast snow, where short runs and repeated laps reward those who can make the most of small features. The move to Maine and Carrabassett Valley Academy added structure: early mornings, dryland training, and slopestyle courses built on the terrain of Sugarloaf, one of the East’s classic big resorts. There she learned to link rail sections and jump lines into full runs that made sense to judges as well as to her peers.

Relocating to Utah for university and Park City Ski & Snowboard membership opened up another level of terrain. The parks at Woodward Park City provide dense rail lines, airbags and progression-friendly jumps where she can rehearse new tricks safely. Brighton’s night-skiing scene adds a different flavour: lower-key, crew-driven park laps where creativity and energy matter as much as structure. Solitude Mountain, as the home of Red Bull Cascade, has introduced her to longer, more complex all-mountain lines, mixing natural features with park-style hits from top to bottom.

Together, those geographies have created a skier who is comfortable whether the session is an early-morning Nor-Am training run, a night shoot in Brighton’s park or a team-based all-mountain contest at Solitude. For viewers, it is a reminder that the “right” place to grow as a skier can be a small Eastern hill, a structured academy or a big Western resort, as long as the laps keep coming and the rider stays curious.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Hooker’s equipment choices reflect her mixed schedule of park laps, contests and longer all-mountain runs. On hardware, she skis for Armada Skis, a brand whose twin-tip park and all-mountain shapes are designed specifically for riders who spend most of their time on rails and jumps but still need stability in chopped snow and on big landings. Paired with that, she uses poles from Joystick, a boutique company rooted in core park culture that builds lightweight, durable poles for freestyle use.

The rest of her setup is tuned around reliability and feel rather than extreme stiffness. Well-fitted boots allow her to stay centered over her skis on rails and at takeoff without fighting hotspots or heel lift, while competition-ready bindings provide enough elasticity to handle backseat landings without constant pre-release. For progressing skiers, her kit underscores a simple point: if you want to ski slopestyle, park and hybrid events like Cascade, you need a consistent twin-tip ski you trust, boots that really fit and poles and outerwear that can survive repeated impacts and long days. Logos matter less than having a setup that lets you focus on line choice and execution instead of on whether your gear will hold up.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Drew Hooker because she embodies a modern, multi-lane version of freeskiing. She has Nor-Am results and FIS points that show she can perform under the stopwatch and judging system; she has film appearances and SuperUnknown recognition that prove her style resonates with core audiences; and she has invitations to Dew Tour and Red Bull Cascade that put her alongside some of the most visible skiers in the world. At the same time, she is still a student, still stacking everyday laps in Utah and still working her way up rather than arriving fully formed.

For progressing skiers, especially young women looking at slopestyle and park with academic or career goals in mind, Hooker’s path offers a realistic template. You can go from an Eastern academy to a Western university, earn a place on a strong local club like Park City Ski & Snowboard, push into Nor-Am competition, submit edits to film contests and say yes to invite events as they come. Watching how she skis—centered, composed, with clear grabs and thought-out lines—and how she balances her time in the mountains with studies in atmospheric science makes it easier to imagine a ski life that is ambitious and sustainable at the same time. In that sense, Drew Hooker is not just an emerging slopestyle athlete; she is part of the next wave defining what a full, modern freeski career can look like.

Profile and significance

Eleonora Ferrari is a French freestyle skier from Chamrousse whose career bridges national-level competition, creative park and street skiing, and outspoken climate activism. Born in 1997 and raised in the mountains above Grenoble, she learned to ski in the local ski club before turning from classic alpine gates to freestyle in 2015. That switch unlocked a new trajectory: within a few seasons she was scoring top-five results in French and European slopestyle events and, in 2019, taking silver at the French Big Air Championships to become vice-champion of France. For a rider who grew up lapping a small Isère resort, those results placed her firmly among the core of the French park scene.

Ferrari’s significance today, though, goes beyond contest rankings. After several intense seasons chasing points, she deliberately stepped back from the full-time competitive grind to focus on filming, street sessions and a more personal, values-driven approach to skiing. She has become an ambassador for her home resort of Chamrousse, joined the Riders Alliance of Protect Our Winters France, and signed with K2 Skis, which now presents her as part of its international freestyle team. In that role she represents a growing group of athletes who have proved themselves in competition and then chosen to channel their energy into projects, places and causes that matter to them.

Competitive arc and key venues

Ferrari’s competitive arc is rooted in the French federation system. Licensed with the Fédération Française de Ski, she moved through the national freestyle pathway, trading alpine bibs for slopestyle and big air start lists in her late teens. By the late 2010s she was a regular presence at French Cup and European Cup events, stacking enough consistent runs to place fifth in both French and European slopestyle competitions and, in 2019, to climb onto the national big air podium with a silver medal at Les Arcs. Those results came against a strong generation of French women who were already making their mark on World Cups and X Games, which underscores the level she had reached.

In parallel with national events, Ferrari used classic European venues as stepping stones. La Clusaz, Les Arcs and other big French parks provided the contest environments where she tried to prove she belonged on the international circuit, a pressure-cooker period captured in interviews and podcasts that followed her through a difficult 2019–2020 season. More recently, her name has appeared in the freeride ecosystem as a Ski Women competitor on the Freeride World Tour Qualifier pathway, indicating a deliberate move toward bigger, more natural faces while still drawing on the air awareness she built in slopestyle and big air. Taken together, her competition story is less about chasing a single title and more about using contests as a launchpad toward a broader ski life.

How they ski: what to watch for

Ferrari describes herself first as a “jibber,” and that label is a useful lens for viewing her skiing. Coming from a resort whose snowpark is known more for rails, hips and creative features than for giant booters, she built her style around precision on metal and playful use of transitions. On park laps she tends to link multiple small and medium features into smooth lines rather than hunting only for the biggest possible jump; it is a way of skiing that rewards reading the park like a puzzle, using side hits, knuckles and rail options to keep a run flowing from top to bottom.

In big air and slopestyle competition, that jibber’s eye translated into solid, well-structured runs. While the record books remember the results, what stands out in footage and photos is her balance: centered stance, calm upper body and landings that aim for clean speed out of the impact rather than barely-survived stomps. As she has shifted toward street sessions and more freeride-oriented days, those same traits remain visible. Whether she is hitting a handrail, a park hip or a natural wind lip, the through-line is a focus on control and creativity rather than simply ticking off the highest-rotation trick available.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Resilience has been a quiet constant in Ferrari’s story. The transition from promising national-team athlete to someone questioning her place on the circuit was not straightforward. She has spoken about seasons where results did not match the work she was putting in, where bad weather and bad luck at key contests compounded the pressure to deliver. Instead of walking away from skiing entirely, she used that frustration to reassess what she wanted her career to look like, eventually choosing to step back from full-time competition and invest more energy in filming, local projects and environmental action.

That shift has broadened her influence. As a member of the Protect Our Winters France Riders Alliance, she speaks openly about the contradictions of being a professional skier in a warming climate: training on glaciers while watching them shrink, traveling for competitions while advocating for lower-impact lifestyles. Her message is not about perfection but about engagement—accepting that no one has a zero-impact life, yet still taking concrete steps to reduce emissions and use one’s platform constructively. Brand features and resort profiles now present her not just as a freestyle specialist, but as an athlete who brings climate literacy and honesty into a scene that is increasingly forced to confront its own footprint.

Geography that built the toolkit

Ferrari’s skiing is inseparable from Chamrousse and the surrounding French Alps. Growing up in a small resort above Grenoble meant that skiing was both everyday life and a window onto the wider world. The local ski club gave her classic alpine fundamentals; the Super Snowpark, with its mix of small kickers, rails and hips, gave her the platform to reinvent herself as a freestyler. Long winters of lap-after-lap riding in that environment helped her build edge control, pop and comfort in variable conditions, all of which later proved crucial in contests and freeride entries.

As her career developed, her geographic circle expanded. Training and competing across France and the Alps took her to major parks and venues, from Les Arcs and La Clusaz to European Cup stops farther afield, each adding new jump shapes, rail designs and snow conditions to her experience. Off-season camps on alpine glaciers taught her how to keep skills sharp when most people have already put their skis away. More recently, time spent on freeride faces and backcountry approaches, along with van missions and surf trips along the western coast of France, have rounded out her relationship with the mountains and the natural world that underpins her skiing.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Ferrari’s equipment story is anchored by her partnership with K2 Skis. As part of the brand’s freestyle roster, she rides twin-tip models designed to handle both park abuse and more all-mountain use, reflecting her evolution from contest-focused slopestyle and big air toward street, resort jibbing and freeride. For a skier who defines herself as a jibber, that means prioritising skis with a balanced flex pattern and durable construction—something that pops reliably off small features and holds up on metal, but still feels trustworthy on chopped landings and variable snow.

Beyond skis, her affiliations with Chamrousse and Protect Our Winters France highlight a different side of “equipment”: the communities and institutions that support a sustainable ski life. Chamrousse gives her a physical playground and local anchor; POW gives her a framework and network for environmental action. For progressing skiers, the takeaway is that gear choices matter, but so do the relationships you build—finding a ski that matches your style, a home mountain that lets you ride often, and partners whose values align with your own.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Eleonora Ferrari because she embodies a modern, multifaceted version of what a freestyle career can be. She has proven herself in national-level competition, taken a deliberate step toward film, street and freeride projects, and used her platform to talk honestly about climate and the future of winter. She comes from a relatable background—a small French resort, a ski-club upbringing, a gradual shift from alpine to freestyle—and has turned that into a life that balances performance, creativity and responsibility.

For progressing skiers, especially those growing up in smaller resorts or feeling the weight of expectations around results, her path offers a reassuring model. You can start in gates and end up on rails, climb onto national podiums and still decide that success means more than rankings, and care deeply about the mountains even while using them as your workplace. Watching how Ferrari has navigated competition pressures, redefined her goals and integrated environmental engagement into her career can help riders think not just about which tricks they want to learn, but about what kind of relationship they want with skiing and the mountains over the long term.

Profile and significance

Ellen Damsgaard is a Danish freeski street and park skier who has become one of the most important new voices in women’s urban skiing. Born in 2000 and competing internationally for Denmark, she sits at the intersection of films, rail contests and community projects, moving fluidly between festival screens and night-time city rail jams. While her FIS licence places her on the official freestyle map, her real impact comes from the projects she creates and leads: she is one third of the Danish trio behind the acclaimed all-female street films “Sushi Buffet” and “Frozen Babiez,” a recurring contributor to the FLINTA* Bucket Clips series, and a newly crowned Rock A Rail winner on the European in-city rail circuit.

Alongside crew-mates Isabella Tvede-Jensen and Maya Casier, Damsgaard has helped drag women’s street skiing from the margins to the middle of the conversation. Their Helsinki-shot “Sushi Buffet” introduced a wider audience to a style of urban skiing that is fun, character-driven and technically serious at the same time. With “Frozen Babiez” the trio doubled down, co-directing and starring in a full-length, all-female street movie that quickly earned praise from core media outlets for its heavy spots and creative filming. At the same time, Damsgaard’s name has begun to appear on major rail-jam podiums—most notably her 2025 Rock A Rail victory in Thun—cementing her status not just as a filmmaker but as one of Europe’s strongest female rail skiers.

Competitive arc and key venues

Unlike many freeskiers whose résumés are dominated by World Cup start lists, Damsgaard’s “competitive arc” is rooted in events where culture and progression matter as much as trophies. On the pure film side, her public story picks up speed in 2023 with “Sushi Buffet,” a Helsinki street project following the three Danish skiers as they work their way through rails, ledges and tight city lines in early spring conditions. The film was picked up by freeski outlets and marked the moment when her name started to circulate beyond Scandinavian crews.

From there she became increasingly visible in both film and contest environments. She contributed to Bungee Breakers and Bucket Clips projects, then stepped up with her friends as co-creator of “Frozen Babiez,” an all-female street film shot largely in Finland and Scandinavia. The movie was supported by brands such as LINE Skis, 100% and Swedish base-layer specialist Eivy, and appeared in film guides for major festivals, signalling that what started as “just three Danish skiers who wished to see more femme street skiing films” had grown into something with real international reach.

On the contest side, Damsgaard has chosen events that match her urban and rail-focused strengths. She has competed in the Plastic Paradise Scandinavian Team Battle, a playful but high-level plastic-dryslope event where she even turned up “in disguise” as alternate rider for Team Innsbruck during one edition, underscoring the tongue-in-cheek creativity that runs through her career. In 2025 she appeared on the results sheet at the Absolut Park Spring Battle in Austria, finishing in the top group of the Women’s Best Rail category at Absolut Park, one of Europe’s most respected freestyle venues.

The clearest contest milestone so far came at the Freestyle Roots Festival in Thun, Switzerland, where the Rock A Rail tour staged one of its 2025 stops. Under the lights and in front of a packed urban crowd, Damsgaard put down a clean, composed performance to win the women’s freeski category, earning her first Rock A Rail victory and headlining the ski podiums for the weekend. That win places her among a small group of riders—male or female—who have proven they can translate street-film ability directly into results on one of Europe’s most prestigious in-city rail stages.

How they ski: what to watch for

Damsgaard’s skiing is built around rails, technical control and a strong sense of line. In “Sushi Buffet,” “Frozen Babiez” and her Bucket Clips segments, she repeatedly shows a preference for features that reward precision: down rails with awkward kinks, close-outs that demand commitment, and creative transfers between rails and walls. Rather than relying on wild, one-try gambles, she leans on solid basics—confident lock-ons, centred stance and clear exits—and then layers creativity on top.

Watching her street and park clips, you notice how quiet her upper body stays even when the feature is rough or the in-run is short. She tends to get onto the rail early, lock into the slide and then ride it out without frantic corrections, which is exactly what judges and filmers look for in serious urban skiing. Her trick vocabulary runs through spins on and off, surface swaps and presses, but what stands out is how rarely she looks rushed. Even on thin snow and salted stairs, she usually rides away with speed, ready for the next feature.

Line choice is another key part of her appeal. In both Helsinki street segments and contest edits from Thun and other venues, she often strings multiple elements together—a drop from a ledge into a rail, a rail hit into a wallride or a quick redirect into a second feature. That approach gives her skiing a skate-like rhythm and fits perfectly with the compact, creative setups found at events like Rock A Rail or Plastic Paradise. For fans and progressing skiers watching closely, the lesson is clear: strong fundamentals on rails open the door to fun, interesting lines, not just single “hammer” tricks.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Where Damsgaard really stands out is in the way she and her crew have reshaped the space around women’s street skiing. Together with Maya Casier and Isabella Tvede-Jensen, she is part of the small team that writes, rides and edits the films they want to see, rather than waiting for bigger production houses to hand over space. Their projects are openly framed as a response to the lack of femme-led street movies: the three describe themselves simply as “just three Danish skiers who wished to see more femme street skiing films out there, so we decided to do something about it.” That decision has already produced a full filmography—“Sushi Buffet,” “See You Soon,” multiple Bucket Clips editions and “Frozen Babiez”—that younger riders can point to when they look for representation.

The work that goes into those projects is a quiet form of resilience. Street films demand long nights shovelling in marginal weather, repeated slams on concrete and the mental grind of trying the same trick dozens of times for a few seconds of footage. Add in the travel required to chase snow in places like Helsinki or central Finland, and it is clear that the polished final edits sit on top of a huge amount of unseen effort. Damsgaard’s continued presence in Bungee Breakers and allied projects over several seasons shows that she is willing to carry that load, not just for herself but for the wider FLINTA* community that gathers around their premieres and online releases.

Her influence also extends into how events and media frame women’s skiing. When Rock A Rail recaps highlight her victory in Thun, or when festival guides list her as a director and featured rider, they implicitly recognise that she is not just “in” the scene but helping steer it. For other young riders—especially women who care more about rails and film crews than about national teams—that combination of roles offers a powerful template: you can be the person in front of the camera, behind it and on the invite list for Europe’s biggest rail events at the same time.

Geography that built the toolkit

Damsgaard’s skiing is rooted in Northern Europe but has grown across the continent. As a Danish rider, her home environment is not high alpine peaks but a network of rope-tow parks, snowdomes and quick trips to nearby mountains, so it is fitting that many of her most recognisable clips come from urban and low-elevation setups. “Sushi Buffet” and “Frozen Babiez” take place largely in Helsinki and other Finnish cities, where stair sets, retaining walls and small rails transform into serious freestyle features once the crew has moved enough snow into place.

On the park side, events and sessions at Austrian and Swiss resorts have added another layer to her toolkit. Competing in the Women’s Best Rail category at Absolut Park in Flachauwinkl means adapting to one of Europe’s most refined rail lines, with its mix of tubes, kinks and creative features. Rock A Rail’s Thun stop, part of the wider Freestyle Roots festival, puts her on a purpose-built city setup in front of a festival crowd, while the broader Rock A Rail tour connects her to in-city events across the Alps and beyond. The Plastic Paradise Scandinavian Team Battle adds yet another texture: plastic dryslopes where edge feel is different again and creativity matters as much as raw power.

Together, these places have created a skier who is comfortable turning almost any environment—city, dryslope or glacier park—into a playground. For viewers, this geography explains why her skiing looks so adaptable in contests and films alike: she has learned to read features where others might only see stairs or scaffolding, and to carry the same calm approach from one venue to the next.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Damsgaard’s equipment choices reflect both her role as a street skier and her growing profile in the film world. The “Sushi Buffet” and “Frozen Babiez” projects were supported by brands such as LINE Skis, whose twin-tip park and urban models are built for heavy rail use, and eyewear and protection brand 100%, which appears alongside the crew in project credits. Swedish clothing company Eivy has profiled the trio behind “Frozen Babiez,” highlighting their partnership around warm, functional base layers that can handle long nights of shovelling and hiking in cold Scandinavian streets. Danish energy drink label Maté Maté also appears in her social media, underlining the mix of grassroots and international partners that back her projects.

For progressing skiers, the specifics of her sponsors matter less than the logic behind her setup. As a street and rail-focused rider, she needs skis with durable edges and a predictable flex pattern, boots that stay comfortable through hours of hiking and impact, and outerwear and layers that keep her warm and dry when the session lasts far longer than a typical resort lap. Her example suggests a clear priority list for anyone wanting to follow a similar path: start with a reliable pair of park skis you trust on metal, invest in boots and liners that actually fit, and choose clothing you are happy to fall and shovel in, not just to photograph.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Ellen Damsgaard because she represents a version of freeskiing that is both cutting-edge and grounded. She is winning modern rail events like Rock A Rail Thun, co-directing all-female street films that tour festivals, and contributing to FLINTA* projects that broaden who gets to be seen in urban skiing—all while keeping the tone playful and collaborative. Her clips arrive packed with heavy spots and clean tricks, but the surrounding storytelling emphasises friendship, humour and the simple joy of building something with a small crew.

For progressing skiers, especially women who love rails and urban environments, her career offers a concrete blueprint. You do not have to chase World Cup bibs to matter in freeskiing; you can form a trio with your friends, film in cities like Helsinki, submit to festivals, travel to events like Spring Battle and Rock A Rail, and gradually build a name that resonates with both peers and media. Watching how Damsgaard approaches features, how she strings lines together and how she uses film and events to amplify femme street skiing gives a roadmap that goes beyond trick lists. In that sense, she is not just a strong Danish rail skier; she is part of the engine driving women’s urban freeskiing into its next chapter.

Profile and significance

Emilia Hofmann is a Canadian freeski athlete whose story runs from small-town British Columbia to the Nor-Am slopestyle circuit, FLINTA* film projects and a coaching role in Calgary’s rapidly growing park scene. Born in 2003 and raised in a small ski town in B.C., she spent her early years in alpine racing before stepping away from the sport entirely to pursue ballet. After six years dedicated to classical dance in Europe and the United States, she moved home during the COVID years and re-discovered skiing, this time through the lens of freestyle. That late switch, powered by strong body control from ballet and old race instincts, set her on a fast-track into slopestyle and big air.

Within a few seasons of coming back to snow, Hofmann joined the high-performance programme at Agenda Freeski in Barrie, Ontario, earned a spot on the Ontario Park & Pipe pathway and began appearing in Freestyle Canada events. She placed eighth in women’s big air at the 2022 Canada Cup stop in Whitehorse and followed that with an eighth-place finish at the Stoneham Nor-Am Cup slopestyle in March 2023, earning solid FIS points for a relatively new competitor. At the same time, she caught the attention of the core scene as a SuperUnknown 22 semi-finalist on Level 1’s long-running talent search and as part of the FLINTA* mixtape wave that includes projects like Bucket Clips. Today, she balances her own skiing with work as a slope development coach for RT Freeski and as an instructor at The Spot YYC trampoline facility in Calgary, making her an important connector for the next generation of Canadian park riders.

Competitive arc and key venues

Hofmann’s competitive arc starts unusually: alpine race start lists as a kid, followed by a complete six-year break from skiing while she pursued ballet abroad, and then a rapid return straight into the freestyle world. After moving back to Canada during the pandemic, she gravitated toward park riding and was quickly pulled into the Agenda Freeski structure in southern Ontario. Agenda’s role as a feeder for the provincial team meant she was training and competing with serious park-focused athletes almost from day one, accelerating her progression through Timber Tour, Canada Cup and finally Nor-Am-level contests.

Her first notable results came in Freestyle Canada’s Canada Cup series, where she placed inside the top ten in big air at the 2022 Whitehorse stop in Yukon. Shortly afterward she stepped onto the North American Cup circuit: at Stoneham Mountain Resort, just outside Québec City, she finished eighth in women’s slopestyle at a Nor-Am event on a course built into the park network of Stoneham. Those results may not yet be podiums, but they show a consistent ability to put down runs on recognised FIS courses. As her competitive experience grew, she began to push beyond pure park events, explaining in her coaching bio that she is now steering her own career back toward big mountain terrain—the kind of all-mountain skiing she first fell in love with in B.C.—while still drawing on the structure and discipline of the park-and-pipe circuit.

