K2 Presents "Undercover"

Profile and significance

Addison “Addie” Rafford is an American freeride skier who has quickly become one of the most exciting new names on the Freeride World Tour. Raised around Sun Valley, Idaho after early years on the icy slopes of the U.S. East Coast, she brings a mix of hard-snow edge control and big Western terrain confidence to every venue she skis. Her rookie season on the Freeride World Tour in 2023 turned heads immediately: she won the opening stop at Baqueira Beret in Spain and added more podiums through the season, finishing fourth overall in women’s ski. That combination of fast progression, strong results and distinctive style has made her a clear reference in the new generation of freeride athletes.

Rafford’s impact goes beyond contest standings. Along with friends Josie Petersen and Ella Meade, she co-founded Milk Box Girls, a creative collective focused on women’s freeskiing, film and the lifestyle that surrounds it. Their experimental short film “Con Artist” blends high-consequence skiing with a surreal, heist-style narrative and has been showcased on the Freeride World Tour’s own channels and at ski film festivals. As of 2024 she rides for brands such as K2 Skis and Dakine, moving from promising qualifier rider to fully fledged pro whose name appears in both competition recaps and film guides.

Competitive arc and key venues

Before she ever dropped into a World Tour face, Rafford built her skillset through years of structured freeride competition. After trying moguls because it offered a flexible program, she gravitated toward freeride events on the FWQ (now Challenger) circuit, eventually topping the North American women’s ski rankings and earning promotion to the Freeride World Tour. That qualifying run already showed how comfortable she was mixing exposure, speed and air-time, but the real test came on her rookie season in 2023, when she stepped into the start gate with the best women in the world.

Baqueira Beret was the breakthrough. On the steep Baciver venue above the Spanish Pyrenees resort of Baqueira Beret, Rafford opened her FWT career with a winning run: several airs straight out of the start, a committed drop into a tight couloir and a final cleanly grabbed air low in the face. Later that winter she backed up the result with a third-place finish at Kicking Horse in Golden, British Columbia, on the exposed flanks above Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. Those podiums kept her in the yellow leader’s bib at stages of the season and carried her to fourth overall in the final 2023 standings. In 2024 she returned to the Tour, adding more experience on classic venues such as Fieberbrunn in Austria and Verbier in Switzerland, proving that her rookie results were no fluke.

How they ski: what to watch for

Rafford’s skiing is defined by a strong fall-line instinct and a willingness to link features instead of treating them as isolated hits. On her winning Baqueira line, for example, she never looks like she is hunting for a safe place to slow down; she drops multiple airs up high, uses the entry to a narrow couloir as part of the flow instead of a hesitation point, and then builds just enough speed for a final air with a clean grab. The pacing is almost constant from top to bottom, which is a big reason judges and viewers responded so strongly to the run.

Technically, she combines compact body position with deliberate use of terrain. Her upper body stays quiet while her legs and feet absorb irregularities in the snow, a habit that comes from years of skiing both cold, chalky Idaho conditions and more variable FWQ and FWT venues. She often enters drops from slightly offset angles, using small slashes or pre-hop adjustments to line up the takeoff, then keeps her skis level in the air before touching down and immediately rolling into the next turn. For fans watching her replays, the key details are her line choices—how she stacks several medium-sized features into a single, coherent sequence—and how rarely she gets knocked off rhythm once she commits.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Freeride careers are built on resilience, and Rafford’s path is no exception. Before earning her World Tour spot, she spent seasons on the qualifier circuit, juggling travel, part-time work and the pressure of needing big results to move up. Interviews and profiles highlight how often she had to make do with limited resources, focusing on driving to events, skiing hard and making the most of whatever snow was on offer. That persistence culminated in topping the U.S. FWQ ranking and stepping into the World Tour start gate with the confidence of someone who has already fought through a crowded field to be there.

Her influence is amplified by the creative projects she has chosen. Milk Box Girls and the film “Con Artist” show a side of freeride that is not just about scores and standings. The short blends dark, stylized imagery with high-risk skiing, presenting Rafford and her co-stars as characters in a psychological heist rather than just athletes collecting shots. She also leans into a deliberately DIY aesthetic between larger projects, editing “trap edits” from phone clips and dad-cam footage that mix crashes, partying and real skiing into something that feels closer to how many skiers actually experience the sport. For younger riders, especially women coming up through freeride programs, that mix of high-end competition and accessible, messy behind-the-scenes content makes her story feel more relatable and aspirational at the same time.

Geography that built the toolkit

Rafford’s skiing is deeply shaped by the places she has called home. She talks about starting out in tiny ski boots on the icy hills of New England, where edge control and comfort with firm conditions are essential. Later, her family’s life gravitated toward Idaho, and the terrain around Ketchum and Sun Valley became her daily playground. With Sun Valley’s Bald Mountain effectively in her backyard and the rugged Sawtooth range on the horizon, skiing turned from hobby into lifestyle: long days on groomers, tree lines off the lifts and early forays into touring and backcountry terrain.

That base prepared her well for the travel-heavy life of a modern freerider. On the Freeride World Tour she has already learned the feel of the Spanish Pyrenees above Baqueira Beret, the maritime-meets-continental snowpack at Kicking Horse in British Columbia, and the complex, often wind-affected faces at European stops like Fieberbrunn and Verbier. Between competitions she chases storms across North America, filming and shooting photos in interior British Columbia and other Western ranges, constantly adding new snow types and terrain profiles to her internal map. The result is a skier who looks surprisingly at home whether the venue is a chalky couloir in Spain, cold smoke powder in Canada or firm, technical faces in the Alps.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

On the equipment side, Rafford’s choices reflect the demands of high-speed freeride rather than park or race skiing. After early years riding for French brand blackcrows, she moved to the freeride and freestyle lineup at K2 Skis, where she has been shown on versatile freeride models like the Reckoner series. These skis are built to handle fast, committed lines and repeated cliffs, with enough width to float in soft snow but enough stiffness and edge hold to feel trustworthy on firm sections. Her partnership with Dakine covers packs, gloves and accessories that have to survive rocky bootpacks, repeated travel and long days standing in start gates or hiking back to features.

More than the specific logos, her kit offers a template for aspiring freeriders. She relies on a single primary setup that can handle most of the conditions she encounters on Tour: skis with a stable platform underfoot, a binding and boot combination that keeps her attached through landings but still releases when necessary, and outerwear and packs that prioritize durability and function over novelty. If you are watching her lines and wondering how to gear up, think in terms of a dependable, freeride-focused system rather than chasing the lightest or most specialized gear. It is that “everyday capable” setup that lets Rafford concentrate on reading terrain and committing to her line instead of worrying about whether her equipment will keep up.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Addison Rafford because she represents a fresh, modern version of freeride: young, creative and willing to send, but also thoughtful about storytelling and community. Her rookie-season win at Baqueira Beret and overall top-four finish on the Freeride World Tour prove she can perform under pressure in world-championship-level fields. At the same time, her Milk Box Girls projects and low-fi edits show that she sees skiing as something much bigger than rankings—a way to explore identity, art and friendship in parallel with high-consequence lines.

