Insane Ski Lines in Jackson Hole That Redefine Big-Mountain Freeriding

Profile and significance

John Jackson, often referred to simply as “John J,” is one of the defining freeride and backcountry snowboarders of his generation. Raised near Crowley Lake in California’s Eastern Sierra, he grew from a park kid lapping the towrope into a rider whose video parts helped shape modern big-mountain freestyle. Rather than chasing a long contest résumé, Jackson built his reputation through heavy film segments, unforgettable backcountry lines and a style that stays smooth even when the terrain is anything but. His riding in projects connected to brands such as Red Bull and long-form film work with crews like Forum and Brain Farm made him a reference name for anyone who cares about deep-snow progression and style.

What sets John Jackson apart is how many different corners of snowboarding he connects. He has the park fundamentals of a lifelong freestyler, the line-choice instincts of a dedicated freerider and the curiosity of an all-round mountain traveler. Double Rider of the Year titles from major snowboard media, Part of the Year honors and a lead role in his own episodic series, “The Book of John J,” have cemented him as more than just a strong pro. For many fans and up-and-coming riders, he is the example of how a modern big-mountain snowboard career can look without being driven primarily by podium counts.

Competitive arc and key venues

Jackson’s story starts in the park and pipe scene of California. As a teenager, he built his name by spinning and pressing his way through contests, learning the technical vocabulary of modern freestyle early. That contest background gave him timing, board control and comfort in the air, but he gradually shifted away from jerseys and bibs toward backcountry filming. Instead of chasing overall rankings, he chased storm cycles and film crews, taking his rail and jump skills into natural terrain where every hit has a different shape, landing and speed.

Key venues show up again and again in his story. Laps at Mammoth Mountain and nearby June shaped his early years, where deep Sierra snow and big park builds sit side by side. As his career evolved, he stacked seasons in British Columbia’s interior, the steep faces above Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Alaskan spines and remote zones accessed only by sled or touring gear. He also appeared in high-profile invitationals and filming-focused trip projects that functioned like contests against the mountain itself rather than against a judge’s clipboard.

How they ski: what to watch for

Watching John Jackson ride powder is a lesson in how freestyle and freeride can merge without looking forced. His signature is a laid-back stance with plenty of board angle, long, surfy carves and then sudden, precise pop when he arrives at a natural takeoff. He tends to choose lines that link several features together rather than a single headline cliff, which creates runs that feel like full stories instead of one-trick clips. You will often see him float big frontside and backside spins into deep landings, land with speed and immediately flow into another feature or a slashing turn.

His style is relaxed in the upper body, with minimal arm movement even when he drops into steep, technical faces. That calm demeanor makes difficult lines look casual and is one reason filmers love shooting with him; the camera can sit back and let the terrain tell the viewer how serious the riding is. Whether he is riding pillows, spines or windlips, the common theme is commitment. He holds his line once he chooses it, trusts his board and enters features with enough speed that hesitation would be costly, yet everything still reads as playful rather than reckless.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Injuries have been a major chapter in John Jackson’s career. Serious knee and hip issues cost him prime seasons and forced long stretches of rehab, testing both his patience and his identity as a professional athlete. Instead of fading away, he used those years to reset his relationship with snowboarding, focus on longevity and eventually return to high-end filming when many riders might have quietly stepped aside. That comeback arc is woven into “The Book of John J,” where viewers see not just highlight clips but also the physical and mental work required to ride at a world-class level again after surgery.

Jackson’s influence reaches beyond video parts. Through travel-heavy series like “Brothers on the Run” with his brother Eric and collaborations with production companies such as Teton Gravity Research, he helped popularize the idea of road-trip- and story-driven snow projects that mix culture, adventure and heavy lines. His involvement with climate advocacy groups like Protect Our Winters adds another dimension: he is one of the riders using their profile to talk openly about snowpack, seasons and the long-term future of winter sports.

Geography that built the toolkit

Understanding John Jackson’s riding means understanding the geography that shaped it. The Eastern Sierra gives riders enormous vertical, wind-affected faces and storm systems that can dump deep, dry snow followed by bluebird high pressure. Growing up near that landscape meant young John could move from park laps to sidecountry hikes and back again in a single day. That environment taught him how cornices break, how Sierra wind forms ridges and spines and how to move through big terrain with both respect and confidence.

As his career expanded, he kept adding new “classrooms.” Seasons spent around Mammoth and the wider Mammoth Lakes zone built deep familiarity with volcanic volcanic-style features and terrain parks, while time in the Tetons around Jackson Hole introduced colder snow, more exposure and complex terrain traps. Trips to places like interior British Columbia and Alaska layered in sled access, heli-drop logistics and higher-consequence decision-making. The result is a rider whose line choice is clearly informed by decades of watching how mountains change from storm to storm.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Jackson has worked with several major brands during his career, including energy drink partner Red Bull, outerwear and apparel companies like Under Armour and board manufacturers such as Sims. For viewers and progressing riders, the key takeaway is not the logo itself but how he uses his gear to unlock terrain. He favors freeride-oriented boards that still have enough twin influence to ride and land switch, paired with bindings and boots stiff enough for high-speed landings yet forgiving enough for long days of sledding, hiking and riding.