How they ski: what to watch for

Hofmann’s skiing is shaped by three overlapping influences: early alpine fundamentals, years of ballet and an accelerated education in modern slopestyle. On snow, that shows up as a composed, centred stance and a focus on clean execution rather than frantic, last-second adjustments. In slopestyle runs she tends to favour lines that make full use of the course—hitting multiple rail options and jumps in sequence—rather than relying on a single “hero” feature. That approach suits events like Canada Cup and Nor-Am, where judges reward flow and balance across an entire run.

On rails, her ballet background is visible in how she manages body position and timing. She gets onto features early and stays stacked over her feet, with minimal upper-body noise, which keeps slides looking controlled even when landings are rutted or in-runs are short. On jump lines, she prioritises stable takeoffs and clearly held grabs over pushing for maximum rotation on every hit, building a foundation that translates well from medium-sized provincial park jumps to the bigger features used on the Nor-Am circuit. As she transitions more of her energy toward big mountain skiing, those same habits—quiet upper body, strong edges, and rhythm through variable terrain—become just as useful in chopped-up landings and natural takeoffs as they are in a slopestyle course.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Resilience is woven through Hofmann’s story long before her name appeared on FIS result sheets. Stepping away from skiing for six years to pursue ballet, then returning and effectively starting a new athletic career in a different discipline, demands a kind of patience and self-belief that most riders never have to test. The technical discipline of ballet—hours of repetition, attention to posture and precise timing—gave her a toolkit that translates surprisingly well to park and big mountain skiing, where small changes in body position can make the difference between riding away and tomahawking.

Her influence extends beyond what she does in contests. As a SuperUnknown 22 semi-finalist, she submitted an edit that resonated with the most core audience in freeskiing: people who watch Level 1’s talent search not just for big tricks, but for style and creativity. Being shortlisted there put her alongside a global group of FLINTA* riders shaping the future of park and street skiing. She also appears among the rider lists for FLINTA-focused projects such as Bucket Clips, which gather clips from women and gender-diverse skiers worldwide into a shared annual film. Combined with her coaching and trampoline-instructor work, that visibility turns her into a reference point for younger Canadian skiers—especially girls—who want to see someone bridge serious competitive skiing, film culture and everyday coaching life.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geography plays a big role in how Hofmann skis. Growing up in a small ski town in British Columbia gave her early exposure to real winter, mountain weather and the kind of lift-accessed terrain that encourages all-mountain exploration. Those formative years racing gates and free-skiing on a local hill gave her edge control and confidence on firm snow, which later became invaluable in park in-runs and big-mountain conditions alike.

Her move to Ontario for university and for Agenda Freeski shifted the backdrop from steep B.C. terrain to the tighter, more compact parks of southern Ontario. There, she learned to treat every metre of vertical as an opportunity: dense rail lines, closely spaced jumps and long park laps under floodlights. Canada Cup events took her farther afield to places like Whitehorse in the Yukon, with its cold, dry snow and big-sky feel, and to the Eastern parks of Stoneham, where night skiing and well-developed snowparks define much of the resort’s culture. Today, based in Calgary, she splits her time between local mountains and indoor training at The Spot YYC, a trampoline facility designed for Freestyle Canada athletes. That combination—small-town B.C. roots, Ontario park mileage, northern contest venues and Alberta training infrastructure—has produced a skier comfortable in almost any environment, from icy contest slopestyle lines to wind-buffed alpine bowls.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Public information about Hofmann’s specific ski and outerwear sponsors is limited, but the demands of her disciplines make her equipment priorities clear. As a slopestyle and big air competitor who is now pivoting toward more big-mountain skiing, she needs a setup that can handle both precise park tricks and variable natural terrain. In practice, that means a twin-tip park or all-mountain freestyle ski with a balanced flex, robust edges and enough width to stay composed in chopped snow without feeling sluggish on rails. Well-fitted boots are crucial, especially given her ballet background and focus on body alignment: any slop or discomfort in the boot would undermine the sensitivity she brings from dance.

Her partnerships with programmes and facilities say as much about her toolkit as any logo. Working as a slope development coach with RT Freeski keeps her around athletes pushing modern slopestyle every day, while instructing at The Spot YYC gives her regular time on trampolines, refining air awareness and body control off-snow. For progressing skiers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: choose gear that matches your terrain and goals, and look for environments—local clubs, indoor facilities, parks—where you can stack repetitions safely. A durable twin-tip, boots that genuinely fit and access to consistent training spaces will do more for your progression than chasing every new product release.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and younger riders care about Emilia Hofmann because she represents a quietly powerful version of modern freeskiing. She is not yet a World Cup regular, but she has Nor-Am and Canada Cup experience, a SuperUnknown semi-finalist edit, and an active role in coaching and trampoline instruction in one of Canada’s most active freestyle hubs. Her story—small B.C. resort kid, six-year ballet detour, late return to skiing, rapid climb through Agenda Freeski and Team Ontario, then a move into coaching and big-mountain goals—offers a narrative that feels both unusual and relatable.

For progressing skiers, especially those who start late, switch disciplines or juggle school and sport, her path is a useful blueprint. She proves that you can step away from skiing, come back through a club programme, earn FIS points, get recognised by projects like SuperUnknown, and then use your experience to help others progress through coaching and off-snow training. Watching how she moves on rails and jumps, how she talks about shifting toward big mountain while still valuing park, and how she embeds herself in communities like Agenda Freeski, RT Freeski and The Spot YYC can help riders think about their own long-term relationship with the sport. In that sense, Hofmann is not just an emerging Canadian slopestyle skier; she is part of a broader, sustainable model of what a modern freeski life can look like.

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.

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.

Profile and significance

Finley Good is one of the youngest multi-discipline threats in North American freeskiing, balancing slopestyle, big air, halfpipe and rail events at Nor-Am and European Cup level while still in her teens. Born in 2008 and competing for the United States, she rides for the Vail freestyle ski team and has already stacked FIS results across the full park spectrum: Nor-Am Cup podiums in halfpipe, top-five finishes in slopestyle and big air, and a 2024 U.S. National Championships bronze in the rail event at Copper Mountain. Her FIS profile lists competitive points in halfpipe, slopestyle, big air and rail, placing her firmly among the most versatile young women on the circuit.

What really makes Good stand out is how quickly she has moved from local series to the sport’s most respected progression platforms. She grew through USASA events into Nor-Am Cups from 2022 onward, reached the women’s finals of the X Games Women’s Ski Street Style contest, and has been highlighted as a SuperUnknown semi-finalist in both the 21st and 22nd editions of Level 1’s legendary talent search. At the same time, she has built a strong “core” identity around rails and urban-inspired skiing, riding for brands like Surface Skis and Joystick and presenting herself with the simple tagline “rails > jumps > pipe.” For fans of park and street freeskiing, she is already a name to know, even before a first World Cup podium or major championship start.

Competitive arc and key venues

Good’s competitive arc follows the classic modern U.S. pathway: USASA regional events, national development series and then FIS-sanctioned contests. Early on, she scored a third place in FIS slopestyle at Northstar, announcing herself as more than just a local park kid. By 2022 she was already on the FIS radar with a bronze in women’s slopestyle at the U.S. National Championships at Copper Mountain, proof that her rail-heavy style could be translated into structured contest runs.

The 2023 and 2024 seasons saw her step fully into Nor-Am competition. She became a fixture at stops like Mammoth Mountain, Winsport Calgary, Stoneham and Aspen Snowmass, entering both halfpipe and slopestyle fields and gradually sharpening her consistency. At Aspen Snowmass in March 2024 she earned a Nor-Am Cup podium in halfpipe, finishing third against a strong North American contingent, and backed it up with top-seven slopestyle results and top-five performances at Stoneham in both big air and slopestyle. Those results pulled her FIS points into competitive territory across all three disciplines, unusual for a rider still in high school.

In 2025 she expanded her map again, travelling to Switzerland for European Cup Premium contests at Corvatsch. There she finished just off the podium with fourth place in both big air and slopestyle against an international field, showing that her tricks and line choices hold up just as well on European park designs as on North American courses. Between those Euro Cup results, steady Nor-Am appearances and a World Cup halfpipe debut in Aspen, her career arc now clearly points toward the upper levels of the sport.

How they ski: what to watch for

Good describes herself as a rails-first skier, and it shows in everything she does on snow. In SuperUnknown edits, Nor-Am highlight reels and social clips from Vail and other parks, the common thread is technical, composed rail work. She likes to approach features with a calm, centred stance, getting firmly onto the rail early and staying locked in rather than fidgeting through the slide. 270s on, blind surface swaps and spin-outs in all directions are part of her everyday toolkit, but they are built on fundamentals: flat bases, quiet shoulders and a head that stays on the line instead of looking for the landing too soon.

On jumps, her approach mirrors her rail philosophy. Instead of chasing maximum rotation at all costs, she prioritises clean takeoffs, clearly held grabs and landings that keep enough speed to flow into the next feature. In Nor-Am slopestyle runs at Mammoth, Calgary and Stoneham, you can see her use the full course: an opener on the rail deck, a second rail with a more technical spin-on, then a sequence of medium-to-large jumps where she chooses spins that match the size of the feature and the judging strategy for that run. Even in halfpipe—her self-professed third priority—she carries that same composed, rail-informed stance into the wall, using good edge pressure and timing to maintain speed and amplitude without looking strained.

Resilience, filming, and influence

A key chapter in Good’s story is her recovery from a serious knee injury. In early 2023 she tore her ACL, a major setback for any skier and particularly daunting for a 15-year-old on the rise. On an in-depth episode of the Legaski podcast, she talked through the process of surgery, rehab and the mental grind of rebuilding trust in her knee and her skiing. That conversation reveals a rider who is unusually reflective for her age, honest about fear and frustration but also clear about her desire to return stronger and smarter.

The results since then show how successful that comeback has been. Within a year of surgery she was back in Nor-Am fields, scoring that Aspen halfpipe podium, dropping multiple top-five slopestyle and big air finishes and travelling overseas for European Cup events. In parallel, she has kept one foot in the culture side of freeskiing. Her SuperUnknown 21 and 22 semi-finalist edits showcased both her technical rail game and her taste in spots and lines, earning respect from a core audience that cares as much about style as about podiums. An appearance in the women’s Ski Street Style finals at X Games—lining up alongside established names from the World Cup and film worlds—further confirmed that she belongs in the conversation about the next wave of female park skiers.

Geography that built the toolkit

Good’s skiing is shaped by the mix of resorts and training environments that have supported her so far. As a member of the Vail freestyle programme, she spends a lot of time in the parks of Vail and other Colorado resorts, where long, well-maintained lines give her space to refine full slopestyle runs from rail deck to final jump. Visits to Copper Mountain connect her to national-level courses and halfpipes, while repeated Nor-Am stops at Mammoth Mountain and Aspen Snowmass deepen her familiarity with the big-name venues that often host World Cups.

North of the border, Winsport Calgary and Stoneham have played important roles in her Nor-Am development. These hills specialise in dense, high-quality park setups and efficient event organisation, exposing her to Canadian snow conditions and course-building philosophies. The move to European Cup Premium events at Corvatsch adds another geographical layer: higher-altitude glaciers, long spring seasons and park designs tuned to European tastes. When you combine that with USASA experiences in the Mt. Hood series and summer training laps at Oregon’s freestyle camps, you get a skier who has learned to adapt quickly to different snow, light and course shapes—a crucial skill for any athlete with international ambitions.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Good’s equipment choices mirror her identity as a rails-first, multi-discipline park skier. She rides for Surface Skis, whose twin-tip park and all-mountain freestyle models are built with strong edges and a balanced flex to survive seasons of rail hits, concrete-hard landings and travel. For poles she relies on Joystick, a core park brand that focuses on light but durable designs suited to heavy rail work and frequent hiking laps. That combination gives her a predictable platform for the fine edge and balance adjustments needed in high-level slopestyle, halfpipe and rail contests.

From a practical standpoint, the lesson for progressing skiers is simple: Good’s success comes less from chasing the stiffest or flashiest gear and more from finding a setup that does exactly what she needs. A medium-flex twin-tip with durable construction, boots that hold her heel without pain and poles that feel natural in her hands let her focus on line choice, trick selection and execution. For riders looking to follow her path—from USASA events to Nor-Am Cups and perhaps beyond—the priority should be gear that stays consistent from day one of the season to the last spring session, not constant changes in search of a miracle ski.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Finley Good because she represents the future of women’s park skiing: young, technically sharp, rail-oriented and comfortable across multiple disciplines. She is already proving herself against older, more experienced riders in Nor-Am and European Cup fields, while simultaneously earning recognition in core spaces like SuperUnknown and X Games Street Style. Her comeback from ACL surgery, documented openly and honestly, adds a layer of resilience and relatability that resonates with anyone who has faced injury or setback in their own riding.

For progressing skiers, especially younger girls coming up through USASA or regional park programmes, her trajectory offers a clear, modern blueprint. Start by mastering rails and basic jumps at your home hill; move into national development events; treat contests, film edits and creative jams as complementary rather than competing paths; and understand that injuries and comebacks are part of the long game. Watching how Good builds runs, chooses tricks that fit her strengths, and balances a full contest schedule with a strong crew and sponsor support can help riders think not only about the skills they want to learn, but about the kind of career and community they want to build around freeskiing.

Profile and significance

Hannah Langes is an Austrian street and park skier who has become one of the key names in the fast-growing European women’s rail scene. Born in 1999 and competing under the Austrian flag, she blends contest results on slopestyle and rail setups with a steadily growing film portfolio. Her riding shows up in Austria Cup rankings, on podiums at events like Rock A Rail, and in all-female street movies such as “Frozen Babiez,” as well as mixtape projects like “Bucket Clips.” Add in a SuperUnknown 20 semi-finalist spot and a growing list of urban clips from Austria, Norway and beyond, and you get a skier who sits right at the intersection of core street culture and more formal competition.

Langes’ importance comes less from chasing FIS World Cup starts and more from how consistently her name appears wherever progressive women’s park and street skiing is happening. She has podium finishes on the Austrian freeski tour, a standout rail result at the Spring Battle in Flachauwinkl, and a second place in Ski Women at the Rock A Rail tour stop during the Hintertux Park Opening. In the film world, she stars in “Frozen Babiez,” contributes to Tereza Korábová’s urban and backcountry project “Relentless” and appears in Rosina Friedel’s “Bucket Clips” series, all of which are touchstones for the current FLINTA* freeski movement. That balance of contests, heavy rail features and collective film work makes her an important reference for anyone tracking the evolution of women’s street skiing.

Competitive arc and key venues

On paper, Langes’ competitive arc runs through the Austrian Cup and continental rail events rather than the classic slopestyle World Cup ladder. In the 2024–25 season she appears in the Austria Cup freeski rankings with multiple podiums, including second place at the QParks Penken Battle slopestyle contest in Mayrhofen and another second place at a Kreischberg slopestyle event. Those results, logged as Two Star contests in the ranking system, show her ability to turn technical rail and jump lines into judged contest runs, not just film clips. Earlier in 2025 she also placed fifth in the Women’s Freeski Best Rail category at the Spring Battle in Absolut Park, one of Europe’s longest-running and most respected park events.

Where Langes really steps into the spotlight is on dedicated rail stages. At the 2025 Rock A Rail tour stop held during the Hintertux season opening, she finished second in the Ski Women category behind Alaïs Develay, with fellow Austrian Sarah Schönach in third, on a creative in-town setup that brought street-style features to the base of the Hintertux Glacier. She has also travelled to Norway for the Norwegian Cup in Geilo, using the trip to combine contest runs with a street mission in Oslo. That blend of national tour events, big-name park contests and high-profile rail jams makes her competitive résumé broad rather than traditional, but perfectly aligned with modern rail-focused freeskiing.

How they ski: what to watch for

Langes is, above all, a rail specialist. In projects like “Frozen Babiez” and her SuperUnknown semi-finalist edit, her riding is built on calm, precise body language and a clear understanding of how to make technical tricks look unforced. She tends to approach features with a low, balanced stance, locking onto rails early and staying centred through the whole slide. Spin-ons, surface swaps and spin-outs in multiple directions all show up in her lines, but they rest on fundamentals: flat bases on kinks, shoulders stacked over her feet, and a head that tracks the rail rather than hunting for the landing too early.

On jumps, she carries the same composed approach. Instead of chasing the biggest possible spin on every hit, her trick choices often prioritise clean takeoffs, well-held grabs and landings that keep enough speed to flow into the next feature or rail. That style is especially visible in contests like the QParks Penken Battle and Spring Battle, where riders need to link a dense set of rails and jumps into one coherent run. In those environments, Langes’ street background helps her stay relaxed and improvisational: if she needs to adjust a line on the fly, she can still find interesting ways to use side hits, wallrides or close-out rails to keep the run creative and complete.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Much of Langes’ influence comes from her film work and her willingness to chase proper street spots, not just park laps. The all-female street movie “Frozen Babiez” places her alongside riders like Alice Michel, Nivi Sachse, Ellen Damsgaard and others on real urban infrastructure: down rails, kinks, close-outs and transfers that demand commitment as well as style. Her segment there, supported by partners including Eivy, helps show how far women’s street skiing has come in a short time and what is possible when a full crew commits to filming in cities all winter.

Langes also appears in “Relentless,” an urban and backcountry movie led by Tereza Korábová, and in the “Bucket Clips” series—short all-female mixtapes that string together shots from dozens of FLINTA* riders worldwide. Being present across all of these projects means that young skiers see her name repeatedly when they look up women’s street skiing, whether on Downdays, Newschoolers or festival lineups. Her SuperUnknown 20 semi-finalist status adds another layer of recognition: Level 1’s contest is still one of the core pathways for underground talent to be seen, and her inclusion there underlines that her skiing speaks to the most dedicated segment of the freeski audience.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geography plays a big role in how Langes skis. As an Austrian rider, much of her development has unfolded in some of Europe’s most influential park and street environments. Events like the QParks Penken Battle take place in the Penken Park above Mayrhofen, where dense jump and rail lines force riders to dial in trick selection and speed management. Spring Battle at Absolut Park in Flachauwinkl exposes her to long, progressive rail setups and international judging standards, pushing her to refine both style and consistency.

At the same time, Langes has made a point of getting beyond Austria’s lift-served parks. Her trip to the Norwegian Cup in Geilo led straight into a street mission in Oslo, where she and her crew spent long days exploring handrails and urban features around the city. Those sessions, with their early mornings, late nights and unpredictable conditions, have clearly fed back into her confidence on in-town setups like Rock A Rail. When she steps onto the scaffolding of a rail contest in Hintertux or later tour stops in European cities, she is drawing on experience earned not just in the park, but on real concrete, stairsets and city snow.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Langes’ equipment choices reflect the reality of urban and rail-focused freeskiing. As part of the CLWR ambassador crew for ColourWear, she rides outerwear designed to handle repeated impacts with metal, snow and concrete while still allowing full freedom of movement for spins and presses. Her base-layer partnership with Eivy adds another layer of function: in interviews she highlights specific fleeces, 3/4 tights and caps that balance warmth, mobility and durability for long days in cold parks or city streets.

For skiers looking to learn from her setup, the takeaways are straightforward. A solid twin-tip park ski with durable edges and a balanced flex is crucial when your season includes both contests like Spring Battle and handrails in urban environments. Outerwear needs to be tough enough to survive crashes, but not so bulky that it interferes with spins or grabs. Base layers and mid-layers should keep you warm without restricting motion, especially during slow, late-night street sessions when there is a lot of standing around between tries. Langes’ choices show that the right gear is less about chasing hype and more about finding equipment that lets you ski consistently, day after day, even when the spot is rough and the weather is marginal.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Hannah Langes because she embodies the current wave of European women’s street and park skiing: technically strong, unafraid of real urban spots, and equally comfortable on contest scaffolding and in low-key film crews. She may not be chasing Olympic qualification or FIS World Cup podiums, but she is stacking results in Austria Cup slopestyle, placing well in rail contests like Spring Battle and Rock A Rail, and appearing in many of the most relevant all-female projects of the last few seasons. For viewers who follow freeski culture through edits and festival lineups rather than TV coverage, that presence matters at least as much as traditional medals.

For progressing skiers—especially women who want to move from resort parks into street and film work—Langes offers a practical, relatable blueprint. Build a strong rail game in your local park, test it in regional contests, travel to bigger events like Penken Battle or Absolut Park, and look for crews and projects where you can film and learn together. Her path shows that you can combine small-venue contests, European rail tours, Norwegian Cups and urban missions into one coherent career, and that being part of collective films can be just as impactful as any individual edit. Watching how she chooses lines, manages risk on rails, and shows up for team projects will give riders a clear sense of what it takes to be part of the new generation driving women’s street skiing forward.

Profile and significance

Hunter Belle Hall is a young Canadian freestyle skier from Montreal, Quebec, rapidly building a name in slopestyle and big air. Born in 2010, she represents Canada on the FIS circuit for the Quebec Slope Team and already competes on the Nor-Am Cup, a serious proving ground for future World Cup athletes. Her skiing first reached a wider audience at just ten years old, when a video of her landing her first misty flip circulated online and showcased both her confidence and natural air sense. A few seasons later, she is backing that early promise with real results and a growing presence in the wider freeski community.

Hall rides for a set of core freeride and freestyle brands that underline her trajectory. She is part of the junior roster for Faction Skis, wears outerwear from Orage, and uses helmets and goggles from Giro. On her feet she relies on Phaenom Footwear ski boots and gloves from Canadian glove specialist Auclair. Those partnerships, combined with her position on the Quebec Slope Team, place her firmly among the most promising teenage park skiers in the country, with a focus on slopestyle and big air but a profile that increasingly reaches beyond local contests.