For progressing skiers, especially those coming from smaller hills or freeride programs, Rafford offers a realistic and inspiring blueprint. She did not arrive on the World Tour out of nowhere; she built her skills through moguls, qualifiers, long drives, and seasons spent piecing together enough results to move up. She now balances that competitive focus with film work and creative projects that keep skiing fun and open-ended. Watching her FWT runs, her appearances in “Con Artist,” and the way she talks about travel, coffee and editing chaotic phone clips into something she can laugh at later, you get a sense of an athlete building a sustainable, personality-driven career. That combination—serious lines, serious creativity, and an obvious love for the process—is exactly why her name is showing up more and more in freeride conversations worldwide.

Profile and significance

Krystin Norman is a freetouring and freeride skier who has quietly become one of the most influential community voices in the Pacific Northwest. Splitting her time between high-consequence ski missions in the Cascades and a full-time job as a coffee scientist at Starbucks, she personifies the modern “working pro” model: big mountain lines and film projects balanced with a demanding career in Seattle. Based in North Bend, Washington, she rides primarily out of Crystal Mountain and the surrounding backcountry, where she blends ski mountaineering objectives with playful freeride skiing. Her name appears on the Freeride World Tour Qualifier ranking lists, brand ambassador pages, avalanche-education programs and ski films alike, making her a key connector between core skiing, safety education and broader outdoor culture.

Norman is best known for the way she uses her platform. As a longtime volunteer with SheJumps and the Northwest Avalanche Center, she founded the Snowpack Avalanche Scholarship Program, which has helped hundreds of women—particularly women of color—access AIARE avalanche education and lift tickets. At the same time, she has worked as a product tester for brands like K2 Skis and Arc’teryx, helping shape freeride and touring gear from the prototype stage. Add in her film appearances, coaching roles and advocacy work, and you get an athlete whose significance comes not only from the lines she skis, but from the structure she is building around safer, more inclusive mountain experiences.

Competitive arc and key venues

Krystin’s competitive arc runs through the Freeride World Tour Qualifier system rather than traditional World Cup slopestyle or race circuits. After years of honing her skills in the Tahoe region and later in Washington’s Cascades, she began entering FWQ events in the Americas region, representing the United States in Ski Women. A standout result came at the Crystal Mountain IFSA FWQ stop, where she earned a top-ten finish and valuable qualifying points—fittingly on the home terrain she knows best. Those results place her behind the start gate with a field of full-time pros, despite juggling a demanding lab job and a heavy volunteer load.

Alongside FWQ events, Norman has made a point of connecting contests with mentorship. At Crystal Mountain, she has coached freeride programs, working with youth and adult women to develop line choice, avalanche awareness and confidence in steep terrain. Further afield, she has linked up with Western Colorado University’s Mountain Sports freeride team at Crested Butte Mountain Resort, skiing extreme terrain with student-athletes and serving as a visiting role model. Whether it is a judged FWQ run off Crystal’s Chair 6 or a mentorship lap through Crested Butte’s North Face, the same theme runs through her competitive story: use high-level terrain as a classroom, not just a podium stage.

How they ski: what to watch for

Norman’s skiing is built around strong, centered fundamentals and a clear respect for mountain hazard. On steep Cascades faces and in the volcanic, glaciated terrain she often explores, she favors a compact stance and deliberate edge engagement, allowing her to move efficiently over wind-affected snow, breakable crusts and deep northwest powder. Rather than relying on big drifted turns to scrub speed, she tends to stay in the fall line with confident, medium-radius turns, making small adjustments with her ankles and knees while keeping her upper body calm and quiet. When she sends features—cornice drops, rollovers, or natural airs—her takeoffs are clean and purposeful, and she lands in a stacked position that lets her immediately re-engage the slope.

In more playful freeride settings, especially around Crystal’s Southback terrain and similar zones, you see more of her freestyle sensibility. A well-timed slash to control speed may be followed by a small air into a tight pocket; a spine-like ridge becomes an excuse for a quick tail press or a directional change. Footage from Crested Butte shows her comfortably following and leading on technical lines, throwing controlled backflips and strong airs while reading snow and terrain in real time. For fans watching her clips, the key is how composed she remains when the terrain gets serious: there is very little wasted movement, and each turn looks like it belongs exactly where she put it.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Resilience in Krystin Norman’s story looks less like a single dramatic comeback and more like the sustained grind of building a multi-layered life in the mountains. She committed to pursuing professional skiing, switching careers into coffee science and buying a home, all around age 30—an age when many athletes are already winding down their careers. That late-blooming arc meant learning to film segments, test gear, compete in FWQ events and coordinate avalanche scholarships while also working full-time at Starbucks headquarters. The ability to keep progressing on snow while excelling in a demanding day job speaks to a deep reservoir of discipline and long-term vision.

Her influence spreads through several channels. On the media side, she appears in projects like “Young Bucks,” a film that follows her friendship and progression partnership with skier Delilah Cupp across Washington’s North Cascades, Crystal Mountain and Alta. Editorial features profile her as a backcountry skier and scientist who turns mountain days and coffee chemistry into a surprisingly coherent life. On the community side, the SheJumps Snowpack Scholarship Program has delivered hundreds of avalanche-course scholarships and dozens of season passes and lessons, materially changing who can afford to participate in snow sports. Add in coaching, guest appearances with collegiate teams and brand campaigns that highlight her advocacy work, and it is clear that Norman’s influence reaches far beyond the tight circle of Cascades locals.

Geography that built the toolkit

Krystin’s toolkit is a product of two very different snow worlds. She grew up around Lake Tahoe, where high-altitude resorts, strong sun and dense Sierra storms demand quick adaptation from powder to refrozen surfaces in a single day. Those early years gave her a solid base in variable snow and resort-accessed off-piste terrain, plus a feel for the mix of playful features and big-mountain lines that characterize California freeride. Later, she relocated to Washington and found a long-term home in North Bend, at the edge of the Cascade Range’s deep maritime snowpack.