From a practical standpoint, watching John Jackson is a reminder that equipment choices should match the terrain and style you actually ride. If your goal is to take park tricks into soft landings and natural transitions, a board with a directional twin shape, solid edge hold and medium to stiff flex will usually serve you better than a pure jib stick. Good outerwear that stays functional through long snowmobile approaches and repeated powder slashes matters as much as board tech, especially in remote backcountry where staying dry and warm is part of staying safe.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Even though he is a snowboarder, John Jackson’s approach resonates with skiers and riders across the spectrum because it shows how freestyle skills can grow into a lifetime of mountain exploration. Fans tune in for his effortless style in deep snow, his sense of humor and the cinematic trips that his projects document, but many stay because his story is relatable: early success, heavy setbacks, and a thoughtful rebuild that kept the joy of riding at the center. For skiers who are pushing into freeride lines or building their own backcountry skill set, there is a lot to learn from how he manages risk, reads terrain and still looks like he is having fun when the run truly counts.

For a platform focused on snow culture, John Jackson represents the bridge between classic video-part legends and modern, story-driven digital series. His segments are replayable both for hype and for study; viewers can watch how he sets up features, where he scrubs speed and how he treats every mountain as a blank canvas for creative riding. In that sense, his importance is not just in what he has already done but in how many riders he continues to influence every time a new crew presses play on his parts before heading into the mountains.

Profile and significance

Kai Jones is an American big-mountain freeskier raised in the Tetons whose early film parts with Teton Gravity Research turned a junior freeride phenom into one of the most-watched young riders in the sport. Growing up just over Teton Pass from Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, he moved quickly from IFSA junior wins to full-length segments that showcased composure on consequential terrain long before most athletes leave the park. By his mid-teens he had multiple TGR credits, a fast-growing profile, and a style built on calm approaches, clean rotations, and landings driven back to the fall line. He now anchors projects that pair high-alpine filming with mainstream storytelling—most notably the 2024 comeback documentary “Falling Into Place,” produced with Red Bull, and the 2025 TGR season slate culminating in “Pressure Drop” and the short project “ORIGIN.” Jones matters because he makes truly big skiing readable: a clear speed floor, tricks placed only where the terrain invites them, and a through-line that fans can follow at full speed.

Competitive arc and key venues

Before films, Jones established himself on the junior freeride circuit with North American titles and wins that came, fittingly, on steep Western faces. Those starts taught him to link features under pressure and to choose lines that judges and viewers can parse in real time. On camera, his home venue became the classroom. The inbounds chutes and tram laps at Jackson Hole led naturally into the adjacent backcountry, where classic features and long couloirs demanded early decisions and sluff management. As travel widened, he added high-glacier and coastal terrain to the map in Alaska and the interior Northwest, filming for TGR alongside seasoned crew members who value flow over stunt work. The recent projects broadened the canvas again, from storm-day pillows to spring spine walls, all built on the same race-like timing and simple, decisive trick placement. The result is a résumé anchored less by podium lists than by venues that define modern freeride and by segments that replay well because they are easy to understand.

How they ski: what to watch for

Jones skis with an “approach quiet, exit decisive” philosophy. Watch how flat and calm the skis stay on the run-in—bases neutral, hands relaxed, ankles doing the work—until he builds a firm platform and pops cleanly. In the air, rotations are axis-honest and chosen to fit the takeoff: deep backflips and tidy 360s appear as punctuation marks, not decoration. Landings are driven to the fall line with an immediate re-center, preserving speed into the next feature rather than bleeding it across the slope. On spines and convex roll-overs he sheds moving snow early with short cross-fall-line cuts, then recommits once the sluff runs. Pole plants are sparse and purposeful, mainly as timing cues before blind takeoffs. The overall effect is skiing that looks inevitable—a line you can storyboard, with each move advancing the sequence rather than distracting from it.

Resilience, filming, and influence

The defining chapter so far is resilience. In March 2023 Jones suffered a major crash in the Jackson backcountry, breaking both legs and ending his season. The comeback—documented in the feature “Falling Into Place” released with Red Bull and amplified across TGR channels—traces the unglamorous work behind returning to speed: surgeries, physical therapy, rebuilt confidence, and the discipline to re-learn habits under consequence. By 2024–25 he was filming full-strength again, contributing to TGR’s annual film program and dropping the short “ORIGIN,” a concentrated look at a winter spent chasing windows and stacking clean clips. The influence goes beyond the highlight reel. Because his lines are readable, coaches and progressing skiers use them to teach pacing, platform building, and risk calibration—why a trick belongs on that feature, from that speed, with that landing in mind. It is a modern template for combining ambition with process.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place explains much of Jones’s style. The lift-served steeps and sidecountry around Jackson Hole deliver maritime-influenced storms, chalky wind-buff, and spring corn within a compact radius, so platform management and sluff control become second nature. Long, consequential fall-lines force early decisions: keep bases flat until the lip, set the edge once, then commit. Travel added contrasting textures—interior chalk, coastal powder with moving surface snow, and glaciated runouts—so the same decision tree gets rehearsed on very different canvases. The throughline is transferable timing: build speed you can live with, let the terrain choose the trick, and land back to the fall line so momentum survives the air.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Jones’s kit is built for reliability. As an athlete with Red Bull and a team rider for Atomic, he favors freeride platforms with enough surface area and supportive flex to accept imperfect landings without surprise hook-ups. The tuning philosophy is simple and instructive: keep edges honest underfoot for chalk, smooth the very ends so they stay friendly in three-dimensional snow, and maintain a consistent base finish so speed is predictable into big takeoffs. Boots and bindings should prioritize support and retention over novelty—set forward pressure correctly and avoid loose, progressive setups that fold under deep landings. On the safety side, the non-negotiables remain beacon, shovel, and probe when he’s outside the ropes, plus the unglamorous habits of spacing, communication, and terrain pacing. For skiers trying to copy the feel rather than the sticker pack, the message is to pick a stable ski you can center confidently and keep the tune and intentions consistent across conditions.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Kai Jones because his skiing tells clear stories on very big canvases. He doesn’t overload a face; he edits—set a speed floor, choose features that escalate, put the trick where the takeoff invites it, and drive the landing to the fall line so the narrative keeps moving. That clarity is why his TGR segments replay well and why his comeback film resonated beyond core audiences. For skiers looking to progress from storm-day resort laps to short backcountry missions, the takeaways are concrete and immediately useful: keep approaches quiet, pop from a clean platform, manage moving snow early, and think two features ahead. Grounded in the daily reality of Jackson Hole and sharpened on the biggest filming stages with Teton Gravity Research, Jones stands as a textbook example of contemporary big-mountain freeskiing—credible to peers, inspiring to audiences, and practical for anyone trying to turn highlight-reel habits into repeatable skills.