Competitive arc and key venues

Hall’s competitive arc has moved quickly from local hills to the international ranking lists. After early years developing tricks at Quebec resorts and in regional events, she stepped onto the FIS stage as soon as her age made it possible. By the 2024–2025 season she was already holding FIS points in both slopestyle and big air, with her name appearing on official freestyle points lists in those disciplines. Competing as a teenager against older athletes, she has learned how to translate her park creativity into full, judged runs with clean rail sections and dependable jumps.

Stoneham, just outside Québec City, has become a key venue in that story. On the Nor-Am Cup there in late February and early March 2025, Hall finished fifth in women’s big air and eighth in slopestyle, important results that confirmed she can hold her own in a deep North American field. Over the season, those performances contributed to an 18th-place overall standing in the Nor-Am slopestyle and big air rankings. For a skier who only recently graduated from age-group contests, those results mark her as an emerging threat whenever the start list includes rails, jumps and a creative course design.

How they ski: what to watch for

Hall’s skiing blends youthful fearlessness with a growing sense of structure. That viral misty flip at age ten was more than a one-off party trick; it showed that she felt comfortable going off-axis early and that she understood how to keep her body organised in the air. Today, in slopestyle and big air contests, that same air awareness appears in controlled spins with clearly held grabs and landings that aim to keep speed for the next feature. Rather than spinning wildly, she tends to choose tricks that match the jump size and conditions, building runs that judges can score consistently.

On rails, she skis with a stance that is low, balanced and increasingly composed. Clips from her social channels show her getting onto features early and staying centred over her feet, with skis flat on the rail and minimal upper-body movement. As her technical level rises, she adds more complexity—270s on and off, changes in direction and features that force quick reaction—without losing that basic stability. For fans watching her contest runs, useful details to watch are how early she commits to her line, how she stays relaxed on firm, Eastern-Canada snow, and how she connects rails and jumps into one coherent top-to-bottom run.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Growing up in the social-media era means Hall’s skiing has been visible to strangers since she was very young. Being highlighted online as a ten-year-old who landed a misty flip comes with a particular kind of pressure, but she has handled it by treating those moments as stepping stones rather than endpoints. Instead of chasing viral tricks for their own sake, she has focused on building a full contest skill set: reliable rail tricks, clean grabs and the ability to put it all together on demand. That approach speaks to a quiet resilience, especially in a sport where progression can sometimes be driven by risk without enough attention to long-term development.

Off the contest hill, she maintains a small but active presence on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, where short park edits, training clips and even a stunt reel show her experimenting with how skiing overlaps with performance and filmmaking. Describing herself as both a freestyle skier and a stunt girl, she is part of a growing group of young athletes who treat content creation as another tool for progression, not just a way to chase views. For younger skiers, especially girls in Quebec who are just starting to lap the park, seeing someone close to their own age in Nor-Am fields and brand lineups can be a powerful motivator.

Geography that built the toolkit

Hall’s skiing is shaped first and foremost by Quebec. Growing up in Montreal means access to a network of resorts within a reasonable drive, with night skiing, snowparks and firm midwinter conditions that demand both technical precision and creativity. Short runs and frequent laps encourage skiers to spend hour after hour in the park, repeating rails and jumps until tricks feel natural rather than forced. For a young rider with big ambitions, that environment offers exactly what she needs: repetition, varied features and a strong local community.

Provincial training with the Quebec Slope Team and events at places like Stoneham add another layer. Stoneham’s terrain parks and its role as a host for major events give Hall exposure to full contest courses—multiple rail decks into carefully shaped jumps—under real competition pressure. Travel for Nor-Am stops introduces new snow, park designs and judging crews, forcing her to adapt quickly while carrying over the skills built on home snow. Together, Montreal’s local hills and Quebec’s bigger contest venues form the geographic backbone of her style: compact, efficient use of terrain, comfort in cold, firm conditions and an eye for creative lines on man-made features.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Hall’s equipment setup is closely aligned with modern park skiing. Riding for Faction Skis, she uses twin-tip freestyle models designed for rails and jumps, with durable construction and a flex pattern tuned for both pop and stability. Her outerwear from Orage is built for long days in cold, sometimes humid Quebec conditions, while helmets and goggles from Giro give her the protection and visibility she needs when training and competing in all weather.

On the boot and glove side, Phaenom Footwear provides modern freestyle ski boots that balance performance and comfort for repeated impacts, and Auclair gloves keep her hands warm during long sessions in sub-zero temperatures. For progressing skiers looking at her kit, the lesson is simple: you do not need the biggest or stiffest ski on the wall to grow in slopestyle and big air. Instead, aim for a durable twin-tip that fits your weight and style, boots that really hold your feet without pain, and protective gear you are happy to wear every day. The right setup is the one that lets you think about tricks and lines, not about sore toes or fogged goggles.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Hunter Belle Hall because she represents the next wave of Canadian park skiing: young, technically capable, grounded in local hills and already testing herself on the Nor-Am stage. Her story so far shows a clear line from early creativity—like that first misty flip—to structured competition results, backed by brands that are deeply embedded in freeski culture. Watching her evolve from a ten-year-old viral clip into a fifteen-year-old Nor-Am contender gives viewers a sense of how long-term progression really works.

For progressing skiers, particularly young riders in Quebec and across Canada, Hall offers a relatable blueprint. Start with whatever park terrain you can access close to home; focus on good fundamentals on rails and jumps; say yes to provincial programmes when they appear; and treat each new level—local contests, FIS points, Nor-Am starts—as another step rather than a final destination. As she continues to grow, both physically and technically, her runs at places like Stoneham will provide a live case study of how a motivated teenager can move through the modern freestyle pathway while still keeping skiing fun at the core.

Profile and significance

Jennica “Jenn” Folkesson is a Swedish street and backcountry freeski athlete who has quietly become one of the most interesting new names in women’s urban skiing. Listed as SWE in international start lists, she has found her natural home in western Switzerland, riding, filming and studying there while building a profile that blends creative street segments with full-on backcountry jump lines. As part of the all-girls Swiss crew Cute Café, she stars in their debut movie “Shy Latte” and their second film “What do you mean?”, both of which have been picked up by core freeski outlets and festival lineups. At the same time, she has proven that her style translates to bigger terrain, taking a podium at the Nendaz Backcountry Invitational alongside heavyweights like Arianna Tricomi and Lou Barin.

What sets Folkesson apart is how naturally she moves between different corners of freeski culture. One moment she is shovelling in a Swiss car park with Cute Café, hitting handrails and ledges with friends; the next she is dropping into a backcountry booter line for the invite-only Nendaz Backcountry Invitational, or making a guest appearance in Laurent De Martin’s experimental film “Inefficient Joy.” Away from the snow she studies art and design at ECAL in Lausanne and works with ceramics and installation, bringing a visual-arts eye to how she approaches skiing, spots and filming. For fans following the FLINTA* wave of street and freeride projects, she is already a key name to remember.

Competitive arc and key venues

Although most of Folkesson’s impact comes from films and projects, she has also stepped into selective, high-level events that blur the line between competition and session. A standout result came at the 2024 Nendaz Backcountry Invitational in Switzerland, part of the Nendaz Freeride festival, where she finished third in the women’s field behind Arianna Tricomi and Lou Barin. The format—backcountry-style jumps and natural features shot under contest conditions—was tailor-made for riders who can handle big airs without losing style, and her score in the 70s underlined that she belongs in that conversation.

Before that, she was one of 24 invited riders at the first Greeny Ynvitational video contest in Laax, where teams of skiers were given several days to film and edit a short piece within the Flims-Laax-Falera area. The event put creativity ahead of rigid judging criteria, rewarding teams that could find unexpected lines, features and narratives in and around the resort. Being on the invite list for such a project is a subtle but important marker: organisers saw her not just as someone who can stand on a rail or a jump, but as a rider who brings ideas and a distinctive presence to the screen.

Beyond named contests, her “competitive” environment is largely the informal but intense world of street trips and crew-based filming. Cute Café’s projects take her to various Swiss towns, smaller resorts and hidden zones where the pressure comes from the camera and the crew rather than from judges. Add in appearances in “Inefficient Joy” and screenings at festivals such as Champery and High Five, and you get a skier whose arc is measured as much in premiere schedules and film credits as in ranking lists.

How they ski: what to watch for

Folkesson’s skiing is rooted in street and creative terrain, with a style that emphasises calm body language and confident commitment. In Cute Café’s “Shy Latte” and “What do you mean?”, you often see her approach a feature with very little visible tension: knees flexed, hips centred, shoulders relaxed. Once she is on the rail or ledge, she stays stacked over her feet rather than fighting for balance mid-slide, which makes even technically demanding features look approachable and fun. Spins on and off, small transfers and creative nose or tail touches appear throughout her lines, but they are delivered with an understated ease that suits the homie-film vibe of the crew.

That same composure carries over to backcountry jump lines. At the Nendaz Backcountry Invitational, recap reports highlight how she attacked a windlip booter with enough speed to go deep into the landing, underscoring both her confidence and her willingness to push. It is a reminder that she is not simply a low-speed urban technician; she is comfortable going fast, popping off natural-feeling takeoffs and managing bigger airtime. When you watch her in a freeride or backcountry setting, pay attention to how she uses the terrain: reading rolls and windlips as opportunities for smooth threes and controlled grabs rather than hunting for the single biggest cliff.

Across both environments, a key detail is her sense of line. Whether she is in a city park, a residential stair set or a backcountry bowl, she tends to link features in a way that feels intuitive rather than forced. A down rail might lead directly into a banked turn, then a side hit or wallride; a pair of natural features might become a quick double hit rather than isolated tricks. For progressing skiers watching her edits, this is where the real learning lies: strong basics, consistent speed and a willingness to see two or three tricks ahead when choosing a line.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Like many modern freeskiers, Folkesson’s influence runs through films and collectives more than through traditional rankings. As a core member of Cute Café, she is part of a crew that openly prioritises friendship, joy and creative expression over star-making. Their second film, “What do you mean?”, is framed as a collection of “good times from last winter”—street sessions around Switzerland with a touch of Swedish flavour—yet the skiing is serious: proper handrails, gap-to-rails, rock jibs and roof drops that would fit comfortably in more conventional pro-level street movies. Her presence on screen, often captured by friends behind the camera, helps normalise the idea that women-led crews can set the tone in street skiing rather than just appear as guests in larger productions.

Her influence extends beyond Cute Café’s projects. In “Inefficient Joy,” an experimental film by Laurent De Martin, she appears alongside other riders as part of a wider meditation on why people pour so much energy into skiing. It is a film that blends art-house sensibility with freeride imagery, and having her name listed among the cast connects her to a broader conversation about skiing as a creative practice, not just a sport. She has also been associated with Simply. Recreation Club, the Swiss ski brand founded by De Martin, appearing in event recaps as a “young gun” riding their skis—a partnership that further anchors her in the core of Valais freeski culture.

Off the snow, her studies at ECAL and projects like the “CHACUNE” installation show that she approaches creativity from multiple angles. Working with clay, objects and tactile storytelling, she explores themes of transmission and connection that echo the way skiing knowledge and culture move from one generation to the next. For younger riders, especially women navigating both creative and athletic paths, seeing someone combine art school, ceramics and serious skiing into one life can be as inspiring as any single trick.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geography plays a big role in how Folkesson skis. On the competitive side, the Valais region of Switzerland gives her access to a dense cluster of terrain: the backcountry zones around Nendaz, the parks and street options of the Val de Bagnes and the broader network of resorts that feed into events like the Greeny Ynvitational in Laax. The Nendaz Backcountry Invitational tasks riders with using natural jumps, windlips and ridgelines rather than pre-built park features, pushing them to read the terrain quickly and commit to lines that would not look out of place in a film segment.

On the urban side, Swiss towns and smaller resorts provide a seemingly endless supply of spots: schoolyard rails, retaining walls, park benches and park features that take on new life once the crew shows up with shovels. Cute Café’s films are full of these locations, sometimes stacked in obscure corners of western Switzerland, sometimes paired with trips to Sweden to tap into colder temperatures and different architecture. Each new location forces her to adapt—to different snow conditions, run-ins, landing zones and speeds—which in turn sharpens her ability to visualise lines wherever she goes.

Lausanne and the surrounding Lake Geneva region add yet another layer. Studying at ECAL puts her in a city environment where skate, art and design cultures intersect, providing constant visual inspiration and a different sort of “line choice” as she moves through urban space. The result is a skier who thinks about spots, compositions and textures not just in terms of what is skiable, but in terms of what will look and feel interesting on screen.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Folkesson’s most visible equipment relationship is with Simply. skis, the Swiss brand created by Laurent De Martin and Sampo Vallotton. Simply’s Recreation model is designed as an all-mountain, backcountry-friendly ski with a distinctive fishtail, built in Valais with a focus on durability and versatile performance. For a rider splitting time between street rails, in-resort features and backcountry jumps, that kind of platform makes sense: playful enough for creative riding, but substantial enough to handle higher speeds and variable snow.

Her outerwear and other hardgoods are less formally documented, which fits the DIY, crew-based nature of Cute Café. What stands out instead is how she uses whatever setup she has to maximum effect: tuning edges to survive urban rails, choosing a stance that works both forward and switch, and maintaining enough support in her boots to handle big compressions without losing the relaxed style that defines her skiing. For progressing skiers, the takeaway is that gear should support your vision of how you want to ski—street, park, backcountry or some mix of all three—rather than dictating it. A versatile, trustworthy ski, boots that actually fit and clothing you are happy to fall and shovel in will do more for progression than chasing every new product release.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Jennica Folkesson because she represents a modern, multidimensional version of freeskiing. She is a Swedish rider rooted in Swiss culture, equally at home on a handrail with Cute Café, a backcountry booter at Nendaz or an experimental film set with “Inefficient Joy.” Her skiing is stylish, committed and fun to watch, but it is her broader approach—balancing art school, ceramics, crew projects and selective high-profile events—that really marks her as part of the next wave shaping what ski culture looks like.

For progressing skiers, especially women drawn to street and creative freeride, her path offers a concrete and relatable blueprint. You can base your skiing around a small crew and a group chat, show up at video contests like the Greeny Ynvitational, accept invitations to backcountry sessions, and let your films circulate through platforms and festivals instead of chasing a traditional contest ladder. Watching how Folkesson chooses lines, manages risk on urban and natural features, and brings an artist’s eye to her projects can help riders think not just about new tricks, but about the kinds of stories they want their skiing to tell. In that sense, she is more than a strong name on a results sheet; she is part of a growing movement that treats freeskiing as both sport and collaborative artwork.

Profile and significance

Jill Frey is a German freeride skier and backcountry specialist whose path into the mountains is anything but conventional. Born in Frankfurt, she first competed seriously in equestrian sport before shifting her focus to skiing in her mid-teens, trading show arenas for high alpine faces. Today she represents Germany on the Freeride World Tour Qualifier circuit and is based in the mountain hub of Innsbruck, where she splits her time between competition, filming projects and work as a sports model. That mix of elite riding, visual storytelling and commercial work has made her a recognizable figure in the emerging generation of European freeride athletes.

Rather than coming from alpine racing or park freeski programs, Frey’s background gives her a different lens on risk, balance and flow in steep terrain. She has logged strong results in junior and adult freeride events, including wins at Open Faces junior contests in Austria and a standout victory in the women’s ski field at the 2025 Freeride World Tour Qualifier in Bonneval sur Arc. At the same time she appears in campaigns for brands like Scott Sports and Zara, and features in the documentary project “Riding Patagonia” from production company REC3. Taken together, her career sits at the intersection of competitive freeride, adventure storytelling and outdoor fashion rather than purely in the race for world titles.

Competitive arc and key venues

Frey’s name began appearing in results lists through the Freeride Junior Tour in the late 2010s. A key milestone was her win at the 2-star junior event during the Open Faces contests in the Alpbachtal region, where she topped the women’s ski field on a demanding face above the “Wiedersberger Horn.” That result, combined with other consistent junior performances in Austria, helped her into the Freeride Junior World Championships in Kappl-Paznaun, a proving ground that gathers the strongest teenage freeriders from Europe and beyond. These starts gave her early experience with the pressure of judged one-run formats and the logistics of competing on steep, technical freeride venues.

As she moved into the adult ranks, Frey stepped fully into the Freeride World Tour pathway. She now competes as a Ski Women rider on the Challenger and Qualifier circuits linked to the Freeride World Tour, building points at events across the Alps. Her win in the ski women’s field at the Freeride World Tour Qualifier in Bonneval sur Arc was particularly significant: the venue is a four-star face known for rock bands, tricky snow and serious exposure, and the event gathers many of the strongest Qualifier riders in Europe. She has also appeared on start lists at Open Faces stops in locations such as Alpbachtal and Silvretta Montafon, and in Challenger-level contests where tickets to the main Tour are decided. Her current ranking places her among the deeper field of strong European freeriders who are pushing for a breakthrough season rather than already established stars.

How they ski: what to watch for

Frey’s skiing is built around line choice and control rather than showy, high-risk trick counts. Viewers studying her runs will notice that she favors fluid, continuous lines that link features logically from top to bottom, staying centered over her skis even when snow quality changes mid-face. She tends to work with natural rollers, wind lips and rock drops instead of forcing big air off awkward terrain, which suits the judging criteria in freeride: strong line choice, good fluidity, committed airs and clean landings. Rather than chasing the kind of single massive big air that defines some men’s runs, she often layers several medium-sized airs with smooth transitions and stable exits.

Technical stance and timing are also part of her signature. Coming from equestrian sport, she speaks about balance and feel in similar terms to riding horses: staying calm over an unpredictable partner and adapting instinctively when something changes underfoot. On snow, that translates into quiet upper body movements, quick edge adjustments and an ability to keep speed in check without over-braking. While her world is freeride rather than park freeski slopestyle, you can still spot influences from modern freestyle skiing in her grabs and the way she shapes airs, bringing a refined, almost big air style to natural takeoffs instead of sculpted jumps or urban street skiing features.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Frey’s trajectory has not been linear. She has dealt with injuries that paused her competition schedule and forced long stretches of rehab and rebuilding. That theme of resilience sits at the heart of “Riding Patagonia,” a documentary project that follows her and fellow skier Léa Bouard as they use horses to access remote lines in the Patagonian backcountry around Ushuaia. The film frames freeride not just as a contest circuit but as a way to reconnect with childhood passions and the emotional discipline learned from working with animals. For fans, it offers a more intimate look at how she thinks about risk, fear and motivation far from finish corrals and live scoring.

Off the competition and film circuit, Frey contributes to the culture around skiing in quieter, community-focused ways. She has been involved in youth and snowcamp environments, helping guide younger skiers toward safe off-piste habits, and she appears among the signatories of an open letter urging international ski leadership to take stronger climate action. That advocacy underscores the simple reality her generation of freeriders faces: the venues they depend on are directly affected by warming winters. Through social media clips, brand projects and interviews, she tends to present freeride skiing as something that should remain fun and inclusive rather than purely elite.

Geography that built the toolkit

Frey’s story is also geographical. Growing up around Frankfurt meant long drives to the mountains rather than doorstep access, so early trips to the Alps were concentrated and purposeful. As her commitment to skiing deepened, she relocated to Innsbruck, the Tyrolean city ringed by major ski areas and classic backcountry lines. From there she regularly rides venues linked to the Open Faces series and the Freeride World Tour Challenger circuit: steep bowls above Kappl-Paznaun, the varied faces of Silvretta Montafon, the high alpine bowls near Obertauern and the more hidden freeride zones spread across Tyrol and Vorarlberg.

Her 2025 victory in Bonneval sur Arc brought her into the French Alps’ Haute Maurienne Vanoise region, a place famous for deep snowpacks and a freeride identity built around long, committing lines. Looking ahead, “Riding Patagonia” expands her map even further south, into the maritime snow and rugged peaks around Ushuaia in Argentina. Watching her career is a reminder that modern freeride skiing is often a patchwork of micro-climates and cultures: German cities, Austrian valley towns, French high-mountain villages and far-flung Southern Hemisphere ranges all contribute different snow textures and line choices to her toolkit.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Although the exact skis and boots on Frey’s feet change between competitions, film shoots and photo campaigns, a few constants stand out. She is prominently featured as a backcountry skier in the product storytelling for the React goggle from Scott Sports, emphasizing wide field of vision, easy lens changes and helmet compatibility. Those details are not trivial in freeride, where fast decisions in variable visibility can make the difference between a confident line and a conservative one. For skiers learning from her example, prioritizing protective equipment that works reliably in stormy, cold conditions is more important than copying a particular pro model ski.

Frey’s appearance as a talent in the Zara Ski Collection 24/25 campaign, shot on the glacier slopes of Sölden, also reflects her interest in the aesthetics of how skiers present themselves. For progressing riders, there is a useful lesson here: the best outerwear for freeride is gear that allows you to move naturally, stay warm and dry while hiking or standing in start gates, and still feel like yourself on camera or in photos. Frey’s professional life across contests, commercial shoots and documentary projects illustrates how good equipment, from avalanche gear to clothing and goggles, underpins both performance and storytelling.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans gravitate toward Jill Frey because she represents a pathway that feels attainable yet inspiring. She is not an Olympic medalist or a multi-time Freeride World Tour champion; instead she is a committed Qualifier and Challenger athlete who has carved out a distinct identity through smart line choices, thoughtful projects and a clear sense of what she wants from the mountains. For young riders, especially women who do not come from racing or slopestyle academies, her shift from equestrian sport to freeride shows that a late, passion-driven entry into skiing can still lead to significant results, film roles and respected standing in the community.