From North Bend she has easy access to Crystal Mountain, Alpental, Washington Pass and the broader North Cascades, zones that feature some of North America’s heaviest snowfall, complex avalanche problems and serious relief. Multi-day touring and ski mountaineering missions in these mountains—ranging from steep couloirs above treeline to longer glacier routes—have sharpened her route-finding and hazard-evaluation skills. Trips to places like Crested Butte in Colorado add a drier, more continental snowpack to her experience, rounding out her understanding of how terrain and conditions interact. Taken together, Tahoe and the Cascades have produced a skier who reads snowpacks and faces carefully, then skis them with confidence and flow.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Norman’s equipment choices reflect the demands of long days in a wet, rugged mountain environment. As a product tester and development partner for K2 Skis, she has spent years providing feedback on freeride and touring collections, helping refine skis that can handle everything from deep storm days to steep, refrozen exits. Her setups typically lean toward freeride-touring hybrids: skis wide enough to float in Cascades powder, yet light and torsionally strong enough for long climbs and firm snow. On her feet, she has tested boot designs that balance uphill efficiency with enough progressive flex and power to ski aggressively in consequential terrain.

For outerwear and accessories, Norman rides with brands such as Arc’teryx, Therm-ic, Wild Rye and HEST, combining technical shells and insulation with heated or high-performance socks and reliable sleep systems for multi-day trips. As an ambassador for Crystal Mountain and partners like NWAC and SheJumps, her pack almost always includes avalanche tools and safety gear, underscoring her focus on preparedness. For progressing skiers, the practical lesson is that her kit is built as a system: skis, boots, skins, layers and safety tools chosen not for single resort laps but for the full arc of a day that might include storm riding, touring and night-time van or trailer camping.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Krystin Norman because she offers a version of ski “pro” life that feels both aspirational and attainable. She is not defined solely by contest podiums; instead, her story is about building a rich, sustainable relationship with the mountains while maintaining a serious career and investing heavily in community. Her segments and photos show strong, fluid skiing on consequential terrain, but the surrounding narrative—coffee science at a global company, volunteer work, van projects with her husband, late-night grant writing for scholarships—makes that performance feel grounded and real.

For progressing skiers, especially women and people from underrepresented communities, Norman provides a powerful template. She demonstrates that you can come into professional skiing later in life, keep a non-ski career you love, and still push your limits on snow. She shows how avalanche education, mentorship and inclusive scholarship programs can change who feels welcome in freeride spaces. And she proves that advocacy and elite performance are not mutually exclusive: the same person charging steep lines in the North Cascades can also be the one writing emails, organizing scholarships and coaching the next generation. Watching Krystin Norman is not just a way to enjoy strong skiing; it is a window into how a modern, community-focused mountain life can be built step by step.

Profile and significance

Lucy Leishman is a Canadian freeride skier from Nelson, British Columbia, representing the new wave of athletes coming out of the Powder Highway. She grew up skiing at Whitewater Ski Resort, clicking into skis at two years old and spending much of her youth on the local alpine race team before gradually “racing to freeride.” That switch paid off quickly: after moving into freeride, she won the Junior North American Championships and earned a ticket to the YETI Freeride Junior World Championships in Kappl, Austria, where she posted a top-ten finish in Ski Women U-18. Still in her early twenties, she now appears on the Freeride World Tour Qualifier and Challenger circuits, building a résumé that marks her as one of the most promising young big-mountain skiers in Canada.

Leishman’s profile extends beyond start lists. Listed as one of the hometown athletes for Whitewater, she is part of the same Nelson ecosystem that has produced several of British Columbia’s most respected film skiers. Sponsors like K2 Skis, technical outerwear label Beringia and local shop Village Ski Hut back her projects and competition seasons, while collaborations with brands such as The North Face and POC Sports appear in her media presence. Add in a growing film footprint, including an all-women’s Japan project, and she stands out as an emerging voice in North American freeride rather than just another name on the rankings page.

Competitive arc and key venues

Leishman’s competitive arc traces a clear path from alpine gates to freeride start gates. As a junior she held a national race license with the Whitewater Ski Team, building timing and edge control against the clock before the lure of off-piste terrain drew her toward freeride. Once she joined the Whitewater freeride program, she quickly adapted her racing background to steeper faces and natural features, climbing the IFSA junior ranks and eventually winning the Junior North American Championship title in the 15–18 women’s category. That result secured her spot at the 2023 YETI Freeride Junior World Championships in Kappl, where she represented Canada on one of the biggest stages in junior freeride.

After aging out of juniors, Leishman stepped into the adult field on the Freeride World Tour Qualifier and Challenger circuits. On the FWT Americas Qualifier ranking she has already collected solid results, including a fifth place at the Revelstoke IFSA Qualifier and a sixth at RED Mountain, alongside additional starts at Kicking Horse. Those venues—Revelstoke’s big-vertical faces, the rockier lines above RED Mountain, and the classic in-bounds freeride terrain at Whitewater—have become the proving grounds for her transition into the senior ranks. Her stated goals for the 24/25 winter include returning to the FWT Challenger series and continuing to push her skiing while staying closely connected to her home team at Whitewater, a balance of ambition and community that defines much of her trajectory so far.

How they ski: what to watch for

On snow, Lucy Leishman skis with the composure of someone who grew up in race boots and the looseness of a skier who now lives for freeride. Her lines tend to respect the fall line: rather than traversing across the face to hunt for a safe landing, she generally drops into the main pitch, links a sequence of medium-sized features and keeps her speed rolling from top to bottom. That style rewards strong legs and quick decision-making, traits that show up clearly in her junior world championship run at Kappl and in her qualifier results around British Columbia.

Technically, her skiing is compact and centered. Years of alpine training show up in how quietly her upper body behaves; even when the snow is choppy, her shoulders stay level while her feet absorb the terrain. She often uses a small slash or pre-hop to fine-tune her entry into a drop, then levels the skis in the air and lands in a balanced stance that lets her immediately roll into the next turn. When you watch her footage from IFSA and FWT events, look closely at how rarely she brakes aggressively mid-run. The control comes not from shutting down speed, but from choosing a line she can ski fluidly at pace and trusting her technique to keep everything together.

Resilience, filming, and influence

At this stage of her career, Leishman’s resilience is defined less by dramatic comebacks and more by steady, year-on-year progression through demanding pathways. Shifting from racing to freeride meant learning how to read complex faces, manage avalanche awareness and perform when a single mistake could end a run. Working through IFSA juniors, then into the Freeride World Tour Challenger and Qualifier systems, also meant balancing travel, finances and training with everyday life in a small mountain town. The Junior North American title, junior world championship start and early Challenger results show that she has been willing to grind through that process rather than expecting overnight success.