Profile and significance

Kelly Hilleke is part of a new generation of North American freeskiers pushing straight from junior freeride circuits into the sport’s biggest stages. Raised in Colorado and closely tied to the Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club, he grew up as an all-round mountain kid, splitting time between skiing, kayaking, climbing and long days in the backcountry with his brothers. That mix of endurance, comfort in exposed terrain and a habit of building kickers in wild places now shows clearly in his competition runs and film shots. In just a few seasons he has moved from IFSA junior podiums into the upper tier of the Freeride World Qualifier and Challenger system, earning his place as a rookie on the FIS Freeride World Tour.

Hilleke’s rise has been fast but not accidental. Consistent wins and podiums at major IFSA events, including standout victories at venues like Telluride, Copper and Aspen, established him as one of the most reliable junior big-mountain skiers in the United States. On the Challenger tour he converted that promise into results, stacking points with wins at high-profile stops and finishing at the very top of the 2025 standings to secure his World Tour ticket. At the same time, he has become increasingly visible to a wider audience through his “Brothers in the Backcountry” projects, his own highlight edits and appearances in media from established platforms, positioning him as one of the key young names to watch in modern freeride.

Competitive arc and key venues

The competitive story starts with Hilleke as a junior athlete representing the Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club. As a teenager he was already piling up results on the IFSA circuit, winning regional and national events and earning a reputation for composed, attacking runs. Those early seasons included victories at recognized junior venues and a strong showing at championship events, proving he could deliver under pressure against the best in his age group. Along the way he added ski mountaineering races such as Aspen’s demanding Power of Four to his résumé, sharpening his fitness and comfort moving fast in big terrain.

The next chapter came as he stepped into the Freeride World Qualifier and Challenger ranks. Wins at important stops such as the Kicking Horse IFSA Qualifier in British Columbia’s Rockies and the Whitewater Rerun Challenger event hosted at Arapahoe Basin showed that he was not just participating in the series, but shaping its storyline. By the end of the 2025 Challenger season he sat at the top of the Ski Men overall, officially punching his ticket to the 2026 Freeride World Tour. Coverage from freeride media highlighted the way he closed the season with back-to-back wins, underlining his ability to perform when the stakes are highest.

Key venues run like a map of modern big-mountain freeskiing. At home, Hilleke’s skiing is deeply connected to Aspen Snowmass and the surrounding Roaring Fork Valley, with Ajax, Highlands and Snowmass all providing steep faces, technical trees and freeride-friendly terrain. Through IFSA and Challenger events he has added places like Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, with its long, exposed ridgelines, to his skill set. Media projects have also brought him to iconic destinations such as Jackson Hole, where he features in segments shot with established film crews. Each of these mountains brings a slightly different flavor of steep, rocky, consequence-heavy terrain, and his competition record shows he can adapt quickly to all of them.

How they ski: what to watch for

Hilleke’s freeski style is built on fluidity and line vision more than showy body movement. He tends to ski with a relatively quiet upper body, centered stance and subtle angulation, letting the terrain and speed tell the viewer how serious the run is. On competition faces, he favors fall-line routes that maintain momentum, linking features into a single narrative rather than throwing isolated tricks. Look closely and you will see how he uses small terrain undulations to build speed into bigger airs, then controls landings with strong absorption and immediate re-centering.

Technically, he blends freeride power with a freestyle toolkit that comes from years of building and hitting jumps in the backcountry. Spins off natural takeoffs, clean grabs and well-timed shiftys appear frequently, but they rarely feel like add-ons. Instead, they are integrated into lines that still respect exposure and snow conditions. He is also comfortable opening up in high-speed, carved turns when the face allows it, then quickly shutting things down with precise slashes or side-slips above technical zones. Watching his runs is a lesson in how to make difficult terrain look logical and fun rather than chaotic.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Even early in his career, resilience is already a central theme in Hilleke’s story. Long days competing and training have inevitably brought crashes and injuries, including setbacks serious enough to threaten parts of a season. Instead of hiding those moments, he has been open about them in social posts and edits, showing the rehab work and mental reset needed to get back on snow. That transparency is part of what makes him relatable to younger riders watching their first freeride events; they see not only the podium photos, but also the process behind them.

On the media side, Kelly first appeared to many viewers through his family project “Brothers in the Backcountry,” where he and his siblings documented their missions on skis and in kayaks. Those episodes showed a teenager already comfortable in consequential terrain, as well as a creative approach to building features and connecting mountain sports. More recently he has stepped into higher-profile productions, including segments shot with Teton Gravity Research at Jackson Hole, where he appears alongside established pros in big-mountain settings. This mix of grassroots storytelling and polished film work has helped expand his influence beyond competition scoreboards, inspiring young freeskiers who want to blend contests, adventure and creativity.