Watching her runs, film segments and brand work offers concrete takeaways. Viewers can study how she reads terrain, where she chooses to introduce speed and where she shuts it down, and how she balances ambition with control on complex faces. At the same time, her involvement with climate advocacy and storytelling projects like “Riding Patagonia” broaden the frame beyond podiums. In that sense, Jill Frey matters not only for what she does in a single contest run, but for how she embodies a modern vision of freeride: rooted in love for the mountains, open to collaboration across media and brands, and aware that the future of big-mountain skiing depends on both technical progression and environmental responsibility.

Profile and significance

Johanna Ochsenreiter is a German skier from the Allgäu region whose name pops up in several corners of modern ski culture: in cross-country race results, in mountain guiding and winter hiking, and in the credits of a community-driven all-FLINTA ski movie. FIS records show her starting cross-country races for SC Scheidegg at junior and national level, while guiding and outdoor profiles present her as a state-certified mountain and winter hiking guide who lives for fresh powder days. That mix of structured endurance sport, everyday mountain work and freeski filmmaking places her in a growing category of athletes who shape ski culture more through their versatility and presence than through a single marquee podium.

Rather than being known for World Cup glory, she is part of the layer of skiers who keep the sport alive on the ground: leading guests through Allgäu terrain, logging long days on touring skis, and joining street and backcountry film projects built around inclusivity and representation. Her appearance among the riders of “Bucket Clips 4”, an all-FLINTA ski movie, underlines her connection to the freeski scene and to a network of women and gender-diverse skiers who are pushing visibility in a space traditionally dominated by men. For viewers and progressing skiers, she is interesting precisely because she sits at the crossroads of performance, guiding and community-based projects rather than occupying the media spotlight on a slopestyle or big air podium.

Competitive arc and key venues

Cross-country skiing is the most formally documented side of Johanna Ochsenreiter’s athletic path. In FIS databases you find her racing under the German flag for SC Scheidegg in the 2017–2018 seasons, with starts in classic development venues such as Oberstdorf, Oberhof and Oberwiesenthal. The events include sprint races over a little more than a kilometre and distance races around five to ten kilometres, largely in junior or national categories. The results lists show finishes in the middle of the field rather than top-step dominance, but they confirm an early commitment to structured training, race routines and the discipline that goes with them.

At the same time, her professional footprint in the mountains points strongly toward the tour and freeride side of ski culture. Guiding and winter-walking profiles from Allgäu describe her as happiest on skis in fresh powder, with ski touring and long winter days in the high country playing as central a role as any race bib. Her work with guests ranges from introductory ski touring and winter hiking to more advanced objectives in the Alps, where reading snow conditions, choosing lines and managing group safety are as demanding as any competition. Add in her inclusion among the riders in a community street-and-backcountry project like “Bucket Clips 4” and you get a sense of a skier who has quietly expanded her arena from groomed tracks to wider alpine terrain and creative filming sessions.

How they ski: what to watch for

Because Johanna Ochsenreiter’s exposure comes more from guiding, touring and collective films than from head-to-head slopestyle rankings, observing her skiing is about reading subtler cues than trick lists. A cross-country foundation usually produces a skier with efficient movement, a strong engine and a feel for gliding speed, and that tends to show up in how such athletes handle long approaches, rolling terrain and traverses between features. The stride-to-turn transition that former cross-country racers develop often leads to a quiet upper body and a focus on keeping skis running smoothly rather than constantly throwing brakes on.

In freeride and touring environments that translates into lines that look coherent and economical. Instead of hunting for the biggest possible cliff or a park-style big air moment, skiers with this background typically build runs around natural fall lines, small drops, wind lips and pockets of preserved snow. They tend to be comfortable keeping momentum on variable surfaces and using subtle edge pressure to stay balanced when the snow turns crusty, wind-affected or tracked out. When you see her name in a film project like an all-FLINTA community movie, you can expect that blend of endurance, flow and practical terrain reading rather than a heavily urban street skiing emphasis packed with handrails and kinked stair sets.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Although Johanna Ochsenreiter is not a household name on the World Cup, her influence emerges through a different route: consistent presence in the mountains and behind the camera. Credits in commercial and outdoor film work, often in the role of production assistant for the Innsbruck-based collective KOOKIE, show her involved in shaping the visual language of skiing and other mountain sports. Helping coordinate location shoots, athletes and logistics builds a deep understanding of how ski images are made, which in turn feeds back into how she chooses lines and settings when it is her turn in front of the lens.

Her participation in “Bucket Clips 4” is part of a broader movement where FLINTA riders share segments, stack clips and premiere films that highlight a wider range of stories than traditional big-budget productions. Rather than centring a single star, these projects celebrate a whole crew, and the riders who take part gain influence as part of a mosaic. For younger skiers looking up, seeing a German all-mountain skier and guide appear in that type of film alongside park and street specialists helps reinforce the idea that there are many valid ways to belong in freeski culture, whether your main focus is chairlift laps, urban missions or ski touring deep into the backcountry.

Geography that built the toolkit

The geography behind Johanna Ochsenreiter’s skiing is almost a character in its own right. The Allgäu region, with towns like Scheidegg and Lindenberg im Allgäu, provides rolling foothills, access to Nordic tracks and relatively quick reach to steeper alpine terrain. Growing up and working in this environment means learning to navigate everything from low-elevation snow that comes and goes during warm spells to high, shaded slopes where powder lingers well after a storm. That variety helps build an all-round toolkit that serves both cross-country racing and ski touring.

Her professional links to outfits such as the guiding company whose programmes cover Oberstdorf, the Kleinwalsertal and other classic Allgäu touring areas add another layer. These areas are not giant resort complexes built purely for slopestyle or big air showdowns; they are a web of ski areas, touring routes and lift-accessed freeride zones that reward careful line selection and avalanche awareness. Time spent here teaching guests, planning routes and adapting to changeable conditions inevitably shapes how an athlete thinks about risk, pacing and terrain choice. For viewers, keeping that geography in mind provides useful context when watching any clips or edits that carry her name in the credits.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Public profiles of Johanna Ochsenreiter focus more on her roles and terrain than on specific pro-model setups, but the outline of her equipment priorities is clear. Cross-country racing starts for a club like SC Scheidegg imply familiarity with light, efficient setups where every gram matters and glide is crucial. Guiding and ski touring work demand a different balance, combining touring bindings and skins with boots stiff enough to handle variable snow on the descent. For most skiers looking to learn from her example, the key lesson is not to copy a single brand but to think carefully about the compromise between uphill efficiency and downhill stability.

Because she spends so much time outside standard resort comfort zones, avalanche safety gear and reliable outerwear carry extra weight. A touring skier and winter hiking guide who is out in storms, early-morning cold and spring transitions needs a layering system that stays dry and warm over long days, plus goggles and sunglasses that handle flat light and reflections. Looking at her environment, it is reasonable to assume that she favours equipment that works in the humid, often rapidly changing climates of the northern Alps rather than ultra-specialised park gear. For progressing skiers, this reinforces an important point: if your goals look more like hers, you should prioritise dependable touring and freeride equipment over the twin-tip park setups you see on slopestyle start lists.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and aspiring riders who search for Johanna Ochsenreiter will not find a wall of Olympic results or multiple World Championship medals. Instead, they find a portrait of a modern mountain professional who blends cross-country experience, guiding work, film involvement and participation in inclusive freeski projects. That is exactly why she can matter to many skiers more than a distant superstar. Her path suggests that it is possible to build a life around skiing through a combination of instructing, touring, small-scale competition and creative collaboration rather than only through elite slopestyle or big air careers.

For progressing skiers, especially those from regions like Allgäu where mountains are close but not all-consuming, her example offers several takeaways. A background in endurance sport can underpin strong all-mountain skiing. Guiding or instructional work can sit alongside personal progression and filming. Involvement in community-led projects such as all-FLINTA movies can give visibility and connection without waiting for major-brand invitations. Watching how and where her name appears across race lists, guiding teams and film credits gives a realistic, grounded blueprint for building a skiing life that is sustainable, varied and deeply rooted in the places where snow actually falls.

Profile and significance

Johanna Sellman is a Swedish freeski slopestyle and big air skier whose name keeps showing up wherever modern park skiing is progressing. Born in 1997 and riding for the Umeå-based club Uhsk, she has built a résumé that blends FIS slopestyle and big air podiums, Austrian Cup wins and standout appearances in influential women’s ski films. While she has not yet become a World Cup headliner, she sits in that crucial tier of riders who define the level of everyday park skiing in Europe: strong enough to win open contests, stylish enough to be picked for film projects, and committed enough to spend most of the winter chasing takeoffs and landings across the Alps and Scandinavia.

Her competitive results tell only part of the story. Beyond the numbers, Sellman has become a familiar presence in women’s freeski culture through the “Bucket Clips” all-FLINTA film series, a Level 1 SuperUnknown semi-finalist part and regular appearances at iconic parks like PenkenPark in Mayrhofen and Gran Masta Park in Adelboden-Lenk. She also maintains a close connection to Kläppen Ski Resort, a Swedish park hub where she has worked and filmed. For fans and progressing riders, she represents the bridge between grassroots Scandinavian scenes and the broader European contest and film circuit.

Competitive arc and key venues

Sellman’s name first appears in international databases in the late 2010s, when she began entering FIS slopestyle events in Sweden. Results from venues like Tändådalens slopestyle course and national championships in Kläppen show her steadily climbing leaderboards, culminating in podiums at Swedish championships in both slopestyle and big air. Those early domestic results set the stage for a move onto the wider European stage, where she tested her skiing against deeper international fields.

From 2021 onward her competitive arc accelerates. Multiple FIS slopestyle wins in Swedish parks such as Järvsö and Leksand confirm that she is more than just a local talent, and strong showings in national championships lead into European Cup opportunities. A silver medal in European Cup big air at Götschen and a podium in European Cup slopestyle at Ruka underline her ability to adapt to different jumps, formats and snow conditions while still holding her tricks together when the pressure is on. In parallel she stays active in national-level big air and slopestyle events where the depth of the Swedish freeski scene keeps the level high.

One of the clearest snapshots of her competitive relevance comes from the Austria Cup and QParks environment. In 2024 she tops the freeski women’s field at the PenkenBattle slopestyle contest in the PenkenPark above Mayrhofen, a long-running event that draws a mix of Austrian, Scandinavian and Central European riders and feeds into Austria Cup rankings. A season placing near the top of those rankings shows she is not just dropping in for a single lucky run; she is part of the core contest cohort that shapes the level in Central Europe. For viewers, contests at PenkenPark and similar venues are one of the best places to see her competition skiing at full intensity.

How they ski: what to watch for

Sellman’s skiing is built on classic park fundamentals: solid rail game, clean grabs and a clear respect for line choice. In slopestyle, she tends to favor runs that build momentum rather than relying on one risky banger trick; you will often see her link technical rail features up top into a well-paced jump line with spins that keep getting more complex as she approaches the finish. Her trick lists show plenty of switch takeoffs, well-held grabs and spins that stay on-axis until she deliberately adds cork or off-axis flavor.

On jumps, the first thing to watch is how long she holds her grabs. Rather than snatching for style points, she usually locks in early and keeps the grab through a large portion of the rotation, giving her spins a calm, composed look even on bigger features. That composure also shows in her landings. She has a tendency to land slightly forward and drive out of the landing rather than defaulting to heavy back-seat recoveries, which is part technique and part confidence in speed management. On rails she balances technicality with flow; instead of chasing endless spin-on, spin-off variations, she often chooses creative lines across the set with clean changes in direction and strong body position.

Sellman can also adapt her style from pure park slopestyle to more film-oriented segments. In those edits, she brings park skills into sidehits, side-country jumps and occasional urban or quasi-urban setups without losing the refined takeoff and landing mechanics she uses in contests. For progressing skiers, her clips are a good study in how to carry contest-level fundamentals into more playful, creative terrain without sacrificing control.

Resilience, filming, and influence

In recent years, much of Sellman’s influence has come from outside result sheets. She has appeared as a semi-finalist in Level 1’s SuperUnknown talent search, a global park-skiing showcase that has launched many well-known careers. That appearance signaled that her style and trick selection resonated with film-focused skiers far beyond Sweden. Around the same time, she began featuring more consistently in the “Bucket Clips” film series, an all-FLINTA project led by Rosina Friedel that assembles park and backcountry clips from women and gender-diverse riders around the world.

Being part of those projects matters because they help rebalance visibility in freeskiing. Instead of a single pro carrying a full-length movie, “Bucket Clips” is structured as a mosaic of segments, with riders like Sellman contributing clips from their home mountains and travels. For younger skiers, particularly women in the park, seeing her name in the credits next to a deep roster of international riders makes the path from local rail jams to film segments feel more real. Community conversation around “dopest women skiers” and “who to follow” threads frequently mention her as a rider whose skiing deserves more attention, which underlines the respect she commands within the core freeski audience even without World Cup medals.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geography plays a huge role in Sellman’s ski identity. She comes from Umeå in northern Sweden, far from the high Alpine peaks but close to a network of local hills and park-focused resorts. One of the most important is Kläppen, a resort known for its dedicated snowpark and frequent hosting of national-level freeski events. Working and riding there gives her long seasons in a park environment that rewards repetition, experimentation and filming with friends after hours.

As her career has grown, she has added more international spots to her regular winter map. PenkenPark in Mayrhofen, accessed via the Mayrhofner Bergbahnen above the Zillertal valley, is one of Europe’s benchmark slopestyle venues and a natural home base for riders chasing Austria Cup and European Cup results. Further west and south, the creatively shaped lines of Gran Masta Park in the Adelboden-Lenk region have also become a recurring backdrop for her clips. Between Swedish early-season laps, mid-winter Austrian contests and spring sessions in Swiss parks, she spends most of the season in environments that prioritize progressive rails, well-built jump lines and a strong filming culture.

That geographical mix reinforces a particular skill set: comfort on medium-sized but technically demanding jumps, a love of creative rail lines and the ability to adjust quickly when park crews change features overnight. It also keeps her connected to grassroots scenes, from local Swedish kids’ days and mystery tours to women’s coaching sessions and girls-only park events in Austria.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Public footage and social posts consistently show Sellman riding park-oriented twin tips from Armada Skis, often in setups that balance stability on jumps with quickness on rails. While the exact model may shift from season to season, the general theme is a moderately stiff park ski with enough backbone for big air takeoffs and enough forgiveness to stay playful on smaller features. For skiers looking to learn from her choices, the key takeaway is not to chase a pro model but to find a symmetrical, rail-friendly ski that still feels predictable on the bigger kickers common at contests like PenkenBattle.

Her connection to venues like Kläppen, PenkenPark and Gran Masta Park also highlights the importance of treating parks themselves as “equipment.” Riding in well-shaped parks with consistent lips and landings allows her to push progression with fewer unknowns. That reality suggests a practical lesson for progressing riders: if you want to ski more like Sellman, seek out parks with a reputation for good shaping and a strong community rather than focusing only on headline resort names. In combination with a solid park boot, a binding setup you trust and protective gear like a modern helmet and back protector, that environment will do as much for your progression as any specific ski graphic.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Johanna Sellman because she is a clear example of how far consistent park dedication and community involvement can take a skier, even without Olympic or X Games medals. She wins recognized slopestyle contests, posts clean and stylish footage, contributes to respected film projects and remains deeply connected to the everyday park scenes that produce the next generation of riders. That mix makes her both aspirational and relatable: she is good enough to inspire and close enough to the grassroots that her path feels achievable.

For progressing skiers, especially those growing up in small hills or regional parks, her journey offers a concrete blueprint. Build strong fundamentals in your local park. Travel to bigger venues like Kläppen, PenkenPark or Gran Masta Park when you can. Enter FIS or open contests when your run is consistent. Film with friends and submit to projects like SuperUnknown or community edits. Support all-FLINTA and inclusive projects that widen who gets seen. Watching how Johanna Sellman has quietly assembled those pieces into a solid freeski career helps clarify that modern slopestyle and big air culture is not only about a few superstars, but also about riders like her who keep the progression alive, one well-grabbed spin and one dialed rail at a time.

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.

Profile and significance

Laura Pöbl is a European freeski and freeride skier whose name keeps appearing wherever community-driven film projects and creative contests are shaping modern ski culture. Rather than following a traditional path through national teams and FIS rankings, she has built her presence through mixed backcountry video contests, all-FLINTA film projects and independent season edits. Viewers discover her in projects like the “Bucket Clips” film series and in the riders list for short movies highlighted by core freeski media, as well as in the results of the Greeny Ynvitational video contest in Laax. Taken together, these appearances sketch the picture of an emerging rider who is firmly embedded in the European freeski scene, even if she remains largely unknown to mainstream audiences.

Pöbl’s significance comes from the spaces she chooses to inhabit. The Greeny Ynvitational and the Bucket Clips movies are deliberately designed to celebrate creativity, collaboration and underrepresented riders rather than only polishing the biggest names. Her third-place team finish at the inaugural Greeny Ynvitational and her recurring role in Bucket Clips edits show that other skiers and filmmakers trust her to help carry the visual story of their projects. For fans who follow independent ski cinema, she represents the large “middle class” of talented riders whose skiing you see in festival selections and online premieres long before you see it on big-budget World Cup broadcasts.

Competitive arc and key venues

Where many athlete biographies begin with junior race programs or early slopestyle podiums, Pöbl’s competitive arc is written in the language of video contests. A key milestone came in January 2023 at the first Greeny Ynvitational in Laax, Switzerland. The event brought together 24 invited riders, divided into mixed teams of three, and gave them four days to film and edit a roughly two-minute clip anywhere in the Flims-Laax-Falera area. The focus was on using the entire mountain—natural terrain, sidecountry, and creative in-bounds features—rather than leaning on pre-shaped park jumps. When the final rider vote was held, Pöbl’s Team 4 with Marco Tribelhorn and Sven Rauber claimed third place, earning both a podium and a reputation as a tight, creative crew.

This result matters because of the type of contest Greeny represents. Instead of a judged run down a single face, teams had to plan lines, chase weather windows, share ideas with filmers and then shape all of that into a coherent short movie. Finishing on the podium in that format signals that Pöbl can contribute on every level: skiing, decision-making and story. Laax itself, with its extensive terrain and strong freestyle culture, is a natural arena for this kind of event, and her success there connects her name to one of Europe’s most respected modern resorts. For fans looking to understand her skiing, the Greeny edits are one of the clearest windows into how she operates when the camera is rolling and the clock is ticking.

How they ski: what to watch for

Because Pöbl’s public footprint is built mostly on film segments and video contests rather than broadcast slopestyle runs, viewers encounter her skiing through carefully edited clips. Those clips sit within projects that emphasise fluid, mountain-wide skiing: linking powder turns, traverses, natural drops and sidehits into a continuous line rather than isolating a single stunt. When you watch her in the Greeny Ynvitational edit or in the “Bucket Clips” movies, the focus is on how she moves with the terrain, using variations in slope angle, snow texture and natural features to keep the run interesting and fun to watch.

That context shapes how to “read” her skiing. Instead of counting rotations or naming rail tricks, it is more revealing to pay attention to line choice and tempo. She appears in crews that favour using everyday conditions creatively—thin snowpacks, mixed weather, tracked powder—rather than waiting only for perfect heli-days. As a viewer, look at how her sections help the overall edit breathe: the pacing of turns, the way she threads through trees or rolls over small ridges and the way her skiing supports the mood the filmer is building. For progressing skiers, this kind of footage is a reminder that style is not just about individual tricks but also about how you connect the whole run from top to bottom.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Pöbl’s biggest influence so far is tied to the all-FLINTA and women-led projects she chooses to support. She appears in “Bucket Clips 2.0,” an all-female mixtape produced by Rosina Friedel and the el.Makrell collective, where the stated goal is to shine a spotlight on lesser-known women of freeskiing. In that film, she shares a segment with Friedel, contributing to a mix of street, powder and park footage that is explicitly about widening who gets screen time in core ski media. Subsequent editions of the Bucket Clips project and their inclusion in international festival guides confirm that this is more than a one-off cameo; it is a recurring collaboration.

Her name also shows up in festival film guides and ski-movie trailer roundups, placing her alongside a broad roster of international riders who submit work to events like iF3 and other European festivals. This repeated presence is a form of resilience: in a film landscape where many riders appear once and vanish, she keeps finding her way into new projects and edits. That persistence suggests a skier who continues to put in the work to film, travel and coordinate with crews season after season. For younger skiers, especially women and gender-diverse riders, seeing the same names return in these community-oriented projects sends an important message that it is possible to build a lasting place in ski culture without necessarily chasing the traditional contest circuit.

Geography that built the toolkit

The geography that shapes Pöbl’s skiing is overwhelmingly Alpine. The Greeny Ynvitational anchors her firmly in the Flims-Laax-Falera region of Switzerland, a destination that markets itself as a freestyle and freeride playground with extensive off-piste options and a strong park scene. Skiers there work with everything from tree-lined valleys to wind-affected ridges and mellow powder meadows, and the Greeny format encouraged teams to explore that variety. Her third-place performance with Team 4 came from using this environment creatively during a low-snow year, which required careful selection of features and an eye for interesting, safe lines.

Another recurring backdrop for Pöbl is the Austrian Alps. In a detailed gear review of a freeride outfit on a well-known European ski platform, she appears in the photo gallery skiing in high-alpine terrain in Tyrol while the reviewer tests a shell jacket and pants. These domestic freeride days, spent hiking short bootpacks, dealing with storm conditions and skiing mixed snow, are exactly where many of the habits that show up in film segments are built. For fans, recognising these locations helps contextualise her skiing: she is not an athlete who drops into the Alps for a single shoot, but someone whose clips grow out of consistent time in those mountains.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Unlike heavily commercialised World Cup athletes, Pöbl’s equipment story is visible mainly through projects rather than big sponsorship announcements. In the Tyrol gear review, she is featured wearing a freeride shell kit from Spyder, specifically the Sanction jacket and Turret pant, as the tester puts the outfit through around fifty to sixty ski days across a range of conditions. For viewers, seeing her ski in this setup provides a real-world example of how a modern Gore-Tex Pro freeride shell looks and moves on snow: lightweight, protective and cut with enough room for layering and dynamic movement.