Her influence is starting to show in film and community projects as well. In the short film “Slipstream,” presented by POC Sports, she joins Alex Armstrong, Estelle Pensiero and Catty Agnew on a women’s trip to Japan that explores both powder skiing and the emotional weight of high-level sport. The project frames skiing as a way to rediscover joy and community after burnout, and Leishman’s segments underline how comfortably her freeride style translates to deep, playful snow and tree terrain. Back home, she talks about wanting to host a Coldsmoke clinic at Whitewater to inspire younger skiers, emphasizing fun, friendship and personal growth as much as results. That emerging mentorship role, paired with her own competitive push, positions her as an important figure for the next generation of Nelson and Whitewater athletes.

Geography that built the toolkit

Nelson and Whitewater are central to understanding Leishman’s skiing. Nelson is a compact mountain town in interior British Columbia, perched along the region’s famed Powder Highway and surrounded by rugged Selkirk terrain. From there, it is a short drive to Whitewater Ski Resort, a mountain known for deep snow, limited grooming and a strong emphasis on off-piste culture. Growing up with that terrain as her backyard meant early exposure to steep glades, natural drops and storm-day visibility challenges that force skiers to develop strong instincts early on.

Her competitive travels have expanded that geographic toolkit. Events at Revelstoke, Kicking Horse and RED Mountain expose her to bigger vertical, more exposure and different snowpacks across interior British Columbia, while junior worlds in Kappl added European avalanche conditions and alpine faces to her experience. The Japan trip for “Slipstream” layered in yet another environment: coastal storms, deep tree skiing and the unique rhythm of long, rolling pillows and wind lips. Taken together, those locations have produced a skier who looks at home whether she is dropping a chalky line above a Canadian chairlift, threading a couloir in the Tyrolean Alps or surfing bottomless turns between birch trees on Hokkaido.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Leishman’s equipment choices mirror the demands of modern freeride. On her feet are skis from K2 Skis, typically freeride-oriented models that balance stability at speed with enough looseness in the tips and tails to slash, pivot and land small airs without feeling locked into a race stance. For outerwear and insulation she works with Beringia, a brand that focuses on technical fabrics suited to long, cold days in interior British Columbia. Local partner Village Ski Hut keeps her connected to the Nelson ski community and helps fine-tune her setup, while collaborations with The North Face and POC Sports round out her kit with protective gear and layers designed for freeride conditions.

For progressing skiers, the practical takeaway is less about copying her exact gear list and more about understanding why it works. Freeride competition asks a lot from equipment: skis have to stay predictable on firm entries yet float when the snow is deep; bindings must hold up to drops without pre-releasing; helmets and back protection need to be comfortable enough that you forget you are wearing them until you need them. Leishman’s choices reflect a desire for a single, trustworthy setup that can handle qualifiers, film trips and storm days at home without constant tinkering. Emulating that philosophy—building a durable, confidence-inspiring system rather than chasing the lightest or trendiest piece—is a smart move for anyone who wants to push into bigger terrain.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and younger riders are starting to care about Lucy Leishman because she represents a relatable but ambitious freeride path. She did not skip directly to the top; she put in years of racing, switched disciplines, ground through junior and qualifier circuits and only then earned her way into Challenger fields. Along the way she has stayed rooted in her home hill, remained closely connected to local sponsors and mentors, and spoken openly about wanting to give back through clinics and community events.

For progressing skiers watching from small programs or local hills, her story is proof that growing up on a community-oriented mountain like Whitewater can be the start of an international freeride career. Her lines show what disciplined technique looks like when you let it breathe in natural terrain, and her film appearances highlight the joy and camaraderie that keep people in the sport long after podium photos fade. As she continues to stack Challenger results and creative projects, Lucy Leishman is becoming a name to watch for anyone interested in where women’s freeride is headed next.

Profile and significance

Manon Loschi is a French freeride skier from the Aravis, raised between Thônes and the lifts of La Clusaz. Born in 2002 and shaped by a club culture that prizes mileage in real terrain, she erupted onto the top tier in 2024 with multiple podiums on the Freeride World Tour and became the inaugural women’s winner of the 2025 YETI Natural Selection Ski in Alaska. Her skiing is a clear example of modern freeride: calm, platform-first approaches into big airs, flips and 360s placed where the mountain invites them, and landings driven back to the fall line so the line keeps flowing. She also pushed progression with a headline-making attempt at a double backflip in big-mountain competition, signaling how women’s freeride is expanding its trick vocabulary at speed. Between broadcast runs and film parts, Loschi has become a reference for how to combine consequence with clarity.

Competitive arc and key venues

After winning the 2022 Qualifier overall, Loschi’s first full elite season arrived in 2024. She started with a statement at the Tour opener in Verbier, taking second on the Petit Bec above Verbier with a 94.00—built on fast, powerful turns and deep, decisive airs. Weeks later she repeated the result at Canada’s Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, a venue known for chalky panels and exposure that reward clean edge sets and exact line choice. She then added a third place at Fieberbrunn in Austria to finish fourth overall for the season. In 2025, she stepped into a different proving ground and won the first-ever YETI Natural Selection Ski—an Alaska face-format contest designed to merge freeride and freestyle—confirming that the same habits that score on Tour also stand up under a head-to-head bracket. The throughline is a record that travels across very different canvases: the ribbed, chalky steeps at Golden, the expansive freeride face in the Kitzbühel Alps, and the iconic Swiss finale at Verbier.

How they ski: what to watch for

Loschi skis with an “approach quiet, exit decisive” philosophy. Watch how flat her skis stay in the run-in—light ankle work, no chatter—until she builds a firm platform and pops cleanly. The air time is axis-honest: controlled backflips, tidy 360s in both directions, and grabs that stabilize rotation rather than decorate it. Landings are driven to the fall line with an immediate re-center, preserving speed into the next feature. On spines and convex roll-overs she manages moving snow proactively, making brief cross-fall-line cuts to shed sluff before re-committing. When the terrain offers the perfect lip and a generous landing, she is willing to escalate—her widely discussed attempt at a double backflip was notable precisely because it arose from a read that the feature could support it. The overall impression is of tricks used as punctuation in a sentence the mountain has already written.

Resilience, filming, and influence

The resilience thread in Loschi’s story is easy to miss because she looks so composed in competition. She qualified for the Tour a year earlier but lost that season to injury, then returned in 2024 and podiumed immediately—a psychological turnaround as striking as the results themselves. Off the bib, she has leaned into storytelling. She featured in Matchstick Productions’ 2024 film “Calm Beneath Castles” alongside an A-list cast, and she released a short project, “Abstrus,” filmed in spring conditions in northern Sweden. Those appearances show the same habits viewers recognize from contests: deliberate speed, precise reads of wind features, and tricks placed where the terrain naturally sets the line. The combination of podiums, a major film presence, and a win at the first Natural Selection Ski event has made her a touchstone for younger riders looking for a path that balances ambition with process.