Geography that built the toolkit

Hilleke’s skiing is deeply shaped by the geography of western Colorado. Growing up around Glenwood Springs and the Roaring Fork Valley gave him access not only to the four mountains of Aspen Snowmass, but also to peaks like Mount Sopris, where he has repeatedly climbed and skied long, committing lines. That kind of human-powered experience, on top of resort laps, builds a different kind of awareness: reading snowpack over full seasons, understanding how wind loads ridges and gullies, and learning how light and temperature change snow quality during a single day.

Beyond Colorado, his competition and adventure schedule has taken him across the Rockies and into Canada. Venues such as Kicking Horse Mountain Resort offer sustained steeps, complex start zones and exposure that demand precise line planning. Trips to other Challenger stops add variety in snowpack, from dry continental conditions to maritime storms, forcing him to adapt his approach to sluff, crusts and deep storm cycles. Off the snow, multi-day kayak descents like the Middle Fork of the Salmon River have reinforced his comfort with remote environments and decision-making under fatigue, traits that carry over into big-mountain skiing.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

As his profile has grown, Hilleke has aligned with a quiver of partners that reflect his freeride focus. On his feet he skis for Völkl, using modern freeride and freestyle-oriented skis that balance stability at speed with enough maneuverability for spins and directional changes in tight spots. Those skis are typically paired with bindings from Marker and boots from Dalbello, a combination that emphasizes reliable retention and precise power transfer on variable big-mountain snow.

For safety and fit, he relies on backcountry equipment from BCA and custom boot work from Surefoot, while outerwear from Obermeyer and his home-mountain connection to Aspen Snowmass round out the picture. For progressing skiers, the lesson is not to copy every logo, but to think in systems: strong, confidence-inspiring skis and bindings, boots that truly fit and avalanche gear you know how to use. Watching his edits, it is clear that he trusts his setup completely, which frees him to focus on reading the face and committing to his line.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans gravitate to Kelly Hilleke because his story feels immediate and ongoing. He is young enough that viewers can remember seeing his junior results, yet already skilled enough to share start lists and film credits with some of the biggest names in freeskiing. His runs combine the directness of classic freeride with the playful touches of park and street influence, making them fun to rewatch whether you care about judging criteria or just want to see fast, creative skiing in serious terrain. Social media clips under his “kellysends” handle show both heavy lines and everyday training, inviting followers into the process rather than just presenting finished highlights.

For skiers who want to progress in big-mountain terrain, Hilleke offers a useful model. He built his foundation in a strong club program, added avalanche education and endurance from mountaineering and paddling, then stepped gradually through junior, qualifier and Challenger levels instead of rushing directly into the deepest end of the pool. As he enters his rookie Freeride World Tour season, each run will be watched not only for its score but for what it signals about the direction of modern freeride. Whether you are a junior competitor, a resort freerider or a fan of film-driven ski culture, following Kelly Hilleke provides a front-row view of how a modern all-mountain athlete can grow into the sport’s biggest arenas.

Profile and significance

Maggie Voisin is one of the defining freeskiers of her generation: a slopestyle and big air specialist from Whitefish, Montana, who grew from a small Northwest hometown hill into a seven-time Winter X Games medalist, three-time U.S. Olympic team member and globally recognised film skier. Born on 14 December 1998 and raised chasing laps at Whitefish Mountain Resort, she switched from ski racing to slopestyle as a kid and joined the U.S. Freeski Team as a teenager. By 15 she had already claimed X Games silver and a nomination to the Sochi 2014 Olympic team, instantly becoming a symbol of the sport’s exploding youth movement.

Over the next decade Voisin anchored the U.S. women’s park and pipe programme, stacking X Games medals, World Cup podiums and two Olympic finals appearances while pushing progression with both-way doubles and highly technical rail runs. At the same time, she became increasingly visible in the film world, eventually winning iF3’s Standout Skier of the Year award for her segments in Teton Gravity Research and Good Company projects. Today, after stepping back from full-time contests, she stands at a rare intersection: contest legend, backcountry film standout and athlete-representative on the board of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, helping shape the future of the sport she grew up inside.

Competitive arc and key venues

Voisin’s competitive story began on the slopes above her hometown, where she first clipped into skis at three years old and quickly gravitated toward terrain parks. Early success at regional events led to her selection for the U.S. Freeski Team in her mid-teens. The 2013–14 season marked her international breakthrough: she posted top-four results on the FIS World Cup tour and then, at just 15, won slopestyle silver at Winter X Games Aspen, becoming the youngest skier ever to medal at X Games. That performance secured her spot on the Sochi 2014 Olympic team, though a fibula fracture in training sidelined her before she could start.

Rather than derail her career, the setback became a pivot point. Voisin returned to the circuit, collected more X Games hardware and in 2018 wrote her name into history by winning women’s ski slopestyle gold at Winter X Games Aspen, the first American woman ever to win that discipline. Another slopestyle gold followed at X Games Norway at Hafjell Resort in 2020, along with big air medals that brought her total X Games haul to seven medals across slopestyle and big air. On the Olympic stage she competed at PyeongChang 2018, finishing fourth in women’s slopestyle, then at Beijing 2022, where she qualified strongly and skied to fifth place in a tightly scored final.

Across her contest career Voisin also earned six World Cup podiums and multiple Dew Tour and elite-invitational appearances, but the venues that stand out are the ones where her style seemed to fuse with the course: the sculpted lines of Aspen’s slopestyle park, the scaffolding and steep landings of big air competitions, and the progressive jump and rail sets of European stops like Corvatsch and Stubai. By the time she stepped away from full-time competition around 2024, she had spent a decade at the sharp end of every major park and big air field in the world.

