Game 3 || Naomi Urness vs. Hannah Langes || SLVSH CUP GRANDVALIRA '26

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

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.