Geography that built the toolkit

Place explains a lot of Loschi’s composure. The lift network and mixed aspects of La Clusaz deliver frequent laps in variable snow—early-season hardpack, storm slabs, and spring corn—so platform management and speed control become second nature. On the world stage, each stop sharpened a different tool. At Kicking Horse, chalk and exposure demand early, confident edge sets. At Fieberbrunn, the face rewards linking ribs and gullies into a coherent story. At Verbier, consequential entrances and unforgiving runouts test calm execution under pressure. For filming and late-season projects, Scandinavia’s long-light venues such as Riksgränsen add firm-snow takeoffs and wide runouts that suit clean rotations. The result is a toolkit that travels: set a speed floor, manage the surface in front of you, and let terrain choose the moment for expression.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Loschi’s partners reflect reliability over novelty. With Red Bull behind her travel and performance projects, she skis freeride shapes from K2 Skis that offer stable platforms and forgiving rocker for deep landings, and outerwear from Mountain Hardwear built for storm days and long approaches, often featuring GORE-TEX membranes. Vision and protection show up via Anon Optics, while binding choices from Marker underscore the need for retention and elasticity when impacts come fast. For skiers translating that into their own setups, the useful lessons are simple: pick a freeride ski you can center confidently; keep edges honest underfoot for chalk but smooth at contact points for three-dimensional snow; and pair boots and bindings that won’t fold when you land deep. In any backcountry context, beacon, shovel and probe are non-negotiable, and clear communication with partners adds more safety than any single gear upgrade.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans gravitate to Loschi because her lines make sense at full speed. She doesn’t chase tricks for their own sake; she organizes a face into a beginning, a middle and an end, and uses a flip or a three to emphasize the terrain, not to distract from it. That’s why her runs replay so well and why judges reward them. For progressing skiers, the takeaways are concrete: build a quiet approach, pop from a clean platform, land to the fall line and manage moving snow early. Her 2024 Tour podiums at Verbier, Kicking Horse and Fieberbrunn proved the formula under pressure; the 2025 win at Natural Selection showed it scales to different formats and even bigger canvases. Grounded in the daily reality of La Clusaz and sharpened on the sport’s heaviest venues, Manon Loschi stands as one of the clearest examples of contemporary women’s freeride—credible to judges, inspiring to audiences, and practical for anyone trying to turn highlight-reel moments into repeatable habits.

Profile and significance

Micah Evangelista is a Pacific Northwest freeski and backcountry specialist whose entire approach to skiing is shaped by one mountain: Mt. Baker. Born and raised in the tiny town of Glacier, Washington, he grew up in the shadow of Baker’s storms, learning to move through deep snow, pillows and tight trees long before his name appeared in ski media. As he evolved from local kid to sponsored athlete, he stayed close to home, building his identity as both skier and filmmaker rather than chasing a conventional contest pathway. That choice gave his profile a different flavor: more “soul skier and storyteller” than podium hunter, with projects that feel rooted in place and community instead of tour calendars.

Today, Micah is widely recognized in core circles as the creative force behind films like “BOURN” and “Actual Air,” where his smooth, powerful skiing is inseparable from the way it is framed on screen. He has worked as both on-camera athlete and director, shaping the full narrative from line selection to final edit. For a ski video platform, he stands out as a rider whose importance comes less from medals and more from mood: he is one of the key modern voices showing what a life centered on one mountain, one valley and one tight-knit crew can look like when you fully commit.

Competitive arc and key venues

Evangelista’s story does not revolve around World Cup points or Freeride World Tour rankings. As a kid, his “competition” was mostly the daily challenge of keeping up with his family and friends at Mt. Baker, where big storms and big terrain set the bar high. Instead of following a race program or full-time big-mountain circuit, he gravitated early toward filming mission-style days: hiking to jumps with shovels on his back, building features in sidecountry zones and turning storm cycles into informal personal contests with his crew. That choice to focus on creative output rather than formal results is a big part of why he still feels fresh to many viewers even after years on snow.

The key “venues” in his career are film projects rather than competition stops. His breakout full-length movie, “BOURN,” is a two-year, fully foot-powered exploration of Baker’s backcountry, framed around the idea of home and the pull of returning to familiar terrain with new eyes. Later, “Actual Air,” shot entirely on 16mm film by his brother Mattias, pushed further into the artistic side of ski storytelling, blending voiceover, texture and dreamy powder footage. More recently, projects released with brands like K2 Skis and Outdoor Research have expanded his platform, but the pattern remains the same: Micah uses each season to dig deeper into the same North Cascades terrain rather than chasing an ever-changing tour calendar.

How they ski: what to watch for

Micah’s skiing is built for deep snow and complex terrain rather than manicured park lanes. The first thing to notice is his stance: strong, centered and relaxed, with his upper body quiet while his legs do most of the work. In classic Baker storm conditions he keeps his tips up and weight balanced to stay afloat in very deep snow, carving smooth arcs that make heavy powder look almost weightless. When he approaches features, he rarely slams on the brakes; instead, he uses the terrain to modulate speed, rolling over knuckles and pillows in a way that keeps his momentum alive from the top of the line to the bottom.

His trick selection is playful but thoughtful. In “BOURN” and later edits you see big, floated 360s, tweaked grabs and occasional corks thrown off natural takeoffs, always landed with enough control to flow straight into the next turn rather than stopping to celebrate. On smaller features he leans into butters, nose presses and slashes that read beautifully on camera, giving even medium-sized terrain a cinematic feel. Watch closely for how early he sets up landings: he often chooses exits that allow him to re-enter the fall line smoothly, keeping a run readable and satisfying for viewers even when it is filmed in tight trees or rolling, three-dimensional terrain.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Resilience shows up in Micah’s career less as dramatic comeback headlines and more as long-term commitment to a specific vision. He started filming ski videos around age eleven and later studied visual journalism at Western Washington University, giving him a formal storytelling toolkit to match his on-snow skills. That combination allowed him to take on ambitious multi-year projects like “BOURN,” where he handled much of the direction and editing in addition to starring in front of the lens. Balancing deep winter days, avalanche awareness and a heavy post-production workload demands patience and persistence; the finished films are the product of many unseen early mornings and late nights.

His influence is clearest in how other skiers and filmmakers talk about his work. In interviews and podcast episodes, he is often described as an “underground” or “soul” skier, someone whose low-key persona and refusal to chase mainstream fame actually amplifies his credibility within the core community. Films such as “BOURN” and “Actual Air” circulate widely precisely because they feel authentic: long approaches, real weather, and home terrain portrayed with affection rather than hype. Younger riders who dream about building their own projects rather than just joining contest teams see in Micah a very concrete example of how that path can look, from high school edits to fully realized backcountry films with global reach.