On the terrain side, the Greeny Ynvitational firmly links her with the Swiss resort of LAAX and the wider Flims Laax area, which are known for extensive freeride options and a long-standing freestyle culture. Even though the contest edits themselves do not read like gear catalogues, they still show the practical realities of a backcountry-oriented setup: skis with enough surface area for mixed conditions, bindings that can withstand repeated drops and landings, and outerwear that stays functional over several hard days of filming in a row. For progressing skiers, the useful lesson is less about copying exact models and more about matching your equipment to the kind of skiing these projects highlight—full days in variable snow, built around creative use of the whole mountain.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans of independent ski films care about Laura Pöbl because she represents a very real path into the culture: film with motivated friends, support inclusive projects, enter creative contests and slowly accumulate a body of work that speaks for itself. Her story is not one of instant stardom, but of steady, visible participation in projects that matter to the core freeski audience. Every time her name appears in a festival guide, a collaborative edit or an event recap, it reinforces the idea that there is space in skiing for riders whose main ambition is to contribute to meaningful films and community events.

For progressing skiers watching her in Bucket Clips, Greeny edits or personal season cuts, the takeaway is concrete. You do not need a national-team jacket to become part of ski media; you need a reliable crew, a willingness to work with the conditions you have and the patience to put together clips that tell a story. Pöbl’s emerging career shows how powerful those ingredients can be when combined with consistent time on snow in the Alps and a commitment to projects that lift up others as well as herself. As more seasons pass and more edits drop, she is likely to remain one of those names that attentive viewers recognise—a sign that they are watching the parts of ski culture where the next generation is quietly writing its own script.

Profile and significance

Laura Wallner is an Austrian freeski slopestyle and big air specialist who has quietly become one of the key reference points for women’s park skiing from the Tyrol region. Born in 1998 and representing Austria in international competition, she has spent almost a decade on the World Cup circuit, mixing technical rail lines with stylish jumps on the biggest stages in freeski. Her career includes appearances at the FIS Freestyle World Championships, a long list of World Cup starts and a full Olympic debut at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games in both slopestyle and big air. For many fans, she is the face they associate with Austrian women’s park freeski: always in the mix at contests, always pushing to represent her home mountains with progressive skiing.

Wallner is more than a contest name on a start list. She is a long-time team rider for the European core retailer Blue Tomato and skis for the independent ski brand Surface Skis, while also appearing in Ski Austria media pieces such as a dedicated freeski trailer. Her profile on Blue Tomato describes freeskiing as her way of expressing herself, as natural as writing or painting for someone else. That mix of competition, brand support and creative output places her firmly in the group of riders who define the everyday standard of modern women’s freeski: not yet a serial World Cup winner, but consistently good enough to shape the level at major events and inspire the next generation.

Competitive arc and key venues

Wallner’s FIS record traces a steady climb from promising teenager to established World Cup regular. She stepped onto the international stage around 2017, travelling as far as Cardrona in New Zealand for early-season slopestyle World Cups and earning experience against some of the strongest fields in the world. In the same period she started to find her feet in big air, taking a standout seventh place at the World Cup big air in Milan during the 2017–18 season. That top-10 finish marked her as a serious jumper at a time when women’s big air was exploding in difficulty and visibility.

Over the following seasons she became a fixture in women’s slopestyle and big air start lists at venues such as Cardrona, Mammoth Mountain, Aspen Snowmass, Silvaplana and the glacier parks above Stubai. She reached the slopestyle final at Stubai in 2021 and finished eighth, the best home-World-Cup result ever recorded by an Austrian woman in that discipline at the time. She also represented Austria at the 2021 World Championships in Aspen, making the big air final and placing inside the top ten against a field that included many Olympic and X Games medalists. By the time she arrived at Beijing 2022, she had already built a deep résumé of World Cup appearances and finals that prepared her for the Olympic spotlight.

At the Beijing Games she competed in both freeski big air in the city stadium and slopestyle at Genting Snow Park, adding the Olympic rings to a contest career that was already globally spread. More recently, Wallner has complemented her FIS schedule with high-profile urban and rail-focused events. She was invited to the Freeski Friday Jam Session at SnowFest Innsbruck, riding a two-storey scaffolding setup in front of the Tiroler Landestheater, and later took the freeski women’s win at the Rock A Rail Ski event during SnowFest Innsbruck, an achievement that underlines her strength in the rail- and street-skiing side of the sport.

How they ski: what to watch for

Wallner’s skiing is a textbook example of how modern all-round park freeski should look: balanced between rails and jumps, with a strong technical foundation rather than a single “signature” trick. On jumps, she tends to combine clean spin direction changes with well-held grabs, using rotations that build in difficulty throughout a run instead of throwing everything into one feature. You often see her approach takeoffs with calm body language, pop decisively and then let the rotation unfold without unnecessary flailing, relying on good timing and a strong sense of where she is in the air.

On rails and urban features, the qualities that stand out are precision and commitment. Events like SnowFest Innsbruck demand comfort on down rails, close-out rails and alley-oop approaches on scaffolding that feels very different from a comfortable glacier park. Wallner looks at home in this environment, willing to take speed into technical features and trusting her edge control on kinked or high-consequence setups. Her slopestyle runs typically open with solid rail sections that mix switch approaches, changes of direction and controlled spins off the feature, setting a technical tone before she moves into the jump line. For viewers trying to learn from her, it is worth watching how rarely she gets wildly off-balance; even when things are not perfect, she usually finds a way to land on her feet and keep the run moving.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Long careers in slopestyle and big air are as much about resilience as raw talent. Wallner has dealt with the usual challenges of any park skier at this level: injuries, qualification runs that do not go to plan, finals where conditions change between practice and showtime. Reports from the Stubai World Cup in 2021 describe her as the hometown favourite who unfortunately crashed in both final runs, a reminder that even the best-prepared riders can see their plans unravel on a single icy landing. Yet she has kept returning to the circuit, putting down cleaner runs at later events and maintaining her place among the women trusted to represent Austria at World Cups and major championships.

Her influence also flows through brand and federation projects. Blue Tomato’s team page and content pieces present her as someone who rides primarily for joy and friendships rather than pure medal hunting, which resonates with many freeski fans who see the sport as a creative outlet. Ski Austria’s dedicated trailer featuring Wallner helps introduce her to a broader national audience, placing her alongside the country’s other freestyle and park athletes in a storytelling format rather than only in result lists. Combined with her presence at high-visibility urban events in Innsbruck, these projects position her as a visible role model for young Austrian park skiers, especially girls who are just discovering slopestyle, big air and urban/street skiing.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geographically, Wallner is a product of the central Alps, and you can see that in how she skis. Her social and team profiles link her closely to Innsbruck and the Stubai Valley, a region that functions almost like a giant training campus for freeski. The glacier park at Stubai, often branded as Stubai Zoo, offers long pre-season sessions with big jumps and dense rail lines where riders can spend weeks refining tricks before the main contest calendar even begins. Growing up and training in this environment means constant exposure to both world-class features and visiting international crews, pushing the local level upwards year after year.

Her competition history has taken her well beyond Austria, adding important textures to her skiing. Trips to Cardrona in New Zealand bring high-wind spring conditions and firm landings; Mammoth and Aspen offer classic North American jump lines and changeable weather; Silvaplana in Switzerland is known for its combination of stunning location and demanding slopestyle course late in the season. Returning home to urban events in Innsbruck, she brings that experience back onto metal rails set in the city centre. The result is a skier who looks comfortable on everything from glacier tabletops to city handrails, because each of those environments is now a familiar part of her yearly rhythm.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Wallner’s equipment choices reflect her all-round park and urban focus. As a team rider for Surface Skis, she uses true twin-tip skis designed to work equally well forwards and switch, with shapes and flex patterns that balance jump stability and rail feel. For spectators, watching how her skis behave on different features is a useful real-world demonstration of what a modern park ski is asked to do: maintain edge grip on hard, injected World Cup takeoffs; stay predictable under heavy rail use at street events; and still feel playful enough for creative lines in glacier parks.

Support from Blue Tomato keeps her closely connected to the European core retail scene, where trends in boots, bindings, helmets and outerwear often start long before they hit mainstream shops. Rather than promoting a single “must-have” piece, her career underlines the importance of building a kit that matches your actual terrain. If your local riding looks more like Stubai’s park and the SnowFest Innsbruck rail setup than like heli-accessed powder fields, a durable park twin tip, a dialled binding stance and protective gear that you are comfortable wearing all day will do more for your progression than chasing a signature pro-model graphic.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Laura Wallner because she represents a realistic, inspiring version of high-level freeski. She is an Olympian and a World Cup finalist, but she is also someone you can imagine lapping the park at Stubai on a regular Wednesday, trading tricks and encouragement with local crews. Her mix of contest experience, street and urban results, and long-term commitment to brands rooted in core ski culture makes her feel both aspirational and grounded. She shows that you can come from a small circle of Tyrolean parks and still end up taking your run in the Olympic stadium, without losing sight of why you started skiing in the first place.

For progressing skiers, her career offers a clear roadmap. Build strong fundamentals on rails and jumps in your local park. Travel to bigger venues when you can, from glacier parks to international contests, to test your tricks under pressure. Stay open to urban and street skiing opportunities, whether that means a city rail jam or a festival event like Rock A Rail. Work with brands that support your progression and align with your values. Watching Laura Wallner’s runs and edits through this lens turns her career into more than a results list; it becomes a practical guide to building a sustainable, creative life in slopestyle, big air and urban freeski.

Profile and significance

María Esteban Uña is a Spanish freeski slopestyle, big air and rail specialist who has become one of the most promising park skiers to come out of Spain in recent years. Born in November 2005, she represents Spain internationally and rides for the Madrid-based club FORWARD FREESTYLE ACADEMY, a program dedicated to building the next generation of freestyle skiers. After starting her competitive life in alpine racing as a U16 athlete, she pivoted fully into freeski, bringing race-bred edge control into the world of rails, jumps and urban-style features. That combination of technical precision and creative park riding is now putting her on podiums at home and across Europe.

Within the Spanish scene, Esteban’s rise is especially significant because women’s freeski still has a small but rapidly growing athlete pool. She has already earned national titles in slopestyle, including the Spanish Championship win at Sierra Nevada, and continues to be a reference point whenever national federations talk about the future of freestyle skiing in Spain. At the same time, she is starting to appear in international film projects such as the all-FLINTA ski movie “Bucket Clips 4”, where she shares screen time with an international crew of women and gender-diverse freeskiers. Taken together, her results and film appearances position her as a bridge between Spanish grassroots clubs and the broader European park and urban skiing community.

Competitive arc and key venues

Esteban’s early competition history came through alpine racing, where she appeared in U16 results lists for events like the Copa de Andalucía, racing giant slalom at Sierra Nevada for the TECALP Madrid club. Those seasons gave her a solid foundation in line choice, balance and speed management on hard snow. As she gravitated toward freestyle, she switched to FORWARD FREESTYLE ACADEMY and began accumulating FIS starts in slopestyle and big air, gradually shifting the focus of her skiing from gates to jumps, rails and creative park lines.

The turning point in her freeski career came at national level. In April 2023 she climbed onto the podium at the Spanish Slopestyle Championships, taking second place and signalling that she was already among the strongest female park skiers in the country. One year later, in April 2024, she went one better and won the women’s FIS Spanish Championship slopestyle title at Sierra Nevada, edging out local favourite Irene Conde in a close contest. By spring 2025, she was again at the top of the national standings, finishing the domestic slopestyle season as the leading woman in the Spanish Cup rankings. Parallel to this national success, she stepped onto the European stage: in the 2024–25 season she became a standout in the FIS European Cup rail event series, winning the rail event in Szczyrk and topping the overall rail standings with a maximum score, confirming her status as one of Europe’s most effective competition rail skiers.

How they ski: what to watch for

Esteban’s skiing is defined by her rail game and her ability to keep runs composed under pressure. In rail events and slopestyle qualifiers, she typically builds her runs around strong, technically clean features at the top of the course, using changes in direction, switch entries and solid spin-off exits to establish a high technical base score before she even reaches the jumps. You can see her alpine background in how she locks onto rails: her stance is centred, her shoulders stay quiet and she lets the skis and edges do the work rather than constantly fighting for balance.

On jumps, she focuses on cleanliness rather than pure risk. Instead of throwing the single biggest trick on the hill, she tends to choose rotations that she can control, adding difficulty with switch takeoffs, grab variations and small tweaks in axis. Watching her in competition replays or clips from events like the SnowFest rail jams in Poland, a few patterns stand out: she manages speed carefully into features, commits to the trick early and uses the landing to flow into the next hit rather than stopping the run dead. For progressing riders, her footage is a lesson in how far good fundamentals and consistent execution can take you before you even start adding the most advanced slopestyle and big air tricks.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Coming from Madrid, far from the big Alpine resorts that dominate freeski media, Esteban’s path has required persistence and a willingness to travel. Much of her early training took place on the indoor slope at Madrid Snozone, where FORWARD FREESTYLE ACADEMY runs year-round freestyle programs, and on concentrated trips to Sierra Nevada and other Spanish resorts. Balancing school, long drives from the city to the mountains and the financial realities of competing has meant building her season carefully, targeting key national championships, Spanish Cup events and selected European competitions rather than chasing every single contest on the calendar.

Her resilience is visible in the way each season adds another layer to her profile. After her breakthrough national slopestyle title, she took her rails to an even bigger audience at SnowFest Games in Szczyrk, Poland, where she not only won the women’s category but also claimed the Best Trick award on the same urban-style setup. Around the same time, her name began appearing more prominently in the credits of community film projects, culminating in an appearance in “Bucket Clips 4”, an all-FLINTA ski movie that showcases a broad roster of riders from around the world. Within the Spanish freeski community, she is increasingly cited as evidence that the country can produce high-level park and rail riders capable of winning international events and contributing to respected independent films.

Geography that built the toolkit

Esteban’s skiing is shaped by a distinctive mix of indoor slopes, Iberian mountains and Central European event venues. Madrid’s indoor snow hall, known as Snozone, is one of her primary training grounds through FORWARD FREESTYLE ACADEMY. The controlled environment, consistent snow and repeatable features are ideal for drilling rail tricks and jump basics without the variables of weather and visibility. This kind of training set-up helps explain the precision and confidence she shows on rails in competition.

On natural snow, the high-altitude resort of Sierra Nevada is central to her story. Spanish Championships, national-level slopestyle competitions and Spanish Cup stops there have given her repeated chances to test herself under pressure on a proper park line with national titles on the line. Beyond Spain, her European Cup rail victories and SnowFest performances connect her strongly to Szczyrk in Poland, where SnowFest builds an urban-style scaffolding setup in the resort and in town that mimics true street skiing. Moving between indoor training in Madrid, sunny spring sessions in Andalusia and cold rail events in Central Europe forces a wide skill set: comfort on icy landings, soft slush, hard park salt and everything in between.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Unlike many older World Cup stars, Esteban’s public profile does not revolve around a long list of corporate sponsors, but her environment offers clear equipment lessons. Training with FORWARD FREESTYLE ACADEMY means spending countless hours on park-oriented twin-tip skis with durable edges and park bindings that can withstand repeated impacts on rails and hard landings. For riders watching her progression, the main takeaway is to choose a symmetrical or nearly symmetrical ski that feels predictable both forward and switch, paired with bindings set at a stance you can trust when stepping onto technical rails.

Her reliance on facilities such as Madrid Snozone and resorts like Sierra Nevada also underlines the importance of matching outerwear and protective gear to real training conditions. Indoor slopes demand breathable layers that can handle constant movement without overheating, while outdoor contests in Spain and Poland involve long waits on cold start ramps and late-evening rail jams. Helmets, back protectors and solid gloves are not afterthoughts in this environment; they are what allow her to keep turning up to training after high-impact days. The lesson for fans is simple: building a reliable park kit is less about chasing a pro graphic and more about choosing equipment that fits the kind of riding and venues you actually have access to.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about María Esteban Uña because she offers a realistic, modern blueprint for progression in freeski. She did not grow up in a traditional Alpine powerhouse town, yet she used a city-based club, an indoor slope and targeted trips to Spanish and European resorts to climb from local alpine races to national freestyle titles and European Cup rail wins. Her presence in projects like “Bucket Clips 4” shows that independent film crews now look to Spain for talent, and her victories at SnowFest and on the European Cup rail circuit prove that she can deliver under bright lights and loud music as well as in calm training laps.

For progressing skiers, especially those from non-mountain cities, her career makes the path feel tangible. Join a good club, learn strong basics, spend time in the park even if it is indoors, and then start testing yourself in national contests, rail jams and video projects. Esteban’s skiing illustrates how a focus on rails and solid slopestyle fundamentals can open doors to European Cup podiums, festival films and invitations to influential urban events. Watching her runs and edits with an analytical eye—how she manages speed into rails, how she builds a slopestyle run and how she stays composed in high-pressure finals—turns her story into a practical guide for anyone who wants to push their own freeski riding beyond local laps.

Profile and significance

Marion Balsamo is an American freeski street and rail specialist whose name has become synonymous with the rise of women’s street-style skiing. Born in 2002 and raised near the small resort of Sipapu in northern New Mexico, she has carved out a niche as one of the strongest rail riders of her generation. Her résumé now includes podiums at major events like the Winter Dew Tour, USASA Nationals, APIK rail jams and, most significantly, an X Games Aspen bronze medal in Women’s Ski Street Style. At a time when rail-specific events are finally giving women equal space and prize money, Marion sits right in the middle of that progression.

What makes her especially notable is how she balances elite-level skiing with a demanding life away from the hill. After graduating from Colorado State University in 2024, she was accepted to medical school and works as a medical assistant while continuing to compete and film. That dual path—splitting time between hospitals, horses and handrails—gives her story a different texture than the classic full-time-ski-bum narrative. Supported by brands like Line Skis, she has become a visible role model for skiers who want to push the limits of street and park skiing without abandoning other ambitions.

Competitive arc and key venues

Balsamo’s contest story began far from the bright lights of Aspen or televised big air jumps. In 2019 she earned a breakout win at the USASA Nationals rail jam, taking the women’s title with a standout performance on a compact but technical setup. That result signalled that a skier from a small New Mexico hill could hang with the best young rail riders in the United States. Over the next few seasons she kept showing up at grassroots rail jams and regional events, sharpening her tricks on urban-style features and quietly building a reputation as a rider who thrives when the course is metal-heavy and high consequence.

Her first major international spotlight came through the Winter Dew Tour at Copper Mountain. In 2023 she finished second in Women’s Ski Streetstyle behind Lisa Zimmermann, and in 2024 she returned to the Dew Tour podium with another top-three finish in a deep field led by Eileen Gu. Those results set the stage for an even bigger leap: a strong run through the Street Style Pro qualifier series, including a third place in the Next X Women’s Ski Street Style event, which earned her a coveted X Games invite. At X Games Aspen 2025 she delivered under pressure, stacking clean, technical rail tricks to claim bronze in the inaugural Women’s Ski Street Style final. Along the way she added notable results like a win at a Level 1 Rail Jam Tour stop, second place at the high-profile APIK rail event in Mississauga and podium appearances at SnowFest-style contests, confirming that her Dew Tour and X Games medals were no fluke.

How they ski: what to watch for

Marion Balsamo’s skiing is built around rails in the purest sense. While many slopestyle riders split their time between jumps and jibs, she is part of a new wave of athletes whose primary arena is the rail setup itself—kink rails, close-outs, redirects and transfer gaps. Watching her in Dew Tour or X Games replays, the first thing that jumps out is how early she commits to a trick. She locks into front swaps, surface swaps and technical spin-on variations from the moment her skis touch the rail, with very little hesitation or course correction mid-feature.

Her style is often described as technical and smooth rather than wild or unpredictable. She favours long, fully controlled slides over the whole length of a rail, using swaps and tap features to keep the line interesting without losing balance. A hallmark move is the clean front 270 out of a down or double-kink rail, landed with hips stacked and shoulders quiet instead of thrown open. Speed management is another strength: she carries enough pace to clear gaps and pop onto high features, but rarely comes in so hot that she has to fight for the landing. For riders studying her runs, the lesson is clear—rail dominance starts with precision, edge control and commitment long before it becomes about the most exotic spin.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Balsamo’s influence stretches well beyond podium photos. She has become a recurring face in core ski media, popping up in Line Skis’ “Heavy Hitters” recaps, International Women’s Day features and video projects that highlight women pushing the sport. In 2023 she helped headline a stop of the Level 1 Rail Jam Tour, where she and fellow Line athletes walked away with the big checks in a high-energy night session. She has also been a key presence at the TBL Sessions at Brighton Resort, a women-focused park gathering where a private park is handed over to a hand-picked crew of riders to film, progress and vote on video awards instead of formal contest scores.

On the film side, Marion has moved increasingly into street and urban segments. She appears in community-driven projects like the FLINTA-focused “Bucket Clips” series and in full street films such as a segment in the Runge crew’s “Full Pull,” further cementing her reputation as a skier who can take contest-ready rail skills onto real-world handrails and concrete-to-snow landings. All of this has unfolded while she juggles academic work, medical assistant shifts and personal commitments like barrel racing horses and planning a wedding. That resilience—showing up to icy night sessions and big events while carrying a full life off the hill—resonates strongly with fans who also balance skiing with school or work.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geographically, Balsamo’s rise is rooted in an unconventional set of mountains. Growing up near Sipapu in New Mexico meant learning to ski on smaller hills with limited vertical and highly variable snow. Instead of endless powder laps or giant glacier parks, she cut her teeth on tow-ropes, home-built features and compact resort rail lines. That environment naturally nudges ambitious skiers toward rails and creative use of whatever features the hill can support, which in her case turned into a lifelong love of street and jib skiing.

