Five years ago, snowboarder Elena Hight decided to change the trajectory of her entire career.
Hight, now 34, had already built a successful 16-year career in halfpipe snowboarding, having gone pro at just 13 years old. She competed in two Winter Olympics (2006 and 2010) and amassed seven X Games medals and a Burton U.S. Open championship.
But Hight didn’t make the U.S. Olympic team in 2018, a surprise that caused her to reexamine her career to that point. Many halfpipe or slopestyle riders would consider 16 years and multiple podiums a satisfactory career and hang it up.
Not Hight. And the transformation she has undergone in the last five years, from a decorated halfpipe career to filming and competing on some of the planet’s biggest and steepest terrain, is nothing short of remarkable.
A self-described goal-oriented person, Hight found it easy to set goals during her halfpipe career—landing a new trick, earning a podium spot. But when she decided to turn her focus to the backcountry, she had to learn how to motivate herself in a new way.
The beginning of that journey was documented in Teton Gravity Research’s 2020 film Blank Canvas, which saw Hight venture into big-mountain riding with Jeremy Jones, Travis Rice Danny Davis and Hana Beaman among her mentors.
Since that film’s release, Hight is now competing in Rice’s Natural Selection Tour (NST), a freeride contest featuring some of the best big-mountain riders in the world. She was crowned the overall women’s champion in 2022, just three years after she began her freeride career in earnest.
Though she didn’t advance past the quarterfinals stage of the 2024 Natural Selection event in Revelstoke last week, Hight is filled with gratitude not only for what this new chapter in her career has brought her but also for being part of the progression women snowboarders are experiencing in the backcountry.
“Once you get to a certain level in any sport, it’s hard to feel progression,” Hight told me in Revelstoke. “For me specifically, halfpipe really translates more to riding steep lines. I think the skills I developed there in my career really translate to getting to used to sspeed, dropping in fast, carrying momentum. I have that air awareness.”
The day before we spoke, Hight had competed against Jamie Anderson—another career contest rider and Olympian, but in slopestyle—at Natural Selection Tour’s Revelstoke Mountain Resort event in the Montana Bowl, a backcountry venue just outside the resort boundary the NST team enhanced with 40 man-made features.
The slopestyle riders’ skill set translates well to the added platforms and kickers, but they may not be used to taking off in and landing in powder and on variable slope pitch. (The landing area of the big air jumps used in slopestyle competition are engineered specifically to have a grade between 34 and 37 degrees.)
The big-mountain riders have more experience with those elements, but they may not have as many spins and flips in their arsenal or make as much use of man-made features in a big-mountain setting.
“I’ve definitely felt my own progression in that area [slopestyle riding], but I can’t even compare to these girls or guys who built their careers on jumping,” Hight said. “So for me there is a challenging element to [Natural Selection Tour] that I really enjoy. I’m comfortable in the air, but not necessarily in this medium, so how can I grow that skill set a little bit?”
Hight’s backcountry career blossoming in the last few years has coincided with an expansion of opportunities generally for women in that area of snowboarding. And that’s not necessarily a passive outcome; Hight herself has been a major instrument of that progression.
Though Hight already boasted an impressive roster of sponsors, including Jones Snowboards and Smith Optics, it was notable when Arc’teryx brought her on its athletes and ambassadors team in 2021.
Not only was Hight the first woman snowboarder Arc’teryx signed, but the brand assembled its women’s team, which also includes Robin Van Gyn and Spencer O’Brien, before it signed any men. For a brand that has long been associated with skiing, it was a major investment in women’s snowboarding.
“Leading with a women’s-first snowboard team was intentional, and the timing was right,” said Karl Aaker, VP of brand marketing at Arc’teryx. “At the various times they joined the brand, Elena, Robin and Spencer were all at unique pivotal moments in their respective careers, pivoting into the backcountry after so much success in the world of competition. They were each ready for the next step and we were excited to be able to support them.”