Geography that built the toolkit

Everything about Evangelista’s skiing and filming flows from the geography of Glacier, Washington and the North Cascades. The town sits just below Mt. Baker Ski Area, a resort famous for some of the deepest seasonal snow totals on the planet and a layout of gullies, pillows and cliff bands that reward creative line choice. Growing up there meant learning to handle storm days where visibility is low, snowpacks are changing quickly and the terrain is anything but flat. It also meant that many of his best features lie beyond the lifts, accessible only through skin tracks and bootpacks that demand fitness and patience before the camera even comes out.

Beyond the resort boundary, Baker’s backcountry is a maze of rolling glaciers, steep forested slopes and buried boulders that create natural jumps and blind rollovers. Projects like “BOURN” and his later shorts revisit a handful of these zones in different conditions, showing how the same spine, windlip or pillow stack can ski completely differently from one year to the next. For a viewer, understanding that this is his home terrain adds context: you are not just watching a visiting pro drop in on a one-time trip, but a local who has spent years exploring micro-features, weather patterns and snow behavior in a single, complex mountain environment.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Micah’s sponsor list reads like a gear kit tailored for serious backcountry work. On his feet he rides for K2 Skis, favoring freeride shapes with enough width to float in deep Baker storms while staying nimble in tight trees. For touring and reliability on big days he uses systems from CAST Touring, paired with avalanche safety tools from Backcountry Access. Protection comes from POC Sports, while outerwear and technical clothing are supplied by Outdoor Research, whose athlete team he represents.

For skiers watching at home, the takeaway is that his setup is built as a complete system rather than a random collection of sponsor logos. Fat but responsive skis, a binding setup that can switch between touring and alpine performance, dependable avalanche gear and durable outerwear all serve the same goal: letting him hike, build, shoot and ski long lines in a volatile snow climate without constantly worrying about equipment. If you are inspired by his style, the most useful way to copy him is not to chase identical gear, but to think carefully about your own terrain and build a kit that you trust enough to focus on creativity and safety instead of survival.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans gravitate to Micah Evangelista because his skiing and his films feel grounded, human and real. He is clearly capable of big tricks and fast lines, but his projects are just as focused on conversation, reflection and the quieter moments that make up a life at the base of a major mountain. Films like “BOURN” and “Actual Air” are highly watchable even for non-skiers because they are as much about place and memory as they are about airs and slashes, yet they still deliver the kind of deep-snow footage that core viewers replay before their own powder days.

For progressing skiers, his path offers a template for building a career or personal project around a home mountain instead of constant travel. He shows that you can specialize deeply in one region, learn its terrain in detail, and then share that knowledge through thoughtful filmmaking and carefully chosen lines. Whether you discover him through a short clip on social media or sit down for the full “BOURN” experience, watching Micah is an invitation to look at your own home hill differently: to see every storm as an opportunity, every pillow stack as potential and every season as a new chapter in a long, evolving story with the mountains.

Profile and significance

Patrick “Paddy” Marsh is a Canadian freeskier whose story traces a classic arc from park contests and small-crew edits to backcountry-focused film projects. Growing up in British Columbia, he first appeared on the radar through the Silver Star Freestyle Club, throwing 720 mute grabs and other tricks on his home mountain during the B.C. Timber Tour series. That combination of competition results and style-rich edits under the nickname “Paddy Marsh” led to appearances on core freeski platforms and films from local crews, where his relaxed approach and solid fundamentals stood out. Over time, his focus shifted away from junior contests and toward filming and photo shoots, a path that would eventually bring him into bigger-mountain terrain.

More recently, Marsh has emerged as part of a new generation of Canadian backcountry and all-mountain skiers aligned with the K2 program. Event descriptions and film-tour writeups describe him as a Canadian skier making his mark in backcountry freeride and film segments, known for his smooth style and adaptability. He appears alongside high-profile names such as Sam Kuch, Manon Loschi, Addison Rafford, Micah Evangelista and Lucy Leishman in the K2 feature film Under/Cover, a Jake Price project shot in the mountains around Nelson, British Columbia. In that company, Marsh is positioned as a rising supporting character in one of the most interesting crews in modern freeskiing, contributing lines that knit together everyday relatability and serious skill.

Competitive arc and key venues

Marsh’s competitive arc is rooted in the Canadian provincial freestyle system. As a young skier with the Silver Star Freestyle Club, he spent winters learning classic park skills: jumps, rails and basic contest structure. Local news coverage highlighted his 720 mute grabs and similar tricks at B.C. Timber Tour events on the slopes of SilverStar Mountain Resort, reinforcing his presence as one of the stronger riders in his age group. Around the same time he began dropping season edits under his nickname on freeski sites, showcasing the same parks and tree lines where he had cut his teeth in competition.

Instead of stepping into the World Cup or X Games pipeline, however, Marsh’s path bent toward filming and non-FIS events. He appeared in small-crew projects like the “Ohana” films out of the Vernon region, where young skiers experimented with street features, hand-built jumps and creative lines around interior B.C. resorts. Those projects helped him refine a style that translated easily from slopestyle-style park hits to sidecountry terrain and, eventually, full backcountry features. By the time K2 invited him into Under/Cover, he had years of experience taking a park skier’s eye for takeoffs and landings into more natural environments.

How they ski: what to watch for

Patrick Marsh skis with a blend of park-bred trick vocabulary and freeride pragmatism. On jumps—whether park booters or natural windlips—he tends to favor classic, stylish spins rather than spin-to-win complexity: 360s, 540s and 720s with solid mute or safety grabs, often held long enough to give the trick shape. His background in freestyle clubs shows in how early he sets his grabs and how quiet his upper body remains in the air. The result is a rotation that looks more like a smooth roll through space than a hurried huck.

In more natural terrain, what stands out is his ability to read features and adjust on the fly. Watch his lines in Under/Cover or similar edits and you can see how he uses small terrain undulations to set up bigger moves—soft slashes to control speed, a quick tail tap or ollie to change direction and then a committed takeoff into a pillow stack or tree gap. He often keeps momentum in the fall line, using short, powerful turns between features rather than long traverses, which gives his skiing a sense of rhythm. For viewers dissecting his clips, the key details are how he maintains a centered stance even when the snow is inconsistent, and how quickly he returns to that stance after landing a trick.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Like many emerging film skiers, Marsh’s resilience shows up in the grind behind the scenes rather than in headline-making comebacks. Building a name from the ground up in interior British Columbia means juggling winter jobs, long drives and storm chasing while still finding time to shoot. Early projects with small crews demanded a do-it-all mindset: scouting spots, helping with shoveling and inrun work, and stepping up to hit features that might be built only once before conditions changed. Those years of low-budget, high-effort work laid the groundwork for the more polished segments he now contributes to brand-backed films.