How they ski: what to watch for

Voisin’s skiing is built on power, precision and a deep sense of timing. In slopestyle, she is known for rail sections that pack in real technical difficulty without sacrificing flow: switch-on entries, disaster transfers, and clean two-way spin-offs that set up her jump line rather than draining momentum. Watch how she keeps her upper body calm while the skis do the work; on kinked rails and gaps her shoulders barely move, which allows her to commit fully to the feature and still exit with speed.

On jumps, her hallmark has been a willingness to push rotation while maintaining unmistakable grabs. She was among the first U.S. women to bring both-way double corks—like left-side double cork 1260s with solid mute or safety grabs—into high-level competition, and she built full runs around combinations of switch and forward spins to both sides. In big air she often favoured flat and corked 900s, 1080s and 1260s with long-held grabs over spin-count for the sake of it, a choice that helped her stand out in fields where style and precision increasingly decide podiums. For viewers studying her skiing, slow down her runs and notice how early she sets rotation at the lip, how long she stays connected to the ski during the grab, and how calmly she absorbs the landing.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Resilience is threaded through Voisin’s career. Missing the Sochi Olympics because of injury could easily have defined her story; instead she returned to X Games and World Cups, rebuilt her confidence and came back to the Games four years later as an established threat. Along the way she navigated personal loss and the mental wear of life on tour, speaking publicly about the need to manage pressure and keep perspective. That openness, combined with her results, turned her into a role model for younger athletes trying to balance ambition with health.

In the mid-2020s she began rebalancing toward filming and freeride projects, a shift that had been on her mind for years. Working with crews like Teton Gravity Research in films such as “Legend Has It” and later “Pressure Drop,” and with Good Company on the backcountry-heavy “Crescendo,” she traded start gates for sled bumps, bootpacks and helicopter bumps in British Columbia, Alaska and Japan. Those segments proved she could translate contest-honed airtime to natural terrain: building backcountry booters, linking pillows and jumping off natural features with the same commitment she once brought to slopestyle jumps. Her film work earned her iF3’s women’s Standout Skier of the Year recognition, and cemented her status not just as a contest star but as one of the most complete all-round skiers of her era.

Off the snow, Voisin has also taken on leadership roles. She joined the board of U.S. Ski & Snowboard as the freeski athlete representative, bringing a decade of World Cup and Olympic experience into governance conversations. That combination of on-snow influence and off-snow advocacy means her impact on freeskiing extends well beyond her own segments and scoresheets.

Geography that built the toolkit

The mountains around Whitefish, Montana, are foundational to who Maggie Voisin is as a skier. Learning to ski at Whitefish Mountain Resort gave her a mix of groomers, side hits and variable conditions that forced her to develop real edge control long before she specialised in park. From there she began traveling to larger freestyle hubs, spending crucial development years training in the parks of Colorado and Utah and on the progressive jump lines of venues that regularly host World Cups and X Games.

Summer and shoulder seasons took her to places like the glacier lanes of Mount Hood in Oregon, where she hosted takeover sessions at Windells and packed long days of laps and airbag training into a compact timeframe. Later, as her focus shifted toward filming, her geographic footprint expanded again: deep snow in interior British Columbia, big faces and couloirs in Alaska, and storm cycles in Japan all became canvases for her backcountry evolution. Each environment added a layer to her toolkit, from reading variable park conditions in Aspen to picking safe lines through natural features in the Coast and Chugach ranges.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Voisin’s equipment story mirrors her evolution from park-focused contest skier to all-terrain film athlete. Long associated with K2 Skis, she has spent much of her career on twin-tip platforms purpose-built for slopestyle and big air, tuned for reliable pop, strong edges and predictable landings on sometimes-icy landings. Helmets, goggles and protective gear from brands she has worked with over the years—paired with outerwear that can handle both park impacts and long backcountry days—have rounded out a kit designed for high-consequence skiing in all conditions.

Energy and lifestyle support from partners such as Monster Energy has helped her sustain the travel-heavy contest years and later backed her as she transitioned into the film space. As she stepped deeper into freeride and backcountry projects, she also aligned with technical outerwear and mountain brands, including becoming an ambassador for Norwegian outerwear specialist Norrøna, whose shells and insulation are built for long, stormy days in serious terrain. For skiers looking to learn from her setup, the key takeaway is not to copy every logo, but to understand the logic: skis that match your terrain and style, boots that fit well enough to trust on big hits, and outerwear that lets you stay warm, dry and focused whether you are lapping the park or building a jump hours from the nearest lift.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Maggie Voisin because she has touched every major corner of modern freeskiing. She has X Games golds, Olympic finals and World Cup podiums; she has survived and grown from injuries and setbacks; and now she has film parts that place her alongside the heaviest backcountry skiers in the world. Few athletes manage that breadth, and even fewer do it while maintaining the accessible, grounded presence she has carried from Whitefish to the biggest stages in the sport.

For progressing skiers, her path is a case study in long-term development. She shows how an early love for a local hill can grow into international success, how technical progression in the park can later translate into powerful backcountry skiing, and how it is possible to shift goals mid-career without abandoning what made you successful in the first place. Watching Voisin, the lessons go beyond trick lists: commit to good fundamentals, treat style as non-negotiable even as you push difficulty, respect the mountains and the people around you, and be willing to reinvent yourself when the time is right. Whether you know her from an X Games broadcast, an Olympic final or a TGR segment, Maggie Voisin’s skiing—and the way she has steered her career—has already left a lasting mark on freeskiing.

Profile and significance

McRae Williams is one of the most accomplished slopestyle freeskiers to come out of the United States, a rider whose mix of contest hardware and enduring style gives him a permanent place in modern park and big-air history. Born and raised in Park City, Utah, he grew up with a world-class terrain park in his backyard at Park City Mountain, turning childhood laps into a professional career that has spanned X Games gold, a FIS World Championship title and the overall World Cup slopestyle crystal globe. For a long stretch in the mid-2010s, if there was a major slopestyle final, there was a good chance Williams was in the start gate and pushing the level.