Moving to Colorado for university opened up a new circle of training grounds. From Fort Collins she could strike out to the front-range and I-70 corridor parks, including Copper Mountain’s Dew Tour setups and the urban-adjacent rail options in and around Denver. Trips to Utah and the Wasatch brought Brighton’s rail-heavy parks into her orbit, while events like APIK Mississauga and SnowFest-style jams introduced her to Eastern Canada’s icy, high-energy contest scene. The common thread across these venues is an emphasis on handrails, scaffolding setups and night-time sessions under lights. That geography has produced a skier more comfortable on steel and concrete than on backcountry spines, perfectly tuned to the demands of modern street-style events.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Balsamo’s equipment choices are tightly aligned with her rail-first approach. As a team rider for Line Skis, she is frequently associated with the Honey Badger TBL, a park ski designed with Taylor Lundquist that emphasises low swing weight, pop and durability on metal. Watching her ride it in contests and street clips gives a real-world sense of what that kind of ski is built to do: stay lively enough for quick swaps and spins, yet strong enough to withstand repeated impacts on kinks and close-outs. For aspiring rail skiers, the message is less “buy this exact model” and more “look for a symmetrical, snappy ski with tough edges and a flex that you can bend without folding.”

On her feet, Balsamo often rides three-piece freestyle boots from brands like K2, giving her a mix of shock absorption and ankle freedom that suits presses and nose-butt style tricks. Protective gear—especially a helmet and back protector—is non-negotiable when you are landing on concrete runouts or metal stairs as often as she does. For skiers trying to follow her path, a practical takeaway is to treat your park and street setup as a system: skis, bindings, boots and protection all tuned to survive repeated impacts on rails rather than occasional powder days.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Marion Balsamo because she represents a clear, modern archetype: the dedicated rail skier who took a love for small-hill park laps and turned it into Dew Tour and X Games hardware without ever abandoning a life outside skiing. Her bronze in Women’s Ski Street Style at X Games Aspen 2025 is more than a single medal; it is a proof-of-concept that women’s rail skiing can stand on the biggest stage, with its own stars and storylines. When brands highlight “women pushing the sport,” her name now sits naturally alongside long-established icons, signalling that the next generation of street specialists has truly arrived.

For progressing skiers, particularly those who spend more time on rails than in big jump lines, her trajectory offers a powerful roadmap. Start with whatever hill or rope tow you have. Obsess over technique—clean swaps, solid lock-ins, controlled spins off features. Show up to local rail jams, then regional tours, then bigger events like Dew Tour or APIK when your trick bag is ready. Film with friends, submit to community projects, and support inclusive crews that open doors for more riders. Watching Marion Balsamo’s runs, SLVSH games and street segments through that lens turns her career into a step-by-step guide to building a future in street and rail skiing, grounded as much in consistency and creativity as in raw risk.

Profile and significance

Naomi Urness is a Canadian freeski slopestyle and big air athlete from Mont-Tremblant, Québec, quietly becoming one of the most consistent young park skiers on the NorAm circuit. Born in 2004 and raised in a family deeply involved in freestyle, she started skiing at age three, joined the Mont-Tremblant Freestyle Club at eleven, and moved steadily through provincial, national and international ranks. She now rides for Freestyle Canada’s NextGen slopestyle/big air program, a stepping stone toward full World Cup status, and represents both her home resort and local shop partners in competition.

Urness’ résumé already includes a fourth place in big air and sixth in slopestyle at the 2022 FIS Junior World Championships in Leysin, Switzerland, along with a growing collection of NorAm podiums. In the 2024–25 season she stacked top-three finishes across North America, including wins and podiums at Mammoth Mountain, Copper Mountain, Aspen and Stoneham. Those results, paired with her selection as the 2019 recipient of Momentum Ski Camps’ Spirit of Sarah scholarship, mark her out as more than just another strong junior. For Canadian freeski fans, she is one of the clearest emerging names in women’s park skiing, with realistic ambitions of moving onto the World Cup circuit and eventually the Olympic stage.

Competitive arc and key venues

Urness’ competitive arc is a classic modern Canadian freeski pathway, compressed into a few intense years. After early seasons in the Québec freestyle system and regional events at her home hill of Mont-Tremblant, she began appearing in national-level start lists and earned selection for the Canada Winter Games representing Québec. That experience of multi-sport games pressure, complete with provincial colours and live scoring, set the tone for the next step of her career.

The real breakthrough came in 2021–22 when she travelled to Leysin for the FIS Junior World Championships. Against a strong international field, she finished fourth in women’s big air and sixth in slopestyle, a result that instantly validated her potential on the global stage. Those performances fed directly into Freestyle Canada naming her to the NextGen slopestyle/big air team in 2023, giving her structured support, coaching and a clear runway toward World Cup qualification.

Since then, the NorAm circuit has been her primary proving ground. Across the 2023 and 2024–25 seasons she has become a regular on the podium: multiple second places in slopestyle and big air at Stoneham and Calgary, back-to-back slopestyle podiums at Copper Mountain and Aspen, and a particularly dominant stretch at Mammoth Mountain where she won slopestyle and added a second place in big air. By the end of the 2024–25 season she had secured second overall in the NorAm big air standings, confirming that her junior world results were not a one-off but part of a sustained rise.

How they ski: what to watch for

Urness’ skiing is the product of hours in structured programs, airbag sessions and park laps at Mont-Tremblant. Her runs blend the composure of a race-trained skier with the freedom of modern freeski style. On jumps, she favours clean, controlled spins where the grab is held long enough to shape the trick rather than just touch for points; you often see her use switch takeoffs and solid grab variations to add difficulty without sacrificing consistency. Her fourth place in big air at Junior Worlds and repeated NorAm big air podiums underline how comfortable she is when the focus is a single, high-pressure hit.

In slopestyle, Urness builds her runs logically. She tends to open with a rail section that is technical but not chaotic, using solid lock-ins, changes of direction and tidy spin-offs to establish a strong base score before stepping into the jumps. Judges and fans notice how rarely she looks rushed; speed is managed carefully into each feature, and landings are usually driven out rather than fought. Her style is more about polish than wild improvisation, which matches the demands of high-level FIS slopestyle and big air where repeatability and control matter as much as creativity.

While her focus is primarily on park courses rather than full urban or street skiing setups, the way she skis rails shows the influence of that culture. Lines are compact, purposeful and built to link one feature smoothly into the next. For progressing riders, her runs are a strong study in how to use fundamentals—good stance, clean edging, committed grabs—to keep climbing the competitive ladder without rushing into tricks that are not ready.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Behind those results sits a story of resilience that local media in Mont-Tremblant have already highlighted. As a teenager, Urness broke her humerus in a training crash, an injury that required months away from snow and a careful return to impact. In interviews she has described the mix of fear and excitement that comes with trying something new, and how “good fear” becomes part of the process for any big air or slopestyle skier. Coming back from that break to compete at Junior Worlds and then to push for NorAm overall titles shows both physical and mental toughness.

Her 2019 Spirit of Sarah scholarship from Momentum Ski Camps is another window into her character. The award is given in memory of Sarah Burke to a young female skier who shows not only potential on snow but also qualities like kindness, determination and a positive approach to life. Receiving it as a 14-year-old from Mont-Tremblant placed Urness in a small, respected group of riders across Canada, and helped fund training time on the glaciers and park lines that have become central to her progression. Today, as a NextGen team member, she represents exactly the kind of athlete that scholarship aims to support.

Influence at this stage of her career is less about starring in feature-length movies and more about visibility and example. Through Freestyle Canada profiles, regional news stories and her own clips from NorAm stops, she shows young skiers from Québec—and especially girls—that it is possible to grow from a local club to international championships while staying grounded in school and community. As she climbs the ranks, that quiet influence is likely to grow, whether or not she chooses to step more fully into filming projects later on.

Geography that built the toolkit

Geography is central to understanding Urness’ skiing. She was born and raised in Mont-Tremblant, with Station Mont-Tremblant as her home hill and a family fully invested in freestyle. Her stepbrothers and sisters all went through the same freestyle club, turning the resort into a daily training ground and playground. The terrain there—mid-sized jumps, dense rail lines, cold Québec winters and busy holiday crowds—teaches riders to be efficient and adaptable from a young age.

As her career expanded, the map of her skiing spread across North America and into Europe. NorAm events brought her to eastern parks like Stoneham, with its icy, wind-affected snow, and western venues such as Copper Mountain, Aspen and Mammoth, where larger jumps, higher altitude and rapidly changing conditions are normal. The Junior Worlds in Leysin added a Swiss Alpine dimension, with bigger mountains, different light and new snow textures. Moving through these environments season after season has built a toolkit that travels well: she is comfortable in everything from hardpack early-season laps to spring slush, on both compact NorAm courses and longer, more open World Championship-style layouts.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Urness’ official profile lists support from the Québec freeski shop D-Structure and her home resort Station Mont-Tremblant. Rather than being defined by a single ski model, her setup reflects the realities of a NorAm slopestyle and big air schedule. She rides park-oriented twin tips with enough stiffness to stay stable on NorAm-sized jumps but still forgiving enough for long rail sections and repeated training impacts. For aspiring riders watching her, the key lesson is not to chase a signature pro ski, but to choose a symmetrical or nearly symmetrical park ski that feels predictable both forward and switch in the kind of parks you actually ride.

Her partnership with D-Structure and close ties to Mont-Tremblant also highlight the importance of community-based backing. Access to coaches, tuned equipment, airbags, trampolines and safe jump progression lines can matter more than logo counts on a jacket. On the protective side, slopestyle and big air at her level make a modern helmet, back protection and well-fitted boots non-negotiable. The consistency she shows in NorAm finals is built on the confidence that her gear will behave the same way run after run, whether she is dropping into a big air in Mammoth or a slopestyle line back home in Québec.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and progressing skiers care about Naomi Urness because she represents a realistic, exciting version of the freeski pathway. She is not yet a household name on World Cup podiums, but she has already proved herself against strong international fields at Junior Worlds and NorAm events, all while staying rooted in the culture of her local club. Her story shows that you can grow up at a resort like Mont-Tremblant, work through club programs, earn support like the Spirit of Sarah scholarship and NextGen selection, and end up battling for NorAm overall titles in slopestyle and big air.

For young riders, especially girls coming up through Canadian clubs, her trajectory offers a clear template. Spend time in structured training, build strong basics on rails and jumps, use local parks and airbags to progress safely, and then test yourself step by step: provincial events, national championships, NorAm starts and eventually international championships. Watching how Urness skis—how she manages speed, chooses tricks she can land cleanly and handles big days on the NorAm circuit—turns her career into a practical guide for anyone who wants to move from local park laps toward the level where World Cups and Olympic dreams start to feel genuinely within reach.

Profile and significance

Niamh DeDecker is a Colorado-based freeski slopestyle and rail specialist who represents the emerging generation of Rocky Mountain park skiers. Born in 2007 and competing for Team Summit Colorado, she has moved from youth rail jams and regional series into national-level FIS events, while also appearing in the international all-FLINTA ski movie “Bucket Clips 4.” Her competition focus is on slopestyle and rail events rather than traditional big air World Cups, and her name now shows up consistently in USASA rankings, FIS national championship results and grassroots rail comps around the Front Range.

Within that ecosystem, DeDecker sits in the important “next wave” category: not yet on the World Cup circuit, but clearly past the stage of casual local contests. She has ranked near the top of the USASA Rocky Mountain Series in slopestyle, taken wins and Best Trick titles at rail jams, and finished in the top five in a FIS national rail event at Copper Mountain. When an international film project like “Bucket Clips 4” looks for motivated FLINTA riders to feature alongside established names, including her in the rider list is a sign that her skiing already commands respect well beyond Colorado.

Competitive arc and key venues

DeDecker’s competitive story starts in the Rocky Mountain park scene. As a USASA athlete in the Rocky Mountain Series, she has built a steady slopestyle record, with the series standings listing her among the top-ranked women and a documented second place in slopestyle at a Copper Mountain event. Those scores are backed up by LiveHeats results where she posts 70-point runs in Freeski Open Class Women divisions, showing that her runs are not only stylish but also judged highly when it counts.

Local rail jams have been another important proving ground. At Eldora’s long-running Timbers Classic Rail Jam, held at Eldora Mountain just outside Boulder, she has multiple youth-category wins, using the small but technical setup to showcase her comfort on rails. In the Railer Park Girls Jam at Eldora, she took home Best Trick honours with a “two-long tail press pullback to switch,” a description that hints at both balance and creativity on steel. These events might not carry FIS points, but they are recognised touchpoints of the regional rail scene and have helped build her reputation among riders and coaches.

The next step up came with FIS-sanctioned competition. As of the 2024–25 season, FIS records list DeDecker as a Team Summit Colorado athlete with points in both slopestyle and rail events. At the 2025 US national championships at Copper Mountain, she finished fifth in the women’s freeski rail event and eighth in the women’s freeski slopestyle, scoring FIS points in both disciplines. She has also appeared in start lists for events at Woodward facilities such as Woodward Park City, further broadening her experience on different park designs and judging panels.

How they ski: what to watch for

DeDecker’s skiing is clearly shaped by rail culture. Her competition focus leans toward slopestyle layouts where the top of the course is rail-heavy and toward dedicated rail events, rather than pure big air contests. The Best Trick description from the Railer Park Girls Jam—two-long tail press pullback to switch—captures a lot about how she approaches features: she is comfortable using presses, extended balance positions and late-direction changes instead of relying only on straightforward slides.

When you watch her in slopestyle or rail event footage, the first things to look for are her stance and commitment on metal. She tends to get solidly centred over the ski, with quiet shoulders and a deliberate lock-in when she lands on the rail. Swaps and pullbacks are initiated early and carried through the full length of the feature rather than last-second corrections. In slopestyle runs, she typically uses the rail section to build a strong base score—multiple features, clean exits and sometimes switch approaches—before taking that momentum into the jump line. The overall impression is of a skier who is building a deep rail toolkit first, then layering in more spin and grab variety on jumps as her competitive career expands.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Most of DeDecker’s visibility so far comes from the intersection of competition and independent film. On the competition side, her progression from youth categories at Eldora rail jams to USASA Rocky Mountain slopestyle podiums and FIS national championship top-five and top-ten finishes shows a steady willingness to step into bigger arenas. That climb matters in a region where the level is high and the fields are full of strong young park skiers tied to serious programs.

Her inclusion in “Bucket Clips 4” adds a different kind of weight. The project, curated by Rosina Friedel and collaborators, has become a recognised platform for women and FLINTA riders in freeski, mixing urban, backcountry and park footage from around the world. Seeing DeDecker’s name alongside European and North American street and slopestyle specialists signals that she is not only stacking contest runs but also filming clips that meet the standard of an international community project. For younger riders, especially girls in regional US scenes, that dual presence—result sheets and film credits—shows that it is possible to combine structured competition with creative, community-based projects.

Geography that built the toolkit

DeDecker’s skiing is very much a product of the Colorado Front Range and Summit County. Training with Team Summit Colorado means daily access to Summit County parks and pipe programs that have produced athletes for X Games, World Championships and the Olympics. Copper Mountain, with its national championship slopestyle and rail setups, doubles as both a home hill and a national stage, forcing her to refine tricks on features that are built to a high standard and scrutinised by FIS judges.

At the same time, venues like Eldora Mountain play a crucial supporting role. Eldora’s rail jams are classic examples of how smaller ski areas fuel street-style progression: compact parks, close-knit crews and events where creativity often counts as much as technical difficulty. Trips to Woodward Park City add yet another flavour—purpose-built progression features, airbags and training lines designed to dial in tricks before they appear in contests or on the streets. Moving between these different environments has given her a toolkit that translates well from small local rails to national championship courses.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Public profiles focus more on DeDecker’s programs and venues than on specific ski brands, but her competitive calendar makes her equipment priorities clear. To thrive in rail events and slopestyle on courses like Copper’s national championship layout or Woodward Park City’s progression parks, she needs twin-tip skis with durable edges, predictable flex and enough stability to handle both kinks and medium-sized jumps. Watching her ski, you can see the value of a setup that allows confident presses, solid rail lock-ins and smooth takeoffs without feeling too stiff to manipulate.

Her connection to Team Summit Colorado also highlights the broader “equipment” that matters: access to coached training, safe park designs and a crew of teammates pushing similar goals. Protective gear is another non-negotiable part of her kit; repeated rail impacts and night-session rail jams at places like Eldora demand a helmet and padding you can wear comfortably all season. For progressing skiers, the takeaway from her example is straightforward—choose gear that survives rails and supports consistent park progression, rather than chasing the flashiest graphic or a pure powder setup that does not match your actual terrain.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and progressing skiers care about Niamh DeDecker because she represents a realistic, modern path into park skiing’s core culture. She is not yet winning World Cups, but she is already stacking meaningful results in USASA Rocky Mountain slopestyle, earning FIS points at national championships and putting down tricks that win Best Trick at respected regional rail jams. Her appearance in “Bucket Clips 4” shows that international projects are watching the Rocky Mountain scene and finding new riders there, rather than only in long-established European hubs.

For young skiers, especially those coming up through USASA series and local rail jams, her trajectory provides a clear blueprint: start with small-hill or regional events, join a good club program, test yourself in slopestyle and rail competitions, and look for chances to film and contribute to community projects. Watching how DeDecker manages rails, builds slopestyle runs and balances local events with national championships turns her emerging career into a useful guide for anyone who wants to turn dedicated park laps into something bigger—whether that means more FIS starts, more film segments, or both.

Profile and significance

Olesya Lomakina is a Russian moguls skier turned all-round freeski creative whose career stretches from FIS World Cup start gates to modern park and street-influenced film projects. Born in 1998, she spent her teens representing Russia in freestyle moguls, winning European Cup events, scoring top-ten finishes at Junior World Championships and making appearances on the Freestyle World Cup circuit. Official FIS records list her as a multiple-time European Cup winner and national champion in moguls and dual moguls, riding dedicated bump skis from ID One, a brand closely associated with elite mogul skiing.

After stepping away from active FIS competition, Lomakina’s name reappeared in a new context: the creative freeski scene. She became involved with the Russian crew TWOOWT, working behind the camera on projects like the feature-length “SELFMADE” and the BonusSummerCamp edits from Krasnaya Polyana, and she is also listed among the riders in the international all-FLINTA film “Bucket Clips 4.” That combination of competitive pedigree and creative output makes her an interesting figure for fans of moguls and modern freeski alike, connecting the highly structured world of judged bump lines with the more fluid culture of park laps and urban/street skiing edits.

Competitive arc and key venues

Lomakina’s competitive arc begins in the early 2010s on home snow in Russia. Still in her mid-teens, she entered FIS moguls and dual moguls events in places like Chusovoy and Polyarnye Zori, quickly moving from mere participation to podiums. By 2014 and 2015 she was a genuine force at European Cup level, winning moguls events in Prato Leventina and Krispl and adding further wins and podiums in Airolo and Megève. Those seasons established her as one of the most promising young moguls skiers in Russia, capable of handling steep, heavily featured courses under international judging.

The next step up came in 2016. At the FIS Junior World Championships in Åre, Sweden, Lomakina finished sixth in moguls and seventh in dual moguls, a result that placed her alongside names who would go on to World Cup and Olympic success. Shortly afterwards she appeared on the European Cup podium again at Krasnoe Ozero and Chiesa in Valmalenco. That momentum culminated in World Cup starts: she lined up at Ruka in Finland and at Phoenix Pyeongchang in Korea in the 2016–2017 season, scoring World Cup points and gaining first-hand experience on the sport’s biggest stage. Through 2017 and 2018 she continued to collect strong national-championship and FIS results in Chusovoy and Krasnoyarsk before her official status shifted to “not active,” marking the end of her FIS career but not of her skiing story.

How they ski: what to watch for

Because Lomakina’s prime competitive years were in moguls, the best way to understand her skiing is to start with bump technique. In results sheets and course footage she appears as a classic ID One-style moguls skier: narrow stance, aggressive absorption through the knees and hips, and a quiet upper body that lets her skis slice a fast, direct line down the fall line. Watch for how consistently her head and shoulders stay level while the lower body works violently underneath—a hallmark of well-trained moguls athletes. Her airs are built around controlled, competition-friendly tricks rather than huge slopestyle spins, but they are timed precisely so she can land back into the rut line without losing speed.

More recent clips from summer camps and social media add another layer. In setups like Bonussummercamp at Krasnaya Polyana or park sessions with TWOOWT, she plays with park-style features, dry slopes and summer rails, bringing mogul-bred edge control to small-jump and rail lines. A simple “Chinese double” on plastic or a carved approach into a sidehit illustrates how her background in bumps translates into freeski in general: quick reactions, strong ankles and the confidence to work with imperfect takeoffs and landings. For viewers who mostly follow slopestyle and big air, her skiing is a reminder that many of the best freeski fundamentals are still forged in mogul courses.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Competing in freestyle moguls for Russia through the mid-2010s meant travelling long distances to European Cup stops and World Cups with far less media attention than athletes from bigger freestyle nations often receive. Lomakina’s career through that period shows quiet resilience: seasons of back-to-back FIS races in Chusovoy, European Cup trips to Switzerland, Italy, Austria and France, and pressure-filled starts at Junior Worlds and World Cups with limited room for error. Repeatedly landing in the top ten at Junior Worlds and winning multiple European Cup events required both physical toughness and a strong mental game.

After that chapter, she did not simply disappear from skiing; instead, she reappeared behind the lens and in community-focused projects. In TWOOWT’s “SELFMADE,” a multi-year film shot across Siberia, Lake Baikal, Krasnaya Polyana, Saint Petersburg and Kirovsk, Lomakina is credited among the crew bringing Russian park and street skiing to a global freeski audience. She also worked on the BonusSummerCamp edit from Krasnaya Polyana and appears in the rider list for “Bucket Clips 4,” a film dedicated to women and FLINTA skiers worldwide. That combination of athlete and filmmaker roles gives her a layered influence: she is part of the story both as someone who once chased FIS points and as someone now helping document the Russian scene for the wider freeski community.