His influence is currently most visible within the tight circle of K2 and Nelson-area skiers featured in Under/Cover and related tours. Film-night descriptions consistently mention his name alongside more established athletes, helping to introduce him to audiences who might show up initially to see bigger stars and leave remembering an additional face. While he is not yet a household name in the global freeski community, his presence in a carefully curated cast signals that both brands and filmmakers see long-term potential in his combination of backcountry awareness and freestyle roots.

Geography that built the toolkit

Marsh’s skiing is strongly shaped by the mountains of interior British Columbia. SilverStar, his early home hill, sits above Vernon and offers a mix of park runs, groomers and accessible tree skiing. Earning turns there through his teens gave him a base of solid edge control on firm snow, frequent park laps and plenty of chances to duck into glades on storm days. The surrounding Okanagan terrain—with its rolling ridges, short-but-steep pitches and mix of clear-cuts and old-growth—taught him to adapt tricks to off-piste features rather than relying solely on perfectly shaped jumps.

Later, filming and trips around the Kootenays expanded that geographical toolkit. Nelson and the surrounding ranges, featured prominently in Under/Cover, bring deeper snowfall, more complex pillow zones and longer fall lines into the mix. Touring days and sled-access missions in these mountains require a more nuanced understanding of snowpack, terrain traps and safe line selection, all of which feed directly into the way Marsh now approaches big features. Together, the Okanagan and Kootenay regions have produced a skier who looks comfortable whether he is sessioning a park rail at SilverStar, threading trees above Nelson or dropping into a hand-shaped backcountry booter with cameras rolling.

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

On the equipment side, Marsh’s most visible partnership is with K2 Skis. As part of the K2 team in Under/Cover and associated film tours, he typically rides versatile freeride-freestyle models that can move between resort, sidecountry and backcountry without needing a full quiver swap. Skis in that category usually combine a playful twin or directional-twin shape with enough waist width to float in interior B.C. powder and enough stiffness underfoot to hold up to landings and variable conditions.

While details of his full kit are less public than those of higher-profile pros, the general pattern mirrors that of the crew around him: bindings set up for repeated impacts but reliable release, boots with enough flex to butter and tweak grabs without sacrificing support, and outerwear that can stand up to long days in wet, heavy snow. For progressing skiers, the lesson is not to chase an exact replica of his setup but to think broadly about versatility. If your goal is to follow a similar path—from park laps to sidecountry hits and early backcountry features—aim for a ski and boot combination that feels trustworthy across that full range rather than perfectly optimized for only one.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans and younger skiers are beginning to care about Patrick Marsh because he represents a very relatable version of the modern ski dream. He is not yet the star whose name headlines posters, but the rider whose clips in crew edits and brand films make people ask, “Who was that?” His progression from local freestyle club standout to featured skier in a K2 backcountry movie shows how years of steady work in parks, on side hits and in small projects can eventually open doors to bigger stages.

For progressing skiers, especially those from regional clubs and mid-sized mountains, his story is both realistic and motivating. It demonstrates that you do not have to come from a major contest program or a famous resort to end up in meaningful film projects. Instead, you can build strong fundamentals at home, say yes to creative low-budget shoots, and lean into the kind of all-mountain versatility that brands increasingly value. Watching Marsh in Under/Cover and earlier independent edits gives a clear picture of that pathway—and hints that his best-known segments may still be ahead of him.

Profile and significance

Sam Kuch is a Canadian big-mountain freeskier from Nelson, British Columbia, who has become one of the most talked-about film skiers of his generation. Raised on the stormy slopes above town and now based around the powder-rich Selkirk Mountains, he blends backcountry line choice with full-on freestyle trickery: spins off cliffs, pillow stacks treated like park lines and high-speed airs into tight landings. His breakout came in the late 2010s, when a standout web series part earned him “Discovery of the Year” at the iF3 Festival and launched him from part-time roofer to full-time pro skier almost overnight.:contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

The wider ski world really took notice with his segment in Matchstick Productions’ film “Return to Send’er,” where he turned British Columbia terrain into a playground of huge drops and flowing pillow lines. That performance swept major festival awards, including Best Male Performance at the Powder Awards and male Skier of the Year honours at both the High Five Festival in Annecy and iF3 in Montreal, cementing his status as a premier film athlete rather than a traditional contest skier.:contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1} Since then, Kuch has fronted high-caliber projects with production houses like Matchstick Productions and Blank Collective Films, and starred in athlete-driven shorts such as Arc’teryx’s “Here Goes,” all while stacking standout parts year after year.:contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

Competitive arc and key venues

Although most fans know Sam from film, his roots are competitive. He grew up skiing Whitewater Ski Resort near Nelson, joining the local freeride team as a teenager and quickly standing out for his ability to charge steep lines with tricks on natural features. In 2016 he capped his youth career by winning the IFSA North American Junior Freeride Championship, proving that his loose, playful style could also handle judges’ scorecards and pressure.:contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

Rather than chasing the Freeride World Tour full-time, Kuch pivoted toward filming, where his risk tolerance and creativity could be showcased without the constraints of a single competition face. The “Return to Send’er” segment that lit up festivals was largely filmed in his home mountains around Nelson and Revelstoke, along with deeper missions into the interior of British Columbia. Articles and interviews from that era routinely described him as the “most entertaining skier in front of a camera,” highlighting both the scale of his lines and the smoothness with which he linked tricks into complex terrain.:contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}

More recently, Kuch has stepped back into the contest spotlight on his own terms. In 2025 he finished second at the inaugural YETI Natural Selection Ski event in Alaska’s Tordrillo Mountains, a freeride competition that invited a hand-picked roster of the world’s best slopestyle and big-mountain skiers to ride a feature-stacked Alaskan face.:contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5} That result, earned in consequential terrain more often associated with snowboard icons, underlined that his film skills translate directly to high-level, head-to-head competition when he chooses to show up.

How they ski: what to watch for

The defining feature of Sam Kuch’s skiing is how fast he is willing to go before committing to a feature—and how relaxed he looks while doing it. In films like “Return to Send’er,” Blank Collective’s projects and shorts such as “Space Craft” and “Third Person,” he routinely charges into pillow lines, blind rolls and cliff bands at speeds that leave very little room for correction.:contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6} Instead of throwing on the brakes, he uses subtle adjustments in stance and ski pressure to stay in the fall line, then layers tricks on top of that momentum: hand-drag 3s off cliffs into rodeo 7s off windlips, floaty 360s over exposure, and big backflips out of natural takeoffs that would scare most skiers even without the spin.