His résumé is as heavy as his reputation suggests. Williams took ski slopestyle gold at the 2013 X Games stop in Tignes, France, stamped his authority on the discipline by winning the 2017 FIS World Championships slopestyle title in Sierra Nevada, Spain, and backed that up with the overall FIS slopestyle crystal globe the same season. Multiple X Games medals, numerous World Cup podiums and a place on the U.S. Olympic team for PyeongChang 2018 solidified his status as one of the premier slopestyle skiers of his era. Beyond results, he is widely respected for a rail game that shaped what “technical but stylish” looks like, and for a late-career shift into backcountry filming that shows a rider still evolving long after the big trophies were won.

Competitive arc and key venues

Williams’ competitive arc follows the growth of slopestyle itself. As a teenager in Park City, he was already a standout in local and national park events, learning to link clean rail tricks with big, controlled spins over jumps. By the time the international slopestyle circuit was taking shape, he had the full package: technical rail lines, both-way doubles, strong grabs and a calm demeanor under pressure. The breakthrough moment came at X Games Tignes 2013, where he out-skied a stacked field to claim gold, signaling that a new American threat had fully arrived on the global stage.

The years that followed were defined by consistency at the highest level. On the FIS World Cup, Williams racked up podiums and near-misses before putting everything together in the 2016-17 season. A clutch performance at the World Championships in Sierra Nevada brought him slopestyle gold, and a string of strong World Cup finishes earned him the overall crystal globe for the discipline. Those achievements, combined with X Games medals in Aspen, made him a clear selection for the U.S. Olympic slopestyle team at PyeongChang 2018. He finished 15th there, short of his medal ambitions, but the fact that he entered the Games as world champion and World Cup overall winner underlined just how dominant he had been in the lead-up.

Certain venues recur throughout his story. Park City’s parks provided his early proving ground, while the slopestyle course at Buttermilk in Aspen became one of his main stages through multiple X Games appearances. The creative jump and rail setups at Grandvalira in Andorra, home of the Total Fight freeski event, saw him repeatedly on top, and the long, sun-soaked course in Sierra Nevada was the backdrop for his world title. Together, these venues highlight how comfortable he is adapting to different snow conditions, course builders and judging panels while still skiing with his own fingerprint.

How they ski: what to watch for

McRae Williams is widely regarded as one of the cleanest rail skiers of his generation. On course, the first thing to watch is how he approaches the rail section with speed and commitment, yet never looks rushed. Switch lipslides to difficult transfers, multiple direction changes, back swaps and 450s on and off are all part of his normal toolkit, but they are executed with such precision that they often look simpler than they are. He takes pride in locking onto rails, holding presses and landing exactly where he intends, which is one reason judges repeatedly rewarded his top runs.

On jumps, his style is equally composed. Williams is known for well-grabbed double and triple corks, often spun both directions, with grabs held long enough for viewers to actually see what’s happening. His switch takeoffs stand out: he rides into the lip calmly, sets the spin powerfully but smoothly, and spots his landings early, frequently riding away with speed and minimal spray. There is very little upper-body flailing in his skiing; instead, he relies on strong edging, a stable core and quiet hands. For fans and progressing skiers, his runs are a masterclass in how high-end difficulty can be delivered in a way that still looks effortless.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Like many slopestyle specialists, Williams has battled injuries, pressure and the mental grind that comes with spending years on the road chasing perfect runs. Between crashes in training and the constant push to stay ahead of the progression curve, it would have been easy to burn out. Instead, he managed to stay near the top of the sport for multiple seasons, then chose to pivot on his own terms. After retiring from World Cup and X Games competition around 2019, he shifted his primary focus toward filming, adventure and a more self-directed style of skiing.

That transition is captured in projects with Teton Gravity Research and in personal edits that show him bringing his park precision into natural terrain. In these segments, viewers see Williams applying his rail skills to natural features, pillow lines and backcountry jumps, trading the strict structure of contests for the creative freedom of the mountains. His journey from “pure contest guy” to an increasingly backcountry-oriented skier has influenced younger athletes who see multiple possible paths for their own careers: you can chase medals, and later, you can redefine yourself without leaving the sport behind.

Geography that built the toolkit

Park City and the Wasatch Range are central to understanding how McRae Williams skis. Growing up in a town centered on Park City Mountain and nearby resorts meant that world-class terrain parks were a normal part of his environment. Perfectly shaped rails, multi-feature jump lines and a strong community of park skiers allowed him to drill fundamentals from a young age. At the same time, the surrounding Wasatch backcountry gave him early exposure to hiking, sledding and riding off-piste, laying groundwork for the freeride chapter of his career.

His competitive travel added new layers. Regular trips to Aspen, the French Alps, the Pyrenees and the Sierra Nevada of southern Spain forced him to adapt to different snow qualities and light conditions, from cold Colorado chalk to springtime slush and high-altitude sun. Summers spent at Mt. Hood, where he ran takeover sessions at camps on the Palmer Snowfield, sharpened his coaching instincts and kept his trick list dialed year-round. All of this geography built a toolkit that extends beyond tricks: reading speed on different snow, understanding how visibility affects depth perception on rails and learning how to conserve energy during long event weeks.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Williams’ long career has been supported by a stable of high-end partners. In recent seasons he has aligned with Völkl for skis, Marker for bindings and Dalbello for boots, while representing Norwegian outdoor brand Norrøna on the apparel side. For viewers, the important point is not the logos themselves, but what they say about his priorities: powerful, precise equipment that holds up to big impacts, aggressive edging and long days of park or backcountry filming.