Geography that built the toolkit

The geography of Lomakina’s career moves from the industrial Ural and northwest Russian hills to the high Alps and then into a broader map of modern park destinations. Early competitions in Chusovoy, Polyarnye Zori and Krasnoe Ozero meant learning to ski moguls on fairly compact, often icy slopes—environments where control and line discipline are non-negotiable. European Cup stops took her to Airolo and Prato Leventina in Switzerland, Krispl in Austria, Megève in France and Chiesa in Valmalenco in Italy, each with its own snow textures, light and course-building style. Those venues shaped her ability to adapt quickly to different bump lines and mogul profiles weekend after weekend.

Later, through TWOOWT and related projects, her map expanded toward the creative side of freeski. The Bonussummercamp sessions at Krasnaya Polyana, a high-profile resort in the Caucasus mountains above Sochi, and laps through parks in Central Asia’s Gorilla Chimba setup at Shymbulak show her operating in summer and spring environments where park features and slushy landings dominate. Edits linked to LAAX in Switzerland, a resort famous for its freestyle infrastructure and snowparks around LAAX and Flims Laax, further connect her skiing and filming to some of Europe’s most important freestyle hubs. Taken together, these locations explain why her skiing reads as both technically solid and adaptable across bumps, park jumps and DIY-style features.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

During her FIS career, Lomakina competed on mogul skis from ID One, whose narrow-waisted, stiff-tailed designs are built specifically for fast, precise bump skiing. For aspiring moguls riders, that choice is instructive: a dedicated mogul ski behaves very differently from a wide twin-tip, offering lightning-fast edge changes and strong support in the troughs at the cost of flotation and versatility elsewhere. Watching her carve into the top of a mogul line or hold speed through a long middle section is a practical demonstration of what that kind of ski is for.

In her park and filming era, Lomakina is often seen in modern goggles and outerwear from companies like Out Of, an Italian brand known for high-performance lenses and innovative goggle technology. The exact ski models she rides in contemporary edits are less documented than her FIS setup, but the broader gear lesson is clear. If your goals lean toward moguls, equipment like ID One’s dedicated mogul ride line makes sense; if you are more interested in slopestyle, big air and urban/street skiing, a slightly wider twin-tip with a more playful flex may be the better call. Either way, her trajectory underlines the importance of matching your skis, goggles and outerwear to the terrain and style of skiing you actually spend your time on.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and progressing skiers care about Olesya Lomakina because she connects two worlds that often feel separate. On one side, she is a fully proven moguls athlete: European Cup winner, Junior World Championships top-ten finisher and World Cup starter for Russia. On the other, she is part of the grassroots freeski movement that values creative edits, independent crews and inclusive projects like “Bucket Clips 4” and TWOOWT’s “SELFMADE.” Her story shows that you do not have to choose forever between structured competition and creative skiing; it is possible to move from one to the other and bring the strengths of both along.

For young skiers, especially those growing up on small hills or in less-publicised ski nations, Lomakina’s path offers a realistic template. Build strong fundamentals in whatever discipline is accessible—moguls, slopestyle, or rail jams—use competitions to sharpen your skills, and stay open to filming and collaborative projects when the time feels right. Whether you are analysing her old bump runs for tips on absorption and line choice, or watching the Russian scenes she helps document in modern freeski edits, her career provides practical insight into how a dedicated skier can evolve with the sport and stay meaningfully involved long after the last FIS start.

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.

Profile and significance

Rosina “Rosi” Friedel is a Bavarian-born, Innsbruck-based skier and filmmaker who has become one of the most important creative voices in modern freeski culture. Born in Bad Tölz in 1990 and raised on a small farm, she came to skiing relatively late after several years on a snowboard, then moved to Ulm to train as a fashion designer before following her passion to Innsbruck. There, surrounded by the Tyrolean Alps, she built a life that blends park and street skiing, environmental awareness, second-hand fashion and grassroots filmmaking. Rather than chasing FIS podiums, her impact is measured in film premieres, community sessions and the number of riders who name her as a reason they picked up twin tips in the first place.

Friedel made international headlines in 2018 as the first woman ever selected as a Level 1 SuperUnknown finalist, breaking open a historically male-dominated talent contest and helping cement the idea that women’s park and urban skiing deserved equal space in core media. Around the same time, she signed with Armada Skis for skis and outerwear and leaned fully into a career built on films, zines and community events. Today, she is best known as the driving force behind the “Bucket Clips” all-FLINTA (women and gender-diverse) ski movie series and as a central member of the Innsbruck crew el.Makrell, with a filmography that includes “Stanice,” “Fluid,” “Connected” and multiple Bucket Clips installments. Taken together, those projects make her a cornerstone figure for anyone interested in the creative, inclusive edge of freeskiing.

Competitive arc and key venues

Friedel’s “competitive arc” runs more through video contests and festival selections than through traditional start gates. Her breakout moment came with that Level 1 SuperUnknown finals spot, which required not only strong skiing but also the ability to produce a compelling self-filmed and self-edited segment with el.Makrell. Competing on that stage against a field of mostly park and street specialists, she stood out for her line creativity, unusual feature choices and the relaxed, improvisational feel of her shots. The result did more than advance her own career; it convinced SuperUnknown to formalise a permanent space for women in future finals.

From there, Friedel’s “venues” have largely been film festivals and curated online premieres. Early el.Makrell projects like “Stanice” and “Fluid” moved through respected European festival circuits, including High Five and Freeride Filmbase, where juries and audiences gravitated toward their mix of DIY aesthetics, thoughtful narration and playful skiing. With “Connected,” a film that follows three ski women whose paths converge through shared passion, she further refined a storytelling style that centres relationships and environment as much as tricks. By the time Bucket Clips 2.0 and 3 were premiering at events like iF3 and touring community screenings, Friedel had effectively turned her own skiing career into a platform for dozens of other riders, using festivals as a kind of collective contest where the “win” is shared visibility.

How they ski: what to watch for

Watching Rosina Friedel ski is a lesson in how far creativity and feel can go without relying on massive, high-risk tricks. She is not the rider you will most often see on the biggest money booters of a World Cup slopestyle course; instead, she thrives on sidehits, unusual approaches and features that park crews or city planners never intended for skiing. Her runs often weave together buttered spins, presses, nose-butts and quick direction changes that make modest-sized features look endlessly interesting. When she does hit bigger jumps, the emphasis is on smooth takeoffs and relaxed, often old-school grabs rather than trying to pack in every possible rotation.

Technically, a few things stand out. Her stance tends to be slightly playful and upright, with a strong sense of where her feet are in relation to the snow or rail. That lets her experiment with off-axis butters, wall touches and weird transitions without getting thrown off balance. She makes frequent use of 180s and 360s that blur the line between jump tricks and ground tricks, for example popping a small three off a roller and then flowing directly into a wallride or knuckle tap. On rails and ledge-style features, she prioritises creative lines—hitting the side of the feature, the close-out, or the “wrong” direction—over stacking the most technical spin-on, spin-off combinations.

The result is a style that viewers often describe as “hippy” or “off-the-wall,” yet underneath the casual exterior is precise edge control and years of repetition. For park and street skiers studying her clips, the key is not a specific trick list but the way she reads terrain: always asking how to use each spot in a slightly different way rather than treating it as a fixed, one-trick obstacle.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Friedel’s influence has as much to do with resilience and community-building as it does with her personal tricks. Early in her career she juggled fashion-design training, odd jobs and ski seasons, then later added a distance degree in sports management and a role as co-owner of a vintage and second-hand store in Innsbruck. At the same time, she dealt with serious knee injuries, including ACL tears that shifted some of her focus from high-impact park sessions toward more flowing “line skiing” on natural terrain. Rather than stepping away from the sport, she redirected her energy into projects that could accommodate a changing body while still feeding her creativity.

That pivot is most visible in her film work. With el.Makrell she helped craft a series of small-budget, big-hearted movies that foreground environment, friendship and low-impact travel. With Bucket Clips, she pushed the concept even further: an all-FLINTA mixtape built from submitted clips, stitched together with animations and a strong musical arc, and toured through mountain towns before dropping online. Year after year, she has repeated the process—coordinating riders from around the world, handling logistics with her partner and main filmer, and editing late into the night next to “real” jobs. The pay-off is clear every time a new Bucket Clips premieres: sold-out local screenings, excited online comments, and a fresh wave of riders inspired to send in footage next season.

Beyond the screen, Friedel also helps host community events like the Peanutbutter Club meet-ups, where women and gender-diverse skiers take over park laps for low-pressure sessions focused on support rather than scores. In interviews, many of those participants describe Bucket Clips and these meet-ups as turning points, moments when skiing finally felt like a space built for them. In that sense, her influence runs deep even if many of the people she inspires will never know her full contest or sponsor résumé.

Geography that built the toolkit

The landscapes that shaped Friedel’s skiing help explain her approach. She grew up near Brauneck above Bad Tölz, Bavaria, a relatively small but varied mountain where sidehits, forest lines and low-key backcountry are just as present as formal parks. Early snowboard and ski days there imprinted the idea that you can have just as much fun turning a cat track into a playground as you can on a perfectly shaped jump line. After moving to Innsbruck in 2011, her world expanded dramatically: suddenly she had access to a dense ring of Tyrolean resorts and city-adjacent spots where creative crews were already rethinking what counted as a ski feature.

Innsbruck’s unique mix of urban architecture and nearby mountains is written all over her filmography. Urban and quasi-urban shots make use of stair sets, banks and low-consequence ledges; resort segments roam through sidecountry windlips and small cliffs that sit just off the groomers. With Bucket Clips and related projects, the map widens further. Park segments from Brighton in Utah, where a private FLINTA-only TBL Session created the core of a Bucket Clips park part, sit next to footage from classic European freestyle hubs like LAAX and smaller, lesser-known hills scattered across the Alps. The common thread is not famous names but spots that invite creativity—places where a little imagination turns ordinary terrain into something film-worthy.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Friedel’s equipment choices mirror her emphasis on playful, all-round creative skiing. As a long-time member of the Armada Skis family, she rides park- and all-mountain–oriented twin tips that can handle everything from nosebutters on small rollers to mellow backcountry pillows. Rather than chasing the stiffest, biggest pro model, she tends to gravitate toward skis that feel lively underfoot, with enough flex to butter and press yet enough backbone to stay predictable on landings. For most progressing riders, the lesson is simple: if your skiing resembles hers—lots of sidehits, parks and smaller natural features—you will benefit more from a playful, forgiving twin-tip than from a race-inspired charger.

On the softgoods and protection side, brands like Mons Royale and Out Of goggles have backed her over the years, fitting neatly with her layered identity as both athlete and environmentally conscious creative. Functional base layers that can handle long filming days, goggles with lenses suited to flat-light Central European winters and outerwear that survives repeated slams on rails and concrete banks are all part of the toolkit. Just as importantly, she extends the idea of “equipment” into lifestyle: co-running a vintage shop, she highlights reused and repurposed clothing as another way to live sustainably around the sport. For fans, the practical takeaway is to think of gear as something that should support how you actually ski and live, rather than simply copying a contest-focused setup.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and progressing skiers care about Rosina Friedel because she proves that you can change ski culture without ever standing on an Olympic podium. As the first female SuperUnknown finalist, she helped open a door that had been closed for years; as the creator of Bucket Clips and collaborator on a string of thoughtful films, she continues to hold that door open for dozens of others. Her skiing is approachable and inspiring—full of tricks and lines that look like they could, with enough practice, be done on a local hill—yet the underlying creativity and consistency remind you just how much work sits behind every shot.

For skiers who care about community as much as progression, her career functions as a blueprint. Start with whatever hill you have. Build tight crews. Film, even if the budget is small and the cameras are old. Organise sessions where everyone feels welcome. Use your own riding not as the final product but as a thread connecting travel, friendships, art and environmental awareness. Watching Rosina Friedel’s projects through that lens turns them into more than ski movies; they become a guide to building a life where freeskiing, creativity and shared experience all reinforce one another, season after season.

Profile and significance

Rylie Warnick is a rapidly rising freeski talent whose street and park progression has leapt from local rail jams to one of the culture’s biggest spotlights. After winning a spring rail contest at Snowbasin in 2023, she accelerated through community events and edits, then captured the women’s crown at Level 1’s SuperUnknown XXII, hosted at Palisades Tahoe in April 2025. She also stepped into head-to-head formats—most visibly at the SLVSH Cup in Andorra’s night park at Sunset Park Peretol—and took part in the X Games Street Style weekend at Copper Mountain in 2024 through the Next X pathway. Warnick’s significance is twofold: she’s a case study in how fast focused reps can compound, and she is part of the new wave of women defining rail standards in open-format contests and film-forward sessions.

Competitive arc and key venues

Warnick’s arc is built around culture-shaping stops rather than federation points. The early milestone was a spring victory at Snowbasin, proof that clean fundamentals and composure translate under pressure. In 2024 she appeared during X Games Street Style at Copper Mountain, earning a Next X nod and logging laps in the flowing urban-style build that rewards variety and execution. The momentum carried into 2025: a SLVSH Cup bracket at Sunset Park Peretol put her head-to-head under lights on long rails and tight gaps, and SuperUnknown XXII at Palisades Tahoe delivered the breakthrough win, judged by peers and pros on a purpose-built park. Each venue emphasizes different skills—jam tempo at Copper, trick selection and consistency in SLVSH, and a full week of filming-plus-session pressure at SuperUnknown—so the throughline is adaptability and polish across formats.

How they ski: what to watch for

Warnick skis with a “quiet approach, decisive exit” philosophy that makes technical choices look simple. Approaches stay flat and neutral until a firm, centered pop; hands are relaxed and forward, keeping the upper body calm while the ankles do the work. On rails, look for square entries, early edge set to determine slide direction, and tidy exits—surface swaps and pretzels that finish clean without over-rotation. Jump tricks favor axis-honest spins with early grab connection; she builds lines around strong 180s and 360s, then layers in higher-rotation variations when the speed and takeoff allow. Landings drive to the fall line with a quick re-center, preserving momentum into the next feature. Because she rarely telegraphs moves, her runs are easy to parse in real time and even easier to study in slow motion.

Resilience, filming, and influence

The most striking thread in Warnick’s story is speed of improvement paired with durability. From first park seasons to rail-jam wins to a SuperUnknown title at Palisades Tahoe in roughly three years, she has stacked repeatable habits instead of chasing viral one-offs. Head-to-head games in Andorra’s Sunset Park Peretol demanded patience after misses and the discipline to rebuild lines mid-match, while the X Games Street Style weekend at Copper Mountain tested presence in a fast jam cadence. Off the session schedule, short edits and community features amplify the same approach—quiet run-ins, early grabs, exits that keep speed alive—which is why her clips circulate among coaches and friends prepping for park days. The influence lands where it matters most: practical ideas skiers can take straight to their local line.

Geography that built the toolkit

Warnick’s toolkit reflects varied North American park mileage. Spring slush and shoulder-season hardpack at resorts like Snowbasin encourage repetition, balance, and pop timing. Sessions on the big, dialed setups at Copper Mountain add longer rails, bigger decks, and wind management between features. Travel to Andorra’s Sunset Park Peretol introduces night visibility and pressure from lights and crowds, while a week at Palisades Tahoe for SuperUnknown tests consistency on a build that evolves through the event. That mix—public parks, contest plazas, and film-oriented shoots—explains why her skiing reads cleanly across different snow, speeds, and sightlines.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Rather than a sponsor list, Warnick’s skiing highlights repeatable setup choices. A symmetrical twin with predictable flex and a near-center mount makes switch approaches natural and keeps rotations on-axis. Light detune at tips and tails prevents hook-ups on kinks while edges stay honest underfoot for firm in-runs and plaza decks. Boots should be supportive enough to transmit ankle movements without forcing upper-body compensation, and bindings need consistent retention with correct forward pressure. Maintenance is the quiet performance multiplier: fresh wax for sticky spring salt, edge touch-ups after rail days, and periodic stance checks so ankles—not shoulders—initiate movement. If you want her feel, copy the intent and the tune before you copy the trick list.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Rylie Warnick because her lines are readable, original, and pressure-proof. She edits rather than overloads, choosing a few distinctive moves and placing them where the build invites them. For skiers looking to progress, the takeaways are concrete: set a deliberate speed floor, build a clean platform, connect the grab early to stabilize rotation, and land to the fall line so momentum carries to the next hit. The resume—local win at Snowbasin, jam experience during X Games Street Style at Copper Mountain, SLVSH Cup bracket at Sunset Park Peretol, and a SuperUnknown title at Palisades Tahoe—shows a path many riders can follow from public parks to the culture’s main stage.

Profile and significance

Sage Michaely is a Canadian freeride skier from North Vancouver who is steadily climbing the Freeride World Tour Qualifier ranks while balancing life as a university student and mountain-town local. Listed on the FWT website in the Ski Women category for Canada with Whistler Blackcomb as her home resort, she represents the new wave of West Coast riders who treat big-mountain skiing as naturally as class schedules and part-time work. She grew up on the North Shore, fell in love with skiing at her local hill Mt Seymour, and now splits her time between studying geological engineering at UBC and chasing storms up the Sea-to-Sky.

Her growing competitive résumé includes a runner-up finish at an IFSA Qualifier event in Whistler in March 2025, where she missed the win in the women’s ski division by just a fraction of a point. IFSA’s Ski Women Adults ranking lists her with hundreds of points and places her firmly inside the active field of international freeride competitors, while FWT’s own seeding lists show her progressing toward higher-level Challenger opportunities. Off the result sheets, her name appears in the credits of the all-FLINTA ski film “Bucket Clips 4” and in a team edit from RMU Whistler, confirming that her skiing is being noticed not just by judges but also by filmmakers and brands embedded in core freeride culture.

Competitive arc and key venues

Michaely’s competitive arc follows the classic modern freeride path: regional IFSA events feeding into the Freeride World Tour Qualifier system. Early points on the IFSA Ski Women Adults list came from Canadian competitions on the British Columbia circuit, with steadily improving results as she adapted to judged freeride formats. By 2024–2025 she had accumulated enough strong finishes to sit in the mid-pack of the global ranking table, a clear marker that she is no longer a local-only rider but part of a wider international field.

One of the clearest snapshots of her progress came at an IFSA Qualifier 2-star event at Whistler in March 2025. On a technical venue above the resort, she put down a high-scoring line that combined strong fall-line skiing and confident airs, finishing second in the women’s ski category by just 0.03 points behind the winner. That near-victory against a deep field of Canadian and visiting riders underlined that she is capable of challenging for wins whenever conditions and line choice come together. With Whistler Blackcomb listed as her home mountain on the Freeride World Tour’s rider profile, events on this terrain are both a proving ground and a home-stage showcase for her skiing.

How they ski: what to watch for

Watching Sage Michaely ski is about reading how she navigates real-world freeride faces rather than park-style features. In competition footage and brand edits, her lines tend to favour a clean fall-line approach: she drops into the venue with conviction, uses strong, rounded turns to manage speed, and links natural features in a way that keeps the run flowing from top to bottom. Judges in IFSA and FWT qualifier events reward exactly that mix of fluidity and control, and her scores at Whistler and other stops reflect how effectively she hits those criteria.

On airs, Michaely’s focus is less on ultra-technical tricks and more on choosing takeoffs that match the snow and her speed. She typically aims for well-defined rock features and rollovers that let her maintain momentum, land in the fall line and keep skiing rather than shut down the run. The impression is of a skier who trusts her edges and legs to absorb impacts and keep driving forward even when the landings are tracked or slightly variable. For viewers trying to learn from her runs, it is worth paying attention to her decision-making: where she chooses to drop cliffs, when she stays conservative to protect the score, and how she carves into each feature so that the air looks like a natural extension of the line instead of a forced add-on.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Michaely’s story is also one of balancing commitments. Alongside her freeride career she studies geological engineering at the University of British Columbia, and her public profiles highlight how she juggles academics, work and skiing rather than living a single-focus athlete life. That dual identity is visible in her involvement with the UBC ski community, where she has helped raise funds and momentum for freeride programmes, and in her role as an ambassador for RMU’s Whistler location, where she represents both the brand and the local scene.

Her influence is beginning to reach beyond contest venues through film and collective projects. She appears as one of the riders in “Bucket Clips 4,” an all-FLINTA ski movie that gathers clips from women and gender-diverse skiers across the globe. Being included in that roster signals that her peers and project leaders see her as part of the wider conversation around representation in freeskiing. She also features in an RMU Whistler team edit that showcases backcountry and resort terrain around Whistler, putting her skiing alongside established names and giving her style a broader audience. For younger riders, especially Canadian women looking at the freeride path, seeing her in both IFSA rankings and in films like Bucket Clips helps demystify how to combine structured competition with more creative, community-driven projects.

Geography that built the toolkit

The geography that shaped Sage Michaely’s skiing runs along the spine of British Columbia’s Coast Mountains. She grew up in North Vancouver, with Mt Seymour as her home hill. That small but varied mountain is where she first learned to love winter, working her way from groomers into trees, small cliffs and powder pockets. Seymour’s mix of short laps, stormy weather and tight forest terrain builds strong fundamentals in balance, reaction time and comfort in low-visibility conditions, all of which later translate directly into freeride competition.