Technically, his airs are marked by early, committed grabs and a quiet upper body. Watch his bigger spins and flips frame by frame and you’ll see that the rotation often comes from his hips and legs, leaving his shoulders relatively stable and his head free to spot landings early. That translates into landings that look almost soft, even when he drops from serious height into variable snow. On the ground, his turns alternate between precise, fall-line arcs and playful slashes or drifts that set up the next feature, giving each line a rhythm that feels musical rather than mechanical.

Another layer is his mental approach. Pieces like “Third Person” explore how Kuch visualizes his runs in detail before he drops, essentially watching himself ski the line in his mind’s eye.:contentReference[oaicite:7]{index=7} That internal replay seems to underpin the confidence you see on camera: when he finally leaves the ridge, every terrain change and transition looks like something he has already experienced. For progressing freeriders, this combination—aggressive speed, strong fundamentals, and deliberate visualization—is what makes his skiing so instructive as well as spectacular.

Resilience, filming, and influence

Behind the smooth segments lies a story of resilience. In the early 2020s Kuch suffered a serious backcountry crash, slamming through trees and badly injuring his leg in what could have been a career-ending accident. Features on the incident describe him lying in the snow unsure whether the loud crack he heard was a branch, a ski or his own bone, and the months that followed involved surgery, extensive rehab and the psychological process of relearning to trust his body in big terrain.:contentReference[oaicite:8]{index=8}

His comeback was as much mental as physical. Rather than returning immediately to ever-bigger stunts, he talked about “prioritising joy” and rebuilding step by step, an attitude reflected in later projects like the Arc’teryx short “Here Goes.” That film focuses on a single winter in the heart of the B.C. backcountry and uses his personal mantra—“here goes,” whispered before dropping—to frame the balance between fear, focus and commitment.:contentReference[oaicite:9]{index=9} The result is a skier who has not just bounced back from injury, but who now seems more deliberate and sustainable in the risks he takes.

Influence-wise, Kuch has quickly become a reference name whenever conversations turn to modern big-mountain freeskiing. He has won Discovery of the Year and Standout Skier of the Year honours at iF3, collected festival awards across Europe and North America, and drawn glowing profiles in ski media asking whether he might be the best skier in the world right now.:contentReference[oaicite:10]{index=10} Through ongoing work with Blank Collective Films, his recurring presence in Matchstick Productions movies and his growing portfolio of concept shorts, he has helped define what high-speed, trick-heavy backcountry skiing looks like in the 2020s.

Geography that built the toolkit

Kuch’s skiing is inseparable from his home geography. He grew up in Nelson, a small mountain town on the so-called “Powder Highway” of interior British Columbia, where heavy snowfall and steep tree lines are the norm.:contentReference[oaicite:11]{index=11} His home hill, Whitewater Ski Resort, sits in a high alpine bowl beneath Ymir Peak and is famous for deep snow, minimal grooming and a relaxed, locals-first atmosphere that encourages exploration over infrastructure.:contentReference[oaicite:12]{index=12} Long before he was filming with major brands, he was lapping Whitewater’s lifts, ducking into glades, building booters off wind lips and following older skiers into faces that demanded fast decision-making.

From there, his map expanded outward through the Kootenays and beyond. Revelstoke and other interior B.C. zones provided bigger faces and more complex avalanche terrain, while trips with Blank Collective and other crews took him to coastal ranges, Japan, Norway and Alaska, each adding new textures to his skill set—denser snowpacks, deeper pillows, spines, wind-affected ridges and heli-access terrain.:contentReference[oaicite:13]{index=13} The 2025 YETI Natural Selection Ski event in Alaska’s Tordrillo Mountains is a culmination of that geographic education: riding a big, exposed Alaskan wall in front of a global audience required every lesson he had learned on home slopes, in Canadian backcountry zones and on film trips around the world.:contentReference[oaicite:14]{index=14}

Equipment and partners: practical takeaways

Sam Kuch’s equipment reflects the realities of high-speed, big-mountain freestyle. His current ski sponsor is K2 Skis, which welcomed him to the team with public recognition that he is “one of the best to ever put sticks on his feet” and highlighted his upbringing in the British Columbia backcountry.:contentReference[oaicite:15]{index=15} That move followed earlier years on different brands, but the through-line is the same: he favors freeride-oriented skis with enough backbone for charging yet enough playfulness to slash, spin and land switch in deep snow.

On the boot side, he represents the BOA Fit System, riding K2 alpine boots with dual-dial BOA closures that allow micro-adjustable tension around the foot and lower leg. In his own words, the dual-dial design helps make the boots feel like an extension of his body, providing the precision and confidence he needs on committing lines. Outerwear is supplied by Arc’teryx, whose technical shells and pants are designed for deep, wet snowpacks and long touring days, while goggles and helmets come from Anon Optics, giving him high-contrast vision and reliable protection in stormy conditions.:contentReference[oaicite:17]{index=17} Anchoring it all is his longstanding relationship with Whitewater Ski Resort, which continues to list him as a homegrown athlete and gives him a return-to-base where his style was originally forged.:contentReference[oaicite:18]{index=18}

For skiers looking to take practical cues from his setup, the lesson is balance. Big-mountain freestyle demands skis that stay composed at speed but still release into slashes and tricks, boots that are supportive but adjustable enough to skin, sled and hike, and outerwear that keeps you warm and dry through long days of film work in volatile weather. You do not need his exact model list, but you can emulate his priorities: confidence underfoot, clear vision and a kit built for backcountry realities rather than just resort laps.

Why fans and progressing skiers care

Fans care about Sam Kuch because he represents a modern ideal of big-mountain skiing: fast, stylish, fully committed and yet strangely relatable in his joy and humility. His festival-sweeping film segments, from “Return to Send’er” to “Here Goes” and the Blank Collective catalog, have reset expectations for what a backcountry part can look like—sustained speed, stacked features and tricks that would be impressive in a park, now executed above exposure and in deep snow.:contentReference[oaicite:19]{index=19} His near-career-ending crash and subsequent comeback have only deepened that connection; viewers see not just a highlight reel but a person working through fear and uncertainty to reclaim the feeling of skiing at his limit.

For progressing skiers, Kuch offers a blueprint that does not depend on traditional contest success. He built his reputation on a small interior B.C. hill, honed his style in local freeride programs, and then leaned into filming, storytelling and festival circuits instead of chasing rankings. Along the way he has embraced mental tools like visualization, prioritized joy as a guiding principle and chosen sponsors that support long-term exploration rather than short-term hype. Whether you are dreaming of your first pillow line or analyzing Natural Selection Ski replays, following Sam Kuch is a way to study how modern freeskiers can blend freeride, freestyle and filmmaking into one coherent, sustainable path.