From a practical perspective, his setup highlights a few useful lessons for progressing skiers. First, modern park and slopestyle skis need to balance stability with maneuverability; Williams favors skis stiff enough to land large spins without folding, yet lively enough to pivot quickly through rail features. Second, binding choice and mounting position are key: a secure, well-maintained binding allows commitment to switch takeoffs and heavy landings with confidence. Finally, outerwear and layering from technical brands like Norrøna matter especially when filming in the backcountry, where staying dry and warm is essential for safety and performance. Watching his footage, it is clear that gear is never the limiting factor, allowing his creativity and decision-making to take center stage.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about McRae Williams because he represents the complete slopestyle skier: champion, technician and innovator whose riding remains relevant even as the sport evolves. His contest career delivered some of the cleanest, most watchable runs of the 2010s, the kind that still circulate in “best of” compilations and are replayed for inspiration before park sessions. For many, his World Championship and crystal globe season stand as a benchmark of what it looks like to dominate a discipline through consistency rather than a single lucky day.

For progressing skiers, his trajectory offers clear takeaways. He built a deep rail foundation, learned to spin in both directions with strong grabs, and treated style as non-negotiable even when difficulty escalated. Later, he showed that a career doesn’t end when the bib comes off; it can evolve into new forms of skiing that prioritize exploration and storytelling. Whether you’re a park skier chasing your first 270 on, a coach looking for technical examples to show athletes, or a backcountry rider curious about how contest skiers adapt to natural terrain, McRae Williams provides a rich case study in long-term progression. His legacy is not just in medals and titles, but in the countless riders who have learned to value clean execution and thoughtful line design by watching him work.

Profile and significance

Parkin Costain is a Montana-born big-mountain freeskier whose career sits at the intersection of film, freeride competition and mechanized backcountry exploration. Raised in Whitefish and on the slopes of Whitefish Mountain Resort, he was skiing in a backpack before he could walk and chasing powder turns on his own skis by the age of two. From that foundation he built a path through junior big-mountain contests, video edits and film awards into a full-time role as one of the key young faces of modern freeride. By his mid-twenties he had already won the Quiksilver Young Guns contest, taken the Teton Gravity Research Grom title, filmed multiple marquee segments with Teton Gravity Research, and been crowned King at Jackson Hole’s Kings & Queens of Corbet’s.

Born in 1999, Costain has grown into the role of complete backcountry skier rather than a pure contest specialist. He rides for brands including SCOTT Sports, where he helped develop the SEA freeride skis, and has long-standing relationships with Black Diamond Equipment, Polaris snowmobiles and other backcountry-focused partners. Alongside his film work in TGR productions like “Far Out,” “Make Believe,” “Stoke the Fire,” “Magic Hour,” “Legend Has It,” “Beyond the Fantasy” and “Pressure Drop,” he continues to test his line choice and risk management in the competition environment as a Freeride World Tour rider and wildcard at stops like Kicking Horse. For fans and progressing skiers, he represents the archetype of the modern North American freerider: a rider shaped by small-town ski culture who now operates comfortably on some of the biggest faces on the planet.

Competitive arc and key venues

Costain’s competitive story starts early and far from TV cameras. Growing up in Whitefish, he began entering International Freeskiers and Snowboarders Association junior events while still in elementary school, traveling to venues like Big Sky to test himself on real big-mountain terrain. Success at those junior stops led to bigger stages, including age-group wins at Snowbird and other classic freeride hills, and by his mid-teens he had already learned how to manage nerves, snow conditions and judging formats. That experience under pressure fed directly into his entry into film contests, where his highlight edits started to stand out among a crowded grom field.

Video-based competitions became the bridge from junior contests to the professional world. Costain won the TGR Grom Contest as a teenager and later the Quiksilver Young Guns event with an edit that combined high-speed spine skiing, big drops and a polished sense of line. Those wins earned him invitations to film with Teton Gravity Research, culminating in his first major segment in “Far Out” and subsequent high-profile appearances in “Make Believe,” “Stoke the Fire,” “Magic Hour,” “Legend Has It,” “Beyond the Fantasy” and “Pressure Drop.” At the same time he kept one foot in the competitive arena, stepping onto the invitational stage at Jackson Hole’s Kings & Queens of Corbet’s, where in 2020 he took the men’s title with a now-famous run that opened with a double backflip into the couloir and stacked multiple tricks all the way down.

More recently, Costain has added the Freeride World Tour to his resume. As a ski men’s rider and event wildcard, he has dropped into venues like Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, British Columbia, putting down creative, high-risk lines that include large backflips in exposed zones. While his main focus remains film, those FWT appearances confirm that his approach holds up under the stopwatch intensity of live scoring and broadcast replays, and they place him directly alongside the strongest all-around big-mountain skiers of his generation.

How they ski: what to watch for

Parkin Costain’s skiing is defined by a rare blend of speed, composure and imagination. Watching his segments, the first thing that stands out is how fast he is willing to ski in consequential terrain; he often enters lines at race-level velocity, then controls that speed with powerful, high-edge-angle turns that still look loose and fluid. On classic Alaskan spines or steep interior-BC faces, he keeps his upper body quiet and stacked over the fall line, letting his legs absorb terrain changes and micro-transitions without ever really breaking flow.