As her skiing progressed, her center of gravity shifted north up the Sea-to-Sky toward Whistler Blackcomb. Listed by the Freeride World Tour as her home resort, Whistler gives her access to classic freeride venues: alpine bowls, couloirs, wind-loaded ridges and long fall-line faces that are used for IFSA and FWT Qualifier events. Training days here often blend lift-served laps, short hikes and backcountry missions, giving her the chance to refine line choice and snow assessment in a range of conditions. Combined with regular returns to the North Shore mountains and the reality of commuting from Vancouver, this geography fosters a practical, adaptable style: she has to be ready to ski whatever terrain and snow the day delivers, from coastal storm days to high-pressure spring qualifiers.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

As an ambassador for RMU, Michaely skis on freeride-oriented setups designed for the same kind of terrain she competes on around Whistler. RMU’s ski line is built with steep, variable mountains in mind, and watching her in their Whistler edit gives a sense of how those skis are meant to be used: driving through chopped powder, holding an edge on firm entries and staying predictable off medium-sized drops. For aspiring freeriders, the practical lesson is less about copying a specific model and more about choosing a ski with enough backbone and width to feel stable when the snow is rough and the pitch is real.

Beyond skis, her environment dictates a classic coastal freeride kit: dependable avalanche safety equipment, a backpack built to carry it comfortably all day, and outerwear that can handle the wet storms of the Coast Mountains as well as cold, clear competition days. Her role with RMU also highlights the value of connecting with local shops and brands that understand the terrain you ride. If your goals mirror hers—competing in IFSA events, filming on storm days around Whistler and squeezing skiing between classes—a robust, trustworthy setup and a supportive local community will matter more than chasing every new product release.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and progressing skiers care about Sage Michaely because she represents a very relatable version of the freeride dream. She is not yet a dominant Freeride World Tour star, but she is clearly on her way up: earning strong IFSA results, finishing on qualifier podiums at Whistler and steadily climbing the global rankings, all while studying a demanding subject at university. Her presence in Bucket Clips 4 and in RMU’s Whistler projects shows that she is also plugged into the creative side of ski culture, not just chasing points.

For young skiers looking up from local hills like Mt Seymour, Cypress or Grouse, her path offers a concrete template. Learn to ski everything on your home mountain. Take that confidence to bigger venues like Whistler Blackcomb. Enter regional freeride events when you are ready, and use each season to build experience rather than expecting instant stardom. At the same time, stay open to film projects and community edits that can showcase your skiing to a different audience. Watching how Sage Michaely threads these pieces together—study, local roots, qualifiers, edits and ambassador roles—turns her emerging career into a realistic roadmap for anyone who wants to grow in freeride without giving up the rest of their life.

Profile and significance

Stina Sjögren is a Swedish freeski park rider who has quietly turned into one of the key all-round talents in the national scene. Riding for the Stockholm-area club Norra Freeski, she splits her time between slopestyle, big air and halfpipe, with a competition record that already includes multiple Swedish championship titles and an overall win on the Swedish Slopestyle Tour. Swedish media and the national federation describe her as both a results leader and a role model, someone who pairs podium skiing with real effort to keep more girls in the park. That combination has made her one of the names Swedish freeski fans expect to see at the top of domestic rankings each winter.

Her breakthrough into wider awareness came in 2022, when Freeride’s “The Flip” guide listed her among seven Swedish freeskiers to watch, highlighting her park style and growing presence in edits and national results. In the 2023–24 season she delivered on that early attention in a big way, winning the overall Swedish Slopestyle Tour senior title and then backing it up with Swedish championship gold in halfpipe. The following winter she repeated as halfpipe national champion with a 93-point run in Kläppen’s pipe, proving that the first title was no one-off. Add in her appearance in the international all-FLINTA ski movie “Bucket Clips 4” and regular clips from national team sessions, and Sjögren now sits firmly in the “must-know” category of Scandinavian park skiing.

Competitive arc and key venues

Sjögren’s competitive arc runs straight through the modern Swedish freeski pathway: club-based park riding, Swedish Slopestyle Tour stops, then Swedish Nationals across multiple disciplines. Early on she appeared in results from national events at Kläppen and other resorts, often in the mix on slopestyle and big air start lists. By the 2023–24 season she had turned consistency into full-season dominance, sealing the overall Swedish Slopestyle Tour senior women’s title at the final stop and earning Svenska Spel’s Hejapris in recognition of both her results and her impact as a role model.

The same spring, at Swedish Nationals in Kläppen, she showed her range. In big air she claimed a senior women’s medal, and in halfpipe she went one better, winning the Swedish championship title. Official federation reports for 2024 list her first in women’s halfpipe, ahead of established names from UHSK and other strong clubs. A year later, in April 2025, she returned to Kläppen for another SM halfpipe and dominated again, this time riding for Norra Freeski and scoring 93.00 to secure back-to-back national titles in a discipline that is still relatively rare in Sweden. The same SM week also saw her in the big air final, finishing just off the podium in a field that included many of the country’s top female park riders.

Between these headline events, she racks up ranking points at Swedish Slopestyle Tour stops and national series competitions. Rankings published by the Swedish Ski Association place her near the top of senior women’s park standings, and regional press coverage of SM weeks routinely mentions her as one of the main contenders in slopestyle, big air and halfpipe alike. Courses at Kläppen’s National Arena, which regularly hosts national team camps, and at other tour stops form the backbone of her competitive environment, giving her repeated chances to put down high-pressure runs on well-built, but unforgiving, park lines.

How they ski: what to watch for

Watching Stina Sjögren ski is about noticing how she carries the same foundations across pipe and park. In halfpipe she favours clean, well-timed hits rather than wild Hail-Mary runs: strong edge sets up the wall, solid extension at the lip and composed grabs held long enough to show control. Her lines run high enough in the pipe to keep judges interested, but the real signature is how she lands back into the transition with speed and immediately drives into the next wall instead of stalling in the flat bottom. That flow is a big part of why she has been able to win Swedish halfpipe titles in consecutive years.

In slopestyle and big air, the same approach shows up in her jump skiing. She typically focuses on rotations she can execute cleanly every time, using good pop, stable posture in the air and tidy grabs to maximise scores without depending on the very latest trick progression. When you watch clips from Kläppen or training days at Ruka Park in Finland, the pattern is similar: smooth takeoffs, confident grabs and landings that keep her moving down the hill. On rails she leans into solid basics—centred stance, clear lock-ins and deliberate spin-offs—often choosing lines that string several features together in a way that looks like one continuous idea rather than a series of isolated tricks.

For progressing skiers, the key details to watch are speed management and body language. Sjögren tends to arrive at features with the speed she needs already dialled, which lets her stay relaxed on takeoff and in the air. Her shoulders stay relatively quiet, and she rarely has to make sudden, last-second corrections. That calm, almost understated style is a big reason why her runs score well at Swedish Nationals and on the Slopestyle Tour: judges can see every grab and every landing clearly, and fans can imagine themselves working toward the same level with time and repetition.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Sjögren’s influence extends beyond result lists thanks to the way she uses her platform inside Norra Freeski and Swedish freeski more broadly. When she received Svenska Spel’s Hejapris alongside her Swedish Slopestyle Tour overall win, she chose to donate half of the 10,000-kronor prize to her home club in Stockholm. In federation interviews she explained that she wants those funds to help Norra Freeski create better conditions for kids and teenagers—especially girls—who want to ski park and stay in the sport. That decision captured a lot about how she sees her role: not just as an athlete, but as someone who helps build an environment where more riders can follow.

Her “resilience” is visible in the way she juggles multiple disciplines and commitments. Swedish freeskiers rarely get many halfpipe starts each year, yet she has managed to keep improving in that event while still hunting slopestyle and big air results. Each SM week in Kläppen comes with a full programme of rail jams, kids’ contests and main-event finals, and she is often present across several days, putting down runs in different formats with little recovery time. Off-snow, she stays involved in community projects, from Norra Freeski’s girls’ sessions to national-team-linked gatherings where young riders can lap the park with established names.

On the media side, her profile is beginning to stretch beyond Sweden’s borders. She appears in the credits of “Bucket Clips 4,” the all-FLINTA ski movie that stitches together park, street and freeride clips from riders across Europe and North America, and she shares screen time with fellow Swedes in edits shot at Corvatsch in Switzerland, Kläppen and Trysil in Norway. Those segments take the style she developed in Swedish snowparks and place it in a broader context, showing international audiences what the country’s new generation of park skiers looks like.

Geography that built the toolkit

The geography behind Sjögren’s skiing is distinctly Nordic. At home she rides with Norra Freeski, a freeski club based north of Stockholm that focuses on park skiing and community sessions for all ages. Local hills around the capital provide early-season laps, rail practice and club events, giving her a chance to build tricks in a relatively low-pressure environment. From there, the competitive map stretches outward to bigger destinations like Kläppen in Dalarna, whose National Arena snowpark and halfpipe host Swedish Nationals and national team camps. The resort’s dedicated park zone, with progressive jump and rail lines, is where many of her most important results have been earned.

Beyond Sweden, her clips and hashtags point to regular time at Ruka Park in northern Finland, where long seasons and consistent park builds offer a reliable winter training base. Trips to Corvatsch in Switzerland and Trysil in Norway add high-alpine and Scandinavian park flavours to the mix, each with its own snow textures, light and jump shapes. Back home in Sweden, media coverage shows her on podiums in Kläppen and at other national tour stops, reinforcing the sense that she is comfortable adapting her skiing to different parks and conditions across the region. All of this geography combines into a toolkit that travels well: she can bring the same calm, composed park style to a windy Swedish Nationals final as to a bluebird training day in the Alps.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

While Sjögren is not marketed around a single pro-model, her public clips and event appearances give clear hints about the equipment choices behind her skiing. In Swedish team and tour coverage she is often seen on modern twin-tip park skis from brands like HEAD, models built to handle rails, jumps and halfpipe walls with the same pair of skis. For a rider balancing slopestyle, big air and pipe, that kind of do-it-all park ski—twin-tip shape, durable edges and a flex that is stable but still playful—is essential.

Her main “partner” in terms of support is Norra Freeski itself, along with the wider Swedish freeski structure. The club provides coaching, organised sessions and a community of motivated skiers; the national federation offers structured tours like the Swedish Slopestyle Tour and SM weeks where riders can test themselves against the country’s best. In practical terms, the lesson for fans is that gear and environment work together. A solid twin-tip setup, a well-fitted helmet and back protection, and access to parks like Kläppen’s snowparks or Finland’s Ruka Ski Resort parks will do more for progression than chasing every new product. Sjögren’s consistency shows what happens when those ingredients stay the same across several seasons: runs become more repeatable, confidence grows, and results follow.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and progressing skiers care about Stina Sjögren because she represents a clear, attainable version of high-level freeskiing. She is not yet an Olympic or X Games star, but she is already a two-time Swedish halfpipe champion, an overall Slopestyle Tour winner and a recognised name in national media and community films. Her skiing is stylish and progressive without feeling out of reach; many of the tricks she does are the logical next steps for advanced park skiers rather than distant, video-game-level moves.

For younger riders in Sweden, especially girls coming up through clubs like Norra Freeski, her path is a blueprint. Start in the local park. Join a club that supports your progression. Travel to bigger resorts like Kläppen Ski Resort when contests and camps roll through. Use tours like the Swedish Slopestyle Tour and SM week to test your skiing under pressure, and give back to the community when you get the chance. Watching how Sjögren skis—her calm body language, her consistent landings, her ability to carry the same style into halfpipe, slopestyle and big air—turns her career into a step-by-step guide for anyone who wants to turn park laps into national-level results and a meaningful place in the freeski scene.

Profile and significance

Tereza Korábová is a Czech freeski rail specialist, street skier and X Games medalist who has become one of the most influential jib-focused riders in Europe. Born in 1998 and originally from the north of the Czech Republic, she grew up far from big alpine resorts yet managed to carve out a path to the very top of urban and park skiing. Her career blends heavy street footage, creative rail contests and standout performances at global events, capped by a silver medal in Women’s Ski Knuckle Huck at X Games Aspen 2025 after placing fifth in the same event in 2024. That result made her the first woman from the Czech Republic to win a trick-discipline medal at the X Games and confirmed that her style, forged on small hills and city rails, belongs on the sport’s biggest stage.

Beyond X Games, Korábová’s name is tightly linked with some of the most respected projects in contemporary freeskiing. She won Level 1’s prestigious SuperUnknown contest in 2022, a watershed moment that shifted her from underground favourite to widely recognised talent. She has played a central role in the all-FLINTA Bucket Clips films, spearheaded her own all-women urban and backcountry project “Relentless,” and co-headlined the Midwest street short “Mud Pit” with fellow Surface Skis rider Cat Agnew. Her film work, together with podiums at events like Dew Tour streetstyle, Rock A Rail Ski and Absolut Park’s Spring Battle, has given her a rare dual status: both a decorated competitor and a culture-shaping street skier.

Academically, she graduated from Charles University in Prague in 2021 and now lives in Innsbruck, Austria, placing herself in the middle of the European park and street scene while staying closely connected to her Czech roots. She rides for Surface Skis, where she was turned pro and joined the very small group of women with their own pro-model park ski, and she is part of the Czech brand Vagus, which reflects her offbeat, DIY attitude toward skiing and mountain life.

Competitive arc and key venues

Korábová’s competitive story starts at home. On the Czech domestic circuit she rose quickly through events like the O’Neill Czech Freeski Tour, ultimately winning the overall tour title in the 2019/20 season. Articles from the Czech Ski Association and national freeski media highlight further wins and podiums at the O’Neill FIS Cup events in the Matylda snowpark, where she battled regularly with other Czech rail standouts. She soon stepped onto the international stage, scoring an eighth place at a European Cup slopestyle in La Clusaz in 2020 and continuing to mix FIS contests with more creative street-driven sessions.

The next big leap came at Dew Tour 2023 in Copper Mountain, where she was invited to the women’s streetstyle event: a rail-focused format that mirrors the kind of riding she does all winter. Against an invited field of twelve riders, Korábová advanced out of her heat with a clutch final run, then bowed out in head-to-head rounds to Lisa Zimmermann but left a strong impression with solid spins on and off the rails. FIS later recorded a European Cup podium for her at a rail event in Den Haag in 2024, reinforcing that she could turn her street instincts into structured results when it mattered.

Her biggest competitive headlines, though, come from the X Games and the rail-jam tour scene. In Aspen 2024 she finished fifth in Women’s Ski Knuckle Huck, becoming the first Czech woman to compete in an X Games trick discipline. One year later, at X Games Aspen 2025, she elevated that performance to a silver medal in Knuckle Huck, using a mix of nose-butter rotations and hand-drag variations that matched the event’s emphasis on creativity and style. The same year she also placed inside the top ten in Women’s Ski Street Style, proving once again that she is comfortable when the entire course is rails and wallrides.

On the European side, 2024 and 2025 have been a streak of dominance on metal. At SnowFest Innsbruck, on the city rail structure used for Rock A Rail Ski, she won the women’s category with technical and imaginative lines. Across the Rock A Rail Ski Tour she finished the year as the overall women’s champion, and at the Absolut Park Spring Battle 2025 in Flachauwinkl she claimed the Women’s Freeski Best Rail title with a 94-point score. These events, combined with earlier appearances at Scandinavian Team Battle on Copenhagen’s CopenHill and at SnowFest The Hague, position her as one of the defining rail riders of her generation.

How they ski: what to watch for

Watching Tereza Korábová ski is an education in modern street and rail-focused freeskiing. Her style is compact and purposeful: low stance, quiet upper body and a constant search for new ways to interact with a feature. On down bars and kinks she favours technical spin-ons and spin-offs—270s and 450s that are locked in rather than flailed—often linking them together over multiple rails so that the whole line feels like a single sentence instead of individual words. She is especially adept at using side hits, wallrides and odd angles, which makes her runs at events like Rock A Rail or Dew Tour streetstyle stand out from riders who stick to the most obvious options.

In knuckle-focused events, the same creativity moves from steel to snow. Her X Games runs highlight a toolkit built around nose-butter entries, late rotations and hand drags that stay stylish rather than desperate. Instead of simply hucking large spins, she plays with approach and takeoff: buttering into the knuckle, delaying the spin, tweaking grabs and sometimes dragging a hand or tail through the snow for extra texture. The judges at Aspen have rewarded that approach because it fits the knuckle huck spirit perfectly—original, playful and still technically precise.

For riders trying to learn from her, the important details lie in speed and intent. Korábová rarely looks rushed on approach; she sets a deliberate line into each feature so that once she leaves the snow, everything unfolds calmly. Her skis land flat or on edge where they should, rather than getting slapped down at random, and she is quick to recover from small bobbles without sacrificing the flow of the run. That combination of strong basics and fearless feature choice is a big part of why she can move seamlessly between contest courses, hand-built street spots and backcountry step-downs in projects like “Relentless.”

Resilience, filming, and influence

If contests gave Korábová a platform, films are what turned her into a reference point for street skiing. After years of stacking clips in Europe and North America, she helped anchor the Bucket Clips film series, an all-FLINTA freeski mixtape that gathers heavy segments from women and gender-diverse riders worldwide. Coverage from festival programmes and ski media repeatedly points out how stacked her segments are, and how she helped push those projects from idea to finished movies. At the same time she stepped into a director and organiser role with “Relentless,” an urban and backcountry film built around a girl crew that spends a winter hunting rails and pillows together. The finished movie, full of crashes, hugs and serious spots, underlines her willingness to take on the unglamorous work of building, shovelling and coordinating in addition to skiing.

In 2024 she added “Mud Pit” to her filmography, teaming up with Cat Agnew and filmmaker Cal Aamodt for a short shot in the American Midwest with barely any snow. The project, released through Downdays, showcases her ability to adapt to rough, low-coverage urban features and still produce standout shots. She also appears in projects like “Slav & Friends” and in multiple Rock A Rail and SnowFest recaps, reinforcing the sense that wherever there is a creative jib setup or a new women’s street project, there is a good chance she is involved.

Recognition has followed. Ski media have described her as one of the most passionate European female freeskiers, and Newschoolers’ 2025 awards coverage highlights how SuperUnknown, Mud Pit, Bucket Clips and her pro-model promotion with Surface all combined into one of the strongest seasons any woman street skier has ever put together. For younger riders—especially from Central and Eastern Europe—her trajectory from Czech rail contests to global awards and a pro model is a powerful message that you do not need to grow up in a mega-resort to shape the direction of freeskiing.

Geography that built the toolkit

Korábová’s skiing is rooted in the small mountains and cities of northern Czechia. Local rope-tow hills and modest snowparks taught her to make the most out of limited vertical and creative but imperfect features. As her riding progressed, she spent winters chasing setups in both Czech and Austrian parks, a rhythm described on her profile with Czech brand Vagus: always on rails, jumps or tubes, always surrounded by a crew of friends. That constant search for fun, even on small or icy features, hardened her into the kind of rider who can show up at a new street spot and immediately see several lines.

Relocating to Innsbruck placed her in one of Europe’s main hubs for park and street skiing. From there she has easy access to urban spots in the city, to glacier parks like Hintertux, and to contest venues such as the Rock A Rail setup at SnowFest Innsbruck. Trips to Absolut Park in Flachauwinkl for Spring Battle, to CopenHill in Copenhagen for Scandinavian Team Battle, and to SnowFest The Hague for in-city rail events further expanded her geographical range. On the film side, “Mud Pit” shows her adapting to North American urban terrain, while backcountry shots in “Relentless” reveal that she is equally at home building jumps in the woods when the opportunity arises.

All of these locations—Czech rope-tows, Tyrolean city rails, Austrian glacier parks and North American back alleys—feed into her ability to read any feature quickly. For viewers, understanding this geographical background helps explain why she looks so at ease whether she is dropping into a steel cage in Innsbruck, a knuckle in Aspen or a handrail in a nearly snowless Midwest parking lot.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

On the hardware side, Korábová is closely associated with Surface Skis. After years on their team she was turned pro, and the brand now offers a pro-model park ski built to match her riding: full twin-tip, durable edges and a flex pattern that is sturdy enough for urban abuse yet lively on smaller jumps and transitions. For skiers inspired by her, the lesson is not that they need her exact model, but that a street-focused setup should be predictable on rails, supportive on big landings and comfortable skiing switch into and out of features.

Her partnership with Czech company Vagus covers helmets, goggles and outerwear pieces that fit her “ride all day, party with friends” approach to the mountains. She often appears in their communication as the archetypal freeski vagabond from the north of Czechia, spending winters between Austrian and Czech snowparks and treating skiing as a lifestyle rather than a job. Together with filming projects led by creatives like Laura Obermeyer and the Bucket Clips crew, these partnerships show how equipment, media and community can align around a rider whose focus is style and substance rather than pure results.

For progressing jib skiers, the practical takeaway is clear: a solid, symmetrical park ski, reliable protection and outerwear you are happy to thrash on rails will free you to focus on line choice and creativity. Korábová’s career demonstrates how far that combination can go when paired with persistence and a willingness to put in the hours shovelling stairs and testing new ideas.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Tereza Korábová because she represents the cutting edge of women’s street and rail skiing while staying true to a grounded, crew-oriented lifestyle. She is an X Games silver medalist, a SuperUnknown champion, a Rock A Rail tour winner and a European Cup podium finisher, yet her most memorable work often happens far from big contest finish corral banners, on dimly lit handrails or in deep-snow woods with a small camera crew. That balance between accolades and authenticity has earned her respect from core skiers and mainstream audiences alike.

For progressing riders, especially women and FLINTA skiers, her path is a detailed blueprint. Start with whatever hill and rail you have access to. Film with your friends, enter local tours like the Czech freeski series, and be ready when invitations arrive for bigger stages like Dew Tour, Spring Battle or X Games. Korábová’s runs at Aspen, her leadership in projects like “Relentless” and her pro-model with Surface all show that it is possible to build a career that gives equal weight to style, community and competition. Watching how she approaches a rail, how she reimagines a knuckle and how she celebrates with her crew afterwards turns her skiing into both inspiration and a practical guide for the next generation of jib-focused freeskiers.