Between 2020 and 2024, Arc’teryx added 50 percent more female athletes its global roster, and 22 of the 48 athletes currently on the team are women.
“It’s really an exciting time for women in snowboarding, specifically in the backcountry right now,” Hight said. “Arc’teryx along with a lot of other companies is really investing in this space of making a place for women in the backcountry, which is quite new—I would say even 10 years ago that wasn’t the case.”
When Hight felt the pull of backcountry snowboarding, she initially didn’t know where to begin. It’s incredibly expensive to make such a switch; the snowboards used in halfpipe riding are different than snowboards for riding powder, meaning all new gear, and many of the spots backcountry snowboarders film are accessible only by helicopter.
“With the brands, it’s like a chicken-before-the-egg thing,” Hight said. “Did girls push it [the level of the sport] and the brands tagged along, or did the brands push it and the girls tagged along? It’s such an intertwined industry, especially with something like getting into the backcountry, because it’s not like you can just go up to your local hill and go into the backcountry. You need mentors, you need the training, you need the support to be able to get out there. I’ve been so lucky to have so many female and male mentors to bring me out and teach me these things.”
Hight sees increased sponsor support for athletes and snowboarders increasingly making the jump from contest halfpipe or slopestyle riding to the backcountry as healthy progression. “It’s an evolution of the sport; it’s really beautiful to see snowboarding as a whole growing and encapsulating more avenues of being a snowboarder,” she said.
Some in the snowboarding community have misgivings about the arrival of non-core or non-endemic brands into the space. But what is coded as defending the “core culture” of snowboarding can sometimes have the effect of gatekeeping.
“The reality is that for better or worse, snowboarding is no longer a core sport,” Hight said. “You go to the ski hill and it’s pretty obvious that there’s people of all shapes, sizes, wealth levels and backgrounds snowboarding, and that’s amazing. It’s amazing to be able to share it and that more people are a getting outside, getting exercise, connecting with nature and doing it in a way that speaks to all of us.”
After all, Hight adds, as any sport grows, it necessarily evolves. “As long as the people who are representing the sport at the highest level are staying true to what they believe the expression of the sport is, that keeps the culture intact,” she said.
In terms of nurturing snowboarding culture, Hight also points to snowboarding print publications having a comeback, such as Slush Magazine and Snowboard Magazine in the U.S. and Canada’s King Snow Magazine and Snowboard Canada, as well as local events put on by pros or mountains.
“Events are inviting all sorts of people to be involved in that foundational culture that makes snowboarding what it is, and I think that’s really important because it brings everyone back to that touchpoint of this is why snowboarding’s so special but also invites people that don’t know why it’s so special in,” Hight said.
And then, of course, there are bigger events like Natural Selection Tour, which is supported by a bounty of likeminded partners, including Arc’teryx, YETI, Dakine, GoPro, Oakley, Ski-Doo, Rivian and many others. Some are core snowboard brands, and some are non-endemic but interested in investing in the space and athletes.
Natural Selection is “bridging this gap between the thing that is the ultimate expression of snowboarding—the backcountry artistic freeriding—and bringing it into mainstream competition,” Hight said. “Those are two opposing things, and yes, there’s always gonna be some friction there no matter what, but it’s beautiful to see that melding and see what that’s gonna create in the future. It’s definitely a balance, but I think we’re in a good place right now.”
So is Hight. While she keeps one foot inside the door of competition with events like Natural Selection, she has also made a full-throated commitment to backcountry filming.
She’s next headed to Alaska to film for her latest project, an Arc’teryx-supported film with Severin Van Der Meer. She’s also traveling to Norway for a Jones Snowboards film with Antti Autti and Jeremy Jones that is entirely human-powered. Both those projects will release this fall.
“What I really love about making films is that I think it’s the ultimate form of storytelling and creativity,” Hight said. “You can share so much with someone visually without saying any words, and I know I’ve been inspired the most by film and photos throughout my career. So I definitely find that I’m drawn to that, and I’m looking forward to continuing to push that.”