His trick vocabulary is equally impressive but rarely feels forced. The double backflip into Corbet’s that helped win Kings & Queens is the headline moment, yet just as telling are the large, floaty backflips he throws mid-face in the backcountry, or the corked spins he adds at the bottom of a heavy line once the main hazards are past. Costain often builds an entire line around a few key features: a spine rollover that sets up a transfer, a rock gap that allows him to clear exposure, or a pillow stack where he can link multiple hits in one breath. He has a knack for using natural takeoffs and subtle wind lips that other riders might ski past, and he tends to land deep in the transition with immediate control rather than relying on a long outrun to shut things down.

For viewers studying his technique, it is worth focusing on how early he commits to direction changes and airs. He reads the terrain several moves ahead, so by the time he reaches a blind rollover or spine break he has already chosen his exact exit. That anticipation, plus his strong stance and willingness to keep his skis pointed down the hill, are big reasons his lines look both aggressive and composed.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Although Costain is best known for highlight reels stacked with perfect turns, his career also reflects a steady kind of resilience. From the outside his rise—from junior contests to grom edits to full TGR segments—can look meteoric, but behind it are years of long winters, occasional dry spells, travel setbacks and the constant uncertainty of backcountry conditions. Interviews and podcasts with him often circle back to the same themes: staying patient through stretches of bad weather, being willing to re-scout or scrap a line if conditions are not right, and balancing ambition with the hard limits that avalanche hazard imposes.

As a film skier, he has helped shape the storytelling direction of the projects he appears in. Movies like TGR’s “Magic Hour” and “Legend Has It” lean heavily into the magic of sunrise and sunset light and into the emotional connection riders build with their home ranges. “Beyond the Fantasy” goes further, spotlighting his first descents on intricate Alaskan “monospine” features that demanded exact timing and total focus. In parallel, the independent short “Burn: A Ski Film” gives him a chance to explore slightly different pacing and mood with a tight, crew-driven project. Through all of these appearances he is evolving from just “the young guy who skis fast” into a more complete on-screen character whose decisions and voice matter as much as his tricks.

Influence-wise, Costain occupies a sweet spot. He is young enough that current junior freeriders remember watching his early edits as kids, but experienced enough to be treated as a peer by long-time Alaskan veterans. For groms in towns like Whitefish or other smaller resorts, his path—local hill to regional contests to film and FWT—shows that you do not have to grow up in a mega-resort to reach the highest levels of freeride skiing.

Geography that built the toolkit

Costain’s skiing is inseparable from the geography that shaped him. The starting point is Whitefish Mountain Resort, where stormy days in the trees, off-piste gullies and small local cliffs gave him the chance to lap technical terrain with a tight crew. That environment encouraged creativity and comfort in low-visibility, high-snowfall conditions, the kind of everyday challenges that later make bigger mountains feel familiar. As he began traveling for junior contests, Big Sky became another classroom, with its Headwaters zone and other steep faces teaching him how to manage real exposure and long fall lines.

From there his map expanded rapidly. Filming with TGR has taken him to Cooke City and other deep-snow corners of Montana, to British Columbia’s Selkirks and Kootenays, to the massive relief of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, and repeatedly to Haines and other parts of coastal Alaska, where he has now logged years of heli-assisted spine skiing. More recently, projects with SCOTT Sports sent him to the Andes of Chile, touring and flying around the high terrain above Lo Barnechea near renowned resorts like Valle Nevado. Each region layered new skills onto his base: storm navigation in Montana, chalky steeps in interior BC, massive vertical in Alaska, and mixed spring conditions in South America. The result is a skier whose line choices feel informed by a genuinely global range of snowpacks and mountain cultures.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Costain’s equipment choices are tightly linked to his partnership lineup. As part of the freeride team at SCOTT Sports, he has been closely involved in the development and testing of the SEA series, including the SEA 116 that appears prominently in his Chile trip. That ski is built as a versatile powder platform with enough torsional stiffness underfoot for high-speed stability, but with playful tips and tails that suit his tendency to add spins, flips and transfers into otherwise serious lines. Paired with stout freeride boots, reliable touring-capable bindings and a quiver of backcountry-specific packs and poles from Black Diamond Equipment, his setup is designed to go from sled bumps to skin tracks to heli drops without major compromises.

Off the snow, his long relationship with Polaris underlines how central snowmobiles are to his skiing. Many of his Montana and British Columbia segments start with big sled days, moving deep into zones that would be unrealistic to lap on foot. For aspiring freeriders, the lesson is not that you must own a specific machine, but that motorized access, avalanche gear and communication tools are as much a part of the equipment picture as skis and boots when you start venturing into true backcountry terrain. Whatever their budget, skiers can take a page from his book by prioritizing trustworthy safety gear and a ski setup that feels intuitive in a wide range of conditions.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Parkin Costain because he represents a particularly modern vision of big-mountain skiing: fast, imaginative, grounded in small-resort roots and expressed through film as much as through podiums. His Kings & Queens of Corbet’s victory helped put his name in front of a broad audience, but it is the consistency of his film work—year after year of heavy lines with Teton Gravity Research and other crews—that has cemented his place in the sport. Each season he pushes into slightly more complex terrain, from Alaskan monospines to intricate pillow lines, while still skiing with the same stoked energy he had as a grom.

For progressing skiers, his career offers both inspiration and concrete lessons. He shows what can happen when strong fundamentals from a local hill are combined with a clear vision of the lines you want to ski and the stories you want to tell. Watching his segments with a critical eye, you can learn how to read spines, where to place speed checks, how to use features that other riders might ignore and how to save tricks for the parts of a line where you can land and ski away cleanly. Just as importantly, his interviews and behind-the-scenes edits highlight the patience, planning and humility required to make high-level freeride skiing sustainable over many seasons. That balance of ambition and respect for the mountains is a big part of why Parkin Costain has become one of the defining big-mountain skiers of his generation.